21 Bloggers, 21 Top 5 lists, drawn from a mix of tastes, some Midnight Madness, some World Cinema, some Mainstream. With a lineup of 300+ films it is kind of miracle to get any kind of consensus, and yet, surprisingly enough, patterns emerge. One such pattern: We are pretty sick (4 out of the top 5 films delve into the dark recesses of the mind, steeped in revenge, obsession, and murder). Thanks to all who contributed, hopefully this will become an annual tradition.
1. Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky (8 Votes)
2. Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Werner Herzog (6 Votes)
3. A Horrible Way To Die – Adam Wingard (4 Votes)
4. Cold Fish – Tsumetai Nettaigyo (4 Votes)
5. I Saw The Devil – Kim Ji-woon (3 Votes)
Runners-Up (All 3 Votes)
In an attempt to tie-break, those titles that showed up higher more often in each person’s list got ranked higher (assumption being if you didn’t rank them already, that it came to your mind first says something about its importance)
Film Socialism - Jean-Luc Godard
Meek’s Cutoff – Kelly Reichardt
Vanishing on 7th Street – Brad Anderson
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Norwegian Wood – Tran Anh Hung
Womb – Benedek Fliegauf
Submarine – Richard Ayoade
Jeff Wright (They Shoot Actors Don’t They)
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame: It looks like the Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China) of old is back, and that for me, is the most exciting thing TIFF has to offer this year!
A Horrible Way to Die – This is Adam Wingard’s (Pop Skull) third feature, and your last chance to hop on the Wingard Wagon before it’s overflowing with fans.
I Saw the Devil: Kim Ji-woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) returns to TIFF with a horror film so unrelentingly violent that it needed to be cut by 7 minutes to be released in Korea, and starring Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Lee Byung-ho (The Good, The Bad, The Weird). I’m counting down the days until it screens.
Vanishing on 7th Street: The new Brad Anderson (Session 9) creep-fest. Can’t wait to see it with the Midnight Madness audience.
Cold Fish: Sion Sono’s follow-up to his stunning epic of religious perversion, Love Exposure, is supposedly a much darker but equally impressive beast of a film.
Jay Clarke (The Horror Section)
The Ward – After a nine-year absence, I simply can’t wait for the triumphant return of John Carpenter, one of my all-time favourite filmmakers.
Let Me In – My initial reaction to this remake was ‘why bother, the original is perfect’. However, everything I’ve seen since then has caused a miraculous one-eighty.
Black Swan – Only Aronofsky could make me excited for a thriller centered around dueling ballet dancers. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that said dancers are Mila Kunis & Natalie Portman.
Cold Fish – I find Sono’s work wildly intoxicating, so him crafting a serial killer film under Yoshinori Chiba’s Sushi Typhoon banner sounds like crack cocaine to me.
Julia’s Eyes – We all know Guillermo del Toro has the Midas touch when it comes to mentoring filmmakers. This could be the newest in the long line of cinematic wins from Spain.
Sasha James (The Final Girl Project)
The Housemaid – Did I mention Jeon Do-youn is in this film?
Miral – Actress Freida Pinto. Director Julian Schnabel. Ecstatic Sasha James.
Submarine – The Welsh Rushmore. I think that’s enough information to fill seats.
The Ward – John Carpenter directed the movie. I have an affinity for final girls. You should understand where I’m going with this.
Wasted on the Young – Gus Van Sant’s Elephant meets Gossip Girl. Yeah, that’s right.
Darren Hughes (Long Pauses)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives – This has been at the top of my to-see list since TIFF ’09, when two of Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul’s shorts, Phantoms of Nabua and A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, played in the Future Projections and Wavelengths programs. All are part of Joe’s “Primitive” project, a collection of shorts, installations, and, now, a Palm D’Or-winning feature film inspired by the director’s new-found interest in reincarnation and, more specifically, by a short book he was given about the many lives of Uncle Boonmee, whose ghosts still haunt the village of Nabua in northeast Thailand. If my travel plans allowed, I’d get a ticket for every screening.
Aubade / Compline / Pastourelle (Wavelengths 4) – For fans of experimental cinema, the arrival of any new film by Nathanial Dorsky is cause for celebration. Seeing three new pieces in one sitting will be . . . well . . . transcendent. I mean that. Dorsky’s silent montages are like church to me.
Guest – Jose Luis Guerin’s last feature, In the City of Sylvia, was my favorite film of TIFF ’07, and in the years since I’ve caught up with everything else he’s made (everything I can get my hands on, at least). I don’t know much about Guest, but I expect it’ll blend documentary and narrative filmmaking, it’ll be formally inventive, and it’ll include three or four sequences that’ll knock my socks off.
Ruhr – My favorite experience at TIFF ’08 was RR, which marked the end of James Bennings’ long and prolific career shooting on film. Ruhr is his first digital work, and reviews have been strong.
The Ditch – Another highlight of TIFF ’07 was Wang Bing’s documentary, Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, a three-hour conversation with a survivor of the Cultural Revolution. The Ditch is Wang’s first feature-length narrative film. Again, I don’t know much about it (I prefer it that way), but Wang is, for lack of a better word, an important director right now. He’s documenting the rapid transformation of China with a curiosity, humanism, and urgency that rivals that of his more well-known contemporaries.
James McNally (Toronto Screenshots)
Confessions
Poetry
Balada Triste
Submarine
Tabloid
Mike Rot (Row Three)
Meek’s Cutoff – A return of the Reichardt/Williams duo after an incredibly successful pairing in Wendy & Lucy makes this my most anticipated film of the festival
Blue Valentine – Surprised so few have this on their lists, heard positive things from Sundance and Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams playing off each other is the draw.
Inside Job – Trailer looks awesome in a Smartest Guys in the Room sort of way. The topic of the financial crisis is juicy, has all the hallmarks of being this year’s Collapse.
Miral – Director Julian Schnabel is batting a 1000 with past films Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell & The Butterfly. This multi-generational story in the thick of the Israel-Palestine conflict sounds like something he would give his all to pull off.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Herzog and 3D
Bob Turnbull (Eternal Sunshine Of The Logical Mind and Row Three)
Bad Faith – A woman stumbles across the latest victim of The Bayonet Killer, soon becomes obsessed with the case and her reality starts to crumble. The premise is already pretty good, but attach to that the fact that it is also a Swedish take on the suspense film genre with references and nods to Noir, the giallos of Bava, the shifting reality perspectives of “Blow-Up”, etc. and you’ve got my vote.
Cold Fish – Sion Sono’s “Love Exposure” was a bravura piece of filmmaking, so anything he does from here on out will be of interest to me. “Cold Fish” is based on a true story of a charming tropical fish store owner who just happened to also be one of Japan’s most notorious serial killers. I can’t wait to see what Sono does with this.
Three – I haven’t seen too many people even mention Tom Twyker’s latest film, so I’m concerned that they may know something I don’t. However, he’s built up enough credit with me to remain of interest over the long haul (“Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer”, “Winter Sleepers”, his short from “Paris, Je T’Aime” and of course “Run, Lola, Run”). I didn’t feel much of his hand at the helm for “The International”, but I’m just going to assume that he has a strong grip on the reigns for “Three”.
The Illusionist – I loved Sylvain Chomet’s “The Triplets Of Belleville. I love Jacques Tati. Now marry the two of them (the script is based on an old Tati story) and you have a film I want to see yesterday. It looks gorgeous and hopefully contains all the humour and sadness that Tati always brought to his own films.
Submarine – “Offbeat” comedies can be dangerous – whether they fill their characters with too much quirk or force their stories through ridiculous situations, many of them fail to really engage the viewer via character-based humour. Richard Aoyade’s debut feature sounds like it avoids all the traps, though, as the people who populate the story appear to be flawed yet interesting. Can a cast with Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine be anything but that?
Ray Yick (TIFFreviews.com)
Biutiful
Black Swan
Norwegian Wood
Vanishing on 7th Street
Womb
Todd Brown (Twitch)
I Saw The Devil – Kim Ji-Woon is a big favourite of mine and this looks to be the darkest turn in his career to date. The idea of Oldboy’s Choi Min-Sik going head to head
with The Good The Bad And The Weird’s Lee Byung-hyun was already plenty
exciting and then the thing was effectively banned by Korean censors, who
forced cuts on it, and I’m dying to see why.
Stake Land – Jim Mickle’s Mulberry Street wasn’t a perfect film but it was one hell of an
over-achiever and I’ve been dying to see his vampire picture since I first
caught wind of it. I’ve seen a couple chunks of it and it’s one of the
darkest, grimiest takes on the vampire mythos I’ve ever seen.
Cold Fish – Hardly anybody has seen Sion Sono’s latest but those who have are all agreed that it’s absolutely stunning. His previous picture – Love Exposure -
certainly was.
A Horrible Way To Die – I should proclaim my bias here as I’m involved with the company that is selling this film in the international market (which means I should also
proclaim that I’ve already seen it) but I was an outspoken proponent of
Wingard’s long, long before I knew him in any way and this – in my opinion -
is his best to date and one of the most subversive takes on the serial
killer genre I’ve ever seen.
Our Day Will Come – Romain Gavras – the guy behind MIA’s Born Free music video – makes his feature debut with this, a film that stars Vincent Cassel as a psychiatrist
on an antisocial road trip with an even more antisocial patient. There’s
just something about the trailers that screams brilliance …
Matt Brown (Mamo!)
The Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Ebert was right, and Herzog is responding, and I will be there to see what this man can make of an artistic use of 3-D.
Film Socialism – Jean-Luc Godard’s audience-reviling tone poem got rants at Cannes, but so did my favourite film of last year (Enter the Void), so I’ll throw my hat in the ring.
A Sleeping Beauty – Catherine Breillat’s follow-up to similarly fairy-tale-esque Bluebeard is the leading pick for me this year. After a delicious summer with her at TIFF Cinematheque, this should be a delightful desert.
Womb – Eva Green continues to surprise, delight and arouse, this time in a science-fictiony poser that makes Birth seem relatively unambitious.
You Are Here – Toronto filmmaker Daniel Cockburn’s quasi-experimental, quasi-queasy meditation on identity and existence is an exciting home-grown victory with tons to offer a thoughtful audience.
Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg (Toronto After Dark, Little White Lies and DorkShelf)
Balada Triste – Alex de la Iglesia is the originator of the new wave of Spanish fantastic film, with such films as Accion Mutante and El Dia de la Bestia. I know nothing about this new one; I want to go into it completely ignorant.
The Sleeping Beauty – The Cinematheque just showed a retrospective of Breillat’s work; no one can make an audience squirm the way she can with her unabashed, no-holds-barred exploration of female sexuality. Breillat follows up her take on the Bluebeard fairy tale with a new one.
Trigger – Bruce McDonald is the bad boy of Canadian filmmaking. While others might get more international attention, McDonald quietly continues to churn out amazing work. This new one is also the last filmed performance of late actor Tracey Wright. It’s the story of rock music, reunions and redemption. And no one does rock like McDonald.
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow – I seem to be drawn to documentaries about artists; I guess I find watching one art form try to describe another art form fascinating. Fiennes’ film is a potrayal of artist Anselm Kiefer. After her amazing portrait of Slavoj Žižek in The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, I can’t wait for this one.
Never Let Me Go – Film adaptations of literary works always make me wary. More so with Kazuo Ishiguro, one of my favourite writers, whose prose style is so perfectly intimate and usually in the first person, that it seems almost impossible to translate. But if anyone could do it, perhaps the luminescent Carey Mulligan can.
Katarina Gligorijevic (Toronto Film Scene and They Shoot Actors, Don’t They?)
A Horrible Way to Die – Ever since Wingard’s Pop Skull played at Toronto’s Over the Top Fest a few years back, I have been curious about what he’d do next. This interweaving story about a serial killer who escapes from prison and a woman whose past is slowly catching up with her sounds intriguing and clever. Penned by Simon Barrett, who was last at TIFF with 2004′s Dead Birds.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Herzog. 3D. Some 3000 year old cave paintings. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
Erotic Man – Remember The Five Obstructions, that amazing documentary in which Lars von Trier tries to make his mentor/idol make a bad film by imposing absurd obstructions on him, only to be frustrated every time by the master’s ability to create something wonderful? Well, the master is back with a feature that’s touted in the TIFF guide as his “most radical and personal work”, an exploration of aging, loss and of course, sex.
Our Day Will Come- The image in the programme book has a bald-headed Vincent Cassel surrounded by glum looking redheaded children. I don’t need much more than this to be convinced to see this “hallucinatory quest for a land of imagined freedom”. I’ve also heard a rumour that it’s considerably weirder than the video Gavras directed for M.I.A., which features redheads being persecuted and blown up for ten minutes. This fact piques my interest further.
Red Nights – First time directors make it to Midnight Madness with a “pulpy, fetishistic thriller” that’s centred around the hunt for a valuable artifact and the staging of a Peking Opera, The Jade Executioner. Giallo-meets-espionage written by the French and taking place in Hong Kong. I’m in!
Chris Edwards (Silent Volume)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – I’m not a 3-D-hater; I just want to see it done right. Herzog should deliver.
Tabloid – I’ll watch anything by Errol Morris. I’ll watch anything about beauty and fame. Done and done.
Made in Dagenham – “The women at the Ford Dagenham plant finally lose their patience when they’re reclassified as ‘unskilled.’ ”
Pink Saris – The subject’s either an activist or a demagogue. Or both. If you get big enough, where’s the line?
Meek’s Cutoff – Everybody liked Wendy and Lucy more than me, so maybe I should shut up and give Reichardt another try.
I Saw The Devil – Kim Ji Woon, one of the most stylish directors working today faces off Lee Byung-Hun and Choi Min-Sik in a glossy serial killer thriller that hearkens back to the glory days of Korean Cinema. For genre fans this is ‘don’t miss’ cinema.
You Are Here – A low budget Kaufman-esque mind bender that whispers the potential to be this years Primer. I am hoping that it is the big Canadian surprise at the festival.
Womb – A Hungarian cloning drama featuring the wonderful Eva Green? That the ‘mother’ in the film is going to give birth to her ‘lover’ promises to be restrained and twisted at the same time.
Black Swan – With its heady blend of David Cronenberg, Dario Argento and just a hint of Showgirls, Darren Aronofsky should continue his run of intimate and intense cinema.
Viva Riva! After shutting down Planet Africa, films from the Dark Continent have gotten a lot more sparse at TIFF. So colour me surprised when a crime-thriller with a lot of sexy polish comes out of nowhere. Fingers crossed for this one.
Matthew Price (Mamo!)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Herzog. 3D. That is all.
Balada Triste – De La Iglesia is someone I will see anytime he has a film in the fest, but even if he wasn’t involved that picture of the clown with a machine gun would have hooked me anyways.
Black Swan – Yeah, yeah, I know it’ll hit regular theatres soon. So what? Aronofsky + Portman + Kunis + a festival crowd + a huge screen = a very very happy me.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale – Insane Finns hunt, kidnap and brutally train a new Santa Claus. Where else but at TIFF am I ever getting a chance at something like this?
Make Believe – I’m hoping for the on-your-feet feel good experience of the year in this doc about the world junior magic championships. I think I might get it, too.
Girish Shambu (girish)
Mysteries of Lisbon
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu
Promises Written in Water
Film Socialism
Marc Saint-Cyr (Subtitle Literate, Row Three, Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow)
Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung) – Word that Jonny Greenwood would be contributing the score for this film alone had me interested. But also considering that it’s a rare film adaptation of a Haruki Murakami work (and a major one at that, albeit one I haven’t gotten around to reading yet) starring Rinko Kikuchi, this one has got me all kinds of interested.
The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet) – An animated tribute to Jacques Tati from one of his scripts, as interpreted by Triplets of Belleville animator Sylvain Chomet? Sold.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – I have been slowly discovering Apichatpong throughout the past year, and can’t wait to see what he has in store with his latest journey into the jungle. I’m also very much looking forward to the mavericks session with the man himself.
Film Socialism (Jean-Luc Godard) – Yes, I have read previous reviews of this latest Godardian excursion, and I fully know that the Godard of the 1960s is never coming back. But some part of me is nonetheless curious to see what this thing looks like, and whether it has any merits at all, or is simply a new exercise in cinematic pretension.
Machete Maidens Unleashed (Mark Hartley) – Two years ago, I had a ball with Not Quite Hollywood, Hartley’s “rock-umentary” on the Ozploitation scene. This new film looks very much in the same fun yet informative vein, and that’s all good with me
Aaron (They Shoot Actors Don’t They?)
Meek’s Cutoff Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy was not only my favourite film at TIFF in 2008, but my favourite of the year. This is her first period piece and another collaboration with Michelle Williams. I have very high hopes.
Our Day Will Come Vincent Cassel is always a thrill to watch and I am looking forward to seeing what Gavras can do with a full length after proving his mettle for visuals in MIA’s “Born Free” video.
A Horrible Way to Die Wingard pulled off an incredible trip with very meagre means in 2007′s Pop Skull. Unfortunately, very few people saw that feature. Now armed with stronger actors and a script by Simon Barrett (who was behind the great horror Dead Birds), A Horrible Way to Die could be Wingard’s break-out picture.
Vanishing on 7th Street It has been nine years since Anderson’s horror Session 9 and that movie has gained a substantial following in that time. The trailer for Vanishing looks to be a very dark take on the days after the Rapture. If that is the case, this antidote to Left Behind will be right up my alley.
Black Swan Who isn’t excited to see this? Even people who hate Aronofsky cannot seem to resist begrudgingly visiting each of his movies. Those visits are no struggle for me, though. I am even a Fountain apologist. I know, I know.
Sean Dwyer (Film Junk)
Black Swan
Never Let Me Go
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
I’m Still Here
Monsters
Ryan McNeil (Dark of the Matinee)
Black Swan: When a director with Arronofsky’s talent for visuals decides to point his camera at ballet, only good things can come of it.
Biutiful: Again, chosen based almost entirely for the talent behind the camera. TIFF is the only time of year I can go into films fairly blind, so I try not to read too much about certain titles. In this case my decisionmaking went “Inarritu directing? Baredm starring? I’m in.”
Norwegian Wood: I didn’t even know this film was being made, but given how much I loved the Murakami book it’s based on, I’m super excited to find out about it.
The Illusionist: Back in 2003 I made the deplorable mistake of passing over the TIFF showing of THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE. I refuse to make the same mistake twice.
127 Hours: I’ve become a bigger and bigger fan of Danny Boyle over the last few years. Knowing that with this film he’s going to challenge the audience with long stretches of no dialogue piques my curiosity.
Karen Divorty (Fused Film)
Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky fascinates and exasperates me; polarized by Requiem to a Dream, but then transfixed with The Wrestler. I cannot wait to see what he’s done with Black Swan – the trailer promises something bizarre and compelling.
Jack Goes Boating – Consistently engaging, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is one of best actors working today, so naturally I’m beyond curious of this film that is also his directorial debut.
Three (Drei) – This seems like a return to form for Tom Tykwer, who spent much of the last decade directing more conventional fare, with his first German speaking film (since 2000′s masterpiece The Princess and the Warrior) about something he’s known for – the complexity of relationships and emotions.
Buried – I want to see how a film, that features Ryan Reynolds in a coffin with a lighter and a cell phone for 90 minutes, could possibly work.
Blue Valentine – Writer/Director Derek Cianfrance’s film about the evolution of love is a brainchild in a sense, it’s script evolved over 12 years, then in 2003 when he met actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams he rewrote it with their input.
Wow, awesome too see all the varying opinions of so many respectable movie-lovers around the web!
Re: rankings to determine runners up. Am I the only dork who listed mine alphabetically? Like, on purpose? I am, aren’t I.
Really great lists, everyone!
we don’t usually do respectable, but in this case we will make an exception
oh and feel free to question my math, I did this on the job in between library reference questions.
And Katarina, I never specified so no dork status, actually its probably more dorkish to rank them.
I had never even noticed A Horrible Way To Die until this post, the one thing that catches my eye is Joe Swanberg is acting in it. I love his films, is Wingard part of the so-called mumblecore group of filmmakers?
Wow. I only concurred on one pick with one other blogger. Though most of the ones listed are on my list to see. Perhaps I’m out of the loop with the cool kids.
I got to say I am kind of surprised for all the Black Swan love, I am a fan of Aronofsky as much as the next guy but something about the trailer and concept doesn’t do it for me.
Balada Triste and The Sleeping Beauty had 2 or 3 votes each if I recall, so in that respect Shelagh you had your finger on the pulse
Are people really looking forward to Godard’s film? After the late 1960′s, the man simply lost it.
Man, it was tough to trim to just 5. As Iread the other lists, I’m thinking I could pull 5 others from their lists that I hadn’t even considered and make them my top 5.
I can’t wait to see Black Swan like everyone else, but I’m skipping it at TIFF. That’s not to say I wasn’t tempted…
Darren, it was your description of “In The City Of Sylvia” that finally made me seek it out once I got a region free player. And of course you were right about it.
Katarina, I sent my initial lisy of 10 to Mike in alphabetical order, but for some reasons re-jigged it (without order) when I trimmed to 5. But I meant to order alphabetical. So you aren’t alone…B-)
Chris E., I saw a few of Longinotto’s films at this year’s Hot Docs (they had a retrospective) and they were all terrific. The description of Pink Saris reminds me of “Eat The Kimono” a bit – a woman who is strong and on a worthwhile mission, but who may not be overly sympathetic.
Matt P., I’m gonna try and get the whole family out to “Make Believe” – it sounds like a bunch of fun. So does Rare Exports which I selected in my full set of picks.
Marc, I caught up with Not Quite Hollywood after TIFF, but I don’t want to wait for Machete Maidens. That’s a must see now!
Can’t wait…
So jealous of you all. I’m only half paying attention to TIFF because if I paid full attention I would really annoyed that I’m not going to see half of these films for a good long time if ever.
John, I believe the director of Infernal Affairs has a film here, too. Just saying
I was tempted by the Godard film, the image looks slick, some of the themes suit my tastes but I have felt burned by the man so many times in the past, and that the blurb makes emphatic the lack of narrative cohesion, thats a warning sign to me Pretension Ahead!
‘Rabbit Hole’, anyone? I was sure at least ONE film blogger would be intrigued to see what John Cameron Mitchell and Nicole Kidman come up with!
Hey Mike, it may be that this year’s lineup is so rich that it got lost in the shuffle. Nobody mentioned Cool It! which I think is a stand-out (Ondi Timoner and a juicy doc subject) or Winterbottom’s The Trip, or Mike Leigh’s Another Year.
Mike, I’m so into seeing The Rabbit Hole – I love the twisted mind of John Cameron Mitchell. I didn’t mention it in my list, I suppose because there are a lot of movies I’m really excited about.
I’ve got more than ten that I’d be excited about if I were going, and I haven’t even looked beyond the Gala and Special Presentations yet – there will be so many hidden gems in the other, often more interesting, sections that choosing just five from the whole festival? Impossible. I just hope the line-up next year, when I might actually be able to go, is even close to as good as this one.
Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats is here too, figure you’d be interested in that Jandy. One year we need to get everyone from Row Three to TIFF, expenses paid. I can go without the first class perks for a month to make it happen.
rot, Heartbeats would be top of my list.
With as much as I loved I Killed My Mother plus the New Wave-y stylistics it looks like he’s got going on in Heartbeats? Yep.
I’m very curious to see “Heartbeats” too, but left it off my picks since I’m hoping I’ll manage to see it outside the fest. By the way, that would be quite awesome if you could make TIFF next year Jandy. We could have one helluva podcast…
The Trip was in my initial top 10. Timoner’s and Leigh’s films were also of interest. I’ll admit that Mitchell’s film missed my initial short list, but I’m kicking myself a bit looking at it again now . This should get wide release though…
Box 9 was called, all hail Box 9. I am gold.
A horrible way to die is pretty stupid looking. Duh, Swanberg is a killer. Duh, the original killer will save the girl. Mumblecore just added another boring director. pop skull sucked. this will too.
Is there a trailer or is this derivative mumblecore hate?
Rabbithole and Vanishing on 7th??????
Vanishing was very close to being in the top 5, almost put it on my list, would have tipped the scales in its favor. Brad Anderson is underrated, Transsiberian was awesome, and I am hoping with Vanishing we get the film M Night couldn’t make with The Happening.
Mike, I’m a big fan of Anderson as well. “Transsiberian” didn’t quite match up to his previous films for me, but still pretty solid. I’m trying not to hype Vanishing too much in my mind…
As for “Larne” and his mumblecore comments, no sense in even responding. He’s your typical drive-by commenter who has black and white opinions and isn’t interested in even engaging in any kind of conversation. I’d love to be proven wrong, but somehow I doubt it…
Vanishing seems to be the only film we have in common on the schedule Bob, shall we meet up? I still haven’t got a ticket for it but I intend to.
Ditto for me. I love me a good Brad Anderson creep-fest and I wish he could make his films faster! He’s been on a solidly good run for the past decade, even if the mainstream tends to ignore him.
ok maybe I was wrong to doubt Aronofsky, Red Shoes on acid sounds pretty sweet
http://mobile.variety.com/device2/article.php?mid=12&CALL_URL=http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943400.html?categoryid=3716&cs=1
Black Swan looks kick-ass. Will probably see I.. Devil and Vanishing 7th because both look creepy and Van has something about Croatoan which is a scary story
Re: I wouldn’t call Adam Wingard mumblecore. But whatever.
In other unpopular opinions, I can’t stand Aranofsky, but even I am vaguely curious about Black Swan. I predict that, like pretty well all his other films, I will hate it. But I will go to see it with an open mind (probably not during TIFF, though).
My hope is that Aronofsky takes a familiar story and uses a unique technique to tell it. To me he’s like a guitarist who has mastered his pedals/tone. The chord progression may be familiar but still comes out sounding interesting.
And Wingard is to mumblecore what the wright brothers were to pigeons. They might both fly, but in hella different ways.
Actually, after reading that Variety article about Black Swan, I may have changed my mind about it. It basically sounds like ballet-Showgirls with Vincent Cassell instead of Kyle MacLachlan. That, at least, is what I am now hoping.
The one review said Red Shoes mixed with AntiChrist, that would be awesome.
It was the Showgirls/Cronenberg component that was always the highest draw of Black Swan for me!