Although I should have brought this up on the Netflix segment for recent episode of the Cinecast, alas, I did not notice it until late last night: Bobcat Goldthwait‘s 1991 directorial debut, Shakes the Clown, popped up on the Canadian version of the streaming site this week. Goldthwait, as an onscreen performer peaked somewhere in the mid 1980s – most people probably know him as the weird, dirty (literally, not figuratively) Cop from the Police Academy sequels, but the cool kids probably fondly remember One Crazy Summer. he more or less disappeared after Shakes failed to take off beyond a weird cult curio. For about a decade he was MIA before returning as a director in the early 2000s for cable TV programs (Crank Yankers, Chapelle’s Show, The Man Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live) and eventually moving into smart, subversive indie features. With the quite fun, and rather timely, debut of the writer/director/comedian’s latest film, God Bless America (Kurt’s Review) and the fondness for his rather auteur-ish three-word-title laden C.V. (Windy City Heat, Sleeping Dogs Lie, World’s Greatest Dad, God Bless America.) Regular listeners of the Cinecast, know that Matt Gamble raves about World’s Greatest Dad often, and at length.

Want an overview? Lots video clippings are tucked under the seat.

On The Encyclopedia of Hell:

Impromptu bit of Stand-up during Midnight Madness print delay (not even of his film, but rather bit of Japanese crime weirdness called Smuggler):

Post-Screening Video Interview at TIFF11:

World’s Greatest Dad Trailer:

Sleeping Dogs Lie Trailer:

Windy City Heat Clip (which offers a flavour of this behind-the-scenes Jimmy Kimmel produced TV moc-doc):

Shakes The Clown Trailer:

 
 
It is festival time folks! With Kurt returning from the Toronto International Film Festival, and Gamble MIA due to the Twin Cities Film Festival – which Andrew recaps a few titles – there is precious little time for us to get to the weeks regular releases. Those looking for talk on Moneyball can consult the previous episode of the Cinecast, Over/Under. So prepare for a lot of monologuing (in brief spoiler-less spurts) on many of the festival titles – some of which will end up in the fall slate of films on the domestic front, others will probably be only released abroad until the end up on DVD or VOD. Join us as we tour through festivaland at warp speed. Also, for something completely different, Willem Halfyard comes into the mix to beef up The Watch List segment and Andrew gets to talk a bit of Star Wars from the perpective of two different generations of viewers.

As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…

  show

  show

Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
After the Credits (Marina and Co.)
Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
All posts and discussions from RowThree

  show

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:

Midnight Madness:
– The Day
– The Raid
– Kill List
– You’re Next
– Sleepless Night
– God Bless America

Other:
– We Need to Talk About Kevin
– Take Shelter
– The Awakening
– Kotoko
– Tyrannasaur
– Melancholia
– Drive
– Killer Joe
– Page Eight
– The Artist
– Headhunters
– The Descendants
– Shame
– ALPS
– Carre Blanc
– Crazy Horse
– Volcano
– Dark Horse
– Keyhole
– Martha Marcy May Marlene
– The Moth Diaries

TWIN CITIES FILM FESTIVAL:
– Fargo
– 50/50
– Machine Gun Preacher
– White Knight
– Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
– A. Hitler (aka The Empty Mirror)

THE WATCH LIST:

Andrew
– Star Wars [Blu-ray]
– Pearl Jam 20

Willem
– City of Ember

DVD PICKS:

Kurt
– Mimic (The Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]
– Carlos (Criterion) [Blu-ray]
– Ricky-Oh The Story of Ricky
– Viva Riva!

Andrew
– Carlos (Criterion) [Blu-ray]
– The Phantom Carriage (Criterion) [Blu-ray]

OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
Jandy’s DVD Triage

INSTANT WATCH NEW RELEASES/EXPIRING SOON:

Kurt
– They Live (new)
– Slap Shot (new)

Andrew
– Ironclad (new)
– Breaking Bad (season 1-3)

OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:
More Willem and Miranda reviews
Kurt on The Substream
Kurt on the MatineeCast

NEXT WEEK:
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Take Shelter
Moneyball

PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com

Take a look…

A couple of Other Episodes featuring Kurt and the Mamo Matts are tucked under the seat.

The Incident

Livid:

Sleepless Night:

Kill List:

Everything else is on the Substream Channel on Youtube. Or at TheSubstream.com

 
 
Despite being a man down this week and the multi-plexes pretty much in dumping-grounds mode in the doldrums of August and back-to-school season, Kurt and Andrew manage to talk it up for a few hours of chit-chat and whoop-de-do! On the menu today: Steven Soderbergh, Greta Gerwig, Paul Greengrass, Jessica Chastain, Steve McQueen, Gus Van Sant, John Milius, Kirk Douglas, Serial Killers and Netflix bandwidth issues (plus a whole lot more)! Clear out the ashes of fall fireplace, strike up a cheery evening blaze, grab a mug of hot cider and relax for a couple hours of pleasant chat with only half a dozen F-Bombs. Cheers.

As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…

  show

  show

Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
After the Credits (Marina and Co.)
Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
All posts and discussions from RowThree

  show

IN-HOUSE BUSINESS:
– New site design
– Open letter to Steven Soderbergh

MAIN REVIEWS:
– The Debt

TIFF PREVIEWS:
– Restless (Gus Van Sant)
– Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)

THE WATCH LIST:

Andrew
– Pleasantville
– Spartan
– The Final Countdown
– “Louie”

Kurt
– City of Ember
– Conan the Barbarian
– 10 Rillington Place
– Hunger

DVD PICKS:

Kurt
– Hanna
– A Horrible Way to Die

Andrew
– Straw Dogs [Blu-ray]
– United 93 [Blu-ray]

OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
Jandy’s DVD Triage

INSTANT WATCH NEW RELEASES/EXPIRING SOON:

Kurt
– 10 Rillington Place (new)
– The Weather Underground (exp Sep 13)

Andrew
– Apocalypto (new)
– Airplane! (new)

OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:

NEXT WEEK:
Drive
Contagion

PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com

There is something about actors making their directorial debuts that inspires incredibly dark and depressing subject matter (See Nil By Mouth, Romulus My Father, The War Zone, Gone Baby Gone) and Tyrannosaur looks to be no different in that regard. But that does not in any way lessen my enthusiasm to see what actor Paddy Considine (Dead Man’s Shoes, In America) is going to do behind the camera and his casting of three exceptionally talented character actors (Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan and Olivia Colman) in the leads. Tyrannosaur has been getting near universal praise on the festival circuit, and it coming to TIFF in a couple weeks.

The story of Joseph a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph’s life spirals into turmoil a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating results on both of their lives.

The full trailer is tucked under the seat.

Two sets of parents meet an apartment to talk over the violent dispute between their 11 year-old sons on the school yard. Slowly, what starts as friendly banter turns into verbal blood-shed. aka Carnage.

Maybe a little bit more over the top yet light-hearted version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? See the trailer below and make the call. I for one have a new most anticipated film for this year…

A number of the Row Three Staff make it an annual ritual to see between 30 and 50 films during the month of September when Toronto is taken over by its largest celebration of cinema from around the world, The Toronto International Film Festival, aka TIFF. So the first announcement of titles is interesting because it often goes back to what the festival was many moons ago: a Festival of Festivals, where best films from Cannes, Berlin and Sundance (amongst others) are offered to local audiences. Of course the festival has gotten bigger over the years (and much more expensive) and World Premieres are also par for the course, but this first announcement allows to see many of the ‘big titles’ (aka Special Presentations and Masters programmes) with guaranteed distribution will make their World, North American or Canadian debuts.

A quick survey by director offers new films from David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method), Lars Von Trier (Melancholia), Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In), Francis Ford Coppola (Twixt), Fernando Meirelles (360), Alexander Payne (The Descendents), Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive), Steve McQueen (Shame), Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz), George Clooney (The Ides of March), Roland Emmerich (Anonymous), Todd Solondz (Dark Horse), Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea), and Luc Besson (The Lady).

Other titles of interest is the former Soderbergh project starring Brad Pitt, Moneyball, as well as a lot of stuff from popular music, including Cameron Crowe’s Pearl Jam documentary, David Guggenheim’s U2 documentary and a feature film from Madonna simply titled W.E.

Some interesting genre films, including the James Ellroy adaptation, Rampart, which has a loaded cast: Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster and Anne Heche. South Korean thriller The Countdown exposes uses the underbelly of Seoul as a backdrop for a thirller. The Hugh Jackman and Olivia Wilde comedy, Butter, which also features Kristen Schaal. Noirish Killer Joe features Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple and Gina Gershon. And the B&W silent comedy favourite at Cannes, Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist will be screening, as will Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer comedy, 50/50 which also features Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Phillip Baker Hall and Anjelica Huston

In the more dramatic side of things, I’ve been quite anticipating Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur which features Peter Mullan as an angry, cynical alcoholic who has reached rock-bottom is surprisingly brought back into life by a complete stranger: a middle-class woman with a strong belief in Christ. Eddie Marsan is also in it. Also Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilley star in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas star in Lasse Halstrom’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. And from the directors of Persepolis comes another enchanting film adaptation of a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi: Chicken with Plums follows the last days of a talented musician’s (Mathieu Amalric) life as he desperately seeks to replace his beloved instrumental, the violin.

There are many titles, 50 in all so far, for those who wish to peruse over at the TIFF website.

Everyone’s most anticipated film of the year seems to unanimously be Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. While I too can hardly stand the wait, it comes at a distant second to Polanski’s latest, destined to be a classic, Carnage starring Jodi Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet. How anyone can not be absolutely stoked for that line-up is beyond me. The above image doesn’t give much but at least we see the cast in action.

The film focuses on two couple coming together to talk about the behavior of their children. As the night wears on, things become quite heated. The story is based off of a Tony Award winning stage play by Yasmina Reza of which I personally know nothing about. Sounds a bit like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? but is apparently a bit more on the humorous side. The film’s run time is about 105 minutes and all in real time. So 105 sequential minutes of our lives equals 105 sequential minutes of the character’s lives (kind of like “24″).

Looks like probably a late 2011 release for this one and if Polanski is allowed in Canada there’s a good chance there will be a director Q&A at the very likely screening at TIFF. Which also means Andrew James will be in Toronto that week and shelling out whatever it takes to be there. Here are a couple of more photos…

The team that brought you Wendy & Lucy are back to entrance you with another, albeit historical, take on the dire Oregon experience. Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson and Paul Dano saddle up with writer/director Kelly Reichardt for the art film western, Meek’s Cutoff. I had the opportunity to catch the film at last years Toronto International Film Festival and it handily made my end of the year top ten list.

The year is 1845 and Stephen Meek is a for-hire guide leading a handful of immigrant families across the Oregon Trail in search of the American dream. As hours turn into days since their last discovery of fresh water, mutinous thoughts and paranoid rumors abound among the families over the ability and motivations of their delegated leader. Part suspense story, part historical drama, part meditation on the frailty of life, Meek’s Cutoff is a mesmerizing feat that, while deliberately paced, is continually engrossing to watch. My TIFF review can be read here.

The trailer is tucked under the seat.

It is a cornucopia, a smörgåsbord, a veritable potpourri of cinema, as the Cinecast regulars get together with nothing on the agenda other than to talk about what they have watched, in the cinema, on the DVD and streamed from the internet or (in an exciting technology development, from the Computer Hard Drive.) Andrew continues to dig into the Foreign Language Nominees with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful. Kurt comes at Oscar a different way with the new documentary on the man with the midas touch when it comes to little gold men, Harvey Weinstein. And Gamble talks best animated film of 2011 with a preview of the flat out awesome Gore Verbinski/Nickelodeon/Industrial-Light-And-Magic Johnny Depp western, Rango. From there, we go from the occult, to Penelope Cruz DTV failures, to two vastly different takes time travel from the 1980s to Chinese shopping malls. Then it is onto Romans wandering about Scotland, Aussie crime dynasties and suburban teenage prostitution rings! It is all a part of your complete breakfast.

As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…

  show

  show

Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
After the Credits (Marina and Co.)
Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
All posts and discussions from RowThree

  show

IN-HOUSE BUSINESS:
Alternate, no music version
Talking Ghostbusters with RowThree’s own Tom Clift.

MAIN REVIEWS:
Biutiful (IMDb)

OTHER REVIEWS:
The Eagle (IMDb) | (Mamo! Video Review)
Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project (IMDb) | (Kurt’s Review)

WHAT ELSE WE WATCHED:

Andrew
– Back to the Future II (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– Chromophobia (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– American Teen (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– Pig (IMDb)

Matt
– Rango (IMDb) | (Matt’s review)
– Johnny Mnemonic (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– The Parking Lot Movie (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– Animal Kingdom (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– Bonanza: A Documentary on Five Screens (at The Walker)
– Utopia in Four Movements (Official site)

Kurt
– Time Bandits (IMDb) | (Netflix Instant)
Kurt’s Kids Video Review:

– The Ninth Gate (IMDb) | (Netflix)
– The Babysitters (IMDb) | (Netflix Instant)

DVD PICK #1:
	ANDREW: Unstoppable (Marina’s review) (Netflix)		KURT: Waiting for Superman (IMDb) (Netflix)		MATT: Summer Wars (IMDb) (Netflix)
DVD PICK #2:
	ANDREW: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (IMDb) (Netflix)		KURT: Summer Wars (IMDb) (Netflix)		MATT: Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch (IMDb) (Netflix)

OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
Last Tango in Paris [Blu-ray]
Network [Blu-ray]
The Stranger [Blu-ray]
Chaplin (15th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]
All the President’s Men [Blu-ray]

OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:
TVersity

Matt’s ‘first review on the interwebs’ of Rango.

NEXT WEEK:
Barney’s Version
Unknown
I Am
I Am Number Four

PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com

Take a look…
 

Directed by Don Roos (”The Opposite Of Sex,” “Happy Endings”), the film revolves around Portman’s character who steals a man from his wife and then must bond with her new stepson while dealing with the loss of her own child. It looks like pretty heavy handed melo-drama but in this camp that isn’t always a deal breaker. In fact it’s quite often a selling point. It looks clear (from the trailer below) that Portman will continue her streak of awesome performances; co-starring with Lisa Kudrow, Lauren Ambrose and Scott Cohen.

We’re getting the film via on demand next week (Jan. 1) and then a theatrical distribution begins on February 4th. I don’t know, Portman alone is enough to get me to watch and I tend to enjoy gawking at others’ misery. So I may get my trusty ol’ PS3 downloading this asap. Is this your kind of thing? Will critics warm to it? Check out the trailer under the seats and sound off…

A number of us here at Row Three caught Álex De La Iglasia’s Grand Guignol of Circus performers and crazy violence (as a quite satirical metaphor for the Franco Years, naturally), Balada Triste, at TIFF. I believe the love was unanimous. Here is a teaser from the film which features three of its signature images: A gorgeous Trapeze Artist, simply put, one of the most beautiful women on the planet; A disfigured clown with two Machine Guns (a selling point to most adventurous folks of good humour) and just for overkill (and there is plenty of that in the film, in a good way) a clown with a Machete.

Or for the those wanting to sink more into the mood and extravagance of the film, and more footage of disfigured clowns, there is the lengthier and more poetic and disturbing Italian Trailer which is in a word: AWESOME.

Seek this one out on the big screen for all the reasons above, and one of the best opening credits sequences of the year!

Hat Tip: The Quiet Earth and an astute commenter within their post.

Between written coverage and Mamo! on the Street podcasting, we hope you have enjoyed the extensive coverage Row Three brought your way during the 11 day madness of this years edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, or as pretty much everyone attending calls it, TIFF10. We have Mike Rot, Bob, Kurt and both Matts (B. and P.) together for our annual mega-post, offering a quick summary and a tag [Best], [Loved], [Liked], [Disappointed], [Hated] and [Worst] for each of the films we watched. And if you will indulge some mild boasting, I think it is safe to say that outside of the trade papers and festival catalogue, you will be hard pressed to find a more wide-reaching survey of the films played at TIFF10. For perspective, some of us were seeing more films in a day than the average American sees annually. Quick thoughts for all 100+ films are organized below to give you as much of a snapshot as possible for what to expect and to look forward to over the next 18 months as these films will (some quicker than others) move into the increasingly varied forms of distribution; some may appear on the big screen, but it is getting more and more likely that for the oddball gems, it will mean importing a DVD or checking your TV and Internet VOD listings.

The SHORT version:

The Best: The Illusionist (Bob), Black Swan (Matt P., Matt B.), Another Year (Kurt) and Blue Valentine (Mike Rot)

The Worst: Passion Play (Bob), Bunraku (Kurt), L.A. Zombie (Matt B.), Film Socialism (Matt P.) and Miral (Mike Rot)

But to really get to the heart of the festival, check out our MASSIVE summary which is tucked under the seat.

All of our FULL REVIEWS during this years festival can be found by clicking the Big White Banner.

Black Swan
Matt B. [BEST] – A flawlessly executed work by two masters. Natalie Portman gives an exceptional technical performance as a woman splitting into many slivers of her former self, and Darren Aronofsky accomplishes his finest picture.
Matt P. [BEST] – Easily the best. Far and away the best. Ten feet above the rest, Black Swan is just Aronovsky’s masterpiece.The less you know the better. I will now stop talking, because there’s nothing I could say that could live up to the experience of watching this. Best! Like Ever!
Kurt [LOVED/DISAPPOINTED] – A handsome picture featuring a very passionate and convincing performance from Natalie Portman. Not quite fever-dream enough for my tastes, the promise of Cronenberg meets Perfect Blue with touches of Show Girls was not fulfilled as Aronofsky pulls things back to reach a wider audience. More Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey could have rounded this out to something beyond a film that merely handsomely hits its mark!

Another Year
Kurt [BEST] – Mike Leigh comes at happiness and fulfillment from the opposite end of the spectrum of Happy-Go-Lucky. Here you have a desperately sad and unmoored woman who finds company and kindness a well adjusted co-worker her husband. A film that focuses on not so much the content of the conversation, but how the flow and tone can tell us so much a couple or a person’s state of grace.
Mike Rot [LOVED] – Another Mike Leigh film, another masterpiece. Not since Naked has Leigh so perfectly devastated me with his interplay of pathos and comedy.

Blue Valentine
Mike Rot [BEST] – Second only to Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage in its nuanced anatomy of a divorce. Sad, funny, awesome. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are remarkable.

The Illusionist
Bob [BEST] – It did not take me long to fall in love with this movie. Its glorious hand drawn animation showing the beauty of Scotland is certainly part of the reason, but it’s director Sylvain Chomet’s ability to seemlessly merge his distrust of technology with Jacques Tati’s longing for the simplicity of the old ways that really puts the film into the upper echelons. Tati’s previously unfilmed script is touching, sentimental, bittersweet and sometimes just plain bitter. A wonderful mix.
Kurt [LOVED] – An animated re-envisioning of a never-shot Jacques Tati screenplay, set in Scotland of all places, plays as a melancholic tribute to a simpler stage entertainment, vaudeville and sleight-of-hand, lost in the technological shuffle of the modern world of rock n’ roll and cinema. More bitter than sweet, but with all the charms and delights of wunderkind animator Sylvain Chomet.

Cold Fish
Bob [LOVED] – Sion Sono’s latest film is astonishing in how it single-mindedly approaches the “true” story of Japan’s most notorious serial killer – building tension and unease with just about every frame, it’s relentless and quite fearless in leaving its audience squirming and laughing at the same time. Remarkable.
Kurt [LOVED] – By the halfway mark of Sion Sono’s serial killer odyssey I was not sure if the film was going to justify its 2.5 hour run time, but by the end, the film certainly does and then some. If you want a bloody and often darkly absurd take on why Japan is a coiled spring of social repression waiting to explode, look no further than the ‘hero’ of the film.
Matt P. [LOVED] – In a year filled with the revival of the cinematic serial killer (I Saw the Devil, Confessions, A Horrible Way to Die) Cold Fish is the undeniable winner. Psychopaths come in all flavours, to be sure, but you surely won’t find one this enthusiastic about disposing of dead bodies anywhere. For an audience, you can almost never go wrong with a story set around a passive, mewling character who spends the first 70 minutes being savagely beaten in every way possible and the next 30 freaking out in a king sized revenge that leaves everyone dead and almost everyone covered in human entrails.

Tabloid
Kurt [LOVED] – The infamous 25 year old Tabloid story of a determined Beauty Queen trying to take back her man from the Mormon Church, in manacles if needs be, is revealing by way of Morris’ passive probing that once people repeat their story often enough, belief becomes cemented, entrenched even. The story here is how important details are omitted by all sides for the sake of rationalization. The ups and downs and ins and outs of Joyce McKinney’s story are even more entertaining and shocking as the titular news-rags in the UK.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Errol Morris interrotrons the hell out of this, the most elliptical, charming and just flat out masterful film he has produced since Gates of Heaven. No one can address character through interview like this man can, a unique product of his exceptionally rigorous approach to the art of listening. It is also funny as hell: A complete showcase for the most agile of documentary minds.
Mike Rot [LIKED] – The most entertaining documentary I caught at the festival, a story that is better the less you know what is coming next. Reminiscent of The Informant! – one artful dodge leading to the next. This is most definitely Errol Morris at the top of his game.

Monsters
Kurt [LOVED] – Yes, we are the Monsters. Gareth Edwards takes the standard creature-feature and then removes the creatures to focus on his two principle civilians trying to get home through an ‘infected zone’ in Mexico. Another example of what good science fiction is capable of, it gives us the long-term consequences as a mirror on ourselves.

Love Crimes
Kurt [LOVED] – Alan Corneau’s last film certainly does Hitchcock proud as an icy blond goes to war on the corporate battlefield with her icier boss. The ‘love’ is dangerous and seductive and the ‘crimes’ are meticulous and surprising.

Stake Land
Kurt [LOVED] – Now here is how you make a genre movie: Combine the apocalyptic road movie with vampires and nutty religious cults all with a frontier-western vibe. The jump in quality between Jim Mickle and Nick Damici’s previous collaboration Mulberry Street (a film I quite like as well) is so massive here that if they can repeat it on their third outing, they may have A Clockwork Orange on their hands. In the mean time, Stake Land is the best recent “Land” movie, with its ugly, animal (frankly, zombie-esque) vampires kicking the ass of the undead hordes in Land of the Dead and Zombieland.
Matt B. [LOVED] – The vampire mayhem is largely incidental; this is an absorbing portrait of post-apocalyptic American life, and rings eerily true in certain instances. But to get back to the vampire mayhem for a second, boy that helicopter scene is fun.

Easy A
Kurt [LOVED] – Smart, funny, irreverent and knowing, Easy A has a great script that somehow avoids the smug-hipster vibe of Juno. It somehow manages to combine John Hughes with Nathanial Hawthorn and not make it feel forced or over-written. Emma Stone is warm and wonderful in the lead role, but anyone with kids probably wishes they were the parents that Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson manage to be.

Meek’s Cutoff
Kurt [LOVED] – Kelly Reichardt proves that she can do a period piece with delicacy and veracity as well-accomplished as her two previous contemporary films. A story of tolerance and hubris in the desert that may echo the current events of the 7 years (and counting) American Invasion of Iraq, yet the director never takes the focus off of the intimacy and difficult of a community disillusioned by its leader and now in a very hard place, to dwell on allegory. Every actor is performing at the top of their game here. I heart Bruce Greenwood.
Mike Rot [LOVED] – Part suspense story, part historical drama, part meditation on the frailty of life, Meek’s Cutoff is a mesmerizing feat that while slow-moving is continually engrossing to watch. Added bonus: Bruce Greenwood channeling Yosemite Sam in his burly performance of Meek.

13 Assassins
Kurt [LOVED] – Takashi Miike makes his prettiest and most epic film to date, that looks to set the high-water mark for bloody Samurai battles while playing homage to the classic Chanbara passion plays – perhaps the hallmark of Japanese Cinema. Have no fear though, despite the high sheen there are some very recognizable and wickedly repugnant director touches.
Matt B. [LOVED] – I will buy this on DVD and never watch the first hour again. The last 45 minutes, possibly the bloodiest battle sequence ever filmed, are extraordinary.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Some people loved the slow build, but I’m saying just throw the first hour away and focus your attention on the loving destruction of one of the most elaborate sets ever put on film. After that first hour (and its endless series of meetings), the film gives way to 45 solid minutes of brick shithouse chaos that almost overwhelms your pleasure centres.

Trigger
Kurt [LOVED] – The best eulogy-film since Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion! Bruce MacDonald has made a film about community by using his own film community and Tracey Wright’s star has never shone brighter than her all night bickering, conversation and reflection with her friend and rival Molly Parker. Equal parts Before Sunset, My Dinner With Andre and good old fashioned Rock n’ Roll.
Mike Rot [LOVED] – Bruce McDonald has made his own My Dinner with Andre that soaks in the talent and environment of Toronto in a beautiful swan song for the late Tracy Wright, whose first lead performance as
Vic will break your heart.

Balada Triste
Bob [LOVED] – A handy-dandy tip for all you youngsters studying to be clowns: in a pinch, household cleaning aids make good substitutes for makeup. There’s more to this film than the simple story of Insane Happy Clown versus Insane Sad Clown, but that certainly is the most entertaining part about it – especially the way-over-the-top final showdown.
Kurt [LOVED] – A grand guignol of the grotesque, Alex de la Iglasias’ latest mutated genre-bender has something to say about Spain’s mid-20th century run in with fascism, and he says it with maimed clowns, buxom trapeze beauties and machetes and heavy calibre machine guns. Not to be missed, even if you’ll fell a bit icky at the end of it.
Matt B. [LIKED] – The metaphor was well over my head, and the central image – berserk clowns trying to kill each other – takes too long to arrive. But hey: berserk clowns trying to kill each other.
Matt P. [LOVED] – “Prepare for Opera” I heard someone say on the way in. Two Clowns fight over the love of a beautiful woman, until all three are utterly destroyed. De la Iglesia proves again to be the master of combining high art with low, blowing us away with images that cannot be forgotten, or even diminished over the course of time. I ended my festival with this, and I couldn’t have asked for a higher note to go out on.

127 Hours
Kurt [LOVED] – Danny Boyle is back after the disappointing fantasy-slush of Slumdog Millionaire with an optimistic (if occasionally brutal) take on personal hubris and survival. Boyle’s usual display of sentimentality is present, but it seems to fit the story better this time around than it does with some of his other films. James Franco manages to build a very empathic performance even with all the unusual close-quarters camera-work.

The Trip
Kurt [LOVED] – Join Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on a road trip throughout rural England so the two dual egos can attempt to outdo each other with Woody Allen and Michael Caine impressions while eating upscale cuisine and the occasional lecture of geology, Wordsworth and life-choices. One of the funniest bits of ‘on-a-lark’ filmmaking I have seen in years.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Time spent with messrs. Brydon and Coogan is time very well spent indeed, even if they do nothing more than riff off each other, eat ridiculously great looking food and spend a lot of time exploiting Steve Coogan’s self made reputation as kind of a jerk. Michael Winterbottom makes the very hard look very very easy indeed, constructing a satisfying narrative arc out of a series of very funny conversations.
Matt B. [LOVED] – Come on, who didn’t spend the rest of their TIFF week shrieking “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!!” at friends and strangers?
Mike Rot [LIKED] – “She was only 15 years old” – funny is funny, and for the most part The Trip is funny. No Tristram Shandy, nothing more than Coogen and Brydon riffing, and I am perfectly fine with that.

Rare Exports
Bob [LIKED] – Santa Claus with REALLY big horns. A kid’s fairy tale that includes the gutting of a boar. The greatest number of naked old geezers per square foot that I’ve seen on film. Great concepts. Only reasonably good execution. Perhaps I just wanted more from this story of the discovery of a long-buried demonic Santa, but it never quite went where I wanted it to. Having said that, there’s a lot of imaginative stuff here.
Kurt [LIKED] – In my mind, Rare Exports was going to be Tremors where the grabboids were a demon Santa and his little helpers who kidnap naughty children. The film I got was not that thing, exactly, it is deadpan to a fault, never really hitting the ground running in the final act, although it is far more handsome and better acted than it has any right to be. Sequel Please.
Matt B. [LOVED] – Everyone in Canada should be slapping their heads for not making this ourselves. So should Guillermo del Toro, because this spooky revision of the Santa Claus myth is exactly what he’s been trying to do with pretty much every film he’s ever made, but particularly the Hellboys. So enjoyable it almost hurts.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Black Swan was the best film I saw, but Rare Exports is my hands down favorite, a film impossible not to enjoy. Think about the phrase “demonic santa claus”, turn it over in your mind for a minute. Now forget what you just imagined, because Rare Exports goes further and creates more with that simple idea than I ever thought possible. Perfectly realized black giddy fun.

You Are Here
Kurt [LOVED] – There is no way to spoil You Are Here, because I am not even sure what I have seen. The film keeps the big picture just out of reach by playing out using the rhythms of a hypnotist. A hypnotist that somnambulizes with the quiet and disarming chant of ‘wake-up, do not get hypnotized.’ How often is the avant-garde mixed with humour? Not enough. This was so magnificent that when it came to an end, I wanted at least another half hour of Daniel Cockburn’s peculiar brain on video.
Matt P. [LOVED] – In a conversation with a fellow Tiff’er, we both arrived at the same conclusion; the ideas make this film good. The warmth and emotional logic engage the mind, long past the films relatively short running time. But the humour on display takes it far beyond good. Charlie Kaufman comparisons can be put to rest, Daniel Cockburn’s ideas stand on their own.

Submarine
Bob [LOVED] – Though I understand the Wes Anderson comparions (via elements of style), I don’t think it’s fair to consider this film the Welsh version of “Rushmore”. I love Anderson’s films, but “Submarine’s” central character is much more empathetic, likable and maybe even smarter than Max Fischer. I couldn’t help but be charmed by the film’s gentle humour, dark corners and self-aware stylistic touches.
Kurt [LIKED] – The obligatory comparisons to Wes Anderson are accurate, although Richard Ayoade’s Welsh coastal setting and excellent use of supporting players (Paddy Considine, Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor) makes sure the film never runs out of charm or steam. Submarine is a solid entry in the increasingly crowded field of highly stylized coming-of-age-love-story films.
Matt B. [LIKED] – A weird, distant, and ultimately affecting tale of yet another odd boy trying to find himself as a teenager is made memorable by gorgeous visuals and a distinctly Adrian Mole feel.
Matt P. [LIKED] – It was billed as “The Welsh Rushmore”, but in reality Submarine is both more and less than that. If it doesn’t reach that film’s dizzying heights, neither does it sacrifice character for the easy laugh or broad visual gag. Instead Submarine is a brilliantly observed collection of the small moments of adolescence when we are convinced that to exist is to be de facto superior to all those around us.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Kurt [LIKED] – Werner Herzog makes the best and worst use of technology in his foray into 3D filmmaking. When he keeps the camera still, the texture and relief of pre-historic cave paintings are magnificent to behold. When he moves the camera around in hand-held guerilla style filmmaking, it is garish. Nevertheless, he manages to reflect on how art from the past cannot quite bridge our understanding of an ancient people, but it can give us a worthy and interesting glimpse of their dreams.
Matt B. [LOVED] – Herzog sublimely peers thirty thousand years (!!) into the human past and draws meaning around the continuity of human creation like a big warm blanket. Only becomes a great film in its final moments, but when it does, man, does it ever.
Matt P. [LIKED] – There are times when Herzog, confronted by his decision not to digress from 3d even for a frame forces us firmly into seasickness with his inappropriate use of handheld and moving camera. There are times when he lingers just slightly too long, or just slightly not long enough on a given cave wall to fully satisfy the viewer. And yet, when he finally comes to the radioactive albino alligator, and its relationship to the human condition on this earth it is all worthwhile and we love his film because of who he is, and what it is.
Mike Rot [LIKED] – There is a lot to love in Herzog’s 3D film on the earliest cave paintings in recorded history, the 3D works when the camera is relatively still and you are admiring the walls, but when handheld things get blurry. Moments of greatness within a less than inspired whole.

A Horrible Way To Die
Kurt [LOVED] – A Mumblecore take on the Serial Killer genre that puts relationships and personal hang-ups over mayhem and gore. The film flirted with going into predictable (and predictably lame) territory, but manages to not only surprise, but transcend. This movie was everything that Repeaters was not!
Matt P. [LIKED] – Mumblecore continues to show its adaptability beyond the scope of small indie comedy, this time creating a compelling riff on the serial killer genre that brings a genuine freshness of concept, performance and cinematography. Doesn’t play its hand too early, sets everything up with logical precision and never lets us loose to worry about whether the story is working or not. Rest assured, it’s working like gangbusters.

Never Let Me Go
Kurt [LOVED] – A perfect, if rapidly paced, distillation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s delicate prose. This is how you use science fiction to tackle a lot of the biggie questions without sacrificing story and emotion. Mark Romanek manages to handle the ‘perception and perspective’ is everything nature of the story without resorting to trickery, which is refreshingly honest and actually bleakly ironic under the circumstances of Tommy, Ruth and Cathy.
Mike Rot [LIKED] – I read the book an enjoyed it and I think the film does an incredible job reproducing it onscreen. It wasn’t my favorite book of all time and neither is the movie. Everything looks meticulous and perfect and I think almost too perfect maybe. The score is awesome, the performances are great, all around solid film.

The Housemaid
Bob [LOVED] – I suppose there’s not much new in this telling of class differences between a rich family, their old housemaid and a new addition to the cleaning/cooking staff. But when it’s so beautifully rendered with a slow building climb to the inevitable showdown, I don’t care.
Kurt [LIKED] – I do adore these tightly wound melodramas that focus on a household, often a world unto itself. Wealthy decor hides the ugly personalities inside, and the ground-down servant class with few options once the unfortunate wheels are set in motion. It is bombastic (as it should be), yet there is a small moment of hope in the final frames that perhaps pulls the films key punch, or maybe not.

The Four Times
Bob [LOVED] – This lovely, slow, meditative look at a small Italian mountain village and how all nature is interconnected is an exploration of the idea of soul transference from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. It also contains the best long single shot of the festival involving a dog, a runaway truck, a herd of goats and several crucifixes.

Crying Out
Bob [LOVED] – Quebec filmmaker Robin Aubert lays himself and his characters bare in this story of a man who cannot accept his second wife’s death and takes her body on a road trip through the rural motels of Quebec. In pursuit, his son and father work through their own issues as the beautiful countryside rolls on by.

Julia’s Eyes
Bob [LIKED] – A well put together atmospheric tale of a woman who is slowly going blind, but desperately wants to uncover the mystery of her sister’s death. It takes good advantage of shadows, darkness and those areas just out of the corner of our eyes.
Kurt [LIKED] – A very solid bit of horror filmmaking that benefits from a gorgeous and gloomy look. I cannot say that there is much original or overwhelmingly fresh on display here, but it certainly proves that young filmmakers from Spain are going to own this genre in a few years, if Guillermo del Toro keeps taking them under his wing.
Matt B. [LOVED] – A deeply contrived plot that knows just how far into the “you wait here while I check out the basement” wellspring of horror cliches it is sinking, Julia’s Eyes is nonetheless a better-made movie than The Orphanage, and director Guillem Morales shows genuine flair and skill.

The Legend of Beaver Dam
Kurt [LIKED] – A ode to slasher films, rock opera and Joe Dante. It is very short, but oh, so sweet.
Matt B. [LOVED] – This short film was one of the best Midnight Madness films I’ve seen of any length, and is a stern reminder that more short films should play in that venue. Loads of fun.
Matt P. [LOVED] – The best thing at midnight this year was this 12 minute slasher musical that overcame some pretty serious Fubar audience hatred in short order with its great mix of over the top acting and really great songs about murdering.

Super
Kurt [LOVED] – It is the ‘naughty’ version of Kick-Ass that pushes past multiplex sensibilities into a fairly specialized brand of humour. Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon are the real stars of the show here giving quite off-the-wall performances that wonderfully defy expectation (and good taste), but there is (surprisingly) an interesting take on love and lonliness buried in there. And I adore those pencil-crayon credits.
Matt B. [LOVED] – A really shaky script and less-than-stellar filmmaking are entirely erased by the berserker awesomeness of Ellen Page’s entire performance; for the hour-or-so that she is on screen, the film is goddamned extraordinary, and as soon as she’s gone (or just before she arrives), it’s a big fat meh. Someone: make action figures of this. Please.
Matt P. [LIKED] – Many were keener on this than me, and many others I talked to hated it with vehemence. Overall, I fall somewhere in the middle on this lunacy. Is it a great midnight pick? Is it funny? is it about something real? Yes, yes and yes. But it also goes so far that it left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth, and even if it hadn’t, it blows its story with a character death that comes way too soon and just reduces the last half hour to a draggy mess of denoument.

Make Believe
Bob [LIKED] – The structure of this documentary about teenage magicians competing against each other at the yearly Las Vegas championships is nothing new, but it still succeeds in introducing us to some interesting characters and showing us behind the scenes of the basics of magic. It’s not quite as fun as, say, “Spellbound”, but very enjoyable.
Matt B. [LOVED] – Did the rest of the teen magicians know they were going up against Gandalf? A gaggle of American impressarios make mechanisms in their basements while a young Japanese boy wanders across rivers and valleys and makes leaves appear out of thin air. It’s hard not to fall in love with him, and the film around him.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Yeah, it’s Spellbound with teen magicians. But it’s also Spellbound, with teen magicians! And that Japanese kid is a full on sorceror, using river rocks and leaves as his magic props fer chrissakes! Of course I loved it, how could you not?

Lapland Odyssey
Bob [LOVED] – A road movie in a single night has to step outside of reality somewhat in order to give you the requisite number of strange characters and situations required. All the better for this Finnish tale of one man’s quest for a digibox to save his relationship with his girlfriend – it would be a shame if we didn’t get all the coincidences and silly scenarios that are presented so gleefully to the viewers.

Behind Blue Skies
Bob [LOVED] – What begins as a wonderfully told teenage coming of age story set amongst the workers of a summer resort morphs into an interesting mix of a father figure search, a morality tale and drug smuggling. Whichever branch it took, though, the film was expertly told (and with amazing attention to detail for its 70s period) and wonderfully performed.

Confessions
Bob [LOVED] – Exploitative of its young characters and cynical as all get out, I could not help being thoroughly engaged in this story of a teacher’s revenge against the two children who killed her young daughter. The opening 30 minute monologue by the teacher is, by itself, a perfect short film.

Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Bob [LOVED] – Fun and fast-paced documentary that scans over the numerous 70s exploitation films made in the Philippines for the mass consumption of a North American audience. Cheap labour, lax safety rules and extras willing to do anything meshed very well with plots about women in prison and student nurses. If a documentary about a specific set of films makes you want to run out and watch them, then it has to be considered a success. Especially if it entertained the heck out of you while doing it.

A Useful Life
Bob [LOVED] – The opening section of this story of a career employee at a Cinematheque in Montevideo, Uruguay is enjoyable enough (watching the various duties carried out – live overdubbing of foreign films, radio shows, cataloguing reels of film, etc.), but once the Cinematheque closes and he is forced to interact with the real world, it becomes an absolute joy. In particular, during one of my favourite scenes of the entire festival, when he gives a speech about lying honourably for the good of others to a class of law students.
Matt P. [LIKED] – Thin but enjoyable fantasia on the life of a cinematheque. It seems designed to do one thing, and that is to play at film festivals worldwide. Still, it’s hard to be a cynic with this much quiet joy and self-deprecation on display.

The Promise: Making of Darkness at the Edge of Town
Mike Rot [LOVED] – I am more a Dylan fan than a Springsteen fan but the joy of this documentary is that it allows you to soak in 1978 with a constant stream of recording studio footage as Bruce and the E Street Band develop their voice, and create an album when an album meant something. Goes deep into the creative process.

Let Me In
Kurt [LIKED] – The very definition of an unnecessary remake as they got just about everything perfect the first time around. Here we get a film that is very solid for the American Multiplex, it is a well acted and solid piece of character-driven horror and suspense, but it does not quite have the elegance, flow, or patience of its predecessor. A pale case of Deja Vu.

Waiting For Superman
KURT [LIKED] – The type of documentary you would expect from David “An Inconvenient Truth” Guggenheim, an overview of the American public education system and why it is failing to turn out quality graduates in this day and age. It balances its anti-union rhetoric with an intimate look at a few systems in the lottery system for the few non-union public schools allowing for a bit of emotional breathlessness along the lines of Spellbound.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Will win the Oscar, beyond question, and likely several Nobel prizes. It’s as over-earnest and programatic as its spiritual predecessor, An Inconvenient Truth, and has none of the flair or joie de vivre evidenced in It Might Get Loud or even Guggenheim’s better Deadwood episodes.

Break Up Club
Bob [LIKED] – Director Barbara Wong plays up the relationship documentary by creating a fictional story of an on-again-off-again couple, but treating it like it’s a documentary. Wong plays herself as a director searching for people who are about to undergo a break-up and who are willing to record the ups and downs of what is more than likely the end stage of a relationship. The majority of the film is footage taken by one couple as break-up, get back together and break-up again (with help from a web site). It’s not perfect since the male character in the relationship isn’t overly sympathetic (you really wonder why she bothers with him in the first place), but there was enough humour and inventiveness (and the gorgeous Fiona Sit) to keep me engaged.

Viva Riva!
Bob [LIKED] – Apparently the Democratic Republic of Congo can have just the same kind of seedy nightlife as the typical North American underground city found in many genre movies. Throw in heavy military, church and government corruption along with dollops of racism and misogyny (by the characters, not the movie itself) and you’ve got a dark world that charming criminal Riva lives in. A pretty damn entertaining one too.
Kurt [LIKED] – Do not think there is a fuel shortage on our green planet? Well, gasoline is the commodity of choice in this Congolese gangster picture, where the prodigal son returns with a truck-load of gasoline, and something to prove to the local crime underworld. A sexy romp of a film that tends to put a lot of skin on screen in between its rather spare plot, but comes to a conclusion with a fair bit to say about the current social stasis of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Matt P. [LIKED] – Sure, it’s just a violent genre exercise. A congolese Scarface, if you will, full of sex, revenge and betrayal. Damn I wish we could relax and do that in this country. Viva Riva rocked hard and charmed the pants offa me.

I Saw The Devil
Bob [LIKED] – If you do monstrous things while chasing a monster, do you not become a monster as well? Kim Ji-woon’s followup to the spirited “The Good The Bad The Weird” is a flat out vengeance tale that doesn’t so much thrill as drag you down into its muck with it. It certainly answers that question though…
Kurt [DISAPPOINTED] – It is pretty and pretty much the goriest film to come out of South Korea ever; but Kim Ji-Woon’s take on the Vengeance films of Park Chan-Wook comes across like a shallow imitator. Owing as much influence, considering the unflappable serial killer at the center of the film, to David Fincher it is far more The Game than Zodiac so your milage may vary on whether you forgive the shallowness and praise the glossy mayhem.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Far too long and takes nearly an hour to present its basic premise, but once it does, hoo-boy, it’s a crackerjack take on the revenge thriller. Plus: Storm Shadow vs. Oldboy? Sign me up.
Matt P. [LOVED] – Yes, it’s another grand guignol about the toll vengeance takes. Whatever is wrong with the South Korean psyche vis-a-vis revenge and its many pitfalls, I hope nothing happens to heal the wounds. If only for the sake of the North American movie going audience, since I Saw the Devil is the latest example of mesmerizing movie making to make it out of there.

The Edge
Kurt [LIKED] – Is it possible to make a movie featuring trains and not have it as a gigantic metaphor? There is as Russian prisoners return from Germany only to be suspects of treason and are Gulag’d in Siberia. Things get stranger when a mountain-woman enters the camp and upsets an already strained balance of the prisoners and the prison staff. Maybe 20 minutes too long, but one heck of a gorgeous bit of filmmaking. Not surprising that this is Russia’s Foreign Language to the Academy.
Matt B. [LIKED] – An enjoyably Herzogian tale of wilderness adventure in 1940s Siberia, goes on a bit too long but is pretty as hell, and features magnificent trains.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – Leaves in high spirits from Bad-ass-russian-war-hero station; arrives 2 hours later at Tedium-on-Taiga, with few stops in between. I don’t know what I expected, but after a bang up beginning this just disintegrates right in front of your eyes.

The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Kurt [DISAPPOINTED] – Film critic Grady Hendrix said it best when he said he was not the least bit interested in watching Donnie Yen furiously masturbate to Bruce Lee’s legacy. The film is loud and ungainly, a Frankenstein’s monster of everything from The Green Hornet to Temple of Doom to Casablanca but it does have one heck of an opener: Kung Fu vs. Germans in the trenches of World War One. I wish there were more of that and less of a posturing tuxedo’d Yen in pencil moustache.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Asian Dick Tracy is enjoyable enough and mixes moods and action with pleasurable frequency.
Matt P. [LIKED] – Sure, it doesn’t ALL work, and the final fights are painfully bad. But c’mon, how can you hate something this grandiose? And besides, a third of this seems to be set inside of Club Obi-Wan from Temple of Doom.

Norwegian Wood
Kurt [LIKED] – An overly long, but still quite intimate look at first love and insanity and how sex complicates everything.

Essential Killing
Kurt [LIKED] – Vincent Gallo gives another fearless performance in which his arab-on-the-run has to eat bark, ants and raw fish in a desparate attempt to avoid capture for killing an American Soldier and two civilians. The film takes the classic tale of ‘accused-man-on-the-run’ and inverts it to challenge audience sympathy while sticking (more or less) to genre conventions. Challenging and risque filmmaking here.

Snabba Cash
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – The first half of the film is filled with some interesting setup mostly around the wanna-be-rich character of JW, but it starts to lose its Noirish sense and tension as it progresses to a letdown of an ending. JW is shown to be incredibly naive, so much so that a line like “people put themselves and the money first” appears to be revelatory to him.
Kurt [LOVED] – A smart and character-driven inversion of the typical gangster picture that is far more interested in fathers and family than guns and drugs. Three different characters come together in unusual ways, all are great but the stand out is Dragomir Mrsic
Matt P. [LIKED] – Taut and well constructed multi character crime thriller, a kind of Swedish Elmore Leonard riff. Moves its pieces on the chessboard as well as anything since Out of Sight, albeit with more pathos and less black humor. One of the highlights of my week.

Our Day Will Come
Kurt [LIKED] – Romain Garvas tells a cautionary tale of mayhem and violence as two red-headed men go on a testosterone fuelled rampage against the non-Gingers of the world. Are they using their hair-colour as an excuse to indulge in the darker places of their individual personalities? Probably. The director takes this film to some rather uncomfortable places of the so-called disenfranchised.

The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman
Kurt [LIKED] – a smorgasbord of styles and tones add to a film that feels like a first Neo-ShawBrothers film with a decidedly ambitious Saragossa Manuscript twist. Cooking, Slapstick, Prostitutes and Swordsplay, what more do you want in an evenings entertainment.
Matt B. [LIKED] – No goddamned idea what was going on at any particular point, but bears an entertaining in-triplicate flashback structure and is as goofy as a ball of eels.
Matt P. [LIKED] – This was the only real midnight madness entry for me, a nonstop genre bender with no appetite for the rules and no interest in slowing down the editing from bongo solo speeds. It’s sad for me that this was my favourite midnight madness feature this year, and the only one to be unreservedly fun to watch.

Detective Dee And The Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Bob [HATED] – OK, I admit I drifted off to sleep once or twice during Tsui Hark’s latest action spectacle, but shouldn’t an “action spectacle” manage to keep you conscious? Gobs and gobs of CGI (and not very good CGI at that) tacked on to a mediocre story that I didn’t care about with a mystery that just never materialized. Blah.
Kurt [LIKED] – Tsui Hark is back (after several disappointments) with a bright and colourful tale of supernatural thrills and intrigue in ancient China. The film plays like a Scooby Doo mystery with Kung Fu and Magic and that is pretty darn good.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Big-screen movie-movie filmmaking in fine order, fluffy and entertaining.
Matt P. [LIKED] – Even if it doesn’t reach the lofty heights of The Raid and Chinese Ghost Story, Detective Dee still manages to find some new ground in the grand adventure realm. It helps when the canvas includes magical talking kung-fu deer, facial shape shifting, and an assasination attempt involving a 300 foot tall golden Buddha. All adventure should be writ this large.

Womb
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – Stunningly shot with a terrific slow-paced first 30 minutes, but it squanders much of its good will by never doing anything interesting with the variety of ideas it builds up.
Kurt [LOVED] – The second etherial cloning drama features Eva Green and two incarnations of her soul-mate. The first is her lover, the second is her son. They both are exact copies. Morality, memory, delusional expectations and the nature of how we view the world are all on offer from a film that wants to have a serious dialogue with the viewer while putting up on screen some of the most beautiful cinematography (and knit sweaters) in ages.
Matt B. [HATED] – The best first act of the film festival, utterly destroyed by an unsupportable character decision and a heroine who, we must quickly realize, is insane. Answer me this: what outcome do we, as an audience, want from this film?

22nd of May
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – After a bomb explodes in a mall, a security guard meets up with the people who died and they accuse him of not doing enough to save them. An intriguing premise, but I never quite found an entry point to this odd walk through the purgatory of one man’s set of ghosts.
Kurt [LIKED] – What is the effect of a bomb going off in a public space? The Flemish director of the challenging Ex-Drummer chronicles the lives of the bomber and many of the bombed in a visual and spiritually engaging way.

Fubar II
Kurt [LIKED] – Terry and Deaner take Fort McMurray, and The MAC is a hard mistress. Bigger, louder and maybe a bit more emphasis on set-pieces do not deter this one from being the sloppy (and occasionally poignant) fun that a Canadian Hoser film should be.
Matt B.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – High style hilarity in the form of a house trashing soon gave way to the mundanities of plot and deeper meaning this was trying to “sneak” past us. No sale, I’m afraid, telefilm. I like my comedies with the Seinfeld rules intact: Nobody learns, nobody cries. There are no “very special episodes” in my canon of greatness.

Vanishing on 7th St.
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – High expectations (I mostly love director Brad Anderson’s other films) may have dashed any hope of me really enjoying this end of the world tale. However, I expect the lackluster characters, poor performances and rather bland, undistinguished look of the shadows that now envelope the world had more to do with it. Still, some interesting ideas to play with.
Kurt [LIKED] – Not a masterpiece, but an unusual take on the apocalyptic horror film. The characters desparately cry to acknowledge their existence in a universe that seems fit to snuff them out. I rather appreciated the films commitment to the inevitable.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Not terrific, but terrifically visual. Devoid of a third act, which should flunk it by default, but I like the first two acts enough to give it a grudging pass.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – This is why it’s always the story first and everything else better follow. There’s some good directorial ideas here, and nothing inherently wrong with the cast. Dramatically, though, when you start a story by removing 99.999% of all the people on earth, you better show us some good reasons why we are left with the other 4. The characters in this story neither need to discover information which can validate the central premise, nor are they paying a price for something they do not understand about themselves. In short, their assignation to the current world is presented as random, and our interest in them correspondingly dim.
Miked Rot [LIKED] – My only Midnight Madness, lower-grade Brad Anderson that doesn’t fully payoff on its great visual conceit. Despite fairly weak characters I was enough involved in the mystery to give it a pass.

The Debt
Matt P. [LIKED] – Sure, Ciarán Hinds and Sam Worthington play the same person (and worthington coming off the plane at the beginning looks an awful lot like the early shot of same in Avatar), and sure, everyone’s accent is literally all over the map, but The Debt is the kind of classy political thriller that Hollywood used to chuck up on the screen every month in the good old 1970′s. The screenplay by Matthew Vaughan and Jane Goldman is as good as anything they’ve done, and the plot genuinely went places I never expected. Also, Helen Mirren packs for a trip wearing only her negligee and for just a minute there I kind of lost myself.

Outside the Law
Matt P. [Liked] – I cannot find anyone else who saw this at tiff. Not one person I know copped to it. A shame, since it’s a gauntlet thrown down to film makers around the world to make drama from the pain of history. Epic, sweeping and pretty goddamn hardcore look at the Algerian independence movement is well worth checking out, and may wind up winning the Oscar this year for best foreign film.

Cool It
Matt P. [LIKED] – Ondi Timoner’s new doc is squarely in essay film territory, but she isn’t just making the definitive response to An Inconvenient Truth. Cool It is more of an object lesson in how little we achieve by panicking, and how much could be done with simple non hysteria and a pragmatic approach. As a film I found it engaging enough, well paced, well constructed and well done.
Mike Rot [LOVED] – There is nothing quite like having long-held assumptions overturned in the span of a movie. Ondi Timoner’s documentary on Bjorn Lomborg, author of the skeptical environmentalist, is an eye-opener – you will not be able to look at An Inconvenient Truth the same way again.

Kaboom
Matt B. [DISAPPOINTED] – Yeah, and why do I care?
Matt P. [LIKED] – Gregg Araki comes back with his loosest and silliest since the Doom Generation. The plot unfolds like something scribbled on a napkin by a 7 year old birthday party attendee, then subsequently passed to the funny uncle who was supposed to stay 100 yards clear of the party. I could describe what happens, but honestly it doesn’t even matter. What does is that there’s no one better at placing characters directly in the middle of frame and making us kind of love them for being so unlikeable.

Nostalgia For The Light
Matt B. [LOVED] – An excellent counterpoint to Cave of Forgotten Dreams, this documentary examines the ageless time of the cosmos in direct counterpoint to the atrocities of the past 40 years in Chile.

Bad Faith
Kurt [LIKED] – The voyeurism vibe in this slow-burn serial killer drama is dark and dangerous. Shot by the cinematographer of Let The Right One In, so it is gorgeous, if slow; almost as if Michael Haneke directed a European remake of Rear Window from the point of view of the Grace Kelly character.

The Sleeping Beauty
Matt B. [LIKED] – Not Catherine Breillat’s best work, but very, very “her.” Too much time spent wandering around imaginary landscapes, but not unexpectedly, its final points arrive like a well-timed suckerpunch.

Deep In The Woods
Matt B. [LIKED] – Rape and witchcraft and plenty of fucking in the bushes, this is the last time I will try Benoit Jacquot, who makes films that just don’t come entirely together for me. Some interesting ideas here and the best musical score of the festival, but an unsatisfying experience.

How I Ended This Summer
Matt B. [LIKED] – An interesting 2-hander premise buried in too much tail-end psychodrama.

Genpin
Matt B. [LIKED] – Has a lot of useful things to say about childbirth and should be showed in sex ed classes instead of the usual shock doctrine.

Outbound
Kurt [LIKED] – A single day odyssey of a woman released from prison to attend a funeral, and her plan to tie up as many loose ends and bail on Hungary back to her home in Russia. Based on a story from 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days’ Christian Mungiu, it is easy to see the similarity in story telling, but here you are asked to push past empathy and follow a bit more of an inscrutable lead into that long dark night.

Beautiful Boy
Kurt [LIKED] – Fine performances and a winning idea, turning a school shooting movie inside out by focusing on the parents of the shooter, are not quite enough to elevate this one to the other masterpieces in the genre, Elephant, Bowling for Columbine and Polytechnique.

White Irish Drinkers
Matt P. [LIKED] – It’s an Irish Scotch Broth, a familiar stew full of tough pieces of meat cooked down to the nub. And even if we’ve been served this meal a few too many times, some of the ingredients are just too good to ignore. This coming of age noo yawk story has Stephen Lang playing an abusive drunken father, commanding every moment of his limited screen time. A silver maned Peter Riegert throws in some support, Karen Allen does yeoman’s work as the mom, and the young leads are functional and present in their scenes. I can even overlook Geoff Wigdor, playing the troubled thug brother like Fonzie with an impulse control problem.

Passione
Matt P. [LIKED] – It’s a series of Neapolitan songs, performed by some of Napoli’s greatest living artist. Occasionally, director John Turturro turns directly to camera and proclaims things like “Naples! It’s kind of awesome here,” and then with a wave of his hand towards the city behind him, he implores us to check it out for ourselves. What’s not to like?

The Pipe
Matt B. [LIKED] – Hobbits vs. Big Oil has some magnificent imagery, particularly as its deadly beast machine arrives in the final act.
Matt P. [LIKED] – David and Goliath for the oil spill age. The pipe is certainly authentic and at times gripping, but the “ending” seems entirely out of the characters control and makes for an unsatisfying resolution for the audience. Just because the events are real does not mean that the finished product can ignore the rules of storytelling. This is a minor complaint, but it prevents the film from achieving “Cove” like greatness.

Game of Death
Matt P. [LIKED] – Solidly well made with a real point of view on the effects of mass media on our ethics, The game of Death reenacts the Milgram experiments, updating them to a television game reality format to see whether this can make the authoritarians that much more compelling. That it does is certainly no great revelation, but the film is entertaining and mildly suspenseful in its treatment of the details. That it seems to completely ignore new media in favour of the broadcast dinosaur seems like an oversight, one that I hope can be corrected by yet more behavioural scientists.

The Repeaters
Kurt [DISAPPOINTED] – The film is simply too polished and damned earnest to make its ground-hog day with drug-addicts conceit work. The characters and scenario are likable enough in the first act until the film makes a wacky over-the-top villain of one that is more yawn-inducing than menacing.
Matt B. [LIKED] – Better than it has any right to be, the dark version of Groundhog Day is enlivened by solid performances and decent shooting, even if it becomes a bit trying (and logic-defying) in its totality. Not bad.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Kurt [LIKED] – It always takes a bit to re-adjust to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s particular style of long takes and hopping around – he is sort Tsai-Ming Liang with Attention Deficit Disorder. His films have moments of very high engagement, and others where you can simply snooze off. On the whole though, Uncle Boonmee takes similar conceits as Enter The Void and approaches them from the opposite end of the spectrum. A meditation on the important moments in life, and how they all slip away (or become dissociated and free-form) as death takes over. Some wonderful cave photography approaches the stuff in Herzog’s doc as this years TIFF. A bit of a surprise that it won the Palm D’or at Cannes, but there are moments of genius in here, that much is obvious.

Three
Bob [LIKED] – Tom Tykwer’s latest is a slick stylish look at a couple from Germany who each separately engage in an affair with the same man. If not consistently entertaining throughout its entirety, it still has numerous instances of fun and experimentation as well as ending up being somewhat of a plea for tolerance and acceptance of what people might think of as a relationship.
Matt P. [LIKED] – A handsome stranger independently seduces both halves of a married couple, leading to surprising revelations and artistic risks for the filmmaker. I believe that is the description of “standard film festival entry 4b”, and yet as a movie Three makes the most of some pretty well trod ground, throwing in telephone line poetry, modern dance and some pretty frank depictions of testicular cancer to spice up the proceedings nicely. It ain’t Run Lola Run, but Tom Tykwer proves once again he’s a film director capable of presenting material in a professional and compelling way.

Chico & Rita
Matt P. [LIKED] – There’s a plot in this handsomely mounted musical tour through the last half of the 20th century. It involves a man and a woman, destined to be together but pulled apart by jealousy and misunderstanding. It’s a familiar story, but well served here and if that was what this was I would have been happy enough. Thankfully, Chico & Rita is much more, using the story to give us animated backdrops of vivid brilliance, from 1950′s Havana and Las Vegas, to Paris, New York and New Orleans. And the music, the music is as swell as it gets.

Beginners
Matt P. [LIKED] – Beginners provides a solution to the terrible mess that so-called “romantic” comedies find themselves in these days, trading real heartache and genuine discovery for trite sit-commy boy meets girl shenanigans. It’s nice when something like this reminds you that all you need for greatness sometimes is honesty and charm, which this has tied around its neck like an ascot on gay Chris Plummer.

Wasted on the Young
Matt P. [LIKED] – The better of the two “aussie teen thrill kill” movies at Tiff this year. Creates a universe almost devoid of adults, pulling off perhaps the greatest narrative trick I caught all festival long. Despite this, or because of it, it’s a bracing thriller that serves to fully illustrate the idea of high school as hermetically sealed social experiment gone wrong.

Pink Saris
Matt B. [LIKED] – Repetitive, but kindly portrait of a self-appointed mediator in rural India.
Matt P. [LIKED] – It lacks a solid frame in which to portray its subject, and from a filmmaking viewpoint feels slightly abrasive and noisy. But oh, what a subject. A cantankerous and indefatigable woman leading a singular attack on rural India’s systemic abuse of women makes for a very compelling 90 minutes of cinema.

Brighton Rock
Matt P. [LIKED] – Good to great performances and some spectacular photography make this a solid entry, if minor entry into the british crime milieu. A greatly satisfying exercise in pathetic fallacy, where the white cliffs of Dover never looked so good or so menacing.

Dhobi Ghat
Matt P. [LIKED] – Indie Indian. Not only is that fun to say, it’s pretty fun to watch. Dhobi Ghat seems like part of the maturation process, showing that the marketplace in southeast asia can support the kind of filmmaking that Americans starting making about 25 years ago with films like Mystic Pizza and Sex, Lies and Videotape. This isn’t as good as either of those, but it’s still a good sign for the future.

Marimbas from Hell
Bob [LIKED] – Whether you like Heavy Metal music or not, this film proves one thing: a marimba makes it better.
Matt P. [LIKED] – An affable shaggy dog story about combining traditional Marimba with a heavy metal band. Great music, great warmth of spirit. Just as slight as it sounds.

How I Ended this Summer
Matt P. [LIKED] – I would have said loved, as this has performances and wild scenery supporting what is a uniquely powerful plot about isolation and the dangers it holds. Except that as in many things, they can’t stick the landing and let the dramatic air out with about 20 minutes to go, leaving the film to founder in its own filth like a mutated cod in a reactor pool.

Inside Job
Matt P. [LIKED] – High level slick piece, the doc with the greatest chance of translation to a larger audience. Effortlessly contextualizes a problem everyone is affected by and yet no one understands. Plus it looks and sounds better than almost everything else I saw.
Mike Rot [LOVED] – It Ought to have been called: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Financial Crisis but Were Afraid to Ask. The DEFINITIVE documentary on the origin, impact and repercussions of the global financial meltdown of 2008, providing an oral history of the event for future generations to heed.

Erotic Man
Matt B. [LIKED] – Jorgen Leth likes young, black girls with medium-sized breasts. So do I. But he is not speaking for the totality of human erotic attraction, any more than I could. Very pretty and occasionally arousing, but quite forgettable in its points.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – Jorgen Leth shows how much less he is without Von Trier there to poke at him all the time. One of my most anticipated films turns out to be a forgettable and slight meditation on all the attractive women Leth has ever fucked.

Dirty Girl
Bob [LIKED] – Juno Temple is pretty fantastic as the title character who hits the road in search of her father with her sexually-confused-but-60-to-70-percent-sure-he’s-gay friend along for the journey. It has all the ups and downs of a road movie, with, unfortunately, far too many caricatures along the way. Some genuine charm and a couple of nice supporting turns from Milla Jovovich and Tim McGraw (yes, I was just as surprised as you) save it.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – As my friend proclaimed “I get the Juno Temple thing now.” Temple owns her part, the titular Dirty Girl (and she has no problem showing you her titulars throughout). Pity she’s surrounded by a muddle of wanna be high school Priscilla plotting and emotional payoffs so apparent I was checking them off a mental list for the last 45 minutes of wish fulfilling gobbledygook. Temple’s commitment almost makes you overlook the general laziness of everything else, but not quite.

Blame
Bob [LOVED] – A first film as efficiently directed and effectively told as this story of five friends seeking revenge on a man they believe is responsible for a young woman’s death is something to appreciate. Aussie director Michael Henry told the audience during his Q&A that he wants to specialize in making thrillers. Rejoice I say!
Matt B. [DISAPPOINTED] – A “stupid people making stupid decisions movie.” The director will go on to make great films.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – It is easy to see why this slick and well directed piece garnered plenty of fans at Tiff. At first glance its a showy take on the house invasion genre, given a lot of weight by the dark past of the victim. The problem is one of character, or rather a lack of it. When the object of our sympathy cannot fight back against his attackers in even the most obvious way, why is it again that I should invest in caring what happens to him?

Griff the Invisible
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – Unfunny, awkward and unclear on its own rules, this is the ironic superhero in a real world movie that doesn’t amount to much of anything at all.

Conscience of Fire
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – Pretty colours. A big shrug to everything else.
Kurt [DISAPPOINTED] – Gorgeous, if paint-by numbers, entry into the Hong Kong bullets n’ cops genre shows that one day Dante Lam may be the next Johnnie To or John Woo, but he is not quite there yet
Matt B. [DISAPPOINTED] – A sorry choice for a final Midnight Madness, too long-winded to really hold one’s attention and a bit too in love with Heat for its own good.
Matt P. [HATED] – The worst closing midnight since Saw. A HK action fest that spends forever setting up its action sequences, only to butcher them until the audience just wished it was somewheres else. Ends with a bizarre and nonsensical subtitle haiku that makes the preceeding 90 minutes even less meaningful than they were when I merely hated it.

The Ward
Kurt [DISAPPOINTED] – John Carpenter returns with a film that looks like it could have been made by anyone. The very definition of disappointment.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – Carpenter apologists, who called this his “best film since 1995″ (and what rarified ompany that is) aside, this is a standard (or substandard) take on the haunted hospital genre that arrives unremarkably and concludes the same way. A banal and charmless paint by numbers affair that got extra points from some simply because unlike Romero, Carpenter never bothers to colour outside the lines.

Home for Christmas
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – I was actually quite enjoying the different storylines within Bent Hamer’s latest – each one about different concepts of finding home at Christmas time – but they never connected or amounted to more than a variety of short films about similar themes that were spliced together. There’s some lovely character work going on here, which makes it all the more frustrating that it could have been much greater.
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – Multi character stories around a central date can be done. They have certainly been done better than this, a muddled and underwhelming collection of scenes that strains to be a movie in the end.

Anpo
Matt B. [DISAPPOINTED] – A film of infinite scalability – could be 2 minutes long, 2 hours long, or 2 years long and make all the same points. A bit boring, then, after 2 hours, to see the same general frame repeated over and over again.

Promises Written in Water
Mike Rot [DISAPPOINTED] – As Vincent Gallo films go, its not nearly as great as Buffalo 66 but not nearly as awful as Brown Bunny. There are some amazing shots, some funny bits, but ultimately experimental films are not my cup of tea.

Mamma Gogo
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – An Icelandic filmmaker’s mother struggles with Alzheimer’s while his latest film (about old people coping with death) meets public indifference and may financially ruin him. Though it has some sharp barbs towards the Icelandic film community and several great performances, it never quite built into anything more than just that.

West is West
Matt p> [DISAPPOINTED] – There’s nothing really wrong here, but this sequel to East is East provokes nothing in the viewer not fully expected from the get. It’s a teflon pan movie, absolutely nothing sticks.

Armadillo
Matt P. [DISAPOINTED] – It’s beautiful, perhaps the best photographed documentary since Baraka. It’s also a little dramatically inert, and never felt to me like it gave fresh insight into its subjects. Ultimately once I got past the visuals I was a little bored with the events.

The Sound of Mumbai
Matt P. [DISAPPOINTED] – A 60 minute documentary about slumdogs learning to sing Doe a Deer? How did it go wrong? Well, that running time is a good indication, there simply isn’t enough material here, enough of an investment by the filmmakers to produce something really special. This feels a lot like the crew had 2 months to get their footage, when they should have devoted a few years of trips and followed these kids and the ones that come after. Too slight to matter, with no new information and no unique connection to the subjects.

Pinoy Sunday
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – Two immigrant workers from the Philippines wander through Taipei carrying back a couch they “found” that they believe will transform their living quarters. Not terrible by any stretch, but considering we spend the entire movie with these two characters, it would’ve helped if they were likeable.

Insidious
Bob [DISAPPOINTED] – I’m not sure what I expected from James Wan’s (director of “Saw”) attempt at a ghost story…I wasn’t a big fan of his sequel-spawning hit, but I thought he might bring some energy and new ideas to my favourite type of horror film. There were indeed some nicely-realized moments and a concept that was, if not novel, at least a bit different than the norm. However, for each solid creepy scene, the filmmakers took two steps backward by amping up the over-the-top score or throwing in jarring effects.

Miral
Kurt [LIKED] – It is hard to make a Palestinian-Isreali film without getting peoples political dander up, but Julian Schnabel, after his humanistic look at a paralyzed man takes a look at a paralyzed situation through the coming of age of a young girl who is educated at a very unusual school. As much the story of Hind Husseini’s orphanage which gave the full private school experience to kids who lost their parents to the ongoing conflict, it does offer a chance to step back and look at everything in terms of people first, ideologues second.
Mike Rot [WORST] – Julian Schnabel is so much better than this film, hugely disappointed in what felt fairly absent of style or substance. Freida Pinto was miscast and the character was without any kind of momentum.

Bunraku
Kurt [WORST] – It looks like a pop-up book with its CGI origami transitions. That is not enough to sustain tedious action sequences and the over-production of just about everything but fun and entertainment. At nearly 2 hours, this is completely unforgivable. We could have had a snappy colourful Quick and The Dead if this were 80 minutes long with better writing and direction; instead we get a spaghetti western science fiction martial arts version of Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Matt B. [LOVED] – I would never dare call this a completely successful motion picture, but I kinda loved it anyway, and its daffy visuals and sense of style have stayed with me a hell of a lot longer than my early dismissal suggested.

Soul Of Sand
Bob [HATED] – I should say up front that there were elements of this film that were of interest. The story of a woman promised as a wife to a rich man but actually in love with another man outside her caste is not new, but “Soul Of Sand” attempts to bring a different style to it with thriller and Noir conventions wrapped around it. Unfortunately, it moves with fits and starts, is executed in amateurish fashion and was occasionally aggravating (e.g. if you can’t capture the sounds of someone eating live on set, do NOT try to overdub those sounds with over-the-top lip-smacking and chewing at twice the volume).

Buried
Matt B. [HATED] – Totally shits the bed in its lack of a third act, featuring a lead character who, we ultimately realize, is utterly passive and unwilling to take even the most basic action to ensure his own survival.
Matt P. [HATED] – For all its stylistic control and bravada sequences, no film should ask me to follow a character so inert he can’t even attempt to dig his way out of certain death even after he ascertains that he is no more than 4 feet below ground.

Tracker
Matt B. [HATED] – How do you fuck up Jango Fett vs. Beowulf in Middle Earth? I dunno, but they sure did.
Matt P. [HATED] – Just to go after the 2 woefully inept lead performances from Ray Winstone and Temuera Morrison seems mean spirited. It’s probably the director’s fault anyways that this plodding and repetitive drama makes two great performers seem like community theatre chorus boys. Morrison gets by far the shorter end of the stick, being asked to display his Maori culture in a vacuum of meaning that renders it comical instead of brutal.

Amigo
Matt P. [HATED] – Just like on Men With Guns, John Sayles takes a dramatic and compelling backdrop of war and creates a static canvas of trees and talking that compels the viewer to take a nap immediately.]

Red Nights
Matt B. [HATED] – An utterly uninteresting back-and-forth between two icy female leads of very little charisma.
Matt P. [HATED] – We were promised kink. Unusual kink, that we hadn’t seen before. Ten minutes in, what we got was just boring, repetitive and the worst thing a midnight madness film can be, dull. Maybe it gets better by the end, but at 1am who wants to stick around to find out?

Film Socialism
Matt B. [HATED] – TIFF should not have screened Godard’s petty joke without a warning. Unacceptable treatment of an audience.
Matt P. [WORST] – There’s a litany of reasons to hate hate hate this spiteful fuck you to the audience. Incoherent, ugly, anti-meaning, trivial and boring. Oh, and did I mention that the filmmaker went to special effort to exclude english subtitling. He actually had the subtitles removed before sending the film to tiff. Fuck you right back, Godard.

L.A. Zombie
Matt B. [WORST] – Not actually a movie.

Passion Play
Bob [WORST] – There are plenty of reasons to dislike this film, but I expect that most people will hate it for the wrong reasons. For instance, Megan Fox is actually decent in her role as a woman burdened with wings on her back and the magical moments of the film actually fit within the context of the plot (which is pretty obviously foreshadowed). The reason to dislike it are the rather bland, pedestrian performances of everyone else and the terribly dull story that plods its way to the end.

 
Thanks to regular RowThree contributor and all around nice guy, Bob Turnbull for showing up once again on this week’s Cinecast to help us all digest the massive movie extravaganza known as this years edition Toronto International Filmfestival (aka TIFF10). Also, a hearty welcome to the longest Row Three Cinecast episode of all time. Bob and Kurt give some preview and insight into much anticipated films from Werner Herzog, Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh, Sion Sono, Errol Morris, John Carpenter, Sylvain Chomet, and the folks behind Not Quite Hollywood looking at the Drive-In cheapies shot in the Philippines. And then there is the really off-beat stuff like a post-apocalyptic-vampire-western-road movie, Stake Land (which is magnificent), a naughty DIY costumed hero flick from James Gun called Super and starring Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon, an Eva Green starring ethereal cloning drama from Hungary, but in English, called Womb, and a film that will make you completely reassess how you feel about Santa Claus and his elf posse when the jolly fat man is portrayed as a 25 meter tall horned demon encased in a block of ice under a Finnish mountain. But before all that, Andrew managed to catch Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort, The Town as well as the much talked about I’m Still Here starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by the other Affleck, Casey. Easy A also available to the multiplex crowd has Bob and Kurt heap a fair bit of love onto the film in an effort to get Andrew to give it a chance. Yes, folks, it is that good. A few other movies we watched, DVD picks (we’re all a bit drunk at this point) and the odd tangent keep this podcast unspooling and unspooling.
We hope you enjoy this latest show and as always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

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Full show notes are under the seats…


show

show

Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
After the Credits (Marina and Co.)
Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
All posts and discussions from RowThree

show

IN-HOUSE BUSINESS:
Welcome Bob (Eternal Sunshine, J-Film Pow-Wow)
Podcast Music info
Time tracks in your iPod
Thanks Dave
Dark Bridges Film Festival

MAIN REVIEWS:
I’m Still Here (Andrew’s review)
Easy A (Kurt’s review)
The Town (Jonathan’s review COMING SOON)

TIFF 2010:
Womb (Kurt’s review)
The Illusionist (IMDb)
Another Year (Kurt’s review)
Cold Fish (Bob’s review)
Balada triste de trompeta (IMDb)
Let Me In (IMDb)
Machete Maidens Unleashed (Bob’s review)
127 Hours (Kurt’s review)
Black Swan (Kurt’s review)
Caves of Forgotten Dreams (IMDb)
Tabloid (Kurt’s review)
Make Believe (IMDb)
Submarine (IMDb)
Passion Play (IMDb)
– - MIDNIGHT MADNESS
Stake Land (IMDb)
Insidious (IMDb)
The Ward (IMDb)
Vanishing on 7th St. (IMDb)
Super (Kurt’s review)
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (IMDb)

WHAT ELSE WE WATCHED:
Triangle
Timecrimes
Red Rock West
Ghost Rider
Midnight Cowboy
Dawning (@Dark Bridges)

DVD PICK #1:
	Andrew: Ondine (Andrew’s review)		Kurt: Charade [Criterion] (IMDb)		Bob: Fubar (IMDb)
DVD PICK #2:
	Andrew: American Beauty (IMDb)		Kurt: Fantomas: 5-Film Collection (IMDb)		Bob: Wallander: Episodes 4-6 (IMDb)

OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
Robin Hood (2010)
Trash Humpers
The Experiment (2010)
(Untitled)
The Zookeeper
Ice Age 3-Dawn of the Dinosaur 3D
The Peacemaker [Blu-ray]
“Bored to Death” (s1) [Blu-ray]
The Actuality Dramas of Allan King (Criterion) [Blu-ray]

OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:
Was Letterman in on the Joaquin Phoenix hoax?

NEXT WEEK:
Never Let Me Go
Wall Street 2
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
The Owl Movie

PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com

One of the criminal heavies tells a story half way through Easy Money (or its untranslated punchier Swedish title, Snabba Cash) about being trapped in an elevator as a small child with a friend. They pried the doors of the elevator open and climbed up to the floor above, as the elevator was half-way stuck between floors. The friend realized he forgot his sweater and went back for it, yet when climbing out for the second time, the elevator re-activated and tore the poor lad in half. Normally I am not a fan of such heavy handed symbolism explicitly in the dialogue (shades of Paul Haggis, maybe), but in a film such as this, whose goal is to completely re-purpose the gangster and ‘big score’ straight up genre picture into a more character based morality tale, a sign post or two cannot hurt. There are constant punctuations of violence and action doled out across the film that jolt and remind you of the standard Hollywood type fare, but Snabba Cash takes a steady, careful approach to building its three central characters, their relationships, and their anxieties before culminating in the big job, which is anything but ‘Snabba.’

The film opens with a parkour-esque jail-break as Jorge, a small-framed and small time criminal with ambitions to be much bigger in the cocaine trade in Stockholm, needs to get the hell out of the joint to broker the deal of a lifetime. Upon getting away he is on the run from the police and rival gangs in the city. In the mean-time, part-time student and part-time cab-driver, JW, is posing as a rich ‘investment banker wannabe’ (think Patrick Bateman and friends, there is an anecdote about Bill Gates that is almost worth the price of admission!) but is so broke he changes the buttons on his ‘designer shirts’ with a needle and thread to give the impression of a larger wardrobe and larger means. After a classroom lecture about seizing opportunity out of crisis, JW starts taking some risks with his Albanian Employer (whose cab business is a front for his real business in the drug trade). On the other side of town, Yugoslavian enforcer Mrado is working for the Serbian gangsters and charged with finding Jorge and shutting down or stealing the cocaine. Mrado, played by Dragomir Mrsic with magnificent screen presence, is unexpectedly saddled with his 8 year old daughter when his wifes lawyer just shows up with the child. With no family or friends in Stockholm, Mrado has little choice but bring her along as best as he can and keep her innocent of the guns and the drugs and eventual mayhem. It is a dangerous and daring choice to bring an eight year old into this gang-land equation, but it pays off in spades because the girl (Lea Stojanov) is such a believable character.

While there is the requisite plot, double-crosses, and overall criminal intrigue, where Snabba Cash shines is in the characters lives outside of the gangster stuff. The life of crime for our central trio is designed to be a quick fix to their problems, money is the baseline assumption to solve everything, but of course the means to get the titular Easy Money ends up throwing each of their family relationships into a tailspin. JW gets in a serious and intimate relationship with an upper-class girl, Sophie, but his desire to be at her social status threatens to bring the whole thing crashing down or worse. Jorge finds out his sister is pregnant, and his motivation slants towards providing for her and his future nephew or niece. The film lets the characters exist on their own before finally swirling them together in several unusual and unexpected ways. A buddy-relationship between JW and Jorge as they broker the cocaine deal shows how street-wise Jorge is and how street-wise JW is not. Long over-the-shoulder takes show how these characters are steadily walking into the wilderness, or are (each in their own way) so far in over their heads that Snabba Cash plays out far more as an intimate tragedy than a snappy action movie. Director Daniel Espinosa is very meticulous, but simultaneously quite sly, in playing with audience sympathy for these three vastly different characters, before yes, ripping a couple of them in half.

There are no English subtitles on the trailer for war documentary, Armadillo, but the selling point here is that the film is shot to be as cinematic as possible whilst still being right on the ground with the soldiers. Visually, it looks like the filmmakers have achieved their goal, the film even took top honors in the Cannes Film Festival Critics Week sidebar where it was the lone documentary screened amongst fictional feature films. There are some handsome images and stylish presentation here, not surprising as the film hails from Denmark which is one of the more consistently interesting regions of the world for quality cinema. The TIFF catalogue has this to say about the film:

The film follows Danish soldiers fighting the Taliban in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. We’ve grown accustomed in the last decade to depictions of improvised explosive devices, missile strikes and other remote control warfare. But in Armadillo (named for the platoon’s base camp) we’re plunged into close combat that evokes wars of past eras, particularly Vietnam [...] Armadillo has already stirred political debate in Denmark over the rules of engagement and raised calls for a military investigation. The film raises discussion on many levels: how recruits are conditioned to become warriors; how the international force conducts itself in Afghanistan; how an insurgency defies technical superiority; and how soldiers grow addicted to the adrenaline of war.

The trailer is tucked under the seat.

The Toronto International Film Festival 2010 is just around the corner! Join Matt Brown and Matt Price, hosts of Mamo!, as we take a tour through Toronto’s date with the movies. What’s good? What’s bad? What’s up with the Lightbox? We’ll be your guides to TIFF 2010…

To download the podcast, use the following URL: http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo175.mp3

 
Michael Dowse and those crazy Calgarians who love to Giv’R are going to open the Midnight Program at TIFF this year with (I am guessing from the above picture) their adventures in the Alberta Tar Sands. If you missed the original Canadian cult-classic faux documentary, Fubar, do yourself a favour and seek it out on DVD or Netflix. In the meantime, lock up your cars, cats and most definitely your beer. These Uber-Hosers bring their own brand petty destruction to Fort McMurray.

The full trailer for Fubar II is tucked under the seat.

I do enjoy me a good Brad Anderson flick. Sure, he doesn’t work out of the United States much these days, preferring Europe, which essentially means his type of genre flick is a little lower budgeted than all the ‘horror remake’ stuff going on stateside currently. Session 9, The Machinist, Transsiberian are all solid (if occasionally workmanlike) flicks. Making its debut at the 2010 edition of TIFF is Anderson’s latest, The Vanishing on 7th Street, sort of a post-apocalyptic survival film starring Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, and John Leguizamo (incidentally, none of these are popular with the mainstream-genre-crowd, so casting here is a bit baffling):

From TIFF:

It starts with a power outage. Where once stood living beings are now piles of discarded clothes. The once sunny city is shrouded in blackness. Shadows creep across every surface and whispers echo in the empty streets. Is it some form of enemy attack or a swift judgment from the divine? Each passing day contains fewer daylight hours, and only those who cling to some other form of light can escape the encroaching darkness.

A small group of survivors congregate in an old bar powered by a gas generator. Luke (Hayden Christensen) is a slick TV anchor forced to live by his wits. Paul (John Leguizamo) is a lonely projectionist working in a multiplex theatre. Rosemary (Thandie Newton) is a distraught mother whose baby is missing, and James (Jacob Latimore) is a shotgun-toting kid waiting for his mother to return. With their light sources slowly dying, they must find alternative illumination and a way out of the city. Overcome with paranoia and fear, the group struggles to understand the events that have brought them together.

Nevertheless, the idea with the slowly shrinking span of daylight is a keeper, and Anderson doesn’t scrimp on character development, so here is hoping.

The full trailer is tucked under the seat.

Another wave of TIFF announcements indicate that Casey Affleck’s gonzo moc-doc on his pal Joaquin Phoenix alleged rap career is showing up as a Special Presentation. Also, the remake of Let The Right One In, Let Me in, is also there. Many more TIFF titles are tucked under the seat along with the highly amusing (and portentous trailer for I’m Still Here)

Lots of other high profile titles to chew on at TIFF too (with Imdb Links):

Dustin Lance Black’s What’s Wrong With Virginia.
Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours.
Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter.
Mitch Glazer’s Passion Play.
Stefano Incerti’s Gorbaciòf: The Cashier Who Like Gambling.
Álex de la Inglesia’s The Last Circus.
Benoît Jacquot’s Deep in the Woods.
Chris Kraus’s The Poll Diaries.
Jeanne Labrune’s Special Treatment.
Milcho Manchevski’s Mothers.
Guillem Morales‘s Julia’s Eyes.
Jonathan Nossiter’s Rio Sex Comedy.
Matt Reeves’s Let Me In.
Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go.
John Sayles‘s Amigo.
Pasquale Scimeca’s The House by the Medlar Tree.
John Turturro’s Passion.

There are genre festivals, and then there is the Midnight Madness sidebar at TIFF. Curated with a good eye for upscale genre fare and often paying tribute to the masters, building its own set of alumni by inviting previous filmmakers back with new fims and lots of love for kinetic Asian cinema, the line-up for 2010 features John Carpenter’s The Ward, Dante Lam’s Fire of Conscience, Brad Anderson’s The Vanishing on 7th Street, Laurent Courtiaud’s Red Nights, James Gunn’s Super, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land, James Wan’s Insidious, Guy Moshe’s Bunraku, Wu Ershan’s The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman and of course Michael Dowse’s Fubar 2 is the opening film for Midnight Madness 2010.

All in all, this is an exciting line-up full of comforts and discoveries. More information and trailers to follow, but for now, click the above IMDB links as your information portal.

Fubar 2 (Michael Dowse)
Terry and Dean head north to make sweet cash in the oil patch. In the sequel to the 2002 cult comedy Fubar, those hoser headbangers are back and hit the road to find wealth, happiness and more beer in the oil fields of Alberta. Special appearance by Tron.

Super (James Gunn)
After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, though he lacks for heroic skills. With Rainn Wilson, Liv Tyler and Ellen Page.

The Ward (John Carpenter)
THE WARD is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined. With Amber Heard (All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Pineapple Express.)

Stake Land (Jim Mickle)
In the aftermath of a vampire epidemic, a teen is taken in by a grizzled vampire hunter on a road trip through a post-apocalyptic America, battling both the bloodsuckers and a fundamentalist militia that interprets the plague as the Lord’s work. I was a big fan of Mickle’s tiny mutant rat picture, Mulberry Street, from a few years ago. Looks like he has graduated to the big-time here. And brought writer/actor Nick Damici along for the ride. There is a very early teaser trailer here.

Fire of Conscience (Dante Lam)
The investigation of a prostitute homicide brings headstrong, heavy-handed Detective Manfred in an unlikely collaboration with sly, man-of-the-world Inspector Kee from the Narcotics Bureau. When the DNA samples of one of Manfred’s fellow officers are found at the crime scene, implicating him as the prime suspect, Manfred must look beyond the obvious to get to the truth. Meanwhile, Kee’s uncanny eagerness to lend a helping hand every step of the way outside his own turf is beginning to smack of evil. In the line of fire between high levels of corruption and possible malice, Manfred must solve all the twists and turns of the mystery, trying to figure out who his enemy is and how to save his innocent partner from unfathomable disgrace. Unwittingly, he is about to open a Pandora’s Box that will threaten to upend the entire Hong Kong Police Force. The Trailer is here.

The Vanishing on 7th Street (Brad Anderson)
Realizing they may be the last people on earth, a small handful of survivors band together in a dimly-lit tavern on a desolate street, struggling to combat an apocalyptic horror as the darkness hones in on them. With Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, and Thandie Newton. Anderson is great for those slow-burn thrillers. Glad to see him reappearing at MM. It has been a while since The Machinist!

Red Nights (Laurent Courtiaud)
During the reign of the first emperor of China, an ingenious torturer concocted an elixir that paralysed its victim’s limbs, while increasing the sensitivity of their nerve endings tenfold. Kept in a jade skull, the elixir could provoke sensations in infinite variations – everything from erotic caresses to appalling lacerations. Haunted by the desire to experience the extreme sensations caused by the elixir, the executioner kills himself with his own poison, intensifying his death experience. His pursuers never found the skull, which had been concealed within a large imperial seal. But the curse of the jade skull, responsible for its creator’s death, will endure within the seal, bringing misfortune to all of those who possess it. With Carrie Ng (Naked Killer).

Insidious (James Wan)
A young family makes the terrifying discovery that the body of their comatose boy has become a magnet for malevolent entities, while his consciousness lies trapped in the dark and insidious realm known as The Further. With Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Barbara Hershey. It’s been a while since the establishment of the Saw Franchise, and nothing Wan and his writer, Leigh Whannell have come up with has really been all that good. Could the trend break here. It’s an interesting cast to say the least.

Bunraku (Guy Moshe)
A mysterious drifter and an ardent young Japanese warrior Yoshi both arrive in a town that is terrorized by outrageous and virulent criminals. Each is obsessed with his separate mission, and guided by the wisdom of The Bartender at the Horseless Horseman Saloon, the two eventually join forces to bring down the corrupt and contemptuous reign of Nicola, the awesomely evil “woodcutter” and his lady Alexandra, a femme fatale with a secret past. Heroes triumph here only because the force of their will transforms and transcends both space and time. An ‘action-noir’ picture mixing live action and animation. With Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, Ron Perleman, Kevin McKidd and Woody Harrelson.

The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman (Wu Ershan)
Just check out the trailer for this kung-fu cooking comedy. With Ando Masanobu, Ben Chang You and Kitty Zhang

 
Michael Dowse and those crazy Calgarian’s who love to Giv’R are going to open the Midnight Program at TIFF this year with (I am guessing from the above picture) their adventures in the Alberta Tar Sands. If you missed the original Canadian cult-classic faux documentary, Fubar, do yourself a favour and seek it out on DVD or Netflix.

Fubar 2, according to the filmmakers blog, is getting some sort of limited Canadian release in October if you miss it in Toronto with 1300 crazy film nuts in Hogtown in September.

Lots more Canadian releases including new films from Denis Villeneuve, Bruce McDonald, Xavier Dolan, Sturla Gunnarsson, Carl Bessai and a host of other fresh and veteran canadian filmmakers were also announced this morning. The press releases are tucked under the seat.

GALAS

A Beginners Guide to Endings Jonathan Sobol, Canada
World Premiere
Raucous, charming and very funny, Jonathan Sobol’s comedy A Beginners Guide to Endings follows three sons as they deal with their gambler father’s somewhat complicated legacy. Featuring the legendary Harvey Keitel, the film also stars Scott Caan, Paolo Costanzo, Wendy Crewson, Tricia Helfer, Jason Jones, and J.K. Simmons.

Previously announced Canadian Galas include: The Bang Bang Club, Steven Silver; Barney’s Version, Richard J. Lewis; Casino Jack, George Hickenlooper; Score: A Hockey Musical, Mike McGowan.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie Sturla Gunnarsson, Canada
World Premiere
At 75 years old, David Suzuki shows no signs of slowing down. In this captivating documentary portrait, the passionate environmentalist’s legacy lecture is entwined with candid interviews in which he reflects on his life and shares deeply personal stories, revealing a side previously unseen.

Good Neighbours Jacob Tierney, Canada
World Premiere
Director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky) returns with an innovative and unsettling thriller about some very strange people living in the same apartment building in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. The film stars Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire and Jay Baruchel.

Incendies Denis Villeneuve, Canada
North American Premiere
After their mother Nawal’s death, twins Simon and Jeanne embark on a journey to the Middle East that shines a disturbing light on their mother’s past and culminates in a shocking revelation. Based on the acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad and directed by Genie and Jutra award-winner Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique).

Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) Xavier Dolan, Canada
English Canadian Premiere
Wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan returns with his second feature – a sophisticated comedy about close friends, Francis and Marie, who pursue their mutual obsession with a young man. As they face off in competition, cracks in their friendship begin to appear with both comic and tragic results.

Repeaters Carl Bessai, Canada
World Premiere
Veteran director Carl Bessai returns with a tense thriller that follows three young addicts in a rehabilitation centre. Each day they live the same events over and over – a situation each responds to in radically different ways.

Trigger Bruce McDonald, Canada
World Premiere
Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright form a highly dysfunctional yet endearing rock duo reuniting a decade after their band called it quits. Directed by Bruce McDonald (Pontypool, The Tracey Fragments, Hard Core Logo, Highway 61), and written by Daniel MacIvor, the film features Sarah Polley, Don McKellar and Callum Keith Rennie.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

À l’origine d’un cri Robin Aubert, Canada
World Premiere
Three generations of men from the same family drunkenly careen across the Québécois countryside in an emotionally powerful journey through the past from one of Québec’s most intriguing young filmmakers.

MODRA Ingrid Veninger, Canada
World Premiere
In this authentic portrait of teenaged self-discovery, recently-dumped seventeen-year-old Lina and free spirit Leco travel to visit Lina’s extended family in the quirky town of Modra, Slovakia.

A Night for Dying Tigers Terry Miles, Canada
World Premiere
The night before Jack goes to prison for five years, his family gets together at their ancestral home for a farewell dinner. What begins as a civil, if not joyful, reunion quickly devolves into a morally questionable whirlwind of regret, reversals, and revelations. The film stars Jennifer Beals, Gil Bellows, Kathleen Roberston, Lauren Lee Smith, Tygh Runyon and John Pyper-Ferguson.

Route 132 Louis Bélanger, Canada
English Canadian Premiere
A powerful drama directed by acclaimed veteran Louis Bélanger, Route 132 focuses on a man who loses a loved one and embarks on a journey in an attempt to rediscover his roots and come to terms with his grief.

Small Town Murder Songs Ed Gass-Donnelly, Canada
World Premiere
Ed Gass-Donnelly’s (This Beautiful City) Small Town Murder Songs mixes sexuality, religion and tradition in a Greek tragedy about repression and mistrust. The film stars Peter Stormare, Jill Hennessy, Aaron Poole and Martha Plimpton.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

Midnight Madness Opening Night
Fubar II Michael Dowse, Canada
World Premiere
In the sequel to the 2002 cult comedy Fubar, hoser headbangers Terry and Dean are back and hit the road to find wealth, happiness and more beer in the oil fields of Alberta. Special appearance by Tron.

CANADA FIRST!

Daydream Nation Mike Goldbach, BC
World Premiere
In this striking and slyly funny debut by filmmaker Mike Goldbach, a young woman (Kat Dennings) is uprooted to a small town where her classmates seem permanently stoned, an industrial fire burns ceaselessly in the background and a killer preys on the unsuspecting populace. The film also stars Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, Reece Thompson and Rachel Blanchard.

Amazon Falls Katrin Bowen, BC
World Premiere
Characters reveal hidden depths as Katrin Bowen’s first feature tells the tale of a struggling actress named Jana. Delving into the high-stakes world of keeping up appearances for which Los Angeles is infamous, Amazon Falls crafts an intense look at dream-chasers living on the margins of Hollywood.

High Cost of Living Deborah Chow, QC
World Premiere
Deborah Chow’s dark drama centres on the burgeoning relationship between an unlikely pair. Nathalie (Isabelle Blais) is expecting her first child and Henry (Zach Braff) is on his way to his next drug deal. Their paths fatefully collide one night in an event that will irrevocably change their lives.

Jaloux Patrick Demers, QC
North American Premiere
In this psychological thriller that was improvised during its 16-day shoot, a couple trying to mend their relationship set off for a weekend in the country. When they encounter a friendly neighbour, they are too absorbed in their marital woes to see that he is not who he appears to be.

Oliver Sherman Ryan Redford, ON
World Premiere
Tensions arise when Sherman visits the home of Franklin, a fellow soldier who saved his life back in the war. Franklin has long since moved on – to a wife, two children and a reliable job, but the stability he has worked so hard to establish is soon threatened by Sherman’s presence. The film stars Donal Logue, Molly Parker and Garret Dillahunt.

You Are Here Daniel Cockburn, ON
North American Premiere
You Are Here is a smartly-crafted commentary on our modern day existence. Comprised of interconnected mini-narratives, the film’s characters find themselves trapped in bizarre social experiments of their own making. The film features Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz.

Here comes the 35th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, and the line-up thus far of Galas and Special Presentations (that is code for High Profile Films) is looking quite stellar. You want new films from Stephen Frears, Mark Romanek, Darren Aronfosky, François Ozon, Kim Ji-Woon, Michael Winterbottom, Mike Leigh, Guillaume Canet, Andrew Lau, John Cameron Mitchell, Woody Allen, Sylvain Chomet, Tran Anh Hung, Danis Tanovic, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Julian Schnabel and Im Sang-Soo. Yes you do. No signs of Terrence Malick yet, but fingers crossed!

Full Press release is tucked under the seat.

“On the occasion of our 35th anniversary, we are thrilled to announce this selection of important and notable films,” says Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “The richness and diversity of this year’s Galas and Special Presentations programmes reflect the abundance of exciting works from established and emerging filmmakers in the world of cinema.”

“We are honoured that filmmakers choose our Festival to premiere their films to the world,” says Cameron Bailey, Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. “We look forward to introducing these films to Toronto audiences – the most informed and enthusiastic filmgoers in the world.”

The Festival’s Galas and Special Presentations programmes will feature premieres of films from countries around the world including Chad, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Galas

The Bang Bang Club
Steven Silver, Canada/South Africa
World Premiere
The Bang Bang Club was the name given to four young photographers, Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva, whose photographs captured the final bloody days of white rule in South Africa and the final demise of apartheid. The film tells the remarkable and sometimes harrowing story of these young men – and the extraordinary extremes they went to in order to capture their pictures. The film stars Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman, Taylor Kitsch, Neels Van Jaarsveld and Frank Rautenbach.

Barney’s Version
Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy
North American Premiere
From producer Robert Lantos, Barney’s Version is a film based on Mordecai Richler’s prize-winning comic novel. Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) is a seemingly ordinary man who lives an extraordinary life. Barney’s candid confessional spans four decades and two continents, and includes three wives (Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver and Rachelle Lefevre), one outrageous father (Dustin Hoffman) and a charmingly dissolute best friend (Scott Speedman).

Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky, USA
North American Premiere
A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company. Black Swan takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect. Black Swan also stars Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder.

Casino Jack
George Hickenlooper, Canada
World Premiere
Based on a true story, Kevin Spacey stars as Jack Abramoff, the former high-powered lobbyist whose bribery schemes and fraudulent dealings with Indian casinos ultimately landed him in prison, and stunned the world. It remains the biggest scandal to hit Washington, D.C. since Watergate. The film also stars Barry Pepper, Kelly Preston, Rachelle Lefevre and Jon Lovitz.

The Conspirator
Robert Redford, USA
World Premiere
While an angry nation seeks vengeance, a young union war hero must defend a mother accused of aiding her son in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Directed by Robert Redford, the film stars James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood and Tom Wilkinson.

The Debt
John Madden, USA
North American Premiere
Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington star in this thriller about three Israeli Mossad agents on a 1965 mission to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal. Thirty years later, secrets about the case emerge.

The Housemaid
Im Sang-Soo, South Korea
North American Premiere
In this erotic thriller, the housemaid of an upper-class family becomes entangled in a dangerous tryst. A satirical look at class structure, reminiscent of the work of Claude Chabrol, this sexy soap opera is a story of revenge and retribution.

Janie Jones
David M. Rosenthal, USA
World Premiere
Aspiring recording artist Ethan Brand gets a stunning surprise on the opening night of a tour – a strung out former groupie appears unexpectedly, pleading with him to care for their daughter while she pulls herself together. Enter Janie Jones.

The King’s Speech
Tom Hooper, United Kingdom/Australia
North American Premiere
The King’s Speech tells the story of the man who would become King George VI, the father of the current Queen, Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ‘Bertie’ VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded nervous stammer and considered unfit to be King, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country into war.

Little White Lies
Guillaume Canet, France
World Premiere
Despite a traumatic event, a group of friends decides to go ahead with their annual beach vacation. Their relationships, convictions, sense of guilt and friendship are sorely tested. They are finally forced to own up to the little white lies they have been telling each other. Directed by Guillaume Canet and starring: François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Jean Dujardin, Laurent Lafitte, Valérie Bonneton and Pascale Arbillot.

Peep World
Barry Blaustein, USA
World Premiere
On the day of their father’s 70th birthday party, four siblings come to terms with the publication of a novel written by the youngest sibling that exposes the family’s most intimate secrets.

Potiche
François Ozon, France
North American Premiere
A bourgeois housewife (Catherine Deneuve) takes on a rough union leader (Gerard Depardieu) in François Ozon’s sparkling comic war between the sexes, and the classes.

The Town
Ben Affleck, USA
North American Premiere
The Town is a dramatic thriller about robbers and cops, friendship and betrayal, love and hope, and escaping a past that has no future. In the Boston neighbourhood of Charlestown, Doug MacCray is the leader of a crew of ruthless bank robbers. But everything changed on the gang’s last job when they took bank manager Claire Keesey hostage. Questioning what she saw, Doug seeks out Claire. As their relationship deepens, Doug wants out of this life and the town, but now he must choose whether to betray his friends or lose the woman he loves.

The Way
Emilio Estevez, USA
World Premiere
Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago. Driven by his profound sadness and desire to understand his son better, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage. Along the way he learns what it means to be a citizen of the world again and discovers the difference between “The life we live and the life we choose.”

West is West
Andy De Emmony, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Manchester, Northern England, 1976. The now much-diminished, but still claustrophobic and dysfunctional, Khan family continues to struggle for survival. Sajid, the youngest Khan, is under heavy assault both from his father’s tyrannical insistence on Pakistani tradition, and from the fierce bullies in the schoolyard. His father decides to pack him off to Mrs. Khan No 1 and family in the Punjab, the wife and daughters he had abandoned 30 years earlier. The sequel to East is East, West is West is the coming of age story of both 15-year-old Sajid and of his father, 60-year-old George Khan.

Special Presentations

Another Year
Mike Leigh, United Kingdom
North American Premiere
A happily married, middle-aged couple are visited by a number of unhappy and lonely friends who use them as confidantes. When an unmarried friend falls for their young son, they watch as events unfold. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez and Martin Savage.

Beginners
Mike Mills, USA
World Premiere
When his 71-year-old father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) must explore the honesty of his own relationships. From the director of Thumbsucker.

The Big Picture
Eric Lartigau, France
World Premiere
Paul Exben is a success story. He has a great job, a glamorous wife and two wonderful sons, except that this is not the life he has been dreaming of. A moment of madness is going to change his life, forcing him to assume a new identity that will enable him to live his life fully. The Big Picture, an adaptation of the novel by Douglas Kennedy, is directed by Eric Lartigau and stars Romain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup and Catherine Deneuve. It is produced by Pierre-Ange Le Pogam.

Biutiful
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Spain/Mexico
North American Premiere
This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who’s sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever. The film stars Javier Bardem.

Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance, USA
Canadian Premiere
Blue Valentine is the story of love found and love lost, told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this honest portrait of a relationship on the rocks.

Brighton Rock
Rowan Joffe, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Based on Graham Greene’s 1938 novel, we follow the odd relationship between a young thug on the rise in the British underground and a tea room waitress who witnesses a crime he has committed.

Buried
Rodrigo Cortés, Spain/USA
Canadian Premiere
When Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up six feet underground with no idea who put him there or why, life for the truck driver and family man instantly becomes a hellish struggle for survival. Buried with only a cell phone and a lighter, poor reception, a rapidly draining battery and a dwindling oxygen supply become his worst enemies in a tightly confined race against time.

Conviction
Tony Goldwyn, USA
World Premiere
Conviction is the inspirational true story of a sister’s unwavering devotion to her brother. When Betty Anne Waters’ (two-time Academy® Award winner Hilary Swank) older brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction.

Cirkus
Columbia Danis Tanovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
International Premiere
After twenty years of exile, a husband returns to his hometown in Herzegovina to settle some scores with his ex-wife, armed with a new Mercedes, a sexy new girlfriend and a mangy black cat.

Dhobi Ghat
Kiran Rao, India
World Premiere
In the teeming metropolis of Mumbai, four people separated by class and language are drawn together in compelling relationships. Shai, an affluent investment banker on a sabbatical, strikes up an unusual friendship with Munna, a young and beautiful laundry boy with ambitions of being a Bollywood actor, and has a brief dalliance with Arun, a gifted painter. As they slip away from familiar moorings and drift closer together, the city finds its way into the crevices of their inner worlds.

Easy A
Will Gluck, USA
World Premiere
After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean-cut high school girl (Emma Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in The Scarlet Letter, which she is currently studying in school – until she decides to use the rumour mill to advance her social and financial standing.

Henry’s Crime
Malcolm Venville, USA
World Premiere
After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, an amiable but aimless man decides to rob the bank for real. His plan involves infiltrating a local theatre company, but his scheme gets complicated when he falls for the company’s lead actress. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens, Peter Stormare, Danny Hoch and Bill Duke.

The Illusionist
Sylvain Chomet, United Kingdom
North American Premiere
From the director of The Triplets Of Belleville comes a film of grace and unique beauty. Working from a never-produced script written by Jacques Tati for his daughter, Chomet tells the story of a magician who was pushed aside by rock and roll, yet finds one young girl who appreciates his magic. The film stars Jean-Claude Donda and Eilidh Rankin.

In A Better World
Susanne Bier, Denmark/Sweden
International Premiere
The story traces elements from a refugee camp in Africa to the grey humdrum of everyday life in a Danish provincial town. The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait. Soon, friendship transforms into a dangerous alliance and a breathtaking pursuit in which life is at stake.

I Saw the Devil
Kim Jee-woon, South Korea
North American Premiere
A hard-boiled thriller from Korean master Kim Jee-woon, I Saw the Devil is a tale of bloody vengeance against a dangerous psychopath who has committed a gruesome series of murders.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden, USA
World Premiere
Stressed-out teenager Craig checks himself into a mental health clinic – where he finds himself in the adult ward. Sustained by friendships on both the inside and the outside, Craig learns more about life, love and the pressures of growing up. The comedy-drama stars Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts and Zach Galifianakis.

Jack Goes Boating
Philip Seymour Hoffman, USA
International Premiere
Adapted from Bob Glaudini’s acclaimed Off Broadway play, Jack Goes Boating is a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace centered around two working-class New York City couples. The film stars John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Hoffman making his feature directorial debut.

L’Amour Fou
Pierre Thoretton, France
World Premiere
Yves Saint Laurent built one of fashion’s most celebrated empires. This moving documentary chronicles his rise, his lifelong partnership with Pierre Bergé and their decision to auction off a lifetime of precious art and objects.

The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Andrew Lau, Hong Kong
North American Premiere
In 1920s Shanghai, hero Chen Zhen single-handedly avenges his mentor’s death by killing all the Japanese at a dojo in Hongkou, only to be showered with bullets while making his legendary flying kick. Now, years later, Chen Zhen, who is believed dead, returns in disguise to infiltrate a criminal empire and to dismantle the evil collusion that plagues the country.

Lope
Andrucha Waddington, Brazil/Spain
World Premiere
Andrucha Waddington brings famed Spanish playwright Lope de Vega’s passionate life to the screen. The young poet returns to Madrid from war and gets his foot in the door of Madrid’s most important theatre troupe – quickly charming his boss’s daughter. His childhood friend, Isabel de Urbina, also falls under the spell of his poems. So much seduction eventually brings misfortune and he must flee Madrid.

Love Crime
Alain Corneau, France
International Premiere
Dangerous Liaisons meets Working Girl in this deliciously caustic tale of office politics. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier as mentor and ingénue, Love Crime is a remorseless clash of two competing egos.

Made in Dagenham
Nigel Cole, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sally Hawkins stars as Rita O’Grady, the catalyst for the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists which led to the advent of the Equal Party Act. Working in extremely impoverished conditions for long, arduous hours, the women at the Ford Dagenham plant finally lose their patience when they are reclassified as “unskilled.” With humour, common sense and courage, they take on their corporate paymasters, an increasingly belligerent local community, and finally the government itself. The film also stars Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James and Rosamund Pike.

Miral
Julian Schnabel, United Kingdom/Israel/France
North American Premiere
From the director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls and Basquiat, comes Miral, the visceral, first-person diary of a young girl growing up in East Jerusalem as she confronts the effects of occupation and war in every corner of her life. Schnabel pieces together momentary fragments of Miral’s world – how she was formed, who influenced her, all that she experiences in her tumultuous early years – to create a raw, moving, poetic portrait of a woman whose small, personal story is inextricably woven into the bigger history unfolding all around her.

Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) spent their childhood at a seemingly idyllic boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school, the terrible truth of their fate is revealed and they must confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart.

Norwegian Wood
Tran Anh Hung, Japan
North American Premiere
Adapted from Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel. Watanabe, a quiet and serious college student, becomes deeply devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman with whom he shares the tragedy of their best friend’s death. When Naoko suddenly disappears, Midori, an outgoing, vivacious and supremely self-confident girl marches into Watanabe’s life. The film stars Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi and Kiko Mizuhara.

Outside the Law
Rachid Bouchareb, France/Algeria/Tunisia/Italy/Belgium
North American Premiere
Bouchareb’s follow-up to Days of Glory is an epic French gangster movie in the tradition of Once Upon a Time in America. The film follows three brothers from childhood in Algeria through turbulent years in Paris, as their paths diverge towards radical politics and violent crime.

Rabbit Hole
John Cameron Mitchell, USA
World Premiere
A family navigates the deepest form of loss in John Cameron Mitchell’s screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart deliver captivating performances as a husband and wife who fight to save their marriage in the life that begins again after tragedy.

A Screaming Man
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, France/Belgium/Chad
North American Premiere
One of Africa’s preeminent film artists, Haroun returns to themes of family and loyalty in war-torn Chad. A father and son work together at the pool of five-star hotel, but the civil war forces life-and-death choices upon them.

Stone
John Curran, USA
World Premiere
Robert De Niro and Edward Norton deliver powerful performances as a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined. Stone weaves together the parallel journeys of two men grappling with dark impulses, as the line between lawman and lawbreaker becomes precariously thin. The film also stars Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy.

Submarine
Richard Ayoade, United Kingdom
World Premiere
British comic Richard Ayoade delivers his hotly-anticipated feature debut Submarine. One boy must fight to save his mother from the advances of a mystic, and simultaneously lure his eczema-strafed girlfriend in to the bedroom, armed with only a vast vocabulary and near-total self-belief. His name is Oliver Tate.

That Girl in Yellow Boots
Anurag Kashyap, India
North American Premiere
Ruth is searching for her father – a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Desperation drives her to work without a permit, at a massage parlour, where she gives ‘happy endings’ to unfulfilled men. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the backdrop for Ruth’s quest as she struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city’s underbelly.

Tamara Drewe
Stephen Frears, United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Based on Posy Simmonds’ beloved graphic novel. When Tamara Drewe returns to the village of her youth, life for the locals is thrown upside down. Tamara – once an ugly duckling – has been transformed and is now a minor celebrity. As infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighbouring farmsteads, Tamara sets a contemporary comedy of manners into play.

The Trip
Michael Winterbottom, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Follow two good friends in this hilarious road movie as they embark on a tour of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales of Northern England, eating, chatting and driving each other crazy. The film stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Trust
David Schwimmer, USA
World Premiere
Safe and sound in their suburban home, Will and Lynn Cameron (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) used to sleep well at night. When their 14-year-old daughter, Annie, made a new friend on-line – a 16-year-old boy named Charlie – Will and Lynn didn’t think much of it. But when Annie and Charlie make a plan to meet what happens in the next twenty-four hours changes the entire family forever. Charlie is really a 40-year-old serial pedophile (Tom McCarthy) and, once Annie’s rape comes to light, it becomes a touchstone event that reverberates through the entire family.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Woody Allen, United Kingdom/USA/Spain
North American Premiere
Woody Allen’s latest comic ensemble piece follows a group of Londoners struggling with failing marriages, restless libidos, the perils of aging and desires that drive a series of decisions with unforeseen consequences. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch and Naomi Watts.

Masters

Mysteries of Lisbon
Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France
World Premiere
Based on a famous nineteenth-century Portuguese novel, Raul Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.

There are so few bonafide movie stars these days. These are actors that can light up the screen in such a way that even in a highly stylized and kinetic motion picture about an infamous personality, all eyes are riveted on the curve of the mouth or the lift of a brow of the player: Insouciance is celebrated. Vincent Cassel is certainly one of those actors. Whether he is hamming it up in the all star Ocean’s movies (or the goofy Sheitan) or turning into a monster in Irreversible or La Haine. Few stars of Cassel‘s caliber can go from the charm and sex appeal of Warren Beatty to the pure motherfucker-ness Charles Bronson to full on nutter of Jack Nicholson. And director Jean-François Richet allows for all of the above in Public Enemy Number One (Part One). While we get little real insight into one of Frances most notorious criminals, Jacques Mesrine, what we do get is one of the most snappy crime thrillers in quite some time. The stylish presentation and driving narrative do not let up. The film asks you to root, cheer, and laugh for a truly despicable human being, and with its stars charm and menace at the helm, you might just find yourself doing so. Yes, in a the strangest of ways this is a good thing.

North American’s likely know Jean-François Richet from his remake of John Carpenter’s Assault in Precinct 13, but that somewhat forgettable film cannot adequately prepare for the mastery on display in the construction of Public Enemy Number One. Visually echoing the styles of Michael Mann and Brian DePalma, Richet makes the most of split screens, changing film stocks, Ken Burns effects, extreme close-ups and when necessary, precise, static long shots. The opening credits of the film set the tone in the form of multiple versions of Vincent Cassel and Ludivine Sagnier on screen, simultaneous yet different angles and slightly off in timing via a masterful use of split screen. This is the stuff perfect introduction on what the film is going to be, slick glossy and commercial, yet not at the expense of edgy filmmaking. There is something going on: a bomb, a bank heist, the feel is familiar, the cinematic grammar an obvious telltale. But things are cranked up a bit further than your run-of-the-mill thriller. It feels like the film is taking the first step crossing a busy and wide street, knowing that only centimeters away is fast moving death on wheels. That feeling never really goes away over the course of the film, making the 2 hour run time feel like mere minutes. The viewer is asked to watch some pretty grisly stuff, not the least of it being a bit of tense marital gun fellatio. The first part of the film which resembles a good old fashioned gangster yarn in the vein of Scarface of The Godfather, to the second half which fuses a terrorism biopic with Bonnie and Clyde. The two fuse together neatly while chronicling the first dozen years of the stranger personal and professional life of Jacques Mesrine from his time doing hoodlum stuff on the streets of Paris in the 1950s to the full blown crime spree in Quebec in the 1960s which culminates in a full frontal prison assault of all things. As a Canadian, it was curious to get the French take on the Canadian prison system, if the film does nothing else, it is a good adviser against committing felonies in Montreal. The opening credits of the film have a disclaimer that belongs in front of every biopic ever made. Something along the lines that this film isn’t truth, or history, but a artistic and commercial point of view. Truth is in the eye of the filmmakers. Not since The Untouchables has this type of filmmaking been realized so bloody well. Excising much of the stories intimate drama or Oscar-bait histrionics, and relying on the magnetism of Vincent Cassel’s charisma to grab the audience in between bullets, chases and macho posturing, Public Enemy Number One is a bloody shiv, broken off at the handle and shoved in hard by a smiling, crazy, and charming superstar in his prime. Bring on Part Two please.

This review was originally posted during our TIFF 2008 coverage. The title of the film was originally Public Enemy Number One (part 1) with an at the time, unreleased sequel. At Fantasia 2010 you have the chance to see both Mesrine : L’instinct de mort and Mesrine : L’ennemi public n°1.