DAY 8
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Day 8!
The exhaustion factor is setting in - and 30 films down, 15 to go. Sleep is a rare commodity and even the Starbucks iced coffee can only last so long. How many times can you watch that this next script has a twist - two cowboys, one horse trailer in front of the movies - and say goodbye to the volunteer from yesteryore ads.
SILK
RYERSON
9:00 a.m.
Silk is the entrancing effort from François Girard, who gave us The Red Violin. Silk is silky but slow paced with Michael Pitt turning in his proverbial brooding performance a la Bertolucci The Dreamers and Keira Knightley as his devoted wife eager to have a child which means ... The period travelogue sequences through France to Russia on the way to the mysterious Japan are gorgeous to behold - yet Silk does not have that full bodies gloss to it - this is an economical yet compelling story of love and the clash between cultures.
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
ELGIN
12:00 p.m.
Margot at the Wedding with Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh felt like a version of the Danish dogme Celebration with its dangerous dialogue and underplay of hidden menace. Undoubtedly, this derives from director and writer Norm Baumbach's sharp eye and ear who has been seen and felt before from indie classics Kicking and Screaming, and The Squid and the Whale. Every time we see Jennifer Jason Leigh we swear she is the best actress on this planet - and coupling her role of Pauline with Nicole Kidman as the Margot of the film is a casting coup taking both back to their indie Birthday Girl / Anniversary Party roots. With Jack Black thrown into the mix as Pauline's humourous fiance Malcolm, Margot at the Wedding is full of surprises and dark secrets that emerge into light. The children in the film are no slouches either in the acting department and how they have to cope with their emotionally challenged mothers is a lesson in life.
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
SCOTIABANK 1
2:30 p.m.
Lars and the Real Girl is all that and so worth it and called the hit of the festival by Noah Cowan, the co-director of TIFF, [ and Ellen Page in Juno is right up there too ]. [ There are two Biancas, and the director and Ryan Gosling each have one. ] An "emotionally beautiful" movie, everyone takes Ryan Gosling's character Lars and Bianca so close to heart. To spoil this movie now would be a shame.
ANGEL
ELGIN
6:00 p.m.
Angel is the first English spoken movie from French director Francois Ozon who has offered in the past Huit Femmes [ 8 Women ] amongst other delights and Angel is another delightful fantasy with a dark ending for author Romola Garai as all French fantasy movies seem wont to do.
SMILEY FACE
Scotiabank 1
10:00 p.m.
The lineup was long for this seventh presentation at TIFF from Gregg Araki who was here three years ago with the acclaimed Mysterious Skin. Smiley Face is the ultimate female stoner movie and would have been nothing without the comedic and physical talents of Anna Faris. Anna Faris is so dead on and compared as the next Lucille Ball or Carole Lombard by Araki.
/... more to come
Our Day 10 Saturday evening looks like the following now:
we have Joy Division at 8:15 to 9:48 p.m. at Cumberland 3
Glory to the Filmmaker at 9 pm to 10:44 p.m. at the Varsity 8
Vexille at 11:30 p.m. to 1:20 a.m. at Varsity 6
Lou Reed's Berlin 11:45 p.m. to 1:10 a.m. at Varsity 8
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