Tiff day 3:
***Please note that the number one most important thing to have at a film festival is a flask. Thank you to my darling friend Meghan for giving me a boot flask last year for my birthday – I will live my whole life trying to portray to her what a perfect gift that was... and drinking from my flask.
Mother and Child by
Rodrigo Garcia (USA): Solid 5: one of the best movies I have ever seen – it is
rare that I see a movie that presents such a powerful message while maintaining
such a delicate tone and graceful pace.
Imagine watching a beautiful ballet dancer covered in scars. I bawled my eyes out; the acting will
absolutely win awards for Naomi Watts, Samuel Jackson and Annette Bening.
Blessed by Ana
Kokkinos (Australia): I give this a 4 – and you must, must see it. There were a few unnecessary
characters, etc… the editing could have been tighter (I think her next films
will be much better), but the thrust of the story will take your breath away
and the acting is fantastic. Blessed
also has one of the most powerful scenes in a film I’ve ever seen – during
this scene I felt like my body was literally frozen.
*at this point in
my day I thought to myself, “if I see another film about the agony and wonder
of motherhood I will jump out of a window”… luckily, the next movie was in fact
NOT a movie about the theme of motherhood, therefore allowing me to continue
living.
The Ape by Jesper
Genslandt (Sweden): I give this film a 1 because when I asked my friend Larry
if the rating system allows a film to receive a rating of “0” he said no, but
I’ve decided to reject his authority and to go ahead and give this film a
0. I dub this movie a complete failure. It was so boring that I had to fight
playing the penis game in the theater.
You see the back of the characters head for about 90% of the film, the
ending is absolutely pointless and as a whole The Ape is my new definition of “waste
of time.” It really does take a
lot for me to feel like I have wasted time – even moments of silence or
complete stillness are valuable on some level – but this film? Nope. Waste of time. “It was so APE.” That’s my new phrase. HORRIBLE.
My Son, My Son,
What Have Ye Done by Werner Herzog
(USA/Germany): 5 – this is the new Werner Herzog film (along with the one I
reviewed yesterday), and is fanTASTIC.
One of the weirdest movies
I have ever seen – visually the film is delicious. The tone of the dialogue and acting is comedic, but in a
very odd way – it leaves you feeling off balance in the ways the brain likes a
clear choice between “sad” and “happy”.
There are multiple moments where I found myself laughing while feeling my blood run cold.
The film follows a man slowly collapsing into full-fledged schizophrenia
(that is not ever stated in the movie, it’s just me diagnosing the main
character) and Herzog brilliantly uses the humor and the terror that is
intrinsic within insanity as the energy of the film. Herzog spoke before and after the screening, and was
obviously extremely proud of this film.
Also, I found
Herzog to be a bit of a defensive ass, which surprised me because I thought I
would want to have his babies. But
he can be whatever he wants – his movies are amazing.
Ended the day at a
bar that was recommended to me by a certain Mr Canada I met recently. My friend and I went after the last
movie of the day and had a few beers that I’d never heard of. Toronto is a blast: you know a city has
night life when you can find a bar that has people dancing and a DJ playing at
midnight on a Wednesday.
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