Some people say filmmakers shouldn’t critique other filmmakers’ films, but I don’t subscribe to that belief. So here are my mini-reviews of all the movies I saw at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
Director: Bela Tarr
The Hungarian director is widely considered one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, and it’s hard to argue with that based on his latest work, inspired by the incident that reputedly drove Nietzsche into madness—witnessing a handsome cab driver mercilessly beat a horse in Turin, Italy. You will never look at a potato the same way again.Good-Bye
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Harrowing feminist Iranian tale about the torturous attempt of a disbarred female lawyer to escape Iran by having an “anchor baby” outside the country. The director of the film in real life is also a prisoner in his own country. This film should make you appreciate your freedom (while you still have it).
Director: Han Jie
Whimsical story about a village idiot who marries a deaf-mute girl. Beware of Chinese movies sanctioned by the Chinese government. Although ironically, the extensive use of decimated locations—small mining towns and minor manufacturing cities--thoroughly demonstrates how the lack of government regulations is turning the interior of China into an industrial wasteland.The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
I was expecting this silent film about a silent film star having a hard time transitioning to talkies to be more F.W. Murnau or G.W. Pabst than W.E. Disney. But I was wrong.A Dangerous Mind
Director: David Cronenberg
I’m a sucker for films about psychoanalysis, so this one had me at “countertransference.” Michael Fassbender plays a hot dom daddy C.G. Jung to Keira Knightley’s masochistic Sabine, a character who manages to be both believably hysterical and determinedly feminist. More feminist characters in mainstream cinema, please!The Kid with a Bike
Director: The Dardenne Brothers
The Belgian director duo prove they are the true heirs to Italian neo-realism with this slice of life anti-picaresque (in the same vein as their last film, L’Enfant) about a boy desperately searching for the father who abandoned him. Pitbull!Keyhole
Director: Guy Maddin
A grotesque Oedipal nightmare that provides some unforgettable imagery: a dust-covered ghost cock in a glory hole sucked by a naked old man; a homemade electric chair powered by two stationary bicycles; Udo Kier.I’m Yours
Director: Leonard Farlinger
Northern Canadian road movie starring Donald Sutherland’s youngest offspring, Rossif. My husband cried.Shame
Director: Steve McQueen
American Psycho minus the chainsaw and the irony. The scene in which Carey Mulligan sings “New York, New York” in its entirety was the most excruciating of the festival.
Director: Jens Lien
Johnny Rotten inspires a young Norwegian punk to tear up the town. Meanwhile, his hippy father supports his punk ethos and even plays drums in his band. If you can’t symbolically kill your father, whom else can you symbolically kill?Into the Abyss
Director: Werner Herzog
Herzog’s deadpan Teutonic narration accentuates the absurdity that is Death Row in Texas. Did Herzog actually smuggle some sperm out of prison during shooting so that a prisoner groupie bride could be impregnated by her lifer husband, or was it just me?Juan of the Dead
Director: Alejandro Brugues
Sean of the Dead premise is ironically franchised to Cuba with mixed results. Are the zombies supposed to be the communist-fatigued but still vaguely loyal Cubans or the US-funded dissidents trying to unseat Castro? The movie plays both sides of the fence, on which many decapitated heads are impaled.
Director: William Friedkin
Based on the Tracey Letts play, it’s a return to form for director Friedkin, who so expertly adapted Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band at the beginning of his career. The scene in which mascara-streaked Gina Gershon is forced to give extended head to suitably seedy Matthew McConaughey’s ersatz K Fry C penis is the most excruciating of the festival, next to Carey Mulligan singing “New York, New York” in its entirety in Shame.Rampart
Director: Oren Moverman
Dennis Hopper’s Colors plus Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right divided by Paul Schrader. Script co-written by James Ellroy. My dear friend the hot rapper/actor Deadlee plays the O.G. thug beaten up by cop Woody Harrelson early in the picture.Dark Horse
Director: Todd Solondz
I would honestly like to see Todd Solondz direct a musical. Donna Murphy as a fantasy cougar is sublime.
Director: Johnnie To
A subdued entry from the Milky Way Hong Kong team, but also of all the films I saw the one most grounded in the current dire world economic realities.Countdown
Director: Huh Jung-ho
South Korean organ donor/repo man gumshoe epic tries too hard. Best car chase of the festival, though.
Director: Ngoc Dang Vu
First-ever gay Vietnamese movie is an entertaining, high-gloss soaper about street hustlers, but I could have done without the deaf-mute meets duckling romance subplot.Faust
Director: Alexander Sokurov
Venice Film Festival winner was partly financed by Putin, which sounds like a Faustian bargain in itself. Flawed, but with impressively grotesque imagery, jaw-dropping locations, and some truly chilling moments.Oslo, August 31st
Director: Joachim Trier
Of the three movies I saw about privileged straight white male addicts on a downward spiral making everyone’s life around them miserable who you’re still supposed to have sympathy for (Shame and Rampart being the other two), this one was the most low-key, and probably the best.Bonus: Memories of Idaho
An installation by Gus Van Sant and James Franco. Franco’s re-cutting of My Own Private Idaho based on one of the three scripts that Van Sant merged to make the original movie is both frankly deconstructivist and lovingly fetishistic; the previously unseen River Phoenix footage is heartbreaking to watch. If that weren’t enough, Franco also re-shot Idaho on Super-8 using unknown younger actors, resulting in one of the most compelling movies of the festival.
The Turin Horse
Director: Bela Tarr
The Hungarian director is widely considered one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, and it’s hard to argue with that based on his latest work, inspired by the incident that reputedly drove Nietzsche into madness—witnessing a handsome cab driver mercilessly beat a horse in Turin, Italy. You will never look at a potato the same way again.
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Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Harrowing feminist Iranian tale about the torturous attempt of a disbarred female lawyer to escape Iran by having an “anchor baby” outside the country. The director of the film in real life is also a prisoner in his own country. This film should make you appreciate your freedom (while you still have it).
Mr. Tree
Director: Han Jie
Whimsical story about a village idiot who marries a deaf-mute girl. Beware of Chinese movies sanctioned by the Chinese government. Although ironically, the extensive use of decimated locations—small mining towns and minor manufacturing cities--thoroughly demonstrates how the lack of government regulations is turning the interior of China into an industrial wasteland.The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
I was expecting this silent film about a silent film star having a hard time transitioning to talkies to be more F.W. Murnau or G.W. Pabst than W.E. Disney. But I was wrong.A Dangerous Mind
Director: David Cronenberg
I’m a sucker for films about psychoanalysis, so this one had me at “countertransference.” Michael Fassbender plays a hot dom daddy C.G. Jung to Keira Knightley’s masochistic Sabine, a character who manages to be both believably hysterical and determinedly feminist. More feminist characters in mainstream cinema, please!The Kid with a Bike
Director: The Dardenne Brothers
The Belgian director duo prove they are the true heirs to Italian neo-realism with this slice of life anti-picaresque (in the same vein as their last film, L’Enfant) about a boy desperately searching for the father who abandoned him. Pitbull!
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Director: Guy Maddin
A grotesque Oedipal nightmare that provides some unforgettable imagery: a dust-covered ghost cock in a glory hole sucked by a naked old man; a homemade electric chair powered by two stationary bicycles; Udo Kier.I’m Yours
Director: Leonard Farlinger
Northern Canadian road movie starring Donald Sutherland’s youngest offspring, Rossif. My husband cried.Shame
Director: Steve McQueen
American Psycho minus the chainsaw and the irony. The scene in which Carey Mulligan sings “New York, New York” in its entirety was the most excruciating of the festival.
Sons of Norway
Director: Jens Lien
Johnny Rotten inspires a young Norwegian punk to tear up the town. Meanwhile, his hippy father supports his punk ethos and even plays drums in his band. If you can’t symbolically kill your father, whom else can you symbolically kill?Into the Abyss
Director: Werner Herzog
Herzog’s deadpan Teutonic narration accentuates the absurdity that is Death Row in Texas. Did Herzog actually smuggle some sperm out of prison during shooting so that a prisoner groupie bride could be impregnated by her lifer husband, or was it just me?Juan of the Dead
Director: Alejandro Brugues
Sean of the Dead premise is ironically franchised to Cuba with mixed results. Are the zombies supposed to be the communist-fatigued but still vaguely loyal Cubans or the US-funded dissidents trying to unseat Castro? The movie plays both sides of the fence, on which many decapitated heads are impaled.
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Killer Joe
Director: William Friedkin
Based on the Tracey Letts play, it’s a return to form for director Friedkin, who so expertly adapted Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band at the beginning of his career. The scene in which mascara-streaked Gina Gershon is forced to give extended head to suitably seedy Matthew McConaughey’s ersatz K Fry C penis is the most excruciating of the festival, next to Carey Mulligan singing “New York, New York” in its entirety in Shame.Rampart
Director: Oren Moverman
Dennis Hopper’s Colors plus Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right divided by Paul Schrader. Script co-written by James Ellroy. My dear friend the hot rapper/actor Deadlee plays the O.G. thug beaten up by cop Woody Harrelson early in the picture.Dark Horse
Director: Todd Solondz
I would honestly like to see Todd Solondz direct a musical. Donna Murphy as a fantasy cougar is sublime.
Life Without Principle
Director: Johnnie To
A subdued entry from the Milky Way Hong Kong team, but also of all the films I saw the one most grounded in the current dire world economic realities.Countdown
Director: Huh Jung-ho
South Korean organ donor/repo man gumshoe epic tries too hard. Best car chase of the festival, though.
Lost in Paradise
Director: Ngoc Dang Vu
First-ever gay Vietnamese movie is an entertaining, high-gloss soaper about street hustlers, but I could have done without the deaf-mute meets duckling romance subplot.Faust
Director: Alexander Sokurov
Venice Film Festival winner was partly financed by Putin, which sounds like a Faustian bargain in itself. Flawed, but with impressively grotesque imagery, jaw-dropping locations, and some truly chilling moments.Oslo, August 31st
Director: Joachim Trier
Of the three movies I saw about privileged straight white male addicts on a downward spiral making everyone’s life around them miserable who you’re still supposed to have sympathy for (Shame and Rampart being the other two), this one was the most low-key, and probably the best.Bonus: Memories of Idaho
An installation by Gus Van Sant and James Franco. Franco’s re-cutting of My Own Private Idaho based on one of the three scripts that Van Sant merged to make the original movie is both frankly deconstructivist and lovingly fetishistic; the previously unseen River Phoenix footage is heartbreaking to watch. If that weren’t enough, Franco also re-shot Idaho on Super-8 using unknown younger actors, resulting in one of the most compelling movies of the festival.