Category Archives: Jay

Pawn Sacrifice

Neither the cold war nor the game of chess are inherently cinematic. Put them together and what do you get? Yawn Sacrifice, that’s what.

Tobey Maguire plays Bobby Fischer, an American chess player so cocksure and full of demands you’d think he’d mistaken chess for rock n roll. Actually, it’s just his mental illness talking. As his handlers (Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg) try to reign in the crazy, he’s busy representing America The Great against the powerhouse (of chess) that is the Soviet Union during the height of the cold war (his biggest foe is played by Liev Schreiber). Winning is his patriotic duty.

Tobey Maguire gives a big, showy, emoty performance that I wasn’t totally convinced by. I think I’m just kind of over Tobey Maguire, to be honest. I much preferred Liev Schreiber for his restraint (an underrated talent, in my opinion), and Sarsgaard for his composure. To be fair though, it’s hard to really show Fischer’s particular brand of madness. Some insanity makes for great movie making, because the acting out is fun (think Silver Linings Playbook, or Girl, Interrupted). But a lot of mental illness is much more quiet, more sitting in a dark hotel room taking apart telephones while muttering to oneself. Realistic, sure, but not exactly entertaining.

But the biggest question you have to ask yourself is this: would you pay to go see a chess match? Did you know that chess is a spectator sport? I couldn’t have imagined it since I think chess is a real bore. I knew how to play, briefly, when forced to learn during library period in a Catholic elementary school that couldn’t afford actual books. I understand it’s about strategy, out-thinking your opponent, and analyzing the board for its near-infinite possibilities (you can imagine how this kind of constant processing could push anyone to the brink of madness). But I just don’t get how that’s fun. I don’t want to do it, and I don’t want to watch others do it, and bottom line: I don’t want to watch Tobey Maguire pretend to do it. Director Edward Zwick tries to play this like it’s a true sports film, and it’s just not. The drama’s not there. This film didn’t work for me.

Whether you’ll like it depends on whether you respond to watching someone’s sanity be sacrified for a board game, all in the name of patriotic duty. And – spoiler alert! – (okay, it’s not that spoilery since this is history) America wins the match AND the cold war (supposedly), but then casts poor Bobby aside, revoking his passport and citizenship, even. Because that’s the kind of stand-up country they are. They’ll use up the last of your sanity, and then leave you to die alone, a sickly recluse and fugitive – and then fight your relatives for your estate when you die. You’re a class act, America.

Everest

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Everest, the mountain, is a beast. It doesn’t care that you promised a class full of kids that you could do the impossible. It doesn’t care if your pregnant wife is waiting to hear of your success. It’s just big and tall and scary. The mountain always wins.

First, let me tell you this: I have a problem with this movie philosophically that means this review is going to be biased. This isn’t going to be a popular opinion, but here it is: I hate mountain climbers. I really do. Not just mountain climbers; I hate anyone who goes out there to find the riskiest behaviour possible, and then recklessly dives into it. I maybe wouldn’t have such a problem with it if all they wasted was their own time, money, and ultimately, lives, but that’s not the case. INEVITABLY, they will get stuck. Luck always runs out. And then we have to rescue them. Embassies will be called. Coast guards will be called. Helicopters, forest rangers, medical evacuations: these things cost money. Park services have to divert huge chunks of their too-precious resources toward rescue operations for idiots who never should have been out there in the first place – just one person can cost HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars. In Europe, they do things a little smarter. The bill goes to the rescuee, who’d better have insurance. But when people go to a third-world country to engage in high-risk behaviour, they call the embassies, who present the bill to the taxpayers back home who, like saps, were at work earning taxable income while these yahoos are out playing mountaineer.

So do I have a lot of sympathy for these guys? No, I do not. Not even if it’s Jake Gyllenhaal in a scruffy beard and manbun.

On to the review:

I saw Everest in all its 3D IMAX glory. Everest has never looked more beautiful, or more brutal. And Everest is a real bitch.

1 in 4 climbers died trying to reach her peak until experienced and enthusiastic climbers saw a business opportunity. Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal play competing Everest tour guides, lending their expertise to guide people up to the peak safely. They’re both leading teams of people up her steep and merciless side in the spring of 1996 (remember, this is “based on a true story”). Among the hopefuls are John Hawkes, playing a guy with not much else going on who really, really wants this one achievement on his resume, and Josh Brolin playing a Texan in a Bob Dole t-shirt, cocky and overconfident as they come.

Now, you must know that we’re not just here for the visuals, strong as they are. To traverse deep and dark crevasses, ordinary ladders are latched together with rope, and strung maybe a dozen at a time across the abyss, with yet more rope tethering them into the shifty ice. Precarious, much? Now you get to enjoy the sensation of walking across such a contraption, one shaky step at a time, looking past the hiker’s feet down into the bottomless depths where Everest keeps her darkest secrets. It’s dizzying and thrilling and probably not a good idea if you’re afraid of heights. This mountain can be felt.

What I didn’t feel: emotion. Now, going in to a movie like Everest, you’re going to expect some thrills. They probably didn’t choose to tell of the story of that time someone climbed a mountain and nothing happened, the end. You expect a little peril, and you’re going to get it. But you may remember from several paragraphs ago when I confessed my disdain for mountain climbers. A little peril? Not good enough. I wanted a body count, and I wanted it to be EXCESSIVE. So it’s partly my fault that I didn’t really care whether the people lived or died. But it’s also the fault of the script. First: like the mountain herself, this story suffers from overcrowding. There are simply too many characters to keep track of (and they all look the same in snow-covered parkas), and the back stories are brief if offered at all. No one feels like a fully-fledged character. The cast includes Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Robin Wright, and a dozen others, and none of them get enough screen time in what’s already a 2 hour movie. And the story really just trudges along, telling us what’s happening but not bothering to be anything more than a recitation of: incessant cold, high winds, danger, danger, danger.

The cast is great – Gyllenhaal seemed to be trying to inject a little life into his character, but he got shut down a lot. The editing is really great; Mick Audsley keeps us going between the peak and the base camp, ratcheting up the tension with expert precision. And the cinematography is really, really great. Two reallys! Salvatore Totino achieves new heights – literally, and figuratively. He makes us soar, and I had my heart in my throat more than once.

See this one on the big screen. See it for the vistas. See it for every moment of awe-inducing visual adventure – but human drama? Not so much. The mountain always wins, remember, and in this movie, she’s the only character that really matters.

Smoother Than A Fresh Jar of Skippy

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How many of these movies can you name?

Supposedly there are 100!

Beat the high score: I could name 63 movies off the top of my head during the first watch (some of the movies appear more than once but I only counted the first clip).

TIFF 2015: One Last Push

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The last weekend of TIFF held a lot of first-rate movies for us.

The Dressmaker: Kate Winslet is ravishing and saucy is this film about a little girl who’s sent away from small-town Australia when she kills another child, and returns years later a sophisticated, fashionable woman able to transform the townspeople with her Singer and some satin, but not erase their memories. Her past is a shadow never escaped. It reminded me in some ways of Hot Fuzz – the facade of a close-knit town spoiled by the spectre of evil. The title may sound prim and proper, but the movie’s just a little bit naughtier, and helluva lot quirkier. Even Sean enjoyed it more than he thought he would; the movie’s sheer audacity earning quite a few laughs. It’s dark, and with theme shifts from elder care to bedding a younger lover, this movie doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Not that that stopped me from thoroughly enjoying it. Winslet and Judy Davis as her demented mother give really strong, badass performances.

The Danish Girl: Both timely and timeless, this one’s a stunner in many ways. Eddie Redmayne’s performance is a show-stopper. Alicia Vikander proves she’s not just a flash in the pan. And my god it’s gorgeous to watch. So lush. A real artist’s palette. As you know, this movie is about one of world’s first sexual reassignment surgeries; painter Einar Wegener always knew he was different, but when he dons panty hose to sit and pose for his wife (also a painter), Miss Lili Elbe emerges and can’t be denied. This movie is restrained and delicate – and maybe a little too tepid, considering its thematic content. But it definitely worked for me on a more personal level. What is it like when the man you love tells you he’s really a woman? And what happens when you still love this woman, but she wants to leave her past behind? It’s anguishing watching them try to redefine their lives, and their selves. Redmayne will of course get another Best Actor nod (but will he win and join Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks in back-to-back Oscars?) but I won’t be surprised if Vikander is recognized too. The Danish Girl ends up being as much her story as Lili’s. It’s not bold, it’s not daring, and it’s not a masterpiece. But it is a triumph.

Anomalisa: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson make a surprisingly exceptional pairing. Together they direct the most invigorating piece of film I’ve seen in a long time. The script is amazing. It’s funny and smart from start to finish. The stop-motion animation is also first-rate and very distinguished. There’s nothing like it out there. How can something so banal be so funny? It’s the perfect examination of human connection, and this will stand up there with Kaufman’s best. Weird? Of course it’s weird, that best kind of brain-tickling, truthful weird. But the genius is in the pairing – for every nuance offered by Kaufman, Johnson answers with a brilliant piece of animation: the earbuds, the car air freshener, the lobby flower arrangement, the miniature hotel room hair dryer. I always adore stop-motion animation because this physical recreation of an entire world always seems to show so much care and precision from the animators. Anomalisa is a marvel to look at and think over, and if you love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, then this one’s unmissable.

Legend: The legend worth noting here is Tom Hardy himself – twice. He plays real-life gangster twins, Reggie and Ronnie Kray. And he manages to make these men who look so much alike feel like complete individuals. And the camera tricks that make Tom Hardy able to punch himself in the face are super cool. You can’t take your eyes off him, no matter who he’s playing. The movie, though, wasn’t my favourite. It’s exceedingly gory and gleefully bloodthirsty in some parts, and then suddenly you’ve got supercheesy 1960s pop Going To the Chapel blaring like this is some throwback romcom. There’s an annoying narration, I think to cover up some of the holes in the story, but at any rate, it doesn’t work. This movie feels as schizophrenic as poor Ronnie is claimed to be, and while it’s still worth checking out for Hardy alone, it’s best to lower your expectations a bit.

Lolo: I love Julie Delpy. I love how she writes such witty, talky women. It’s like hanging out with your girlfriends: snappy, snarky, sharp. This movie is about a 45 year old Parisienne, Violette (Delpy) and how she falls in love with “country bumpkin” (Dany Boon). This might have been a smart and sexy meditation on middle-aged coupledom but instead it falls apart when Violette’s millennial son Lolo is introduced. You’ll want to punch this kid in the face, especially as he lounges around in his hipster underpants one too many times. He’s jealous of mommy’s new lover, and resorts to all kinds of low-brow, stale antics to drive them apart. Delpy is better than this. If she had made a movie with just the new lover and her best friend, my god, that would have been a power house. She didn’t need this juvenile intervention, and it’s not her strength as a writer nor as a director. I still enjoyed her bawdy sense of humour and breezy manner, but it wasn’t quite the film I’d hoped it would be.

TIFF by the numbers

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1: serving of vegetables eaten by Assholes during TIFF (and it was a McFudge salad at McDonald’s – desperate times, people!)

2: number of meals skipped from being too tired

3: number of meals skipped from being too busy

5: number of times Jay and Sean got swag and Matt did not

7: out of eleven days of TIFF attended

9: movies that made Jay cry (longest run: 3 in a row – rough day)

12: number of times we saw something directed by a woman!

15: actual, alarming amount of burgers consumed by Assholes during TIFF

15.5: kilometers covered on foot, just walking back and forth between theatres

16¼ : approximate hours spent by Sean, waiting in line

17: actual number of blisters incurred by Jay

24: times in 7 days I saw that stupid L’Oreal commercial

34: total number of films seen by one Asshole or another (movies with happy endings: 2?)

34: also the number of times Jay agonized about whether to pee before or after the movie (accidents: 0 – happily reported)

35: hours Jay spent watching movies

39: number of pages of notes taken by Jay (legible ones: maybe half, if I’m lucky; theatres be dark!)

40: years of TIFF

50: times we had our tickets torn

197: dollars spent on parking

346: days until we get to do it again

TIFF: The Grolsch People’s Choice Award

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The Toronto International Film Festival is non-competitive. There are no juries, and there are no conventional prizes, like best picture, or best actress. It is a festival for the people, by the people, so it is fitting that it is the people who vote.

Every feature film shown at TIFF is eligible, but only the people who saw that film can vote. The winner always generates some Oscar buzz, and many do go on to win best picture at the Academy Awards (Chariots of Fire in 1981, American Beauty in 1999, The King’s Speech in 2010). You can vote as many times as you want; if you see 20 films and love 18, you can vote for all 18. Of course, only the movies that are screening at TIFF are eligible, but since TIFF is now second only to Cannes in terms of influence, and the timing is good, well, it’s a powerful start to the race.

Past winners include The Imitation Game, 12 Years A Slave, Slumdog Millionaire, Amelie, The Princess Bride, and Roger & Me. Gavin Hood, director of Eye in the Sky, which is in competition this year, was thrilled to have his film Tsotsi win in 2005, which helped spark his career and really put him on the map.

A great big congratulations to this year’s People’s Choice winner: Lenny Abrahamson’s Room. You may have heard me whining and complaining about how I didn’t get to see this one, and it was the one I MOST WANTED TO SEE (#firstworldproblems) but then a TIFF miracle occurred and we ended up making a last-minute screening on Friday evening (it was supposed to have been Johnny Depp’s London Fields, but the director sued the producers and the movie got pulled, and Jay & Sean got to see an incredibly good movie that’s already humming with Oscar buzz).

Brie Larson plays a young woman abducted and kept captive by her abuser for many years. While living her miserable existence inside Room (a garden shed, as it turns out), she has a son, and their bond, as you can imagine, is uniquely strong and close and complicated. They eventually manage to escape, and it’s this reintroduction to the world (and in her son’s case, his first meeting of it) that is the biggest challenge of all, and the crux of the film. It’s nuanced, highly emotional, and superbly acted.

Congratulations also to:

Best Canadian Short Film goes to Patrice Laliberté for Overpass. Sol Friendman of Bacon & God’s Wrath got runner-up, and many of you noticed its appeal right here.

Best Canadian First Feature Film goes to for Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant.

Best Canadian Feature Film goes to Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster. The jury remarked, “For its confidence and invention in tackling the pain and yearning of the first love and coming of age of a young gay man in Newfoundland, the jury recognizes the remarkable artistry and vision of first-time feature director Stephen Dunn for Closet Monster.” This award carries a cash prize of $30,000 and a custom award, sponsored by Canada Goose. The Assholes were big supporters of this film and are so glad it got some well-earned attention.

The prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations is awarded to Jonás Cuarón’s Desierto. The jury remarked, “For using pure cinema to create a strong physical sensation of being trapped in a vast space and hunted down by hatred in its most primal form, FIPRESCI presents the prize in the Special Presentations programme to Desierto by Jonás Cuarón.”

We had a super great time at TIFF this year and look forward to actually being in our home next weekend for the first time in 5 weeks. It’s the best kind of tiring to see all of these labours of love appear on the big screen for the first time. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time read along – you don’t realize how much that means to us, but it’s a real treasure to hear from you and we hope that to continue the conversation because movies are our passion and some of them really are worth all the words.

When Dreams Come True at TIFF

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Matt got up early to see Christopher Plummer in Remember. Director Atom Egoyan appealed specifically for a spoiler-free review, and that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Desierto: Described to me as a deranged serial killer stalking Mexican immigrants trying to sneak across the border, I was hooked. And a little worried. Jonas Cuaron (yes, son of Alfonso) directs Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the killer), Gael Garcia Bernal (the immigrant), and the vast and unforgiving desert (a third and equally important character) toward a very tense and thrilling and relentless chase movie. I liked that Bernal’s character isn’t a traditional hero. He’s good, he’s bad, he’s human. Either way, he doesn’t deserve to be slaughtered in the desert. This movie is all about the chase – the philosophy is up to you. A really solid effort.

Our friend Courtney Small at Cinema Axis has all kids of dedicated TIFF reviews, but I’m directing you to one in particular: Room. Room is the film I’m most miffed about missing at TIFF. I read and enjoyed the book and have heard that Brie Larson’s performance is star-making (and it’s about time she’s recognized). She plays a woman who was abducted and kept captive in a windowless room by her abuser for years, where she conceived and gave birth. This child has never seen anything beyond the Room, but this doesn’t stop his mother from plotting their escape. But what will happen to them as they try to become reintroduced to the big bad world?

EDIT: An extra screening was added last minute, and I got my butt into a seat! My own review is coming soon.

You might also drop in on Dan from A Tale of Two Dans. He got to see another one I was sad to miss, Youth. Starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, you know you’re in for a treat.

The Family Fang: Jason Bateman is a little hit or miss with his movies, but I ended up liking this quite a bit. It’s got a strong premise: performance artist parents (Christopher Walken is the dad!) rope their kids (Jason Bateman, Nicole Kidman) into a childhood of pranks and skits. As soon as they’re old enough to get out of there, they do, and the relationship is strained because the art suffers. Then suddenly, the parents go missing. The cops presume them dead but the kids are convinced it’s just another prank. Or is it? Unravelling the mystery is not really the point. The point is a very real and interesting dynamic between neglected siblings (“They fuck you up, your mom and dad”) . If you keep that in mind, you’ll probably quite enjoy this slow-burner. It’s a drama with some funny parts, warns Jason Bateman: not Bad Words. Not his usual stuff. There are a lot of layers here, more than meets the eye. I read the book a while back and now I think I’ll have to re-read it just to hear it in Walken’s voice. During the Q&A, Jason Bateman made a fangirl out of himself, fawning over his hero, Christopher Walken, and likened editing anything with him in it to “killing babies”, as everything of Walken’s is “painfully usable.” Both men were charming, and Bateman clearly proud of his work. As he should be.

It was another rainy day at TIFF…

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On the one hand, rain makes you feel a little less guilty about spending the last few days of summer sequestered in movie theatres. On the other hand, there’s the standing in long lineups outside the movie theatres getting icy cold rain down your back, and the dampness in your shirt never dries in the movie theatre air conditioning. So you spend the whole day with a case of the shivers. But you also get to meet really cool people – a gentleman outside the Scotiabank theatre who sheltered me with his umbrella (while occasionally sending a big dump of sub-zero rain down my cleavage, but the intentions were good), an older woman I dubbed the blue angel for her raincoat who insisted I take her umbrella while waiting outside Bloor Hot Docs in the very early morning.Toronto festival goers are nothing if not courteous.

Miss You Already: This was the earliest I’ve ever been up for a movie, so if it was anything less than I was hoping, I would have been pissed. And the thing is, my expectations were tempered. It was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who did Thirteen, but also Twilight. It stars Drew Barrymore, one of my favourite celebrities, and Toni Collette, one of my favourite actresses. Note the difference. Drew Barrymore does best when just allowed to do her bubbly self, and in this case she’s well-cast and well-used. She and Collette play lifelong BFFs who have their friendship tested when Barrymore finally gets her innermost wishes granted with a long-awaited pregnancy and Collette has her innermost fears realized with a cancer diagnosis that means she is possibly dying, her children soon to be motherless. Collette is an amazing actor, capable of anything, and she handles this material with exactly the aplomb you’d expect. But this isn’t a movie likely to make the Oscar circuit. It’s meant to be crowd-pleasing, in a ten-pack of tissues sort of way. And it is. It’s a solid commentary on women and friendship, and what it means to be there for someone through thick and thin.

Maggie’s Plan: Greta Gerwig is the Diane Keaton of her generation. She’s kind of amazing in this neurotic, bohemian way. In this, she plays a young woman who is ready to have a baby, no matter what her best friend (and former lover) Bill Hader thinks. Of course, the minute she makes her move, she meets a man and falls in love. He’s married? So what! You can’t let a stale marriage come between you and your true love – so the marriage between Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore must crumble. Julianne Moore, by the way, is pretty much my favourite in everything lately. I will see her in two movies on this day at TIFF and can’t imagine two more different roles if I tried. Here she’s playing this European shrew with a wildly entertaining accent and immeasurable emotional peaks and valleys. I obviously hoped that this would be a good movie but was still pleased at how funny it was. And clever-funny too, which is always a relief. Kudos to another capable female director, Rebecca Miller. So thrilled to have seen so many talented women at this festival!

Closet Monster: Matt saw a talented young Canadian actor at TIFF several years ago in a movie called Blackbird. He knew that Connor Jessup was someone to watch out for, and he has. When he was announced to be starring in Stephen Dunn’s feature debut, Closet Monster, he was sold, and he sold us on it too. Thank you, Matt, for that. Stephen Dunn directs a highly personal film about a young man “coming of age” (good lord I hate that expression) in small and small-minded Maritime town. As a kid, Oscar witnesses a brutal hate crime that leads to internatlized homophobia. His teenaged coming out, and coming to terms, are therefore traumatic. Dunn creates a stylized world of escape for his protagonist, with just a hint of “magical surrealism” to help the bitter medicine go down. It’s a beautiful debut and we were all glad to have been part of it.

Freeheld: An embarrassingly short time ago, as in earlier this century, two women met and fell in love, and when one got sick, the other was going to be left holding an empty bag because domestic partnerships still weren’t really respected in their backwards-thinking country, and her partner’s benefits couldn’t legally be inherited by her. This true story, belonging to Laurel Hester and her widow Stacie Andree, is brought to the big screen with heaping sensitivity. You couldn’t ask for more from Julianne Moore or Ellen Page, who play the two lovers. Michael Shannon, as Hester’s partner, does a bang up job as the guy with a lot to learn. He’s a placeholder for the audience: we experience their story through his eyes. Sean and I saw Michael Shannon on Broadway a few years back (in an intense play along with Paul Rudd and Ed Asner, believe it or not) and we’ve watched him with greater interest ever since. Steve Carrell pops up in the movie too – you may have noticed him in the trailers for this movie, as he’s the clown through which we achieve some catharsis. He plays a “big gay Jew” who basically manipulates a sick woman into stumping for his cause – gay marriage. And causes like that do need a face to make them real to people, but I couldn’t help but sympathize with Andree, who must have just wanted to spend that time with her dying spouse. It’s of course an emotional movie (Kleenex sponsored the premiere, and handed out tissues as we went in). It’s a good but not great movie – but it IS a great story, and I’m so glad it’s been respectfully told. And seeing it with real-life counterparts, including Stacie Andree herself in attendance was something that I will never forget.

Wow, Julianne Moore and cancer both featured heavily in this day’s viewings!

Finally, Matt took on Missing Girl, which you may be intrigued to know, or mystified to learn, that Matt describes as a “charming comedy about a missing persons case.” It’s not every day you hear that one.

Cheers from TIFF!

Check out our other coverage here, and here, and stay tuned on Twitter: @assholemovies

Assholes at TIFF

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The Toronto International Film Festival converted Roy Thomson Hall, normally an orchestral theatre, into a massive 3D screening room in order to bring The Martian to the masses. Sean and I were lucky enough to get tickets. When I read the wonderful book by Andy Weir, I immediately passed it along to Sean. He doesn’t read much, but he always reads what I recommend, and I knew he’d love this. It was smart, funny, and action-packed. When they announced that Ridley Scott was making it into a film, I admit, I was wary. So many of my favourite books have been badly adapted to the screen. But a part of me had hope. It did have a cinematic feel to it. It could work. But would it?

The answer: yes. Without reservations or qualifications, yes. I can’t imagine a single person not enjoying the hell out of this film. Sean was initially in mourning for the bits of the book left on the editing floor, but not me. I felt it totally captured the spirit of the book while giving a little more screen time to all the famous faces on Earth. The Martian is accessible. It’s not science-fictiony; it’s not about aliens or time travel. It’s about an astronaut who goes on a mission to Mars and is accidentally left behind. The world is watching, and rooting for him. NASA is panicking and trying to redeem their reputations. His crew is guilt-ridden for having left him. But he’s just trying to survive until someone can rescue him. It takes a lot to stay alive alone on Mars, but this guy is an astronaut MacGyver and a very watchable problem-solver. Matt Damon does a great job in the role – absolutely no complaints. from me, or from real NASA astronauts who loved the book so much they gave him a call – from outer space! Now they’re hoping to beam the movie up to their space station on October 2nd when it hits theatres – and possibly the outer reaches of our galaxy. How cool is that?

We followed that up with the world premiere of About Ray. I knew this would be important to see at the festival, but I was worried that it was too trendy a topic. The movie really laid my fears to rest. Yes, it’s about a transgendered teenager, but it’s also about a family, conventionally unconventional, who love each other and support each other but struggle with change and acceptance just like everyone else. Ray (Elle Fanning) is a young man and has known this for some time. He was born in a female body but is ready to start living full-time as the gender he knows in his head he is meant for, and that means getting his parents to sign a consent form to start hormone treatments, and to change schools as his body transitions. He’s focused on this goal because he can’t truly live authentically until it happens. His mother (Naomi Watts) is amazingly supportive, and I say that because she’s supportive because she knows and believes it’s the right thing, not because it’s easy for her. Privately, she mourns the loss of her daughter and worries about what kind of life she’s consigning to her son. And when they must involve an absentee father who voices all kinds of concern along with generous doses of ignorance, things go sideways. A meddling mother\grandmother (Susan Sarandon) doesn’t help. But it does make for a very warm family feeling. There’s more here than an “issues movie.” It’s real. The three actresses are all great, and believable, and honest in their approach. Nobody gets off easily. This movie isn’t afraid to veer away from the PCness of it all, and we shouldn’t be afraid of that.

Elle Fanning does an incredible job tackling a touchy role. One wrong move and you can upset a whole community of vulnerable people. And I have heard criticism from some corners that Elle is too ‘feminine’ for the role, which is hogwash. What does that even mean? You do understand that transgendered mean born in a female body? Yes, Ray was born a girl, a girl who could have looked exactly like Elle Fanning. Transgendered bodies aren’t conveniently born butch. I’m sure that Ray is doing everything in his power to present himself the way feels he should look, but without any medical intervention, there’s only so much he can do. But no one in the transgender community should be judged on how well (or not) they ‘pass’ and neither is it fair to hold Fanning to that same standard. With Hollywood at her disposal, director Gaby Dellal could have opted to have her look fall anywhere on the spectrum, yet she’s exactly where she out to be.

In the end, this was not the sweeping triumph we hoped it would be, but with stellar performances across the board, it is a very good movie about a very interesting family.

Note: Finally hitting theatres in 2017, the movie is now called 3 Generations.

Matt, meanwhile, was taking in Ninth Floor, a moving documentary about a student protest against racism at the very University where Matt was once a student.

Next, Sean and I attended the premiere of Into the Forest, another booked turned into movie. Whereas being familiar with the story in The Martian only made me salivate for what I knew was coming, in this movie, it made me dread it. The knowledge was like a burden that I felt heavy around my neck. It’s not an easy movie to begin with: suddenly, and for no known reason, the apocalypse is nigh. The power goes out. Food and gas are scarce. People act like animals. It doesn’t happen all at once, but every day the power stays out it gets a little worse, a little more frantic. Two sisters, played by Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood, live in a remote location out in the forest. Their isolation helps keep the safe but also leaves them vulnerable. The movie is tense, and I felt like it was almost worse not knowing what was out there. Most apocalypse movies are action-driven, bloody, violent, and scary, but this one is the quietest movie about the end of the world as we know as you’ll ever see. But the quiet is ominous. Director Patricia Rozema is masterful in the creation of mood – the forest creeps around them, reclaiming what belongs to it. The movie avoids the awful tropes that usually come along with an apocalypse scenario, but doesn’t quite achieve the character study it seems to want to be either. This is really about the relationship between the sisters, and both Wood and Page give great performances with the thin material they’re given.

Matt attended Midnight Madness, a TIFF tradition programmed by Colin Geddes that features all kinds of horror, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, and action, with one catch: it has to be BANANAS. This year Matt bravely attempted Hardcore, a POV movie that was a gamble that didn’t quite pay off. But we salute Matt for the attempt – after all, this is what TIFF is all about!

TIFF Short Cuts Re\Mix

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I was disappointed not to be able to fit in a Short Program while at the Toronto International Film Festival. The festival allows us to see many movies at once – movies that will go on to big box office success, movies that I’ve dreamt about since reading the book, movies from other countries and cultures that I wouldn’t normally be exposed to – but it also allows us an introduction to new and emerging film makers, many of these through short films. So while I didn’t get to see this at TIFF itself, TIFF introduced a new concept this year where you could buy a ticket to stream the program online, and then watch a Q&A session afterward with some of the directors (they call it round-table but we all know that table’s a rectangle, bitch).

The moderator suggested that 500 of their new best friends would be watching this short cuts program via vimeo, which is true. To all of the film makers: hello! We are so happy to watch and support. To masturbation and carbs: salut! I am watching, not because I wasn’t at TIFF (I was and am and will be) but because this is an experiment in offering programming via streaming that I was excited to be part of. It’s giving people the chance to bring TIFF into their living rooms, should they so choose, and for those of us at TIFF to bring it into our hotel rooms (god, how I’ve spent many long lineups dreaming of just that) t round out our schedules.

The short film selection included:

Boxing – directed by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley (of Canada)

A woman returns to her beginner’s boxing class after a tragic accident leaves her a widow. An overeager sympathizer becomes the vessel of her misplaced grief. Extremely well acted and implying a larger story than the one we’re told, this film is immediately bracing and interesting.

“You have to whisper metaphor” – Grayson Moore, on keeping their vague title, Boxing

The Ballad of Immortal Joe – directed by Hector Herrera (of Canada)

This animated short tells the cowboy poetry of Robert W. Service with really beautiful, folksy, unique animation and a catchy score by The Sadies. Sean couldn’t help but declare this one his favourite. Only six minutes long, it still tells the rich story of a gun-slinger, his ill-fated love, and the curse of his immortality.

“Everything you do is a self-portrait” – Hector Herrera, on how much his film represents his body of work.

Deszcz (Rain) – directed by Malina Maria Mackiewicz (of Australia)

A prisoner receives a visit from his mistress, who has told their son that he is already dead. If this isn’t actually true, it will be some day, any day, possibly tomorrow. A film school project with the parameters: 1 location, 2 actors, 3 minutes, Mackiewicz tells a fascinating story.

“You have to make your mistakes in a much more expensive and dangerous environment.” – Mackiewicz, on not going to film school

Kokom – directed by Kevin Papatie (of Canada)

A tribute to his grandmother, Papatie presents the story of the Anicinape people as a journey beginning and ending with resilience.

Dream The Other – directed by Abril Schmucler Iñiguez (of Mexico)

Diego dreams of another man’s life – his home, his family, every detail more interesting than his own humdrum life. The more he dreams, the more his own reality seems to transform and take on new meaning.

Bacon & God’s Wrath – directed by Sol Friedman (of Canada)

This is a mixed-media documentary that tells the story of 90 year old Razie Brownstone and how she’s about to eat bacon for the first time. Having kept kosher her whole life, often as a tribute to her parents and her beliefs, Razie discovered “The Google” 2 years ago, and its magic ability to guess the end of her sentences. Knowing that so many others had asked the very same questions that she’d struggled with, especially about faith, gave her a greater feeling of “connectedness” than she’d ever gotten at synagogue. The film is as experimental as Razie and you can tell by this long paragraph devoted to just 9 minutes of film that I found it entertaining and enlightening.

“Go out and meet other filmmakers…you learn a lot from engaging with othe pople.” – Sol Friedman’s advice to his younger self

El Adiós – directed by Clara Roquet (of Spain)

A servant is lying her elderly client to rest – gently dressing the body while also preparing food for the funeral and caring for the grieving mother and granddaughter. All of her duties complete, she finally dresses herself for the funeral – and what happens broke my heart.

The Call – directed by Zamo Mkhwanazi (of South Africa)

A taxi driver finds out that the prostitute he’s been seeing is pregnant with his child. What does that mean to him? Be with her? Change her ways? Abort? Courtney does it justice over at Cinema Axis.

That Dog – directed by Nick Thorburn (of USA)

I’m struggling to describe this one. Michael Cera and Tim Heidecker play these sleazy guys who house-sit for a buddy and wreak havoc in his apartment complex.

Thorburn on the joke of his title, That Dog: “A dog being either a literal canine or a kind of terrible person.”

I’m so glad I got to see these. A short film is a snap shot worth savoring. I hope you might discover these yourselves, and that you might recommend some of your own favourites.