TIFF Line-up and stuff - might as well get this started

Mister Tee
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sonic Youth wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:
Sonic Youth wrote:I'm predicting 'Precious' wins the TIFF Audience Award.
Sonic calls it.

Given the tenor of many previous Audience Award winners -- Shine, Life Is Beautful, Whale Rider, Tsotsi -- this only heightens my misgivings about the film.
I'm good.

But I can see there'll be no winning for 'Precious' on this board. Before it won the annual Humanist Uplift kiss-of-aesthetic-death award in Toronto, the subject matter was too unappealing and offputting to want to see.

It's winning the Best Actress Oscar regardless.
Actually, once I started reading about the subject matter, then saw the trailer, and, ultimately, saw Oprah on board, I expected BOTH -- a beginning in full degradation that finally advances to glorious redemption. That precise progression is Oprah's favorite story, one she likes to see re-enacted as often as Jane Fonda liked seeing her slow radicalization re-enacted in her late 70s/early 80s films.

Best actress? I need to see the field before I can envision a complete unknown taking it. Obviously not impossible, but it doesn't happen that often.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Reza wrote:Why don't they give out acting awards? Also wondered the same about New York.
There's no festival jury at TIFF. Unlike Venice and Cannes, Toronto's big prize is decided on by an audience poll. I'm not sure why, but I guess that's what makes the difference.

New York is a non-competitive festival.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Mister Tee wrote:
Sonic Youth wrote:I'm predicting 'Precious' wins the TIFF Audience Award.
Sonic calls it.

Given the tenor of many previous Audience Award winners -- Shine, Life Is Beautful, Whale Rider, Tsotsi -- this only heightens my misgivings about the film.
I'm good.

But I can see there'll be no winning for 'Precious' on this board. Before it won the annual Humanist Uplift kiss-of-aesthetic-death award in Toronto, the subject matter was too unappealing and offputting to want to see.

It's winning the Best Actress Oscar regardless.
"What the hell?"
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Post by Reza »

Why don't they give out acting awards? Also wondered the same about New York.
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Post by Cinemanolis »

Dogtooth is doing great at the festivals abroad. I wonder if it will find an audience in Greece.
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Post by Big Magilla »

The latest per Mr. Wells:

Joel and Ethan Coen's A Serious Man was named the best narrative film of the Toronto Film Festival in a just-posted Indiewire poll of attending critics and bloggers.

Narrative runners-up were (in this order) Chuan Lu's City of Life and Death, Jason Reitman's Up In The Air, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, Giorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth (respectful disagreement!), Lee Daniels' Precious, Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love, Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch, Tom Ford's A Single Man and Samuel Maoz's Lebanon.

Erik Gandini's Videocracy was named best documentary.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Per Mr. Wells:

The winner of the Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award for the most popular feature film is Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. The runner-up is Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer (saw some of it, found it cutesy and on-the-nose), and the third-place winner is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs. The documentary award went to Leanne Pooley's The Topp Twins, and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story came in second. The Midnight Madness award went to Sean Byrne's The Loved Ones, and the runner-up prize went to Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig's Daybreakers.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sonic Youth wrote:I'm predicting 'Precious' wins the TIFF Audience Award.
Sonic calls it.

Given the tenor of many previous Audience Award winners -- Shine, Life Is Beautful, Whale Rider, Tsotsi -- this only heightens my misgivings about the film.
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Post by Penelope »

Okri wrote:And for Penelope: The Vintner's Luck will be playing at TIFF.
Sadly, the critics have not been kind to the film. Even more sadly, it appears that writer-director Niki Caro has jettisoned the whole gay aspect of Elizabeth Knox's novel, which is incredibly frustrating. Instead of a romance between a vintner and a male angel, the movie has apparently been turned into a romantic triangle between the vintner, his wife and the local baroness.

Sigh. Well, at least we homos have A Single Man to look forward to.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

I'm predicting 'Precious' wins the TIFF Audience Award. 'Up in the Air' is my RU choice.

Ironically, I'll be offline until Monday and won't even know until then.




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Post by Mister Tee »

Jeff Wells, who, as Sabin reported yesterday, gushed over Mother and Child and especially Annette Bening's performance, acknowledged last night that he'd written that based on a screening where he'd left 30 minutes before the end (apparently to go shmooze at some party). After seeing the rest of the film, he expressed astonishment that what he'd not seen was the weakest part of the film, causing him to downgrade his opinion. His rather extraordinary claim was that films that maintained quality 70% of the way usually didn't collapse at the end (his experience is apparently far different from mine).

Anyway, his commenters are letting him have it, and rightly so. I just don't understand this rush to be first that's so intense people end up doing no justice to their subject; nor the desire to hobnob that supersedes actual attention to the work at hand. I actually have tastes in film not all that far off from Wells'...but I find his behavior and attitude in general so deplorable that I wish I disagreed with him more often.
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Post by Eric »

Mister Tee wrote:Another film, however, has gone from zero to clear contention in the past week: A Single Man, receiving high praise for Julianne Moore and, especially, Colin Firth, who won best actor at Venice. Today comes news that it's been picked up by the Weinstein Company, which guarantees a shot at big-time nominations. (Especially since talk of Weinstein collapse has vanished in the wake of Inglourious Basterds' huge success) Biggest new arrival of the season, so far.

OK, the idea that both Mo'Nique and a thoroughly gay film directed by Tom Ford, of all people, both figuring into the Oscar race this year has me uniquely thrilled.




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Post by Mister Tee »

I've slacked off on posting Toronto reviews, because there were suddenly too damn many of them, and I didn't have the time nor, possibly, this site the bandwidth for all of them. I especially didn't want to overreact to one enthusiastic notice for an obscure film, only to find that subsequent reviews were less favorable and I'd have wasted space.

But...here's some summary of what's going on, especially as it regards the Oscar race.

Many of the most-buzzed-about titles (apart from Up in the Air and A Serious Man) have been indies currently without distribution, making it difficult to know whether they merit mention despite the entusiasm. Get Low, for instance, is being boosted by some for the Robert Duvall and Bill Murray performances, but until we know it's getting a US release this year, it's pointless to discuss its prospects.

Another film, however, has gone from zero to clear contention in the past week: A Single Man, receiving high praise for Julianne Moore and, especially, Colin Firth, who won best actor at Venice. Today comes news that it's been picked up by the Weinstein Company, which guarantees a shot at big-time nominations. (Especially since talk of Weinstein collapse has vanished in the wake of Inglourious Basterds' huge success) Biggest new arrival of the season, so far.

As Sabin alluded to elsewhere, Jeff Wells has been head over heels for Garcia's Mother and Child, especially for Annette Bening's performance. Needless to say, Bening would be a prime prospect for an Oscar win given her long history of nominations. Oddly, only ScreenDaily of the trades has reviewed the film as yet -- they were also positive, though not as singling-out of Bening. So, we'll wait for a broader spectrum of opinion. And, again, it depends on whether the film is picked up for '09 release.

Other films getting attention: Egoyan's Chloe seems to be getting varying reactions, though most all describe it as his most commercial effort. And Clive Owen/The Boys Are Back seems to be getting stronger favorability than I'd have anticipated from a Scott Hicks movie. (A commonality of every review is thier mentioning how far superior the film is to anything else Hicks has done in the last decade) But both of these may be too tiny to figure in the Oscar world.

Anyone heard about anything else?
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Post by Precious Doll »

Variety's very lukewarm review of the opening night film Creation.
Creation
(U.K.)
By DENNIS HARVEY
e, 'Creation.'

A Jeremy Thomas presentation, in association with Ocean Pictures, BBC Films, HanWay Films, of a Recorded Picture Co. production. (International sales: HanWay Films, London.) Produced by Jeremy Thomas. Co-producer, Nick O'Hagan. Executive producers, Peter Watson, Christina Yao, Janice Eymann, Jamie Laurenson, David Thompson. Directed by Jon Amiel. Screenplay, John Collee, from a story by Amiel and Collee based on the book "Annie's Box" by Randal Keynes.

Charles Darwin - Paul Bettany
Emma Darwin - Jennifer Connelly
Rev. Innes - Jeremy Northam
Thomas Huxley - Toby Jones
Joseph Hooker - Benedict Cumberbatch
Annie Darwin - Martha West
Parslow - Jim Carter

Despite its increasing presence in public debate, the battle between evolutionism and creationism seldom surfaces in popular entertainment. That fact lends an automatic novelty to "Creation," which portrays a Charles Darwin agonizing over whether to unveil the ideas that will upset -- to say the least -- his own and future generations of religious believers. But this handsome historical piece starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Mr. and Mrs. Darwin isn't about science vs. faith so much as that well-worn dramatic hook, the loss of a child. Likely to earn just respectable critical support, the Toronto opener looks to be a medium specialty performer.
Opening title says the concepts detailed in "The Origin of Species" (published in 1859) have "been called the biggest idea in the history of thought. This is how it came to be written." Yet John Collee's screenplay, based on nonfiction tome "Annie's Box" by Darwin descendent Randal Keynes, accords the original book, its content and research far less importance than the conflict among the Darwins themselves, despite attempts by both the script and director Jon Amiel to integrate scientific and domestic threads.

In the present tense (mid-1850s), Bettany's 40ish Darwin is depressed and physically feeble, inattentive to both work and family; the source of this is clearly grief over the death of his favorite child at age 10. In flashbacks, we see the close relationship between him and young Annie (Martha West), who shares his unsentimental fascination with the natural world. Her illness and demise devastate both Charles and Emma (Connelly), causing the former to lose any remaining religious faith while the latter clings more strongly to hers.

Both parents have guilt issues around Annie's passing (as married first cousins, the Darwins feared their children might be genetically inclined toward poor health), but Emma has managed to pull herself together for the sake of their surviving children. (The Darwins had 10, two dying young.) She both worries over and resents Charles' distracted, weakened removal from family life since Annie's passing. Meanwhile, fellow scientific enthusiasts Huxley (Toby Jones) and Hooker (Benedict Cumberbatch) urge the country-house-bound recluse to finish "Origin," latter happily anticipating its publication will "kill God" -- precisely the reaction Darwin fears, largely due to the opposition of his devout wife and their good friend Rev. Innes (Jeremy Northam).

Amiel, demonstrating some of the visual panache more creatively deployed in earlier work ("Queen of Hearts," the "Singing Detective" mini) than later genre projects "The Core" or "Entrapment," finds opportunities to illustrate theories of natural selection and such in brief montages, sometimes deploying digital and time-lapse effects. But despite that and pleasant (if modestly scaled) period trappings, "Creation" feels somewhat static in storytelling terms. Once basic conflicts are established, we simply wait for Darwin to come to terms with his grief, marriage and imminent notoriety. Not much "happens," though the pic does its best to maintain energy in both physical presentation and mixed-chronology structure.

Leads are also a little monotonous: Bettany is appealing but this Charles is at times nearly a sickly bore, while Connelly, not an actor with much lightness, is OK but emphasizes Emma's grave concern and disapproval to the exclusion of nearly every other quality. (The real Mrs. Darwin was a highly accomplished person in her own right.) In the weird tradition of so many real-life acting couples, onscreen these two stars don't have much chemistry.

Supporting players are aptly cast if underused; screen debutante West, however, gets a little too much screen time (as both living little girl and ghost), Annie being written/played as the kind of wise, winsome, uber-precocious child that feels like a product of adult ventriloquism.

The English countryside looks gorgeous in Jess Hall's widescreen lensing, topping solid design contributions in a costume piece without crowd scenes or sumptuous interiors. Tech packaging is fine. In some spots Christopher Young's melancholy string-centric orchestral score owes a considerable debt to Arvo Part's "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten."

Camera (color, Super 35, Panavision widescreen), Jess Hall; editor, Melanie Oliver; music, Christopher Young; production designer, Laurence Dorman; costume designer, Louise Stjernsward; art director, Bill Crutcher; set decorator, Dominic Capon; sound (Dolby Digital), John Midgley; assistant director, Mick Ward; casting, Celestia Fox. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations), Sept. 10, 2009. Running time: 108 MIN.
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Post by Okri »

It is showing at TIFF. I just didn't know what it was. I didn't know it had buzz.
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