From
the thick of the 28th Toronto International Film Festival, here is the lowdown
on the most notable films so far.
The Good
Coffee &
Cigarettes:
Not so much a film as a collection of shorts Jim Jarmusch started making back
in 1986 (for Saturday Night Live, no
less). Each features a few actors sitting around drinking coffee, smoking
cigarettes, and getting into some mostly improvised dialogues at tables with
checkerboard patterns. Some make sense (Iggy Pop vs. Tom Waits, and Meg White
vs. Jack White), while others pair polar opposites (Roberto Benigni and Steven
Wright), and other just make you want to pee your pants (RZA, GZA, and Bill
Murray). Full of great jukebox music, including a new Iggy Pop cover of “Louie,
Louie.” Release date: TBA
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Dogville: Some people say Lars von
Trier’s Dogville is way too
anti-American. I say it’s way too long. But even at three hours, it’s a very
impressive start to von Trier’s proposed USA:
Land of Opportunities trilogy. Nicole Kidman plays Grace, a woman who is on
the run from gangsters and eventually finds relative safety in a small Colorado
town. But the residents of said town start threatening to turn Grace over
unless she complies with their every wish. Soon, she’s working twice as hard
for half the money, getting raped by every man in town and… well, you can see
where the anti-American stuff stems from. Von Trier films it all on a sparse
soundstage with unflattering lighting, minimal props, and buildings that are
more like what you’d see playing The Sims than in real life. A truly original cinematic experience, but it just didn’t
have to be this long. Release date: sometime in 2004.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Station Agent: It’s been a while
since I’ve seen a Three Loners Complete Each Other flick done this well. Peter
Dinklage plays a dwarf who inherits an abandoned train depot in Newfoundland,
New Jersey. Bobby Cannavale is a fun-loving loudmouth roped into manning his ailing
father’s sandwich truck. Patricia Clarkson is an accident-prone divorcee who
recently lost her only child. Throw in Michelle Williams as a small-town
librarian plus some really pretty photography, and it will be abundantly clear
to you why this picture won awards at Sundance. Release date: October 10
(limited).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย 21 Grams: The film I was most eager
to see did not disappoint… at least after the first 10 confusing minutes.
Alejandro Gonzรกlez Iรฑarritu’s follow-up to the brilliant Amores Perros blends elements of that film (a horrible incident
involving a car that affects three different threads of the story) with — and
this may seem really hard to believe — Return
to Me‘s falling in love with the recipient of your dead spouse’s heart. To
say more would betray the film, and make the opening much less confusing when
you see it. And I’m really not here to make things easier for you. Stars Sean
Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and the amazing Naomi Watts, who delivers this
festival’s second-best shot at an acting Oscar. Release date: November 11
(limited).
The bad
A Problem With
Fear:
You know a film is bad when it’s Canadian and still gets slammed by the
generous hometown press. Gary Burns, who showed so much promise with waydowntown and Kitchen Party, stinks up the joint with a story about a paranoid
guy who realizes the things he fears most (elevators and escalators and the
like) are literally killing strangers in Vancouver. The only redeeming quality
is an interesting slant on the whole color-coded terror alert levels and insane
media frenzy surrounding every perceived danger we have here in the States.
Release date: TBA.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Rick: Occasionally clever, but not
nearly enough so to make it worth your while, this directorial debut from
Curtiss Clayton (who edited most of Gus Van Sant’s films) stars Bill Pullman as
the number two man in a corporate boys’ club (literally). His boss (Aaron
Stanford) is about half his age and has the hots for his daughter (Agnes
Bruckner). So, like any good father and businessman, Rick hires a corporate
killer (Dylan Baker) to do away with his Big Boss at the firm’s Christmas
party. Release date: TBA.
The painfully mediocre
The Barbarian
Invasions:
The good news: Writer-director Denys Arcand says his opening-night film isn’t a
sequel to The Decline of the American
Empire, and that’s a good thing because I never saw it. The bad news:
Arcand is a filthy liar because Invasions features the same characters (only 17 years older) that populated Empire. Here, lecherous professor Rรฉmy
(Rรฉmy Girard) is dying of cancer and his wealthy, estranged son Sรฉbastien
(Stรฉphane Rousseau) is determined to make his dad as comfortable as possible.
And if that means getting the junkie daughter (Cannes-winner Marie-Josรฉe Croze)
from one of Rรฉmy’s many affairs to score street heroin, then so be it. Hope you
love horrifyingly sad endings, sucker. Release date: November 21 (limited).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Cypher: Vincenzo Natali’s follow-up
to 1997 festival hit Cube is set in a
dark, futuristic world where two huge corporations are trying to maintain data
superiority over their rival. Even if it means brainwashing one particular pawn
(Jeremy Northam) to serve as a double (or is it triple?) agent. Even though the
ending is far too predictable, Cypher is still entertaining in a creepy Gattaca-like
way. It’s kind of like a whole season of Alias — with two SD-6 agencies — boiled down to a 100-minute film. Co-stars Lucy
Liu, the forgotten Angel. Release date: sometime before the end of the year.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Event: It’s one of those films
that’s so Canadian, they had to let it in the festival. Writer-director Thom
Fitzgerald (The Hanging Garden) tells
the story of a man (Don McKellar) who has died of AIDS and the mysterious
“event” that preceded his death. Was it a big blowout party/gay
variety show, a sad euthanasia ceremony, or maybe a little bit of both? An ADA
(Parker Posey) is assigned to find out if anything illegal happened. Maybe you’ll
dig it, and you’ll have your chance to weigh in when The Event screens at the ImageOut Festival next month. Release
date: October 3 (limited).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Human Stain: A stellar cast
doing a superb job saves this adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel from being one
of those Oscar-season duds. Anthony Hopkins plays Coleman Silk, a Massachusetts
college professor driven out of his job on trumped-up charges of racism. The
ordeal kills his wife, and he soon takes up with a girl from the wrong side of
the tracks (Nicole Kidman) with a psychotic husband (Ed Harris) and a big
secret… but ol’ Coleman has a dark little whopper of his own. Strung together
like The English Patient and shot by
the late cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier, Stain is still solid, and it
doesn’t overstay its welcome. Release date: October 3 (limited).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In the Cut: Meg Ryan’s big attempt
at playing a gritty adult role (instead of that pixie bullshit she’s been
pushing for the last decade-and-a-half) comes in this serial killer flick
filtered through an art house lens. Jane Campion directs the story about a high
school English teacher who falls in love with a swarthy cop (a beyond excellent
Mark Ruffalo) and becomes embroiled in a jackpot involving a psycho who is
beheading women in her neighborhood. A very beautiful, very well-directed
picture with strong performances, but it’s still a whodunit, which means
everything is telegraphed to the point where the ending is a letdown. And Meg
fakes another orgasm, too! Release date: October 22 (limited).
The bizarre
Feathers in My
Head:
Don’t look for much of a story in this tale of a Belgian mother who has a slow
but complete breakdown after her only son drowned in a nearby lake while she
was busy getting her shtup on. The attractions here are the stunning compositions
which generally revolve around water imagery, like boots filling up with
rainwater and the repeated use of birds dive-bombing into water to catch fish.
There’s also a Greek chorus, I think. Their songs weren’t subtitled, so I’m
just guessing here. Weird, but damn lovely. Release date: TBA.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Jesus, You Know: If you saw Ulrich
Seidel’s Dog Days, you know he’s one
twisted bastard. That just makes his latest even more unusual. Like Kiyoshi
Kurosawa and Ki-duk Kim, Seidel takes a drastic change in theme and mood with
this documentary that shows six different people as they pray to Jesus. And
these folks talk and talk until poor Jesus’s ears are ready to bleed. Then, as
if a sign from above, the film started to melt, so I’ll never know what
happened to the young man whose mother yelled at him for going to service every
day instead of cleaning his room. Release date: TBA.
For
more reviews of films playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, visit
Jon’s site, Planet Sick-Boy, at www.sick-boy.com.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2003.
