Toronto Film Festival, Day Four
Sep. 8th, 2003 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przed1930s London, 18th South African penal colonies and Toronto rent boys...
Title: Bright Young Things
Director: Stephen Fry
Country: Britain
P's Rating: Okay
Stephen Fry adapts Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. Set in the world of the idle rich in 1930s London--the bright young things of the title--the film follows the ever-changing fortunes of aspiring writer Adam Symes as he attempts to make enough money to marry the woman he loves. Meanwhile, the world marches inevitably toward war with Hitler and takes the bright young things with it. The dialogue in the film is sharp, the acting is superb and Fry, in spite of being a first time director, knows how to carry his material along. I can't help thinking, however, that the proceedings are just a tad too glib overall.
Title: Proteus
Director: John Greyson
Country: Canada/South Africa
P's Rating: Okay
Based on the sketchy transcripts of a sodomy trial from 1735 South Africa, Proteus tracks the tortuous relationship that grows between two prisoners on the Robben Island penal colony. The twist is that one of the prisoners is black, the other white. There are slow patches, but also scenes of visceral power.
Title: Twist
Director: Jacob Tierney
Country: Canada
P's Rating: Not-so-good
A potentially good idea, Tierney's debut film takes the story of Oliver Twist and sets among a group of rent boys in Toronto. Unfortunately, it mostly goes horribly awry, with unfortunate pacing and shot composition and editing that is uninteresting in the extreme. The one bright spot is Nick Stahl's performance as Dodge, the Artful Dodger stand-in who lures the more innocent Oliver into a life of hustling. But even Stahl's talent can't overcome the sheer misery of the proceedings.
Title: Bright Young Things
Director: Stephen Fry
Country: Britain
P's Rating: Okay
Stephen Fry adapts Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. Set in the world of the idle rich in 1930s London--the bright young things of the title--the film follows the ever-changing fortunes of aspiring writer Adam Symes as he attempts to make enough money to marry the woman he loves. Meanwhile, the world marches inevitably toward war with Hitler and takes the bright young things with it. The dialogue in the film is sharp, the acting is superb and Fry, in spite of being a first time director, knows how to carry his material along. I can't help thinking, however, that the proceedings are just a tad too glib overall.
Title: Proteus
Director: John Greyson
Country: Canada/South Africa
P's Rating: Okay
Based on the sketchy transcripts of a sodomy trial from 1735 South Africa, Proteus tracks the tortuous relationship that grows between two prisoners on the Robben Island penal colony. The twist is that one of the prisoners is black, the other white. There are slow patches, but also scenes of visceral power.
Title: Twist
Director: Jacob Tierney
Country: Canada
P's Rating: Not-so-good
A potentially good idea, Tierney's debut film takes the story of Oliver Twist and sets among a group of rent boys in Toronto. Unfortunately, it mostly goes horribly awry, with unfortunate pacing and shot composition and editing that is uninteresting in the extreme. The one bright spot is Nick Stahl's performance as Dodge, the Artful Dodger stand-in who lures the more innocent Oliver into a life of hustling. But even Stahl's talent can't overcome the sheer misery of the proceedings.
