Toronto Film Fest, Day Seven
Sep. 11th, 2003 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedJim Jarmusch has coffee and cigarettes, a Canadian family acts dysfunctionally and Indian gangsters act out Macbeth...
Title: Coffee and Cigarettes
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Jim Jarmusch started making short films the all contained coffee and cigarettes but were otherwise wildly diverse in 1986. He's made one every few years ever since and all of them can be found here. Some are funny, none more so than the meeting of Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, two Brits in Hollywood. Some are touching, like the one with underground icons Bill Rice and Taylor Mead playing two aging janitors on a coffee break. All of them are fascinating in one way or another.
Title: Falling Angels
Director: Scott Smith
Country: Canada
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
I went into this one with modest expectations, but it ended up being one of the best films I've seen at the fest this year. Based on the Barbara Gowdy novel, it follows the fortunes of a suburban Toronto family in 1969. The parents are both alcoholics, and the three daughters are all coming to grips with growing up in completely disparate ways. To its credit, the film never condescends to the characters and there's as much humour as drama in the story.
Title: Maqbool
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Country: India
P's Rating: Recommended
Director Bharadwaj has taken Shakespeare's Macbeth and reimagined it among modern day Indian gangsters. Maqbool is the lieutenant in a gang. His Lady Macbeth is the mistress of his boss, a woman who encourages him to murder his mentor as much to free her as to advance himself. The story is a bit convoluted at times, but is effective overall. And some of the changes to Shakespeare are inspired. The witches have become two kibbutzing corrupt cops who are obsessed with astrology and keep predicting Maqbool's fortune. Of course, it doesn't hurt that one of the cops is played by the great Om Puri.
Title: Coffee and Cigarettes
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Jim Jarmusch started making short films the all contained coffee and cigarettes but were otherwise wildly diverse in 1986. He's made one every few years ever since and all of them can be found here. Some are funny, none more so than the meeting of Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, two Brits in Hollywood. Some are touching, like the one with underground icons Bill Rice and Taylor Mead playing two aging janitors on a coffee break. All of them are fascinating in one way or another.
Title: Falling Angels
Director: Scott Smith
Country: Canada
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
I went into this one with modest expectations, but it ended up being one of the best films I've seen at the fest this year. Based on the Barbara Gowdy novel, it follows the fortunes of a suburban Toronto family in 1969. The parents are both alcoholics, and the three daughters are all coming to grips with growing up in completely disparate ways. To its credit, the film never condescends to the characters and there's as much humour as drama in the story.
Title: Maqbool
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Country: India
P's Rating: Recommended
Director Bharadwaj has taken Shakespeare's Macbeth and reimagined it among modern day Indian gangsters. Maqbool is the lieutenant in a gang. His Lady Macbeth is the mistress of his boss, a woman who encourages him to murder his mentor as much to free her as to advance himself. The story is a bit convoluted at times, but is effective overall. And some of the changes to Shakespeare are inspired. The witches have become two kibbutzing corrupt cops who are obsessed with astrology and keep predicting Maqbool's fortune. Of course, it doesn't hurt that one of the cops is played by the great Om Puri.
