The Way WAY Overdue TIFF 2023 Post
Jan. 12th, 2024 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedLife rather got in the way of me doing posts for the films I saw at TIFF this year. (Most of my vacation was taken this year with getting my mom to medical appointments, and then spending a week with her when she was recovering, successfully!, from surgery. Which meant I didn't take any time off during the fest. Which means I saw 18 films whilst also working full time.)
It's so long ago, I didn't know if there was any point in putting up reviews. But thendorinda and msmoat recently encouraged me to do it anyway. So, here they are.
Of the 18 films I saw, 17 of them were good to great. A few were just utterly gorgeous.
Best of the Fest
COPA 71
Inspiring, and infuriating, documentary about the first women's world cup, held in Mexico City in 1971. A world cup that almost no one knows about because it was held outside the auspices of FIFA, and the old white dudes in charge of FIFA then promptly tried to bury all memory of it and tried their hardest to bury women's footie altogether.
It's told through the stories of the women who played on the various national teams. They all have stories of fighting even to be allowed to play the game at all, and none of them dreamed they'd be able to play in an international competition. But then their euphoria at the success of the tournament (the final was played in front of 110,000 spectators in Mexico City's largest stadium) was brought down when their accomplishments were completely ignored in their home countries.
The TIFF screening was special for not only having the director in attendance, but two of the women who played on the Danish national team who won the cup.
Perfect Days
A low-key wonder, and wonderful return to form in fiction filmmaking for Wim Wenders.
The film follows the daily routine of Hirayama, a quiet man whose job is cleaning the public toilets of Tokyo, and whose spends his days seeking out quiet moments of joy. We get familiar with his routine, and then see small breaks in it, as he connects with the girlfriend of an annoying co-worker, and then his niece, the daughter of his estranged sister. There are no big plot revelations, just quiet moments of discovery, but it's just fantastic.
Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros
Four riveting (yes, riveting!) hours of watching the chefs and staff at a Michelin starred restaurant produce world class meals. It’s like a much more zen version of The Bear, with the most stressful moment being when a junior staff member improperly drains the blood from some lamb brains and is directed to read Escoffier for the right technique.
Ru
A wonderful adaptation of writer Kim Thuy's book, based on her family's experience fleeing Viet Nam after the Viet Cong takeover of the south to end up in chilly Montreal. The film goes back and forth in time, between the family's comfortable life in Viet Nam, the struggle of refugee camps, and the family's new life in Canada, and it's full of devastating large and small moments.
Flora and Son
John Carney creates yet another quiet masterpiece about people forging connections through music. This time, the primary connection isn't romantic, but familial. Working-class Dubliner Flora is trying to get her son interested in something, anything, to keep him from the petty theft she's afraid is going to land him in jail. When she rescues a guitar from a rubbish tip for her son, he's not interested, so she starts doing online lessons to learn the instrument herself. When she finds out her son is mixing his own electronic music on his computer, they start to collaborate. Mix in a sweet flirtation with her online teacher, and a sparky relationship with her musician ex, and you've got a very satisfying whole. The entire cast has zing, but Bono-offspring Eve Hewson is especially good in the lead.
Farewell My Concubine
Not a new film, but a restored version of Chen Kaige's masterpiece. The gorgeous and brutal tale follows the love triangle between two Peking opera stars and a woman through the tumult of Chinese history in the twentieth century. Stunning performances all round, especially from the late, very much missed, Leslie Cheung, as the opera star who becomes famous playing the concubine of the title and harbours an unrequited, doomed love for his co-star and friend. I hadn't seen this since it's original release and it was even better than I remembered.
The Good
Lee
A biography of Lee Miller, the fashion model turned photographer who fought to become a frontline war correspondent during WW II. The film starts out slowly, only rising above the usual biopic throng in the later half, when Miller faces the worst of humanity, being one of the first photographers to document the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps. Kate Winslet does a bang up job of portraying Miller as a woman who pushes against and through the boundaries of what women are expected to do in her time. And Andy Samberg turns in a surprisingly serious turn as the Life photographer who was her partner-in-crime in the field.
Kill
Bollywood's answer to The Raid, an all-out action film where our hero has to fight his way through a train full of bandits to rescue the woman he's secretly engaged too. As the producer (a very nice, middle-aged Indian lady) said before the screening, there was So. Much. Blood. Also so many crazy action set pieces and brutal stunts. Highly entertaining.
The Dead Don't Hurt
Disclaimer: I'll pretty much see anything Viggo Mortensen brings to TIFF. (He's the only person I've ever haunted a red carpet to get an autograph from.)
That said, I did enjoy this not quite conventional Western, with Vicky Krieps as a French Canadian transplant to the American West who approaches the world on her own terms. Both Krieps and Viggo give low-key brilliant turns as immigrants facing the corruption of the frontier town they find themselves in.
It also didn't hurt that Viggo introduced the film, and he and Krieps showed up to do a Q&A afterwards.
Monster
Kore-eda's latest is a Rashomon-like take on the events surrounding a school, two boys who may be bully and bullied, a teacher who may be abusing a student, and a mother who's trying to figure out what's gone wrong with her son. Nothing is quite what we first think, as we move from the mother's perspective, to the teacher's, to the boys', and it's all handled with Kore-eda's usual deft touch. Maybe not quite the masterpiece of some of his films, but still wonderful.
Naga
Where else but Midnight Madness can you see a rabid camel attack?
Perfect MM film, with a young Saudi woman lying to her imposing father to attend an event at a desert camp with her boyfriend. She's promised her dad she'll be home by 10, but then she gets high and her phone dies and she can't find her boyfriend, and then things get really nuts. For a film that must have been made on a shoestring it looks fantastic, with the angles and colours and cuts made to put you in Sarah's more than slightly unhinged point of view.
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
A documentary following Lil Nas X on his Long Live Montero tour. It's not deep, but Lil Nas X is hella charismatic, funny, and brings a killer presence to the stage.
Uproar
Julian Dennison, who was so fantastic in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, plays a half Maori kid struggling to find his own identity during the '81 tour of the South African rugby team in Aotearoa. He's caught between his mom pushing him to play rugby like his brother, a girl who's involved in protesting the apartheid-regime soccer team, and a teacher (played by Rhys Darby) who sees in him a talent for performing. It's a wonderful film.
Next Goal Wins
Amiable, but not earth-shattering. I feel like Taika could have knocked this one out in his sleep, but it doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining.
The Pigeon Tunnel
Errol Morris takes on John le Carre as an interview subject. Le Carre, the erstwhile David Cornwell, not only reveals stories from his own history, but talks about the shadow history of the 20th century, while Morris employs his usual bag of tricks of recreations and haunting imagery. (So many pigeons.) Not my favourite Morris, but definitely an engaging watch.
Days of Happiness
A young Quebecois woman conductor navigates her career, a relationship with a recently divorced cellist who isn't yet out to her kid, and her domineering father/agent. The comparisons to Tár are unavoidable, but the lead here is much more sympathetic, if prickly.
The Convert
Historical epic from Lee Tamahori, set during the early days of colonization of Aotearoa. Guy Pearce plays a lay preacher who travels to a small community clinging to the edge of New Zealand during a period of Maori tribal wars. Pearce's character is drawn more and more to the side of one of the local tribes, and finally ends up using his experience as a British soldier to help them fight their rivals. Treads the line of being a white saviour story, but is engaging and gorgeously shot.
The Not-So-Good
The Movie Emperor
The one film this year that I didn't really care for. HK superstar Andy Lau plays a self-important actor who, after he loses a film award to Jackie Chan playing a peasant, decides to seek out a peasant role himself in pursuit of film festival glory. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong. A satire of the film industry, I kept thinking this should have been funnier, or more pointed, than it was. It's got Lau's undeniable star power going for it, and it's nicely shot, but it never quite takes off.
It's so long ago, I didn't know if there was any point in putting up reviews. But then
dorinda and msmoat recently encouraged me to do it anyway. So, here they are.Of the 18 films I saw, 17 of them were good to great. A few were just utterly gorgeous.
Best of the Fest
COPA 71
Inspiring, and infuriating, documentary about the first women's world cup, held in Mexico City in 1971. A world cup that almost no one knows about because it was held outside the auspices of FIFA, and the old white dudes in charge of FIFA then promptly tried to bury all memory of it and tried their hardest to bury women's footie altogether.
It's told through the stories of the women who played on the various national teams. They all have stories of fighting even to be allowed to play the game at all, and none of them dreamed they'd be able to play in an international competition. But then their euphoria at the success of the tournament (the final was played in front of 110,000 spectators in Mexico City's largest stadium) was brought down when their accomplishments were completely ignored in their home countries.
The TIFF screening was special for not only having the director in attendance, but two of the women who played on the Danish national team who won the cup.
Perfect Days
A low-key wonder, and wonderful return to form in fiction filmmaking for Wim Wenders.
The film follows the daily routine of Hirayama, a quiet man whose job is cleaning the public toilets of Tokyo, and whose spends his days seeking out quiet moments of joy. We get familiar with his routine, and then see small breaks in it, as he connects with the girlfriend of an annoying co-worker, and then his niece, the daughter of his estranged sister. There are no big plot revelations, just quiet moments of discovery, but it's just fantastic.
Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros
Four riveting (yes, riveting!) hours of watching the chefs and staff at a Michelin starred restaurant produce world class meals. It’s like a much more zen version of The Bear, with the most stressful moment being when a junior staff member improperly drains the blood from some lamb brains and is directed to read Escoffier for the right technique.
Ru
A wonderful adaptation of writer Kim Thuy's book, based on her family's experience fleeing Viet Nam after the Viet Cong takeover of the south to end up in chilly Montreal. The film goes back and forth in time, between the family's comfortable life in Viet Nam, the struggle of refugee camps, and the family's new life in Canada, and it's full of devastating large and small moments.
Flora and Son
John Carney creates yet another quiet masterpiece about people forging connections through music. This time, the primary connection isn't romantic, but familial. Working-class Dubliner Flora is trying to get her son interested in something, anything, to keep him from the petty theft she's afraid is going to land him in jail. When she rescues a guitar from a rubbish tip for her son, he's not interested, so she starts doing online lessons to learn the instrument herself. When she finds out her son is mixing his own electronic music on his computer, they start to collaborate. Mix in a sweet flirtation with her online teacher, and a sparky relationship with her musician ex, and you've got a very satisfying whole. The entire cast has zing, but Bono-offspring Eve Hewson is especially good in the lead.
Farewell My Concubine
Not a new film, but a restored version of Chen Kaige's masterpiece. The gorgeous and brutal tale follows the love triangle between two Peking opera stars and a woman through the tumult of Chinese history in the twentieth century. Stunning performances all round, especially from the late, very much missed, Leslie Cheung, as the opera star who becomes famous playing the concubine of the title and harbours an unrequited, doomed love for his co-star and friend. I hadn't seen this since it's original release and it was even better than I remembered.
The Good
Lee
A biography of Lee Miller, the fashion model turned photographer who fought to become a frontline war correspondent during WW II. The film starts out slowly, only rising above the usual biopic throng in the later half, when Miller faces the worst of humanity, being one of the first photographers to document the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps. Kate Winslet does a bang up job of portraying Miller as a woman who pushes against and through the boundaries of what women are expected to do in her time. And Andy Samberg turns in a surprisingly serious turn as the Life photographer who was her partner-in-crime in the field.
Kill
Bollywood's answer to The Raid, an all-out action film where our hero has to fight his way through a train full of bandits to rescue the woman he's secretly engaged too. As the producer (a very nice, middle-aged Indian lady) said before the screening, there was So. Much. Blood. Also so many crazy action set pieces and brutal stunts. Highly entertaining.
The Dead Don't Hurt
Disclaimer: I'll pretty much see anything Viggo Mortensen brings to TIFF. (He's the only person I've ever haunted a red carpet to get an autograph from.)
That said, I did enjoy this not quite conventional Western, with Vicky Krieps as a French Canadian transplant to the American West who approaches the world on her own terms. Both Krieps and Viggo give low-key brilliant turns as immigrants facing the corruption of the frontier town they find themselves in.
It also didn't hurt that Viggo introduced the film, and he and Krieps showed up to do a Q&A afterwards.
Monster
Kore-eda's latest is a Rashomon-like take on the events surrounding a school, two boys who may be bully and bullied, a teacher who may be abusing a student, and a mother who's trying to figure out what's gone wrong with her son. Nothing is quite what we first think, as we move from the mother's perspective, to the teacher's, to the boys', and it's all handled with Kore-eda's usual deft touch. Maybe not quite the masterpiece of some of his films, but still wonderful.
Naga
Where else but Midnight Madness can you see a rabid camel attack?
Perfect MM film, with a young Saudi woman lying to her imposing father to attend an event at a desert camp with her boyfriend. She's promised her dad she'll be home by 10, but then she gets high and her phone dies and she can't find her boyfriend, and then things get really nuts. For a film that must have been made on a shoestring it looks fantastic, with the angles and colours and cuts made to put you in Sarah's more than slightly unhinged point of view.
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
A documentary following Lil Nas X on his Long Live Montero tour. It's not deep, but Lil Nas X is hella charismatic, funny, and brings a killer presence to the stage.
Uproar
Julian Dennison, who was so fantastic in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, plays a half Maori kid struggling to find his own identity during the '81 tour of the South African rugby team in Aotearoa. He's caught between his mom pushing him to play rugby like his brother, a girl who's involved in protesting the apartheid-regime soccer team, and a teacher (played by Rhys Darby) who sees in him a talent for performing. It's a wonderful film.
Next Goal Wins
Amiable, but not earth-shattering. I feel like Taika could have knocked this one out in his sleep, but it doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining.
The Pigeon Tunnel
Errol Morris takes on John le Carre as an interview subject. Le Carre, the erstwhile David Cornwell, not only reveals stories from his own history, but talks about the shadow history of the 20th century, while Morris employs his usual bag of tricks of recreations and haunting imagery. (So many pigeons.) Not my favourite Morris, but definitely an engaging watch.
Days of Happiness
A young Quebecois woman conductor navigates her career, a relationship with a recently divorced cellist who isn't yet out to her kid, and her domineering father/agent. The comparisons to Tár are unavoidable, but the lead here is much more sympathetic, if prickly.
The Convert
Historical epic from Lee Tamahori, set during the early days of colonization of Aotearoa. Guy Pearce plays a lay preacher who travels to a small community clinging to the edge of New Zealand during a period of Maori tribal wars. Pearce's character is drawn more and more to the side of one of the local tribes, and finally ends up using his experience as a British soldier to help them fight their rivals. Treads the line of being a white saviour story, but is engaging and gorgeously shot.
The Not-So-Good
The Movie Emperor
The one film this year that I didn't really care for. HK superstar Andy Lau plays a self-important actor who, after he loses a film award to Jackie Chan playing a peasant, decides to seek out a peasant role himself in pursuit of film festival glory. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong. A satire of the film industry, I kept thinking this should have been funnier, or more pointed, than it was. It's got Lau's undeniable star power going for it, and it's nicely shot, but it never quite takes off.
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