Toronto Film Fest, Day Four
Sep. 13th, 2004 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedA pretty good day, with no utter dogs and one certified classic.
Title: Withnail and I
Director: Bruce Robinson
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Essential
Every year, the film fest runs a series called Dialogues. Attending filmmakers get to present a film that is important to them and do a talk about it. This year, Canadian documentarian Peter Lynch chose one of my very favourite films, Withnail and I. Even though I've seen it an uncounted number of times, I had to go again. And as they were showing a brand new, gorgeous looking print, I'm very glad I did. If you've never seen it, the film is about two unemployed actors sharing a flat in Camden Town at the end of the 60s. They drink; they go on an ill-fated vacation; they come back. One of them gets a job. Doesn't sound like much, but it's one of the best written, if profane, films you will ever see and is equal parts brilliant comedy and shattering tragedy. Go rent it now.
Title: Tarnation
Director: Jonathan Caouette
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Caouette has taken his Mac computer, the iMovie editing programming and the 160 plus hours of film he's been accumulating since adolescence about his life and created a swirling, accomplished filmic autobiography that is fascinating and heart-breaking and filled with moments of beauty. It's like the best student film you've ever seen, and that's not to be snide. I will be interested to see if he's got another film in him, however, now that he's cannabalized the stuff of his life for this one.
Title: Throw Down
Director: Johnnie To
Country: HK
P's Rating: Okay
Johnnie To is one of the most interesting, and prolific, filmmakers working in Hong Kong at the moment. He's made some true classics in a number of genres. (Just try the cop and thief cat and mouse game of Running Out of Time, the romantic comedy of Needing You and the historical, New Year's comedy of Wu Yen for a start.) Unfortunately, his prolificness also means that he occasionally makes a film that is less than stellar. Throw Down is not one of his better films. Though nowhere near as bad as the irredeemably bad Love on a Diet, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast narratively. Following the friendship of a lapsed judo master, his would-be challenger, and a ditzy aspiring singer, there are long stretches where you have no idea where the whole thing is going. And not in a good way. But then there are also moments of pure magic, as when the three of them free a balloon trapped in a tree for no reason other than the joy of doing so. Throw Down is ultimately disappointing, but still entertaining.
Title: Withnail and I
Director: Bruce Robinson
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Essential
Every year, the film fest runs a series called Dialogues. Attending filmmakers get to present a film that is important to them and do a talk about it. This year, Canadian documentarian Peter Lynch chose one of my very favourite films, Withnail and I. Even though I've seen it an uncounted number of times, I had to go again. And as they were showing a brand new, gorgeous looking print, I'm very glad I did. If you've never seen it, the film is about two unemployed actors sharing a flat in Camden Town at the end of the 60s. They drink; they go on an ill-fated vacation; they come back. One of them gets a job. Doesn't sound like much, but it's one of the best written, if profane, films you will ever see and is equal parts brilliant comedy and shattering tragedy. Go rent it now.
Title: Tarnation
Director: Jonathan Caouette
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Caouette has taken his Mac computer, the iMovie editing programming and the 160 plus hours of film he's been accumulating since adolescence about his life and created a swirling, accomplished filmic autobiography that is fascinating and heart-breaking and filled with moments of beauty. It's like the best student film you've ever seen, and that's not to be snide. I will be interested to see if he's got another film in him, however, now that he's cannabalized the stuff of his life for this one.
Title: Throw Down
Director: Johnnie To
Country: HK
P's Rating: Okay
Johnnie To is one of the most interesting, and prolific, filmmakers working in Hong Kong at the moment. He's made some true classics in a number of genres. (Just try the cop and thief cat and mouse game of Running Out of Time, the romantic comedy of Needing You and the historical, New Year's comedy of Wu Yen for a start.) Unfortunately, his prolificness also means that he occasionally makes a film that is less than stellar. Throw Down is not one of his better films. Though nowhere near as bad as the irredeemably bad Love on a Diet, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast narratively. Following the friendship of a lapsed judo master, his would-be challenger, and a ditzy aspiring singer, there are long stretches where you have no idea where the whole thing is going. And not in a good way. But then there are also moments of pure magic, as when the three of them free a balloon trapped in a tree for no reason other than the joy of doing so. Throw Down is ultimately disappointing, but still entertaining.
