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Thread: Nyff 2012

  1. #16
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    Saturday, September 15, 2012.



    TORONTO 2012 ENDS TOMORROW.

    I'll post the awards here when they're announced.

    I am posting all Mike D'Angelo's Toronto 2012 Twitter reviews/ratings on my website here. Below are his top ratings out of 30-some watched. He has not watched most of the big release items I listed earlier, including ON THE ROAD (Walter Salles) , ANNA KARENINA (Jon Wright), CLOUD ATLAS (Tom Tykwer),) THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (Robert Redford), ARGO (Ben Affleck) (already debuted at Telluride, as mentioned above),HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (Adam Sandler), END OF WATCH (Michael Pena), HYDE PARK ON THE HUDSON (with Bill Murray as FDR), THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, and QUARTET (Dustin Hoffman)

    He didn't much like several Nyrr main slate items, GINGER AND ROSE 44) and De Palma's PASSION (38); the Nyff item BARBARA came just below his top ratings. But the Nyff film FRANCES HA was his second most favorite.

    D'ANGELO'S TOP TORONTO 2012 RATINGS:

    Eat Sleep Die (Pichler): 75
    +. Still deciding how much I love this, may go 80+. A triumph of anti-miserablism, ROSETTA with a real girl.

    Frances Ha (Baumbach): 76. As I'd suspected, he and Gerwig are a great match, with a similarly loopy sense of humor. Naturalistic absurdism.

    Leviathan (Castaing-Taylor & Paravel): 73. Still wish human beings were kept strictly on the periphery. Purely abstract imagery astounding.

    /Looper/ (Johnson): 72. Starts off "merely" imaginative and engrossing, then pivots on one of the most audacious bait-and-switch moves ever.

    Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh): 68. A bit meta-cute for my taste, but very, very funny. His humor makes the subject matter almost irrelevant.

    Ernest & Celestine (Renner,Patar,Aubier): 67. Like TOWN CALLED PANIC, endearingly nutty til it runs out of steam (further along this time).

    Jayne Mansfield's Car (Thornton): 64. All over the place, but I wish more American films sprawled so unpredictably. Leave Billy Bob alone!

    Byzantium (Jordan): 63. To the extent that there's a plot, it's pretty dumb. As an exercise in Gothic (not Goth) atmosphere, oft-stirring.

    The Master (Anderson): 61. Apropos that this film features both a Rorschach test and a game called Pick a Point. Did not coalesce for me.

    To the Wonder (Malick): 59. Can Malick's late, glancing style sustain its magic for the entirety of a simple love-lost tale? Almost

    Barbara (Petzold): 58. Exquisitely made, but I was disappointed when its conventional shape took form beneath layers of subtle misdirection.

    --From Mike D'Angelo's tweets: https://twitter.com/gemko

    Manohl Dargis reports on TIFF in the NYTimes today (September. 15, '12
    in an article called "Movie Frenzy But Still Comfy, Eh?" which is a sketchy report on films (she mentions about 11 titles) and less useful as a clearcut set of ratings compared to D'Angelo, but she talks about different titles mostly from D'Angelo. She starts with statistics: 289 features and 83 shorts from 72 countries. And that makes it easy to get lost outside the obvious titles, which she mostly focuses on. She notes that CLOUD ATLAS (which I'd thought was Tom Tykwer--maybe he dropped the project) by the former Wachowski brothers, now brother and sister since one did a sex change, is bad, a mess, partly embarrassing. Joe Wright's ANNA KARENA is a "travesty in its conception and execution" with a badly miscast Keira Knightley. She mentions the NYff BARBARA (Petzold) and GINGER AND ROSA (Sally Potter) with favor; but has she seen them? Not clear. She contrasts Malick's TO THE WONDER (self-parody?) scathingly as
    a wonderment of an unfortunate type that combines many images of young women running through sun-dappled rooms and fields amid musings about Jesus Christ
    and constrasts it with David O. Russel's SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (soon coming to US art houses)
    the latest family comedy from David O. Russell, which takes place on solid terra firma where people eat, drink, work, talk — and, this being a David O. Russell encounter session — yell at one another as they grapple with many of the same Big Questions as Mr. Malick’s twirling, skipping, running, whispering and endlessly posing avatars.
    Dargis takes much interest in the "freakout" from North Korean COMRADE KIM GOES FLYING, which she thinks is the kind of film that makes Toronto "such an essential festival." Not sure she means this film is "essential" but she also liked small films Jem Cohen‘s MUSEUM HOURS, which she wished the fest hyped more, and she liked experimental films by Francesca Woodman (who committed suicide in 1982) and a B&W visual meditation about a modern city and an ancient ruin of one, VIWE FROM THE ACROPOLIS by Dutch artists Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan. "Essential," or just a relief after CLOUD ATLAS and ANNA KARENINA?

    VENICE ENDED LAST WEEK

    Go back to my VENICE post in this thread here for the Venice prizes announced last Sunday.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2012 at 09:42 AM.

  2. #17
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    Sunday, September 16, 2012.



    TORONTO 2012 AWARDS

    People's Choice Award: SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
    People's Choice Award, Documentary: ARTIFACT (Jared Leto)
    People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness: SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (Martin McDonagh)
    Best Canadian Feature Film: LAURENCE ANYWAYS (Xavier Dolan)
    Best Canadian Short Film: KEEP A MODEST HEAD (Deco Dawson)
    Best Canadian First Feature Film: ANTIVIRAL (Brandon Cronenberg)
    shared with: BLACKBIRD (JASON BUTON)
    FIPRESCI Discovery: CALL GIRL (Mikael Marcimain)
    FIPRESCI Special Presentations: IN THE HOUSE (François Ozon)

    Fuller coverage of the awards will be found HERE.

    In a partial roundup Variety noted that about 40 titles had sold at the festival, but reported that 'Unsold titles as of Sunday included Brian De Palma's "Passion," Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder," Rola Nashef's "Detroit Unleaded," Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children," Sally Potter's "Ginger & Rosa" and Ariel Vromen's "The Iceman."' The article listed a number of international deals cut and casting arrangements made at Toronto. Among these, "Demarest Films came on board to co-finance and co-produce spy thriller "A Most Wanted Man" from director Anton Corbijn with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright starring." Many articles note that the Toronnto audience award is often a predictor of Academy Award potential and consequently Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawruence and Robert De Niro (of SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK) will be likely Oscar nom candidates.

    N.B.: Mike D'Angelo's take on the best of this fest, in a recent tweet:
    Final #tiff12 Hall of Fame (where fame = endorsement by some sleep-deprived nerd): Eat Sleep Die, Frances Ha, Leviathan, and Looper.
    LOOPER comes out Sept. 21. FRANCES HA and LEVIATON are in the NYFF so I'll be reviewing them. SLIVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS will be getting wide release Nov. 21 and Oct. 12, respectively.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-16-2012 at 08:24 PM.

  3. #18
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    Mon., Sept. 17, 2012: Nyff 2012 (the 50th) begins Main Slate press screenings. From now on links to Filmleaf Festival Coverage reviews will be coming in this thread.

    Antonio Méndez Esparza: Here and There (2012)

    Mexican filmmaker Esparza's first feature in a documentary style using non-actors about a migrant worker who returns from the US to Guerrero province to be with his wife and two young daughters, and then is forced by economic necessity to go back to the States. Won the top prize of Critics' Week at Cannes this year.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-19-2012 at 06:43 AM.

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    Noémie Lvovsky: Camille Rewinds (2012)

    A fluid and personal remake of PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED by the prolific Lvovsky, who directed, stars, and co-wrote this study of the inevitability of the past and the possibility of salvaging marriages. With appearances by Jean-Pierre Léaud, Matthieu Amalric, Denis Podalydès and Yolande Moreau. A prize-winner at Cannes' Directors Fortnight that debuted in Paris last week (Sept. 14) to excellent reviews.

  5. #20
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    Brian De Palma: Passion (2012)

    PASSION is a remake of the late Alain Corneau's last film, he 2010 LOVE CRIME, a tale of corporate psychologial manipulation that leads to murder and becomes an unconvincing police procedural. Why should De Palma copy a movie that barely just came out? To make it campier and more De Palma. PASSION is gorgeous eye candy but it won't appeal much to anyone but the director's most ardent fans.

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    Christian Petzold: Barbara (2012)

    Beautifully understated depiction of life in East Germany in the early Eighties. By avoiding overt miserabilism the director (whose intense 2009 POSTMAN ONLY RINGS TWICE remake JERICHOW was part of Film Comments Selects that I reviewed) of this impeccable example of the cool new German cinema makes the viewer internalize a sense or totalitarian repression so that things aren't so simple. A picture of love and duty.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-19-2012 at 04:34 PM.

  7. #22
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    Roger Mithell; Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)

    A cuddly and blunt-spoken romp in 20th-century American history we visit FDR & Co (including wife and three lovers) in the Thirties, at his mother's house where he liked to spend the summer. He greets the kind and queen of England, who come to ask for money and military support for the coming world war, and get in return cocktails and hot dogs. Bill Murray stars as FDR; Laury Linney plays his cousin Daisy, who keeps him company and gives him hand jobs.

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    Yeşim Ustaoǧlu: Araf/Somewhere in Between (2012)

    Film set in Turkey in which a teenager working at a truck-stop restaurant gets into trouble when she falls for a trucker, while a young coworker is in love with her. Beautiful, sometimes expressionistic cinematography at times, excessive length, excessive explicitness, good performances in this uneven film by a female director dealing with bold themes and an impoverished regional setting.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-20-2012 at 09:57 PM.

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    Noah Baumbach: Frances Ha (2012)

    Baumbach collaborates on script with Greta Gerwig, who stars, on an exploitation of Gerwig's charms and return to native NYC settings. Black and white film gets more specific and generational, exploring the 20-something dilemma lodged between college and Life that was the topic of the director's debut feature KICKING AND SCREAMING.

  10. #25
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    Alain Resnais: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (2012)

    Artificial, elegant, 89-year-old Resnais' film takes 13 distinguished French actors to the mansion of a fictitious deceased theater director to observe and comment on a youthful warehouse production of Jean Anouilh's 1941 play EURYDICE, which they have all performed in at different times in the past. They begin alternately reenacting segments of the play. At Cannes where it debuted Mike D'Angelo called it Resnais' ""fond farewell, ruminating on the end, his career and the nature of cinema and theater."

  11. #26
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    Recent Mike D'Angelo tweet regarding HYDE PARK ON HUDSON:
    I remember a time when NYFF wouldn't have stooped as low as that one or MY WEEK WITH MARILYN.

  12. #27
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    Cristian Mungiu: Beyond the Hills (2012)

    Impeccably executed in long widescreen takes, Mungiu's successor to 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS (the Cannes 2007 Grand Prize winner) tells the story based on fact of a young woman who died as the result of a rite of exorcism performed at a rural nunnery. Griping if overlong and not as emotionally strong as Mungiu's previous film. Debuting at Cannes, won Best Screenplay for Mungiu and Best Actress for the two lead women, both newcomers.

  13. #28
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    Jun Lana: Bwakaw (2012)

    Study of a gruff, lonely old man, a former post office employee, who long repressed his gayness, and becomes enamored of a rough three-wheel cab driver while he's discovered his pet dog is dying of cancer. The Philippines' 2012 entry in the Best Foreign Oscar competition. Shown at Toronto. The dog has her own TV show. The actor who plays the man, Eddie Garcia, has had a long career as an actor, director, and action hero. Based on a person the director knew and admired.

  14. #29
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    Many thanks for all the great festival items.

    With regards to TIFF, I don't know why these critics don't see more films.
    You have such a huge slate that's all you can do is see flicks for ten days.
    Are they not able to see 20 or 30?
    The theatres in Toronto are top notch, especially the Scotiabank and Bell Lightbox.
    With that media badge you'd never see me come up for air!

    The trick with film festivals is to master the schedule and be astute enough to know what you are seeing.
    Moods from previous films you saw can creep in.
    I've found that when you see 3 or more in one day the reviews suffer unless you took good notes.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  15. #30
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    On my website I have collated Mike D'Angelo's tweet reviews of Cannes and Toronto this year. He sees 32 or 33 or each, so over 64 films May and Sept.

    http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/vi...php?f=1&t=2183

    He is doing what you want him to do, and he gives good information. The big newspaper critics probably are not given that much time to see films, anyway. I read Karina Longworth's piece in the Voice on Toronto and she only mentioned six films. That's why I prefer D'Angelo. He is basically an online critic like us. He has made it to the point where he got a rose badge at Cannes this time after ten years and finally could go directly into films, and therefore could see more, he said.

    With the NYFF, I focus on the Main Slate films only, because I can see all 33 of them and review them, and that to me seems what people want most to know about, but I get flack for not seeing more sidebar items, and this year aI will try to see some. But reviewing three films a day is in itself very hard for me. I could see six in a day -- but not and survive for the whole festival. But the NYFF press screenings are speced out over a month, so if you have the time you can see all 33 main slate films and a lot of other sidebar items too.

    Today I heard they showed a pre-revolution Iranian film and Mike Valdez, who writes for Huffington Post, said it "kicked ass." I missed it. My back went out this weekend -- result of too much sitting in commercial theater seats -- and am struggling just to make it to the Main Slate this week.

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