Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 28

Thread: Toronto International Film Festival 2014

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840

    Toronto International Film Festival 2014


    Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in Theory of Everything


    tiff.

    The Toronto film festival begins today; it runs 4-14 September 2014. (The NYFF is 26 September-12 October.)

    Find the main lineup of films at Toronto this year HERE. Many of the fall and winter Oscar-worthy hits will be here. Earlier Catherine Shoard of the GUARDIAN commented that Toronto has "the edge on buzzy titles this year" over Telluride, which has been more and more competitive with it lately, or Venice, which comes a little before it. The NYFF comes just after Toronto every year. I highlighted the titles I've spotted of films also showing at the NYFF. In the Toronto list you'll find many of the big movies that you'll be excited to see in the fall and winter pre-Oscar season. Being a fan of Eddie Redmayne I'm excited to see his potentially career-making star turn in the Stephen Hawking biopic, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, directed by the great documentarian, James Marsh (still a biopic though). MY OLD LADY is coming soon to Landmark; it's an acting feast with Kevin Kline, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Maggie Smith duking it out in Paris. MISS JULIE with LIv Ullman would be an art house don't-miss. Fuqua's THE EQUALIZER and Dobkin's THE JUDGE are going to attract a huge amount of attention Stateside. Lone Sherfig is finally back with THE RIOT CLUB. Her AN EDUCATION attracted a lot of attention and put Carey Mulligan on the map. A new one from Laurent Cantet, RETURN TO ITHACA, might bear watching, though Guy Lodge (VARIETY) at Venice called it a "thoughtful but lethargic...talkfest." New ones form Kevin Smith, Jason Reitman, Noah Baumbach, Frederick Wiseman, Ramin Bahrani, Françcois Ozon, Christian Petzold, David Gordon Green, Takashi Miike, Johnnie To; Zvyagintsev's LEVIATHON, called "a stunning, surprisingly funny satire" by VARIETY'S Peter Debruge at Cannes; I might have liked to to see in the NYFF, still hoping to duplicate the magic THE RETURN had for me. (The Belvauz and Sciamma, scheduled to watch by D'Angelo, are not listed below, so these are not complete lists of the festival films.) NYFF overlaps are in red.

    World premieres

    The Good Lie, Philippe Falardeau, USA
    The Theory of Everything, James Marsh, United Kingdom/USA
    The Last Five Years, Richard LaGravenese, USA
    Time Out of Mind, Oren Moverman, USA
    Top Five, Chris Rock, USA
    While We're Young, Noah Baumbach, USA
    Still Alice, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, USA
    A Second Chance (En Chance Til), Susanne Bier, Denmark
    The Reach, Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, USA
    Phoenix, Christian Petzold, Germany
    Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy, USA
    Ned Rifle, Hal Hartley, USA
    My Old Lady, Israel Horovitz, USA
    Miss Julie, Liv Ullmann, Norway/United Kingdom/Ireland
    Men, Women and Children, Jason Reitman, USA
    Mary Kom, Omung Kumar, India
    Love & Mercy, Bill Pohlad, USA
    Learning to Drive, Isabel Coixet, USA
    Black and White, Mike Binder, USA
    The Equalizer, Antoine Fuqua, USA
    The Judge, David Dobkin, USA
    A Little Chaos, Alan Rickman, United Kingdom
    The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie), François Ozon, France
    The Riot Club, Lone Scherfig, United Kingdom
    Samba, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, France
    This Is Where I Leave You, Shawn Levy, USA
    Pawn Sacrifice, Ed Zwick, USA
    American Heist, Sarik Andreasyan, USA
    Before We Go, Chris Evans, USA
    Breakup Buddies, Ning Hao, China
    Cake, Daniel Barnz, USA
    The Dead Lands (Hautoa), Toa Fraser, New Zealand/United Kingdom
    The Drop, Michael R. Roskam, USA
    Eden, Mia Hansen-Løve, France
    The Gate, Régis Wargnier, France
    The Keeping Room, Daniel Barber, USA
    Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Canada/France/Lebanon/Qatar/USA
    Beats of the Antonov, Hajooj Kuka, Sudan/South Africa
    Iraqi Odyssey, Samir, Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/United Arab Emirates
    Sunshine Superman, Marah Strauch, USA/Norway/United Kingdom
    Tales of the Grim Sleeper, Nick Broomfield USA/United Kingdom
    This Is My Land, Tamara Erde, France
    The Yes Men Are Revolting, Laura Nix and the Yes Men, USA
    1001 Grams, Bent Hamer, Norway/Germany/France
    The Face of an Angel, Michael Winterbottom, United Kingdom
    [REC] 4: Apocalypse, Jaume Balagueró, Spain
    Big Game, Jalmari Heleander, Finland/United Kingdom/Germany
    Cub, Jonas Govaerts, Belgium
    Tusk, Kevin Smith, USA
    The Duke of Burgundy, Peter Strickland, United Kingdom
    Luna, Dave McKean, United Kingdom
    Shrew's Nest, Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel, Spain
    Spring, Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead, USA
    Waste Land, Pieter Van Hees, Belgium

    International premieres

    Haemoo, Shim Sung-bo, South Korea
    Wild, Jean-Marc Vallée, USA
    Hungry Hearts, Saverio Costanzo, Italy
    I Am Here, Fan Lixin, China
    Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke, USA
    Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, Mark Hartley, Australia
    Tokyo Tribe, Sion Sono, Japan
    Hyena, Gerard Johnson, United Kingdom
    Over Your Dead Body, Takashi Miike, Japan
    The World of Kanako, Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan

    North American premieres

    Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, France
    Red Amnesia (Chuangru Zhe), Wang Xiaoshuai, China
    Pasolini, Abel Ferrara, France/Italy/Belgium
    Manglehorn, David Gordon Green, USA
    The Humbling, Barry Levinson, USA
    Hector and the Search for Happiness, Peter Chelsom, Germany/Canada
    Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Norway/Denmark/France
    Good Kill, Andrew Niccol, USA
    Far from Men (Loin des Hommes), David Oelhoffen, France
    Dearest, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, China/Hong Kong
    Coming Home, Zhang Yimou, China
    Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg, Canada/Germany
    National Diploma, Dieudo Hamadi France/Congo
    National Gallery, Frederick Wiseman, France/USA
    Natural Resistance, Jonathan Nossiter, Italy/France
    Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ma'a al Fidda) Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan, Syria/France
    A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, Sweden/Norway/France/Germany
    The Golden Era, Ann Hui, China/Hong Kong
    Goodbye to Language 3D, Jean-Luc Godard, France
    Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, South Korea

    Revivre, Im Kwon-taek, South Korea
    Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako, France/Mauritania/Mali
    It Follows, David Robert Mitchell, USA
    Alleluia, Fabrice Du Welz, France/Belgium
    Goodnight Mommy, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Austria
    They Have Escaped, JP Valkeapää, Finland

    Canadian premieres

    Whiplash, Damien Chazelle, USA
    The Imitation Game, Morten Tyldum, United Kingdom/USA
    Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes), Damian Szifron, Argentina/Spain
    Rosewater, Jon Stewart, USA
    Mr Turner, Mike Leigh, United Kingdom
    9 Homes, Ramin Bahrani, USA
    Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller, USA
    Merchants of Doubt, Robert Kenner, USA
    Red Army, Gabe Polsky, USA/Russia
    The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/United Kingdom

    Leviathan, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia
    The Guest, Adam Wingard, USA
    What We Do in the Shadows, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-23-2014 at 12:18 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff.

    Some Toronto early mainstream media reviews: Dobkin's THE JUDGE and James Franco's THE SOUND AND THE FURY (didn't he do that already?) both 3/5 stars from the GUARDIAN; Abel Ferrara's PASOLINI (hopeful for NYFF attendees) 4/5 stars. A bewitching walk on the wild side: "Willem Dafoe is superb as the celebrated Italian director who died in mysterious circumstances in 1975, in a film that could be Ferrara’s best yet," says GUARDIAN's Xian Brooks.

    Mike D'Angelo has been hard at work and with his usual demonic energy pouring out tweet reviews. Two days, and he has observed all or parts of ten films and provided evaluations and comments. See below. (First one is a NYFF preview)

    Hill of Freedom (Hong): 65. One of his enjoyable trifles, which is too bad because the scrambled-letters conceit merits something more.
    The Lesson (Grozeva & Valchanov): W/O. Bulgarian attempt at a Dardennes film duplicates the words, whiffs the melody. The usual, basically.
    Not My Type [Pas son genre] (Belvaux): 69. Admirably complex treatment of what seems like a simplistic scenario. Perhaps the 2 best perfs I've seen in '14.
    Again, promising for NYFF, another Main Slate title:

    '71 (Demange): 67. Well that was intense. Piles on the cynicism a bit thick in the home stretch, but as a pure action movie it's aces.
    Alléluia (Du Welz): 52. Still haven't seen THE HONEYMOON KILLERS, shamefully, but I prefer DEEP CRIMSON to this overly repetitive take.
    Also did some channel-surfing yesterday, with W/Os for RUN (Lacôte) and A DREAM OF IRON (Park). Nothing much to say about either.
    Far From Men (Oelhoffen): 64. Sturdy neo-Western set at the start of the Algerian War. Stunning vistas, strong perfs, solidly conventional.
    (Andersson): 54. Light on tours de force, surprisingly preachy. Some sublime bits, but feels like he's exhausted this particular mode.
    This one is hilarious, but also disgusting:

    Over Your Dead Body (Miike): 56. Apparently he saw CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and thought "Not bad, but it needs a woman eating her own fetus."
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-09-2014 at 09:09 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff.

    Toronto third day. More pungent tweet reviews from Mike D'Angelo.

    Return to Ithaca (Cantet): 40. Cuban BIG CHILL starts off Farley-insufferable ("Remember that time we...?"), improves to mediocre.
    This one is NYFF 2014 Main Slate and sounds disappointing. (I didn't see MAGIC GLOVES.)

    Two Shots Fired (Rejtman): 49. Really liked MAGIC GLOVES, but I don't get what's he's aiming for w/this one. Drollery for drollery's sake.
    The Drop (Roskam): 68. Really enjoy exploring Lehane's seedy little worlds (w/o Eastwood as a guide). The Golden Age of Hardy continues.


    THE DROP. Belgian (Flemish) filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam previously directed BULLHEAD, with the powerful performance by Matthias Schoenaerts (later in Audiard's RUST AND BONE). THE DROP (opening soon in US theaters) is in English and set in New York (though in this Dennis Lehane adaptation done -- for the first time -- by Lehand himself, relocated from Boston) and has another posthumous performance by James Gandolfini. "Hardy" refers to Tom Hardy, of whom D'Angelo adds, "The last few years of Hardy remind me strongly of watching Gary Oldman ca. 1986–1992. Same protean ambition." Justin Chang (VARIETY) notes "Hardy's terrific perf here is the main reason for seeing this workmanlike but familiar noirish crime tale which boasts "a succession of ham-fisted plot turns and goombah stereotypes" though "not without its low-keyed pleasures.." D'Angelo's rating (in his terms) seems a bit high though judging by reviews and the trailer I've been forced to watch in theaters more than once.

    GUARDIAN reviews give Reitman's MAN, WILLIAM, AND CHILDREN (with Adam Sandler) 3/5 stars; but D'Angleo skerwers it totally in his DISSOLVE review. Mia Hansen-Løve's EDEN (NYFF) gets 4/5 -- promising for NYFF where it's coming in the P&I screenings Sept. 23rd sandwiched between Resnais's LIFE OF RILEY and the Dardenne's new film.

    Final D'Angelo rating for this TIFF day:

    Goodnight Mommy (Franz & Fiala*): 57. More like AUDITION than like Seidl. Expertly disturbing/grueling, not sure to what subtextual purpose.
    *Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who have worked with Seidl; this is more an arty horror movie, which Debruge of VARIETY calls "a fairy tale for DOGTOOTH enthusiasts." The mother returned from hospital with face covered in bandages seems the evil one, till her young twin boys turn the tables. This actually debuted at Venice. German title of this Austrian film is ICH SEH, ICH SEH ("I see, I see").
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-07-2014 at 07:12 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day Four.

    D'Angelo Sunday tweet reviews.

    This Is Where I Leave You (Levy): 47. Dismal when trying to be funny/farcical, surprisingly tolerable when more serious/thoughtful.
    (Today is mostly devoted to seeing films I've been assigned to review, coming out in the next week or two. TUSK is next. It's a living.)
    Tusk (Smith*): 28. This movie's stupid.
    *Kevin Smith. "A man is captured by a maniac and tortured, physically and mentally, into becoming a walrus." (IMDb)

    GUARDIAN reviews (These ratings seem soft and uninformative next to D'Angelo's precise ones, but they do cover a lot of movies including mainstream releases he won't be bothering with.)

    From yesterday:

    THE RIOT CLUB: 4/5 stars. "The PM should love it."
    MADAME BOVERY 3/4 Stars. "Swooningly grim."
    NIGHTCRAWLER 4/5 stars. "Gyllenhaal gets his hands dirty in brilliant news thriller."
    EDEN (already mentionned) 4/5 stars. "Heaven is midnight in Paris, dancing to electronica."
    THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY 4/5 stars. "Filthy and fraught with genuine emotion."


    Duke of Burgundy

    From today:

    MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN (Reitman) 4/5. They liked Adam Sandler, and Emma Thompson's "frisky" voiceover.
    THE DROP 3/5 stars. "Gamey...procedural."
    WHILE WE'RE YOUNG (Noah Baumbach) 5/5 (!) "While We're Young: Ben Stiller has a hipster replacement in brilliant comedy." (Catherine Shoard.)
    ST. VINCENT 3/5 stars. "This hymn of love to Bill Murray is a symphony of slapstick with some discordant quavers – and a lot of bars."
    THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOUY 2/5 stars. "Fey and Bateman in tale of sibling ribaldry." *(This surely is junk; so anything not junk GUARDIAN gives 3/5?)
    THE REACH 2/5 stars. "The pulpy conceit of Jean-Baptiste Leonetti's cartoonish desert thriller runs dry as Michael Douglas hunts Jeremy Irvine across the Mojave, says Henry Barnes."
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-08-2014 at 09:43 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Still Day Four.

    Don't know exactly who these guys are but am pleased at the positive response in these tweets below. Redmayne has won prizes before (RED, on state) but this might be a film that brings him fame (after a strong showing in LES MIZ):

    Joe Williams ‏@joethecritic 1h
    The Stephen Hawking bio "The Theory of Everything" is the best thing I've seen at #tiff14. By a light year.
    Kyle Buchanan ‏@kylebuchanan 1h
    Eddie Redmayne is pretty major in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (and so is Felicity Jones). My take: http://bit.ly/1rVSYuC
    D'Angelo's, Scott Tobias's and Noel Murray's TIFF 2014 day-by-day reports in THE DISSOLVE can be found here. http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/ Some of these overlap with reviews D'Angelo wrote at Cannes four months ago. But the link is to D'Angelo's fresh and new review of Reitman's MAN, WOMEN, & CHILDREN. His review is damning. Excerpt:

    Individually, each of these mini-narratives is at best egregiously tone-deaf. Intercut to form an alarmist state of the union address (complete with a pretentious framing device involving Voyager 1’s journey beyond our solar system), they collectively cross the line into outright laughable. Reitman has never exactly been renowned for his subtlety, but between this ghastly misfire and Labor Day, he seems to have completely lost touch with any notion of how human beings actually behave. . .

    [D'Angelo, "Day 3: Men, Women, Children," THE DISSOLVE]

    I had not given D'Angelo's tweet on MEN, WOMEN CHILDREN, because it was wordless and numberless, consisting only of a flatline sort of emoticon.
    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · Sep 6
    �� (Reitman): :cry:
    The exact emoticon from Twitter I can't find but here's an approximation:

    . Plus a symbol of a pistol pointed at the grimacing face.


    NY TIMES has a sort of blog.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-07-2014 at 05:13 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Still Day Four.


    Felicity Jones & Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

    More positive feedback on James Marsh's Stephen Hawking biopic starring Eddie Redmayne, THEORY OF EVERYTHING: https://twitter.com/hashtag/EddieRedmayne?src=hash

    Josh Lincoln Dickey ‏@NotoriousJLD 4m
    THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING is as close to a perfect biopic as I have ever seen, with a love story for the ages. I am in tears. What a thing.
    I totally see this. The trailer made me cry.

    Peter Knegt ‏@peterknegt 1m
    THEORY OF EVERYTHING is better than it needed to be. Some standard biopic elements but v affecting and Redmayne is remarkable. #TIFF14
    Alex Billington ‏@firstshowing 3m
    Won't be surprised if Theory of Everything wins Audience Award at #TIFF14. Really connects, powerful. "While there is life, there is hope."
    Dave Karger ‏@davekarger 13m
    The Theory of Everything is a beautiful & singular love story. Sure bet for lead acting nods for Eddie Redmayne & Felicity Jones.
    Th is turns out to be a tremendous story: the heroic struggle of a great man: the most brilliant scientific mind of the century: one whose body totally betrayed him, yet he soldiered on and led a life of unprecedented intellectual accomplishment. Not expected to live beyond his mid-twenties, he is still working at 72. There was the documentary account in A SHORT HISTORY OF TIME, but a dramatized version can be immensely moving. What an opportunity for Redmayne! The only danger is that he may never be so remembered for anything else.

    The Twitter buzz just keeps on coming:

    Barbara Chai ‏@barbarachai 21m
    That was so, so beautiful. Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, man. #TIFF14 #TheTheoryofEverything
    elisabeth sereda ‏@elisabethsereda 8m
    'MyLeftFoot' can go home. #EddieRedmayne is heartbreaking, flawless and inspiring as #StephenHawking in #TheTheoryofEverything #TIFF14
    I know Redmayne could do this. There is a purity about him, and a fluidity, suppleness and humility.

    Richard Lawson ‏@rilaws 27m
    I'm normally biopic averse, but I thought The Theory of Everything was wonderful. Redmayne really is extraordinary, as is F. Jones #TIFF
    Steve Pond ‏@stevepond 15m
    Theory of Everything got the biggest reaction of anything I've seen in Toronto. Hard to imagine it won't get a bunch of nominations.
    I guess you get the idea. It may be a Hallmark card, it may be boilerplate, but it grabs you, but in his cinematography Benoît Delhomme gives it all he's got, and Jones and Redmayne deliver. In Indiewire, Nicola Grozdanovic outlines the pluses and minuses. GUARDIAN gives THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING 4/5 stars.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-09-2014 at 12:57 PM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day five.

    GUARDIAN reviews.

    THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU 2/5 stars. With Tiny Fey and Adam Driver playing offspring of Jane Fonda . "The performers excel, but the schmaltz can send a shiva down the spine." Metacritic rating of this movie is 57%.

    MADAME BOVARY (Sophie Barthes) 3/5 stars (Catherine Shoard). "Madame Bovary review: just go with the Flaubert - Toronto film festival
    This swooningly grim adaptation is inessential but interesting viewing, not least for Mia Wasikowska’s fish-out-of-water heroine; a crabby valley girl in rural Normandy." Barthes previously did COLD SOULS (with Paul Giamatti). This one has Mia Wasikowska, Giamatti, and Ezra Miller.

    http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/waters.jpg

    More D'Angelo tweet reviews:

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Broomfield): 51. Starts out in exoneration mode, but that goes nowhere, so "racist LAPD" it is. Not revelatory?
    This one is NYFF. He adds: "Personalities involved are fascinating, but amassing evidence of official malfeasance from decades ago seems like an exercise in duh." Not sure why history is "duh," which in this case might devalue all the oeuvre of James Ellroy. D'Angelo rewatched L.A. CONFIDENTIAL IN 2012 and gave it 4 1/2 stars on 'Letterboxed.'

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (To): 35. Sadly, a typical sequel: jettisons everything that made the original special, rehashes the crap.
    While We're Young (LaBute): 42. I don't understand how he keeps getting $ to make these films. COMPANY OF MEN was 17 years ago. Wait, what?
    Catherine Shoard gives WHILE WE'RE YOUNG a 5/5 stars, but the film is directed by Noah Baumbach. This is D'Angelo's somewhat perverse way of saying he thinks the topic was dealt with already by LaBute, 17 years ago. He thinks LaBute isn't much of a filmmaker, and so he thinks WHLE WE'RE YOUNG is like bad LaBute. These the two extremes on this movie, Shoard ecstatic, D'Angelo sarcastic and dismissive. Opinion is mixed.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-10-2014 at 12:03 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day five.

    [D'Angelo:]

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    The 50 Year Argument (Scorsese & Tedeschi): 50. "How can we make the NYRB visually compelling?" "Eh, let's not even bother." "Cool."
    This is a NYFF doc sidebar item. Also shown and praised at Telluride. D'Angelo adds in a folllow-up tweet: "(Seriously, large hunks of this movie consist of someone standing at a lectern reading aloud a piece (s)he wrote years earlier.)" He does not like talking heads. And in cinematic terms, he is right. But I often like what talking heads have to say. Still, the NYRB sounds like dull material for a movie.

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    Ned Rifle (Hartley): 55. Title character of zero interest, but Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Fool remains an endless source of amusement.
    "NED RIFLE is the final installment in Hartley’s dysfunctional family trilogy which started with HENRY FOOL and FAY GRIM.” It sees a son emerge from the witness protection program with the sole aim of killing his father." Gee, sounds like "Weeds." I do not know these movies.

    GUARDIAN reviews.

    LOVE AND MERCY 3/5 stars. (Bill Pohlad) "Love & Mercy review – a warm tribute to the extraordinary life of Brian Wilson." This is a drama, not a documentary, fictionalizing the life of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

    THE FACE OF AN ANGEL 3/5 stars. (Michael Winterbottom) "The Face of an Angel review: disconcerting dreams, riotous hacks and the mystery of Meredith Kercher's murder." With Kate Beckinsale, Daniel Brühl, Cara Delevingne, Ava Acres. This is about a journalist and documentary filmmaker investigating the murder of a British student in Italy.

    ST. VINCENT (Theodore Melfi) Bill Murray comedy vehicle and first film that is a godsend accessible but complex role for him as a lovable grumpy drunken person who becomes a babysitter for a single mom who works. I already cited Catherine Shoard's GUARDIAN review and 3/5 stars rating. With Naomi Watts and Melissa McCarthy. But you don't need a film festival to know about this.

    TIME OUT OF MIND (Owen Moverman) -- NYFF: VARIETY's Chang heaps praise on Gere's performance as a homeless person, but admits the movie will be a bit of a slog for non-festival audiences.

    THE IMITATION GAME gets 3/5 stars, so clearly THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (with 4/5) is the winner despite the comparison I noted in the Telluride thread. Catherine Shoard again: "The Imitation Game review: Knightley and Cumberbatch impress, but historical spoilers lower the tension." Cumberbatch and Knightley, the central "couple," though Turing, Cumberbatch's character, was gay, are fine, but the screenplay falls short.

    The GUARDIAN is practical. They'll sell you a weekend course on how to write movie reviews and sell them to an editor.
    Masterclasses: How to write about film with Peter Bradshaw and Catherine Shoard
    From turning critical thinking into compelling storytelling, to how to pitch to editors – the ultimate primer in the key skills of writing about film.
    Date
    Sunday 28 September
    Price£99
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-09-2014 at 07:37 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day Six.




    Heaven Knows What

    GUARDIAN

    THE EQUILIZER (Antoie Fuqua) 2/5 stars. "director Antoine Fuqua reunites with his hard-as-nails Training Day star for a violent remake of the 80s TV series."
    (This may have been earlier)

    WILD (Jean-Marc Vallée). 4/5 stars. "Wild review – a two-hour hallucinatory montage." "Reese Witherspoon shines in Jean-Marc Vallée's lean, energetic adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's bestselling memoir, writes Henry Barnes." This was mentioned at Telluride; see Filmleaf Telluride 2014 thread.

    ROSEWATER (Jon Stewart). 3/5 stars. "Paul MacInnes: Master TV satirist Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, about a journalist jailed in Iran, is well-meaning but there aren’t quite enough laughs to prevent it from being dreary on the eye."

    Some Mike D'Angelo tweet reviews for today:

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    Meet Me in Montenegro (Holdridge & Saasen): W/O. ...where there are no indie films about the love lives of struggling indie filmmakers.
    "A comedy centered on a failed American writer who enters into an affair after a chance encounter with a European dancer."

    Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
    Heaven Knows What (Safdies): 70. Sustains an assaultive mode longer than I would have thought possible. Wish it ended rather than stopped.
    This is in the NYFF Main Slate. The Safdies film depicts young heroin addicts running around NYC looking for a fix. I reviewed the Safdie brothers' 2009 film DADDY LONGLEGS , which I found troubling, interesting. It uses semi-improv semi-doc elements in fiection.

    Manglehorn (Green): 48. I could have lived the rest of my life quite happily without seeing Harmony Korine dancing to Rich Homie Quan.
    This is an Al Pacino vehicle by David Gordon Green, who has "returned to [serious, indie] form" recently with the not bad PRINCE AVALANCHE and the good JOE. Actually this debuted at Venice, wher Peter Debruge in VARIETY said the subtle southernn role was a bad fit for the larger-than-life Pacino, the movie itself a bit disheveled. But still: Pacino. This D'Angelo will doubtless explain in his THE DISSOLVE dispatch for the day.

    Nightcrawler (Gilroy): 63. Lays the cynicism on too thick, but Gyllenhaal is great—as if Max Fischer grew up to be Chuck Tatum.
    Gyllenhaal as an intense journalist again. This ranks 7th in D'Angelo's Toronto list so far, mildly confirming the good buzz. US opening 31 October. "A young man stumbles upon the underground world of L.A. freelance crime journalism" -- IMDB.



    Phoenix (Petzold): 56. I submit that this is a case where people are mistaking a great final scene for a great film. Too VERTIGOoey overall.
    Christian Petzold, one of the leading current German directors, did JERICHOW (ND/NF 2008) and the excellent more recent BARBARA (2012, in US release with the fine Nina Hoss of A MOST WANTED MAN).

    The Duke of Burgundy (Strickland): 91. One of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen.
    (GUARDIAN's reviewer gave it 4/5 stars two days ago; looks like D'Angelo's festival favorite.) "A woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with he [lesbian]r lover" -- IMDb. UK film but one of the leads is Danish (the other Italian?). Peter Strickland previously made BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (2012), which I didn't like much: to film-nerdy for me; guess I just didn't get it. Metacritic 80% though.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-10-2014 at 10:02 AM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day seven.

    GUARDIAN reviews.

    CAKE 2/5 stars. (Jennifer Aniston vehicle, directed by Daniel Barnz). "Despite Aniston’s diverting drab-act as a bitchy, suicidal woman in constant pain: This humdrum character study is sour and half-baked, writes Catherine Shoard." "The acerbic, hilarious Claire Simmons becomes fascinated by the suicide of a woman in her chronic pain support group" (IMDb). Shoard says she may be acerbic, but is never hilarious; any funniness must have been lost on the cutting room floor.

    SHELTER 2/5 stars. "Shelter review – Paul Bettany’s drama is striking but improbably anguished. . . Jennifer Connelly in Shelter. For all its good intentions, Bettany’s tale of the relationship between a drug addict and an illegal immigrant is undermined by a lack of balance and nuance, writes Henry Barnes." With Jenifer Connelly, Anthony Mackie. Written and directed by English actor Paul Bettany. "Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future" (IMDb).

    Recent D'Angelo tweet reviews:

    Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 21s
    HORSE MONEY (Pedro Costa): 31. A series of gorgeous images to which I could make no other connection whatsoever. Costa's project ain't for me.
    He doesn't like Costa. I sympathize on this "polarizing" director.* (NYFF)


    The Riot Club

    THE RIOT CLOB (Lone Scherfig) VARIETY (Peter Debruge): "'An Education' director Lone Scherfig offers another tough life lesson, this one exposing the gross misconduct within an Oxford private dining society." British upperclass misbehavior, based on a play. A certain neutral distance may result from the fact the director is not a male Brit but a Danish woman.

    _________________
    *I did enjoy basking in the gorgeous images of Jeanne Balibar in Costa's NE CHANGE RIEN when I saw it in NYFF 2009 (see Festival Coverage). I went over pros and cons on Costa re his COLOSSAL YOUTH in a SFIFF 2007 review. VARIETY's Justin Change seemed to dislike Costa; this year they had Scott Foundas (who's connected with the NYFF, which includes HORSE MONEY in the Main Slate this year) to write a glowing review.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-10-2014 at 11:37 PM.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Ottawa Canada
    Posts
    5,656
    I don't like that Cameron Bailey is "The Face" of TIFF. Artistic Director or not, why are his picks relevant? I get e-mails everyday from TIFF, and it's always Cameron's spaced-out face staring at me with his "picks for the day".

    I thought TIFF was an "AUDIENCE FESTIVAL" Cameron.
    Your sense of humour is HUGE!
    TIFF is irrelevant to me. Has been since 2009.
    Your thread is appreciated Chris, it's good to know what's actually happening, but TIFF is Mega-Corporate, does not have it's thumb on World Events and is Super-Elite.
    I experienced it first-hand, and I will never forget it. It's just a dog and pony show, and they owe me and FilmLeaf.Net a Massive apology.

    (I won't hold my breath for it)
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Ottawa Canada
    Posts
    5,656
    VIFF is WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAN TIFF.

    I miss Vancouver a lot.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    1,627
    Ran across this reference to "Wild" and thought you might like it.

    http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014...estival-review
    Colige suspectos semper habitos

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    I referred to that WILD review in a post above but didn't link to it. It was his -- Henry Barnes' -- 4/5 stars rating I gave. But the DISSOLVE boys have liked it too, and so did VARIETY critic Justin Chang at Telluride, where it first showed. I am getting most of my TIFF information from GUARDIAN reviews by various writers and Mike D'Angelo's tweets (and THE DISSOLVE day journals by him and his colleagues) and occasionally from VARIETY reviews by Justin Chang, Scott Foundas, Peter Debruge, and others.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    tiff. Day seven, cont'd.

    More GUARDIAN reviews.

    A LITTLE CHAOS (Alan Rickman) 3/5 stars. "A Little Chaos review – Louis XIV gardening romp borders on ridiculous. . . Alan Rickman's second film as director, which premieres at the Toronto film festival, stars Kate Winslet and channels Mills & Boon." If this is "ridiculous" or borders on it, the 3/5 stars rating is generous. "A female landscape-gardener is awarded the esteemed assignment to construct the grand gardens at Versaillers, a gilt-edged position which thrusts her to the very centre of the court of King Louis XIV" (IMDb).

    PAWN SACRIFICE (Zwick) 2/5 stars. "Tobey Maguire makes a decent fist of playing the prickly chess grandmaster, but Edward Zwick’s unsubtle film never delves beneath the surface of his paranoid psychology." IMDb: "American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky." Since this is written by Stephen Knight, whose credits include LOCKE, EASTERN PROMISES and DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, I'd guess it's worth a watch. Costarring Liev Shreiber (as Spassky), Peter Sarsgaard and Lily Rabe.


    Pawn Sacrifice

    D'Angelo:

    Wild (Vallée): 56. Given that I'm not big on tales of self-actualization or expository flashbacks, this was pleasantly painless.
    Others have rated this much higher and it looks to be a big box office hit like, perhaps, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. I wonder if D'A would consider that "self-actualization"; it apparently slights the sophisticated intellectual content; Chang said Shane Carruth would have been a better person to direct it.

    D'Angelo has a DAY SIX ROUNDUP on THE DISSOLVE, where he enlarges upon the views he gave in many of his most recent tweets, without the numerical scores, which really make best sense when used to rank relatively all the 40 or 50 films he will have seen when the festival is all done. .

    The London Film Festival is 8-19 October overlapping the end of the NYFF and Vancouver (VIFF) 25 September - 10 October almost totally overlaps the NYFF, which is 26 September - 12 October. These are all nice venues and ways to catch up on best of Cannes, Venice, and Toronto, but do not really compete with those big fests or introduce important new titles quite the way Sundance, Berlin, and a few others do. Cannes and Toronto seem the most strategically placed now. Toronto's importance owes much to heavy commercial investment to promote big fall movies but it also has a ton of interesting auteur stuff -- most of what D'Angelo seeks out. Every festival is a marketplace, or would like to be.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-11-2014 at 12:07 AM.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •