From Mike D'Angelo
STILL FROM ABOUT ENDLESSNESS
By "subscribing," you can get D'Angelo's Patreon reviews, in lieu of his former succinct Twitter ones, which for some reason his (more straitened) circumstances don't permit. Here are ratings and a few comments on his viewings at Toronto so far. These are in reverse order. Nothing earthshaking yet, but these show why I have missed D'Angelo's thumbnail festival reviews the past few years.
TIFF 2019: Day 2
Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan, Canada): 45. "Easily his dumbest original script." With David Thewlis in the lead as "a persnickety health inspector" (in Canada).
About Endlessness (Roy Andersson, Germany/Norway/Sweden): 65. Despite the high rating he acknowledges that without a "dinstancing effect" that supplies "a tangy flavor" things might otherwise seem "a tad rote."
Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov, Russia): 52 "A superlatively made historical bleakfest with which I sadly never quite connected." This is on my NYFF to-do list. Deals with the nation of Russia's "unimaginable trauma" after WWII. Coming in the NYFF Main Slate.
Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa, Portugal): 59 He notes he doesn't like Costa but remembers he did like the "gorgeous concert film Ne change rien" though he thought it was marred by Jeanne Balibar's "mediocrity as a chanteuse." Really? Then he must not like Mathieu Amalric's Barbara, where Balibar I thought stood in quite well for the chanteuse.
TIFF 2019: Day 1
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly, France): 55 "Like Do the Right Thing or La Haine as experienced primarily by the racist cops, which I suppose does qualify as a somewhat fresh angle." It's beginning to emerge that these are somewhat arcane selections on D'Angelo's part. But that's the beauty of them - he makes TFF seem like ND/NF, Film Comment Selects or Locarno.
Frankie (Ira Sachs, France/Portugal): 47 A thoroughly nice, sincere, compassionate ensemble piece that never stirred me beyond polite attentiveness. Huppert shrugs and sickly-smiles her way through the title role, frankly. . ."
The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu, Germany/France/Romania): 58 "Needed more whistling." (Cannes.)
Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello, France): 50 He found this Haitian zombie film by a French director is totally off the wall." the sinuous Bonello magic surfaces only on occasion. Feels like a misfire, but I’m not confident in that assessment as yet." (Cannes.)
Liberté (Albert Serra, Germany/Portugal/Spain/France): 16 "Worst. Pornhub channel. Ever. Pure sadomasochism bores me out of my skull (one reason I adore The Duke of Burgundy), and Serra’s latest expends well over two hours lovingly (yet monotonously) cataloguing all of my least favorite perversions, from whipping to water sports to the world’s ugliest phalluses." Fair warning.
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