Toronto Film Festival Sept. 5- Sept 15, 2019

[Chris Knipp]

From Mike D'Angelo (2)


JAMIE LEE CURTIS IN RIAN JOHNSON'SKNIVES OUT

(Note these are just excerpts of his longer short reviews except The LIghthouse.)

TIFF 2019: Day 3

The County (Grímur Hákonarson, Germany/Denmark/France/Iceland): 53 More conventional and less inventive than Rams—it’s basically an Icelandic Norma Rae, with one angry widow standing up to a corrupt co-op by starting a rival, farmer-run co-op of her own.

The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio, Italy): 54 If we must have biopics (and really, must we?), let them at least be as relentlessly eventful as this one. . .[not] really about much of anything, content merely to tap all the historical bases. . . [employs] formal devices. . .that arguably confuse more than they clarify.

Knives Out (Rian Johnson, USA): 81 Not just the crackerjack mystery I’d hoped for, but also deeply cathartic in ways I’d never have anticipated. Final shot is pure �� [symbol of knife].[He is holding further details till it comes out in Nov. The Metascore at present is 83%.]

[For more detail about Knives Out see as Dave Erlich's review in Indiewire: "a crackling, devious, and hugely satisfying old-school whodunnit with a modern twist — wants you to know that it takes place in the world of today" and constitutes "a sharp takedown of white entitlement."]

The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, USA): 49 [Entire thumbnail review:} Reminded me strongly of Soderbergh’s Kafka, another b&w sophomore effort that I respected for its crazed ambition but didn’t actually much enjoy (and have never had any desire to revisit). Dafoe and Pattinson are certainly having a swell time, and I laughed at numerous salty lines and much of the gull-related comedy. Ultimately, though, the madness feels arbitrary, skin-deep, as if Eggers settled on the actors and location without fully working out what they’d do there. The Witch drew considerable power from its sheer nightmarish conviction, and that element is largely absent here. Also not a big fan of fart jokes, so maybe I’m just not the target audience this time around.

So I guess the only ones we should really be bothered about so far are About Endlessness and Knives Out..