2009 Autumn Harvest Film Festival

Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival 2009

On the set of “Inappropriate Thoughts”

An evening at Scaramouche

On the set of “Objects of Desire”

On the set of “694″

Cows at the ROM

Why? I don’t know

TIFF 2009 Day 10

Mr Nobody
Meet Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on earth, as he recalls the quantum possibilities of his life. Very original, beautifully shot, great FX, terrific story, but very complex (so pay attention). The only other film I am remotely reminded of is Slaughterhouse Five, times three (Slaughterhouse 15?). This is an artful story of love, seen through the lens of the cold calculus of science. Not everyone will like this film due to its complexity, and not everyone will understand the film because of the science. And if the science is completely over your head, then I can only offer this explanation: God did it. If you’re willing to use both sides of your brain when you watch this, you will love it. 10/10.

Precious
Overweight 16 year old girl is pregnant with her second child by her father, and has abusive mother. Unique and tragic situation, but otherwise conventional plot. There are some powerful moments in this film, but the lead actress had a tendency to slur her words. That may be the way she talks in reality, but in film you need to enunciate so I can understand what you are saying. This film won the TIFF people’s choice award, but this is no Slumdog. 8/10.

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
Seemingly not related to Ong Bak 1 at all (we’ll find out after Ong Bak 3), this film is much heavier in action than the first one. Good story, great fight choreography, a bit too much action and I need closure, I don’t like the story being continued in the next movie. Also, the version shown did not appear to be a final cut, since there appeared to be editing marks in the emulsion, the whole thing was slightly out of focus, and there were occasional sprocket jumps in the digital transfer. 6/10

Musings on this year’s TIFF:
- I only liked 3 out of the 8 films from the Visa screening pass. Considering these are supposed to be the best ones and are twice the price, this was completely not worth it. I won’t be doing this again next year
- I liked 9 out of 10 films from the Midnight Madness pass. I will definitely do this again next year
- It pisses me off that only corporate sponsors get to see the premieres at RTH, who go because they got a free ticket and not because they love film, and a lot of them don’t even show up. If you are lucky enough to purchase a ticket, it is way up in the upper balcony (not even the middle balcony).
- My favourite photos that I took are these two

TIFF 2009 Day 9

The Dirty Saints (Los Santos sucios)
In a post apocalyptic world where few have survived, the remaining people seem to wander from one rubble pile to another. Sometimes a plane goes overhead or a car drives by really really fast. When they do converse, which isn’t often, they talk about crossing the river. I thought you crossed already, don’t cross it alone, when should we cross it, who will I cross it with, we can’t cross without the Mute because he has the door handle, yada yada. There is only one woman amongst the half dozen survivors, for the sake of argument let’s call her Smurfette. Despite being really hot, the dudes don’t really like her, don’t want anything to do with her, and don’t want to cross the river with her. So they cross the river without her and wind up in a desert where the Mute accidentally drops the door handle without realizing it and they keep on walking. That’s pretty much everything that happens in the movie so now you don’t have to see it. Also the subtitle translations were really bad, many misspellings and nonsensical sentences; worse than babelfish. The river is obviously a metaphor for something, but the director wasn’t there to explain what. I had to struggle for consciousness through this one and I now regret not taking a nap. 2/10.

The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights
Concert film of the White Stripes on their cross Canada tour that took them through every single province and territory. Lots of great intimate moments and surprise free concerts. 8/10

Director Emmett Malloy, and Jack and Meg White

A Town Called Panic (Panique au village)
Crude stop motion animation, and humour only a french child would get. There were some amusing moments, but these were few and far between. 4/10

Writer/producer Vincent Tavier

TIFF 2009 Day 8

Vengeance
Death Wish meets Memento. Not Johnny To’s best work. I liked the character dynamics, the action scenes, and the tension building, but the story was mediocre and I didn’t like the lead actor. If you decide to make your first English language feature, then maybe you should have at least one native English actor? 5/10.

London River
Strong acting performances in this film about a woman searching for her missing daughter after the London bombings. Special Kudos to Brenda Blethyn who carried this film with her portrayal of the angst ridden and xenophobic mother. This one is Oscar bait. 8/10

Brenda Blethyn

Symbol (Shinboru)
A Mexican wrestler, long past his prime, is about to enter the ring. At the same time, a man in pajamas finds himself in a white room filled with cherub penises. Ummm, what? Absurdist Japanese humour coupled with a philisophical bent and an outrageous imagination, there is no way I could describe any more of this film without seeming to be a lunatic. Both profound and hilarious, I’ve never seen a movie like this and I doubt that I ever will. 9/10

Colin Geddes introducing Symbol

The Lindt girls hamming it up