Biutiful: To me, this was a disappointing work. The idea of a contemptible criminal with little regard for the health and well-being of others developing loyalty towards those closest to him as he confronts cancer was appealing but the execution is lacking. Javier Bardem is once again on the other side of the law but he shows far more empathy than he did as Anton Chigurh but he is unable to engender the sympathy of the audience. So fate strikes those on both sides of the law but what is the lesson? Perhaps Biutiful meant to show how anyone can …
Best Films of 2010
I wasn’t able to see all the 2010 films that I wanted to because of late Canadian release dates and there were some films that I didn’t catch until this year (although they were released earlier in other countries). Here is my best effort to rank the best films of 2010. Oddly, I seemed to have seen the same amount of new films as I did last year. 2010 List: The Big Picture **** Irony and film. The King’s Speech **** Everything you would want in a film. Easy Money **** It’s not so easy as it seems. Black Swan …
T.I.F.F. 2010, Part V: Jaloux
The final film that I screened at this year’s festival was Jaloux, directed by Patrick Demers. The low-budget work was filmed over sixteen days in Northern Quebec without a script; the director began with a storyboard that outlined the action and the small cast refined each scene by reviewing each day’s rushes every evening. Consequently, the cast was invested in the product as much as the financial backers and everyone cared deeply about the final product. It is unusual for the cast to review their own work during production. Sophie Cadieux, Maxime Denommée, and Benoît Gouin were able to get …
T.I.F.F. 2010, Part III: The Big Picture
Also known as L’Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie, The Big Picture proved to be another excellent film. “Thank you for choosing this f—— film,” director Eric Lartigau told the capacity crowd at the Toronto International Film Festival. The f—— film focuses on Paul Exben, played by Roman Duris. Early in the film, his learns that his marriage has collapsed. Paul confronts Grégoire, his wife’s lover, and accidentally kills the man. He realizes that he must disappear so he assumes Grégoire’s identity and moves to the Balkans. The film is a dark character study of a tragic hero. Lartigau often …
T.I.F.F. 2010, Part II: Film Socialism
It was an odd sight to see a quarter to a third of the audience walk out of the Ryerson Theatre throughout the opening night screening of Film Socialisme at the Toronto International Film Festival. Many spectators struggled to make sense of the film that was purposefully obfuscated. This version of the film did not include subtitles; the premiere at Cannes included Navajo subtitles. Whether it is difficult to understand because of the language barrier or difficult to understand because of the subject matter is irrelevant to Jean-Luc Godard. The film must be difficult to understand because it seeks to …
T.I.F.F. 2010, Part I: Easy Money
After viewing countless flawed films, tolerating several superficial screenplays, and living with too many loose ends that have not been tied up, I was very happy to see Easy Money at the Toronto International Film Festival. A crime caper film with a twist, director Daniel Espinosa spends as much time exploring the personal lives of those who control the drug market in Sweden as he does the cocaine deal about to unfold. Consequently, the characters are fully developed and their motivations are known and understood. J.W. is a business school student who drives a cab and runs errands for a …
Post-Game 7 (2010) Thoughts
The Lakers may have played a poor game, Kobe Bryant may have forced too many bad shots, and Pau Gasol taken too many fadeaways. For forty minutes, Ron Artest may have kept Los Angeles in the game with key plays (despite how unlikely that may have seemed based on his play throughout the season). But when it counted, the Lakers got to the line, found the open shooter, and made clutch baskets. Whatever happened earlier in the game – and it was terribly ugly – is irrelevant now. Like the Portland Trail Blazers in 2000, the Boston Celtics blew a …
Pre-Game 7 (2010) Thoughts
Association Finals have proved anticlimactic in recent memory; even the Spurs-Pistons and Rockets-Knicks series that went the distance were tedious and tiresome. Yet I have higher hopes for tonight’s game between the Lakers and Celtics. None of the games in the series so far have been truly exciting. There have been excellent individual performances but no true back-and-forth battles between equal squads, like the 1984 or 1969 Finals. The series has been a disappointment but the increase in intensity shown in Game 6 offers a chance for redemption tonight. Both teams are banged up but others stepped forward, especially the …
Hot Docs ’10
I wasn’t able to devote as much time to Hot Docs as I had the year before but I remained able to attend some enjoyment screenings. Unfortunately, although the topics, like film and sport were interesting, the narrative structure of all three documentaries that I screened was flawed. The People vs. George Lucas recounts the dissonance between Star Wars fans and franchise creator George Lucas. Fans are willing to dress up like their favourite characters or recreate scenes from the original trilogy but they loathe the changes Lucas made for the Special Edition or the new filmmaking of the Prequels. Some …