He's back. LA junket man Paul Fischer continues his Toronto coverage with moe reviews including looks at five films, most of which are expected to win a swag of awards - "Ray", "Sideways", "Crash", "Oyster Farmer" and "The Assassination of Nixon":
<strong>Toronto Film Festival Report: Days 3 & 4 </strong>
"As the Toronto Film Festival continues, discovering veritable treasures is the object of the exercise and there are plenty to be found, beginning with what to me is not only one of the best films of the festival but one of the year's best: Alexander Payne's wonderfully acerbic Sideways. Here is a film that finds hilarity in its abrasive reality, in this absorbing and comic tale of a last hurrah as Paul Giamatti' s Miles escorts his closest friend Jack [Thomas Haden Church] on a road trip to the Southern Californian vineyards the week of the latter's wedding. Miles, who has never recovered from his divorce, is middle aged, an aspiring novelist, and a middle school teacher caught in his own quagmire of middle class failure. He lives his wines while friend is determined to sow some long awaited oats much to Miles's chagrin. But when Miles meets a beautiful fellow wine lover and waitress (Virginia Madsen), maybe his luck will change. Sideways is part love story and part satirical comment on California's middle class sub culture, but mostly it's an ingeniously written and perfectly structured screenplay by the masterful Payne. Resisting casting big name stars, he casts actors who are perfect. Academy voters note: Paul Giamatti deserves recognition, for his ferociously honest, human and indelibly deep performance. It's one of the best male performances of the year. Virginia Madsen proves how luminous she is and is superb in this. Beautifully directed by Payne and lushly shot in the thick of Southern California's wine district, Sideways is both hilarious and melancholy, but then it's about life's extremes and for Payne a triumph.
It was nice to spend quality one on one time with both Giamatti and Madsen. Paul told me he was shocked when he was cast in this and also spoke about working with Russell Crowe and Ron Howard on Cinderella Man, playing Crowe's trainer. "It seems to me Russell is only happy when he's acting", Giamatti told me. As for Madsen, she still looks amazing and talked about being a single mother, her career and now looking for love. Those interviews will run soon. While it might be a battle to get Giamatti the Oscar nomination he deserves, one thing is certain: Jamie Foxx WILL be nominated for his extraordinary work in Taylor Hackford's astonishing Ray, the remarkable warts-and-all depiction of the life of Ray Charles. Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday, Ali) is Ray Charles in this high-energy portrait of an exceptional man who has become an American icon. Born in a poor African American town in central Florida, Ray Charles went blind at the age of 7. With the staunch support of his determined single mother, he developed the fierce resolve, wit and incredible talent that would eventually enable him to overcome not only Jim Crow Racism and the cruel prejudices against the blind, but also discover his own sound which revolutionized American popular music. Nonetheless, as Ray's unprecedented fame grew, so did his weakness for drugs and women, until they threatened to strip away the very things he held most dear. This little known story of Ray Charles' meteoric rise from humble beginnings, his successful struggle to excel in a sighted world and his eventual defeat of his own personal demons make for an inspiring and unforgettable true story of human triumph. Foxx embodies the spirit, flaws and determination of Charles, with every nuance in his being. It's the purest most complete performance by an actor seen in years. But Ray is also a powerful, richly textured work, a film that takes the biopic to a new level. As remarkable as Foxx is, the actresses who play his women, especially Regina King as the manipulative Margie Hendrix, and Kerry Washington as Della, the woman who would stay with him through Ray's drug use and womanising, are magnificent. Superbly directed by Hackford, it was no surprise that the film received a standing ovation at its gala premiere, for it truly is a masterpiece and an evocative, deeply moving tale. Featuring a star-studded cast, Paul Haggis' Crash, just acquired for North America by Lions Gate, is a wonderfully dark tragicomedy on the cultural underbelly of Los Angeles. Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and the stunning Thandie Newton are among the stars of this exquisite, beautifully written piece about a disparate group of characters, identified by tragedy, race and LA. The film begins and ends with a dead body and in between, are multi-layered narratives that take the viewer on a compelling journey through this diverse city. Both hilarious and tragic, there is not one bad performance to be found here, and this first time feature director has a solid future in front of him. After Crash, it was time to catch up with old friends Kate Bosworth and Bob Hoskins, here for Beyond the Sea, before checking Oyster Farmer, a great Australian film which had its world premiere here. A stunning feature directorial debut from Anna Reeves, who wrote this gentle, yet wry comedy/drama, Oyster Farmer is a love story about a young man who runs away up an isolated Australian river and gets a job with eighth generation oyster farmers, falling reluctantly in love along the way. Aussie newcomer Alex O'Lachlan is a star on the rise, the new Russell Crowe, appealing and charismatic as the young Jack, Trying to find himself amidst the lush beauty of the Hawkesbury River. Like with so many Australian films, this one looks gorgeous, shot on location, as the Hawkesbury takes on a life of its own. Reminding one of the classic Sunday Too Far Away, Oyster Farmer is about male bonding, love, sex and mateship. And Jack Thompson returns to Australian cinema, reminding us of how nicely he ages. Oyster Farmer is funny, human, sexy and glorious, one of the best Aussie films in years, and one destined for both local and international success.
Caught up with Dear Frankie, another superb British drama set and shot in the contrasting city of Glasgow. Running away from the father of her deaf son Frankie when he was very young, Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) has created a fictional history for her son in which the father is eternally at sea on a ship called the HMS Accra, even as the duo have spent the last nine years moving from place to place in Scotland frequently. Lizzie even goes so far to embellish the fantasy as writing letters every few weeks to Frankie from the fictitious version of his father, entertaining Frankie with tales of far away lands. The fantasy appears likely to be doomed soon, however, when Frankie learns that the real life HMS Accra is due to dock nearby their current home town, so Lizzie sets about to find someone to pose as Frankie's sailor father, a situation that causes further complications. Featuring another magnificent performance by Mortimer, [Lovely and Amazing and the upcoming Pink Panther], Dear Frankie is a gentle, emotive and beautiful tale of childhood longings and family. Under the precise direction of Shona Auerbach, the film is gentle and well observed, with the stoic Gerard Butler also impressive as the stranger who enters these characters' lives. Funny and touching, this Miramax release has 'hit' written all over it. It is easy to be impressed by The Assassination of Nixon for all the wrong reasons. As a film, it is certainly flawed, in this latter day Death of a Salesman tragedy about the unfolding of the American Dream. Based on real life events, "Assassination" is set in 1974 and centres on a businessman (Sean Penn) who decides to take extreme measures to achieve his American dream, blaming government on his own failures as a salesman, businessman and family man. Consistently depressing, the film rarely gives us a chance to empathise with Penn's ultimately doomed character. The film's main strength is in its performances, and as an acting exercise, Assassination is certainly electrifying. Penn never puts a foot wrong here, and is certainly mesmerising, as is the usually indomitable Naomi Watts, who once again glows as his ex-wife, and Australia's Jack Thompson is also wonderful as Penn's salesman boss. The film is as dark and relentless as they come, offering viewers a nihilistic vision of America then, and now. It has moments that are powerful, but commercial prospects for a film so drenched in insistent pessimism, are slim. But for Penn fans, the film is worth seeing if only to bare witness to the raw power and range of his acting. While Assassination was downbeat, the reverse can be said of Danny Boyle's Millions, a wonderful fable about childhood, greed, saints and money, in this tale of two young boys, each one dealing with their mother's death in their own way, who come across some loot from a bank robbery. However, they have only a week to spend it before the UK switches to the euro. This is one of Boyle's most mature films, one that combines the innocent and purity of childhood, with elegant fantasy and adult sensibilities. Consistently charming, Millions is an exquisite, entertaining charmer of a film, one that is full of surprises. Beautiful to look at, Millions was the perfect way to end a day, before heading off to take a break. Fox Searchlight will release the film in March, and it's a special film to watch out for. For this Toronto writer, time is almost up. Off now to chat to Emily Mortimer, check out Todd Solontz's latest and get ready to bid farewell to another year at Toronto".
