'JayC The Movie Man' has been sending along reviews from the various film fests throughout the years and today has a breakdown of the films he saw on the first day of the festival. Here's his report:
Being Julia This was the opening Gala for this year's film fest. After seeing it I'm guessing that the decision to have it as the opening film had more to do with politics than to do with the quality of the film. Annette Bening stars as a famous actress in the 30's who is experiencing a bit of depression. Enter the 'new boy' who Julia finds attractive and begins an affair with - all behind the back of her husband played by Jeremy Irons. Yeah - pretty standard stuff. Hey guess what - the new boy starts losing interest in Julia and Julia starts to get jealous! Wow...this is pretty unimpressive and a very basic storyline that we've all seen hundreds of times before. The movie did end on a fun note with some revenge played out on stage during the opening of a new play - but obviously not enough to bring it to the bottom of my recommendation pile. Fail. Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate I like documentaries about filmmaking. Now - this flick has nothing on The Kid Stays in the Picture (highly recommended for film buffs like me!) - but it is still entertaining to hear stories about film studios and directors gone wild! There are current interviews with the stars of Heaven's Gate - Kris Kristopherson, Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif - as well as the producers and other behind the camera people. Unfortunately Michael Cimino - the director of Heaven's Gate - did not want to be involved. And that's a shame really as even though the movie paints Michael as quite the perfectionist - in the end the movie has nothing but praise for the 'biggest flop in history.' Recommended for film buffs -even if you, like I, have never seen Heaven's Gate! 76% Automne This is different! A completely French film - directed by a unilingual English American director! It's a French film noir story of a guy and a girl who meet up 15-20 years or so after they knew each other when they were kids - to find that they both have chosen a path of violence. It's an interesting movie with a lot of detail to pay attention to as the plot swerves this way and that. In the end I enjoyed it but found that the last quarter of the flick left me waiting too long. Maybe it's just me or maybe the film just couldn't keep up the interesting pace it had established for the first ¾'s. 68% Les Revenants (They Came Back) When I read the description of this film I thought, "Ohh goodie - a French zombie movie!" So just so you know if you ever want to see this movie - it's not a zombie movie! The movie starts with a large population of dead people returning back to life. Sounds like zombies - however these 'returners' are not mutilated or disfigured in any way - they look just like normal people. The movie focuses on how to re-introduce these people back into society as this is happening all over the world. There are programs and shelters established to help families cope with their dead child or father or whatever returning back to them. It's a fairly realistic approach to what might happen if the dead really did return! I was engaged for most of the film - but since there was no payoff or explanation to some of the motivations of the 'returners' I was left with a bit of a foul aftertaste. I know movies don't have to explain everything - but I find it a bit sloppy when we aren't given enough to make sense of it at all. 65% Undertow Imagine Night of the Hunter modernized and taking place in the southern states. That's the basic premise of this flick as two kids are on the run from a crazy relative -played well by Josh Lucas. This film is shot well and you really get a feeling that you're actually there in the south with them. The direction of the actors was done so that instead of getting the perfect take for a line of dialogue - he would often use the take that had a stutter in it - or a missed beat - and this technique really assists the visuals in creating such a realistic portrait. Overall it is an entertaining flick but could use some more editing to shorten up the last quarter of this flick. We're also left to believe not one but two pretty unbelievable coincidences -which are breezed by pretty quick - but still make you scratch your head. 70% Creep Midnight Madness. My favourite program of the festival every year! This is the program that shows the craziest and weirdest flicks you'll ever see. This year I start my Midnight Madness off with Creep - an effective thriller/horror genre flick about a girl (Franka Portente - back in the running business again!) who falls asleep in the London Subway only to wake up to find that she has been locked in over night. Of course - she's not alone! She soon discovers that there is something else down there with her! Not only are there some side characters (like a couple of homeless people, a dude that followed her from the party she was at and some sewer repair guys)...but also The Creep! The first half of this flick is a well filmed paint by numbers horror flick. Fortunately the last half takes us to new places as we finally get to meet the Creep. This movie is very disgusting...be warned! I usually love this stuff and am cheering and giddy throughout -but there was one scene that even had me squirming in my seat!! It's pretty awesome for you genre fans out there! 80% I Heart Huckabees Billed as an existential comedy, I Heart Huckabees is the new flick from Three Kings director David O. Russell. The cast is impressive - Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Whalberg, Jude Law and Naomi Watts. This is a fun picture that will only have limited mass appeal due to its philosophical content - but even a non-philosopher like me had a good enough time to recommend it. Jason plays the main character who is perplexed by a series of coincidences. He discovers an existential detective agency and shares his concerns with Hoffman and Tomlin (great pairing by the way-very funny!). They then proceed to 'stalk' and monitor Jason as he goes about his every day life - trying to solve the meaning of these coincidences and more importantly...the meaning of life! Funny - but a bit too 'deep' at times for me. Still - a great script and fun characters make this a movie that will be a hit at philosopher clubs all over the world! 71% Ferpect Crime Here's my favourite of the festival so far! Ferpect Crime is a hilarious yet dark flick from Spain about the perfect salesperson - Raphael. We get to see him in action as he works his magic in the ladies wear department. He thinks himself as a lock for the coveted Floor Manager position - but when it doesn't turn out the way he thinks it should - bad things happen. That's all I really want to say about the plot as it took me places I didn't think it was going, and that was very refreshing! The audience was laughing throughout the film - less by the end as it became more of a thriller (which was great!). The music in this flick is also amazing - fun and lively to match the mayhem of the onscreen action! Highly recommended! 93% Saint Ralph Here's a film that takes place in Hamilton, Ontario in the early 50's. This made the film even more entertaining for me, having lived there for about 9 years! This is one of those great movie-of-the-week flicks that is light and emotional but impossible to dislike. Ralph plays a likable but sinful youngster who needs a miracle to bring his mother out of her coma. Through a series of events he is lead to believe that if he wins the Boston Marathon then that will be the miracle he needs to bring his mother back. This is considered a miracle because Ralph has never ran before! He has about 6 months to train and prepare himself for the biggest marathon in the world! Full of fun and hope - this flick also has a couple of stars attached which will help it with distribution a little - Campbell Scott plays a teacher at Ralph's Catholic school and Jennifer Tilly plays a nurse. The contemporary music by Canadian artists help make this movie feel more universal rather than biographic (as this isn't based on a true story). Highly recommended! 86% The Alzheimer Case Here's another genre flick about a hit man who has Alzheimer's! This is the one line description that also lured the director to this film as well. It's an interesting picture that gets a little confusing near the end (a friend of mine did not find it confusing - so maybe it's just me!) about two detectives trying to catch a murderer. It has a bit of a Silence of the Lambs feeling to it as the hit man converses with the detectives to assist them in their search. It seems that the hit man has stumbled across something that even he disagrees with - so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of these even more evil people. It's interesting - and maybe I need to see it again to get my head around it. Recommended though as you will be enthralled throughout the picture. 69% Haven There has been no other movie at the film festival that had as much crazed, fan-based attention as this one. All because of one of its stars - Orlando Bloom. He attended the screening - signing autographs outside the theatre for so long that the movie had to start a half an hour late! The film had some good potential but basically falls apart by the end. The story concerns three different groups of people - the Americans, The Caymanians and the Brits as they cross paths in their stories mostly set on the Cayman Islands. I was very interested for the most part - until the stories started crossing paths (usually a fun thing) - as it seemed forced or contrived. Not only that but the accents in this movie are so thick - that I'm sure I must have missed some things. Bill Paxton plays Bill Paxton and Bloom plays another Romeo with his shirt off. I'm sure his fans were pleased. 64% The Machinist Another spooky Midnight Madness flick. This one isn't a typical Midnight Madness film though as it isn't overly gory or jump out of your seat scary. This is more mentally taxing as we witness Batman to be-Christian Bale descend deeper into paranoia. Every time he is on screen the film is tense as you can't keep your eyes off his unbelievably skinny form. Skinny is to fat of a word actually - I think skeletal is more like it. It really is disgusting! The film plods along as Christian tries to put the pieces of this puzzle together. It's definitely a slower movie so be warned if you are looking for wham-bam thrills cause you aren't gonna find it here! Still - a good piece of filmmaking that will go down as the ultimate example of an actor going to great lengths to become the character! 72%
