I had a lot of fun with occasional spells of “why the fuck am I doing this to myself?” I get kind of compulsive and force myself to bike downtown to watch movies I don’t think I’m going to like instead resting like I know I should. Despite the fact that I said in my first round-up that I would treat myself with grace and not try to break my record from last year, there was a point when I started getting frustrated with myself for not watching enough movies (and God I had seen so many). I had this weird feeling that someone will be mad at me if I don’t see this movie at 9:45PM on a Wednesday. I honestly don’t know who would be mad at me for that. Maybe you, the readers? Well if you are mad, I will say that I’m only five short of what I hit last year and I took more time off at my 9-5 last year. On the other side of all of this, I know I watched too many. I hope I read this next year and am reminded to take it easy.
Below all these paragraphs is my ranking of all the movies I saw. My top five are all ones I saw in the first half of the festival, which you may correlate with my energy level. I’ll argue that I got a lot of my most anticipated ones out of the way and then kind of free-styled, which meant I was tossing the dice more for the second half of the fest and I didn’t always get lucky. That being said, the last few I watched are all in the top ten here. It’s an adventure and there are always highs and lows.
I’ll come out and say that I have told a lie in these rankings. There is one movie I saw at the TIFF Light Box yesterday that was programmed by the festival that is not on my list. I had some availability in my schedule and the only ticket I could get was for a 35mm screening of Jaws, made by some guy named Steven Spielberg. What a drag. I found out afterwards that it’s not from this year and it was made 50 years ago (same age as TIFF). Anyway, I figured it’s not fair to pit it up against all these modern masterpieces (I mean how is Jaws gonna put up a fight against JOSH GAD), but it may have been able to crack the top ten maybe.
In all seriousness, I spilled my whole coffee right before the movie started and was very embarrassed. Others were looking on as I swore and shook my head. I left to get some paper towel and when I came back, the lights were down and some people were sitting in my seat. Turns out I had been sitting in the wrong seat (I had misread my ticket) and those people, whose feet were likely soaking in my coffee, looked up at this man holding paper towel very confused, and I was too embarrassed to tell them they were sitting on my jacket, so I went to my real seat, thinking “aw, fuck, Jaws is ruined. How am I supposed to enjoy the movie with this shame?” But guess what? I still enjoyed the movie greatly. The power of Jaws. It was a delight and I needed it, and not just because of the coffee incident. You can get a little tired of only seeing new movies of varying qualities and sometimes you just gotta watch Jaws. And if you want my sincere placement of it in this list, it would be number 1.
I missed the People’s Choice Award winner, Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet. People really do seem to like it and I believe them, but I watched enough dramas, OK? Too many, actually. I do wish I caught some horror or action, the big talked about ones being Obsession and The Furious. Both were midnight screenings I skipped and then tried and failed at getting to other screenings. I really need to watch a horror movie like right now or my head might explode.
I’ve added some words about movies I saw in the last half of the festival. If you were wondering why I’ve only written about those ones, that means you haven’t read my other two articles from this week and I’m not mad at you, but hey, maybe you should go back and read those if you want!
21. Easy’s Waltz (dir. Nic Pizzolatto)
You know famous actors sometimes release albums full of them singing classic songs and it’s not that good and it seems like it was only made and released because no one had the heart to tell them not to do this? It seems that instead of doing that, Vince Vaughn made a movie where he gets to star as a crooner whose undeniable talent gets him a job at one of the most prestigious venues in Las Vegas. Everyone loves this guy. He’s such a nice man. But also he’s a bit of a bruiser and can take a punch. And the video of him singing a song is getting so many views on YouTube! I was not at all surprised when I found out that it was Vaughn that got the ball rolling on this script and got Nic Pizzolatto to direct. Folks, it's a Vaughnity project. Self-Vindulgence on full display. He is not nearly good enough a singer for there to be as many scenes (that completely halt the plot) where people watch in awe as he performs full songs (not just snippets) by Whitney Houston, Steely Dan, and more. It’s baffling. Also, someone should be locked up in solitary confinement for how underused Kate Mara is in this. There is a subplot about a love triangle between her, Simon Rex, and Al Pacino (who is 85 years old and looks like frozen ground beef).
20. Sacrifice (dir. Romain Gavras)
19. Adulthood (dir. Alex Winter)
I was excited for a narrative feature by Alex Winter as I love his movie Freaked and he’s been making documentaries for a while, which I’ve enjoyed. Unfortunately, this suffers from many well-trod tropes of unlikely-pair-needs-to-cover-up-a-murder movies. Also, Josh Gad is in it and, I’m sorry, I don’t think he will be good in any movie ever. Every time he is in a movie, the movie is bad.
18. Maddie’s Secret (dir. John Early)
17. Hedda (dir. Nia DaCosta)
16. It Would Be Night in Caracas (dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás)
I knew very little about the 2017 Venezuelan protests before going into this movie. The first thing I did when I left the theatre was give the Wikipedia page a scroll. This isn’t a complaint, but it doesn’t hold the audience’s hand very much. Rather it tells a small story from within the heart of Caracas. A woman, after burying her mother, is forced to hide in an abandoned apartment while massive, often violent demonstrations against the government erupt outside. It’s occasionally tense, especially in the final act, but I kept wishing the movie would explore more of what was going on the streets. It’s far more concerned with its lead character. Her backstory is slowly revealed and by the time all the layers are peeled back, I’d grown restless.
15. Good News (dir. Byun Sung-hyun)
14. The Smashing Machine (dir. Benny Safdie)
13. The Lost Bus (dir. Paul Greengrass)
12. Carolina Caroline (dir. Adam Carter Rehmeier)
11. Dead Man’s Wire (dir. Gus Van Sant)
10. Normal (dir. Ben Wheatley)
9. The Napa Boys (dir. Nick Corirossi)
For the first maybe ten minutes of this, I was baffled as to what the fuck was going on. I knew it was a comedy, but I couldn’t put my finger on what they were going for. Characters are introduced as if we’ve known them and their antics for years and the title card reads “The Napa Boys 4.” Then, once I started wondering why the two main characters are called Miles Jr. and Jack Jr. (played by comedians Armin Weitzman and Nick Corirossi), I clued in that this is the fourth movie in a non-existent franchise of direct-to-video, American Pie–style sequels to the Alexander Payne dramedy Sideways, I totally got on its wavelength. Among the cast with Weitzman and Corirossi (who also directs) is Paul Rust, David Wain, Riki Lindhome, and many other comedians who, when working with their own material, are in a similarly eccentric playground. The hybrid of Sundance-y midlife crisis movie with gross-out sex comedy is so deliberately dumb in a way that really hit with the Friday midnight audience. The parody is constant and nothing matters at all. It never bites off more than what it is. At times it’s avant-garde in its sheer indifference to anything other than the dumbest thing they can think of. I was never jaw-open amazed that they were getting away with it, because I wouldn’t say this is going to convert anybody that’s not ready, open for or just doesn’t want this kind of thing. Also, it’s a little too long, but I think the people who like it will really like it. There are incredible jokes about Sammy Fabelman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jay & Silent Bob, so, yes, I include myself in the people who like this.
8. Tuner (dir. Daniel Roher)
Sometimes at a festival, a movie will become an “on-the-ground hit” after it premieres and something that’s not on my list of things to see at the beginning of the week will become a must-see. In the between-movies chatter with the press & industry crowd, Tuner was something that slowly kept coming up as a favourite for people. I was able to snag a last minute, front-row ticket yesterday and I risked a sore neck and strained eyes to see what everyone was talking about. It's certainly a handsomely-made feature — gripping, rhythmic, and well-acted. Leo Woodall plays a piano tuner who realizes his skills at that job also make him an adept safe cracker. I like a movie that takes a job we know exists but have never seen in a movie and then really explores what kind of person would do that kind of thing, and, even better, finds some suspense in it. I did, at times, feel as though I was watching a movie made out of a math equation. All the pieces are deliberately structured and meticulously played out. It’s a bit without feeling or rawness. I mean, the characters get to emotional places, but those moments feel like a screenwriter going “and here’s where they cry” instead of it coming from a real place. Maybe that’s a silly complaint, because a good movie made of an equation is still better than a bad movie.
7. Sirât (dir. Oliver Laxe)
6. Dead Lover (dir. Grace Glowicki)
I missed Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein this week. I kind of knew I would. Del Toro is extremely popular with these crowds and that, combined with the presence of a couple of heartthrobs, made it the hottest ticket in town. My brother won some tickets (brought his wife instead of me and I’m not mad, I swear), and he said it was good. Luckily on the last day of the festival, I snuck in a screening of the other Canada-shot, Shelley-inspired, bring-the-dead-to-life movie, Dead Lover, a sexy, stinky, sardonic brain-melter that really won me over. I am dumb as hell and can’t pull all its expressionist influences (obvious one is Guy Maddin), but it’s one of those movies that is shot on a minimalist black set that’s both stark and striking. The lighting is consciously obvious, throwing shadows across the stage-like sets and the costumes are theatrical in a way that draws attention to themselves. There’s only about four actors all playing several different characters with a variety of different accents. It has a real “hey let’s fuckin’ make this thing” energy and it’s easy to root for this crew. They seem to have had a lot of fun and so did I. There’s also some real fucked up things that happen in it. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a particularly long appendage that has a very memorable role for a few very fun and gross scenes.
5. Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
4. Mile End Kicks (dir. Chandler Levack)
3. Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson)
2. No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan Wook)
1. Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie (dir. Matt Johnson)
I really am not sure if I got this right. I think I could put No Other Choice here and feel right about it. It’s certainly the movie I’ve thought about the most this week. It’s the most urgent. I just can’t deny that Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie is the movie of the festival. Canada had some big Ws at the festival this year, and it feels right that this is my number 1 for how monumentally Toronto it is, while having universal appeal. I simply cannot wait to see it again. In fact I almost did a couple times this week (something I’ve never done during TIFF) and talked myself out of it and instead saw movies I liked less than this and regretted it.
Below all these paragraphs is my ranking of all the movies I saw. My top five are all ones I saw in the first half of the festival, which you may correlate with my energy level. I’ll argue that I got a lot of my most anticipated ones out of the way and then kind of free-styled, which meant I was tossing the dice more for the second half of the fest and I didn’t always get lucky. That being said, the last few I watched are all in the top ten here. It’s an adventure and there are always highs and lows.
I’ll come out and say that I have told a lie in these rankings. There is one movie I saw at the TIFF Light Box yesterday that was programmed by the festival that is not on my list. I had some availability in my schedule and the only ticket I could get was for a 35mm screening of Jaws, made by some guy named Steven Spielberg. What a drag. I found out afterwards that it’s not from this year and it was made 50 years ago (same age as TIFF). Anyway, I figured it’s not fair to pit it up against all these modern masterpieces (I mean how is Jaws gonna put up a fight against JOSH GAD), but it may have been able to crack the top ten maybe.
I’ve added some words about movies I saw in the last half of the festival. If you were wondering why I’ve only written about those ones, that means you haven’t read my other two articles from this week and I’m not mad at you, but hey, maybe you should go back and read those if you want!
21. Easy’s Waltz (dir. Nic Pizzolatto)
20. Sacrifice (dir. Romain Gavras)
19. Adulthood (dir. Alex Winter)
I was excited for a narrative feature by Alex Winter as I love his movie Freaked and he’s been making documentaries for a while, which I’ve enjoyed. Unfortunately, this suffers from many well-trod tropes of unlikely-pair-needs-to-cover-up-a-murder movies. Also, Josh Gad is in it and, I’m sorry, I don’t think he will be good in any movie ever. Every time he is in a movie, the movie is bad.
18. Maddie’s Secret (dir. John Early)
17. Hedda (dir. Nia DaCosta)
16. It Would Be Night in Caracas (dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás)
15. Good News (dir. Byun Sung-hyun)
14. The Smashing Machine (dir. Benny Safdie)
13. The Lost Bus (dir. Paul Greengrass)
12. Carolina Caroline (dir. Adam Carter Rehmeier)
11. Dead Man’s Wire (dir. Gus Van Sant)
10. Normal (dir. Ben Wheatley)
9. The Napa Boys (dir. Nick Corirossi)
For the first maybe ten minutes of this, I was baffled as to what the fuck was going on. I knew it was a comedy, but I couldn’t put my finger on what they were going for. Characters are introduced as if we’ve known them and their antics for years and the title card reads “The Napa Boys 4.” Then, once I started wondering why the two main characters are called Miles Jr. and Jack Jr. (played by comedians Armin Weitzman and Nick Corirossi), I clued in that this is the fourth movie in a non-existent franchise of direct-to-video, American Pie–style sequels to the Alexander Payne dramedy Sideways, I totally got on its wavelength. Among the cast with Weitzman and Corirossi (who also directs) is Paul Rust, David Wain, Riki Lindhome, and many other comedians who, when working with their own material, are in a similarly eccentric playground. The hybrid of Sundance-y midlife crisis movie with gross-out sex comedy is so deliberately dumb in a way that really hit with the Friday midnight audience. The parody is constant and nothing matters at all. It never bites off more than what it is. At times it’s avant-garde in its sheer indifference to anything other than the dumbest thing they can think of. I was never jaw-open amazed that they were getting away with it, because I wouldn’t say this is going to convert anybody that’s not ready, open for or just doesn’t want this kind of thing. Also, it’s a little too long, but I think the people who like it will really like it. There are incredible jokes about Sammy Fabelman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jay & Silent Bob, so, yes, I include myself in the people who like this.
8. Tuner (dir. Daniel Roher)
Sometimes at a festival, a movie will become an “on-the-ground hit” after it premieres and something that’s not on my list of things to see at the beginning of the week will become a must-see. In the between-movies chatter with the press & industry crowd, Tuner was something that slowly kept coming up as a favourite for people. I was able to snag a last minute, front-row ticket yesterday and I risked a sore neck and strained eyes to see what everyone was talking about. It's certainly a handsomely-made feature — gripping, rhythmic, and well-acted. Leo Woodall plays a piano tuner who realizes his skills at that job also make him an adept safe cracker. I like a movie that takes a job we know exists but have never seen in a movie and then really explores what kind of person would do that kind of thing, and, even better, finds some suspense in it. I did, at times, feel as though I was watching a movie made out of a math equation. All the pieces are deliberately structured and meticulously played out. It’s a bit without feeling or rawness. I mean, the characters get to emotional places, but those moments feel like a screenwriter going “and here’s where they cry” instead of it coming from a real place. Maybe that’s a silly complaint, because a good movie made of an equation is still better than a bad movie.
7. Sirât (dir. Oliver Laxe)
6. Dead Lover (dir. Grace Glowicki)
5. Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
4. Mile End Kicks (dir. Chandler Levack)
3. Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson)
2. No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan Wook)
1. Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie (dir. Matt Johnson)
I really am not sure if I got this right. I think I could put No Other Choice here and feel right about it. It’s certainly the movie I’ve thought about the most this week. It’s the most urgent. I just can’t deny that Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie is the movie of the festival. Canada had some big Ws at the festival this year, and it feels right that this is my number 1 for how monumentally Toronto it is, while having universal appeal. I simply cannot wait to see it again. In fact I almost did a couple times this week (something I’ve never done during TIFF) and talked myself out of it and instead saw movies I liked less than this and regretted it.
Woot! Outstanding finale to a great series of reviews. Several im stoked for...with #1 being your #1...Nirvana looks to be outstanding! Thanks again.
ReplyDelete(PS: Clearly there was a smidge of a typo in your comment on every Josh Gad movie being bad...for we can ALL universally agree that PIXELS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOVIES EVER MADE! KEVIN JAMES AS A GOOFY PRESIDENT! SLACKER SANDLER GETS THE GIRL! DINKLAGE BILLY MITCHELL! JOSH SLEEPS WITH QBERT! BWAHAHAHAHA! PURE CINEMA!)