Breakaway – September 11

Comedy, Great Trash, Loved it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

Another hockey movie. It’s like a trend. This one is basically The Mighty Ducks for Sikhs – The Mighty Sikhs? Director Robert Leiberman actually directed The Mighty Ducks. Basically this is the story of a group of Sikh kids who play pick up hockey and have one player who is really good. They are victims of a local team of bullies and decide to take a chance at skilling up to challenge the bullies for a championship. The story is about breakaways in hockey but also breakaways from traditional Sikh values. The star of the team is rebelling against his rigid traditionalist father who forbids him to play this white Canadian game. Of course at the end they are reconciled. (oops a spoiler)This is a Canadian movie with some big Bollywood stars but also starring Russell Peters, Rob Lowe and a cameo by Ludacris. Predictable but fun the kids find a Canadian coach and make it to the finals which they win in dramatic fashion (oops – another spoiler). The fun is in the Bollywood dance scenes on top of the traditional North American story line. Some funny scenes and charming performances so go see it and enjoy.

Interestingly there is another perspective on this film from a friend of my son who suggested that such films are a bit racist (well he felt they are very racist). Why he argues is it okay to replace traditional values with new Canadian ones and why are the traditionalists like the boy’s father portrayed so negatively? All good points and while I think the movie is respectful in the end of Sikh culture the comment lingers with me nonetheless. Others may be better judges of this than a 7th generation Canadian blogger.

Final remark. The director and several of the stars including Russell Peters were there to introduce the film. I wore a blue collarless shirt that looked a bit like a Nehru shirt. As Peters walked past me he looked down and remarked: “Hey – nice shirt” I am so happy to be dissed by a movie star.

Last Call at the Oasis – September 11

Documentary, Loved it, Oscar Stuff, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

The first film this morning was a documentary about the threat to our water supply in the US and around the world. Unlike many documentaries this one had a decent budget and a great director. It was very easy on the eyes, beautiful cinematography and a great script. The message however is very frightening. Basically large parts of the US will be without water in the next very few years. There is an increasing population that is totally dependent on the Colorado River Valley for water and the snowpack in the High Sierra mountains. Both are in severe decline as the result of climate change and there is no real alternative source of water. There are similar threats in the US Southeast and Midwest. The worst places are not the US however. The worst are in South Asia dependent on the Himalaya snowpack also in decline and billions of people dependent on it. There are some possible solutions and sources including recycling waste water. The problem with this is the “yuck” factor. No one wants to drink toilet water. So the film makers went to the people who successfully got to pay for filtered tap water and asked them to sell recycled water. This was a very funny part of the film as they came up with possible names for the new product and got Jack Black to help them sell it. The winning name? Porcelain Springs. Funny but serious because we will have to be taking our water from Porcelain Springs before very long. Our water availability is not only declining but we are also polluting what little we have. Erin Brockovitch is still an activist working to save our water and she has a big part in this movie. We were lucky enough to have Erin there at the film for the Q and A and interestingly she looks just like Julia Roberts who plays her in the movie of her name. Great movie with an important message. Everyone needs to see this as we complacently rely that when we turn on our taps we will get as much hot and cold running water as we want. It won’t be like that for much longer.

Ides of March – September

Drama, Great Trash, Loved it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

I still have to see Descendants which is the real George Clooney movie at the Festival. This one does actually have George as a supporting actor but he also directs this one which really stars Ryan Gosling. It is a tightly scripted film about the backroom political action as a Governor (Clooney) runs for the Democratic primary. Gosling is the media guy on Clooney’s team led by Philip Seymour Hoffman and the competition is led by Paul Giamatti both in good supporting roles. There is also a really good performance by Marisa Tomei as the NYTimes reporter covering the race. I would not say this is Oscar material but it does point to how messed up the US political system is and how little it has to do with issues. As a result it is rather depressing but it is smart and tight and over in under 90 minutes. I should note that Woody Allen is of the opinion that no movie can really be sustained beyond 90 minutes and there is some truth to that. There are exceptions, Lawrence of Arabia being one, but there is something magic about 90. This movie is good so I recommend it and if you are a Ryan Gosling fan then I really recommend it. It will not win Oscars however.

Goon – September 10

Comedy, Loved it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

After taking a break from hockey to see The Ides of March – directed by George Clooney and starring Ryan Gosling (more about this below) I next saw Goon, a comedic take on The Last Gladiators that I feared would be in really bad taste but which turned out to be insightful and oddly powerful in light of having just been through the Chris Nilan story. This movie is directed by Michael Dowse (FUBAR and FUBAR 2) and written by and starring Jay Baruchel (The Trotsky and Tropic Thunder) promised to be very funny and off centre and it lived up to its promises. The story is actually based on a real life minor league enforcer so it actually has some depth of character and plot (not too deep mind you). I decided to hold it to the standard of Slap Shot – the classic Paul Newman hockey flick and it more than met the challenge. It is now my favourite hockey movie. It will be in theatres shortly and I urge those who loved The Trotsky and Tropic Thunder to go see it. A warning, however, it does not hold back on the violence of the fighting scenes or our baser appetite for fights in hockey and the beer drinking that follows. Oh… if you have not seen The Trotsky or Tropic Thunder – see them as well. Baruchel is crazy brilliant in that order.

The Last Gladiators – September 10

Documentary, Loved it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

The first movie of the day and likely the best I would see. This film is about the hockey enforcers of the 80’s NHL and in particular about Chris Nilan who played this role for the Montreal Canadiens. This is a great movie and you don’t need to be a hockey fan to enjoy it although if you of my generation and remember the Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies you will get a lot out of it. Although the film centres on the career of Chris Nilan and long interviews with him and images of his career, it also looks at and interviews many of his fellow goons and enforcers. Marty McSorley, Bob Probert, and Donald Brashear feature prominently. One is retired, one is dead and one is playing out his career in the minor leagues and is dabbling in mixed martial arts. If you have seen the movie The Wrestler you will understand the depressing truth. Nilan himself who is the centre of the story is in his 50’s now and still battles addiction and injury. The sad thing is that they were required to fight, to defend the skill players on their teams but themselves often had nothing in the way of education or skill themselves to fall back on once they retired or were too injured to continue to play. The movie pulls no punches so to speak. I highly recommend it. The nice thing was that Chris Nilan was there for the Q and A and received a standing ovation for his simply eloquence and his dedication to the game and his loyalty to the Habs and his team mates. His description of his struggles after retirement is powerful and deeply emotional. For his openness he deserved the applause he got.

Hockey Day at TIFF – September 10

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Today was special I have to admit. I managed to see three movies (not four as promised but….), all good and two about hockey. As most readers will be aware this summer has been a bad one for hockey and particularly for players who took on the role of enforcer for their teams. Three enforcers have died and most recently we saw the loss of an entire team in a plane crash. So it was somewhat sadly serendipitous that TIFF has three movies about hockey and two in particular about enforcers. I suspect many of you will not be enamoured of the enforcers in the league and the role they play or of a league that clearly promotes fighting and makes the enforcer such a key element and I share much of that perspective. However, you should see these movies to gain a full understanding of the role of the enforcer and the impact playing that role has on the individuals. The focus will then turn away from the individuals and their acts to the real villains – Gary Bettman and his management team that seem to feel it is alright to throw away the lives of these men. So on to the reviews.

Urbanized – Second movie September 9

Documentary, Loved it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

Puff Puff – just got to my seat as they were introducing the director Gary Hustwit of this great documentary. This was the third film in a series of movies about design. I had seen one before – Helvetica. Yes a whole movie about a font. It was brilliant and this one was even more brilliant and about urban design. It hit on every element of city living and design that Toronto is currently looking at and that Rob Ford is trying to corrupt. The movie had us all cheering as he visited designers and planners in cities around the world, Cape Town, Brighton, Rio, New York, and Bogota. It spoke to the increasing populations of cities the need to address the infrastructure needs, the need to get away from a dependence on cars and build the kinds of neighbourhoods and human size living spaces. The film spent a while with the current mayor of Bogota, one of the most enlightened, funny, intelligent people I have ever seen interviewed. The city of Bogota has been changed, revitalized and has done all the things and protected all the things that Toronto is about to lose or mess up. The audience cheered and applauded throughout this part of the movie. At the end there was a standing ovation and during the Q and A, the first questioner asked Mayor Ford to please stand up and be recognized. Funny thing was – he wasn’t there. The director knew about Rob and Doug which surprised and delighted the crowd especially when he pointed out that what this city really needs is a giant Ferris wheel.

Le Havre – September 9

Drama, Loved it, Oscar Stuff, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

This was the premiere of a lovely French comedy. It came with a bit of an annoying element however. A side note for those who do not do the Festival – most crazy fans like me have our schedule. It is often timed to the second. Movie 1 is 93 minutes and it is 21 minutes to the next theatre and the next movie. Movie 1 starts at 1PM and ends at 2:33PM. Movie 2 starts at 3PM and I have 21 minutes to get there. I will arrive at 2:54PM just in time to make movie 2. Now what is really annoying to fans like me is when Movie 1 starts late, even five minutes late. Le Havre started 15 minutes late!!! About 20 percent of my fellow queuers (is this a word?) were very cranky and would have to leave Le Havre early. This was my situation. Sigh.

Anyway I managed to settle down and stayed until about 10 minutes before the end but I had to leave early. I did manage to stay long enough to see how the movie would end. The charming thing that calmed me down was the presence of the star of the film, a wonderful French actor Andre Wilms. The film speaks to the increasing presence of illegal immigrants in Europe. The protagonist, Marcel Marx is an aging and poor but happy shoe shine man who has about him a loving wife and collection of friends who see him as a bumbling charming member of their community. While we learn about him and his circle of friends a group of illegal immigrants is discovered in a shipping container on a wharf in the harbour. They are going to be sent back to North Africa where they were smuggled from but one, a young boy, escapes. He and Marcel connect and Marcel decides to rescue him, hide him from the police and find a way to get him to London where his mother is waiting for him. He manages this while we learn that his wife is discovered to be terminally ill. While all this sounds pretty depressing, somehow it ends up being charming, witty and fun. Must be the French. At any rate I highly recommend this movie to everyone and I suspect it will show up in Toronto sometime in the near future. However at the end, or rather near the end, I leapt up with 20 minutes to get to my next movie. I walked from the Jackman Theatre at the AGO to the Ryerson Theartre at Church and Gerrard. Got there with 5 minutes to go.

Werner Herzog and Into the Abyss – September 8

Documentary, Hated it, TIFF 2011, Uncategorized

I attended my first film of the Festival last night and… well I left early. I left Werner’s last documentary last year Cave of Forgotten Dreams (see last year’s reviews)as well. I clearly have a love/hate relationship with this guy. I loved The Bad Lieutenant and Encounters at the End of the World but I really disliked this movie, the Cave and My Son, My Son, What have you done? The last two were at TIFF last year along with the Bad Lieutenant. Not sure what it is but I may not be able to stay away from his next film just in case it’s good.

Meanwhile last night we saw the premiere of his newest film at the Ryerson Theatre which is huge and was jammed with Herzogies. The man was there and got a standing ovation even before the film screened. The movie is a documentary about two men who commit three brutal murders just to steal a car for a joy ride. One is given a 40 year sentence and the other is on death row and is interviewed just a week before he will be executed. It is all set in Texas. In theory this is about capital punishment and Herzog introduced the film by telling us he does not believe in the death sentence and that he had no real argument for his position, only that he lived in postwar Germany and grew up with the Nazi legacy over his head. He claimed the Nazi’s had no problem killing people for trivial reasons as well as practice genocide and that no one of his generation, coming out of this history, would agree with capital punishment. He does interview the executioner who has killed 125 people in his career and points out that this man who clearly has no problem with execution, also has no real argument to support his position or his job other than that he does it.

This lack of argument or insight into one’s position echoes throughout this movie. The minister who stands with the executees, the family and friends of the murder victims, the police, the murderers themselves, no one has any insight into what they did, what happened to them or what is happening to them. The characters, who are all real, are from the more destitute and downtrodden members of Texas (American) society. I left the movie because it was clear that I would learn nothing about capital punishment or the human condition and I had this bad feeling that Werner (who conducted all the interviews) was quietly mocking the people he was talking to. The lives they lived were sad and pathetic and hopeless and Werner had the audience laughing at them and their answers. I am not sure Werner is a very nice man and this movie went a way to confirming that judgement.

TIFF Fails to Serve the Fans

Uncategorized

Although I really like the movies and going to the Festival, I have to admit that over the years TIFF has clearly never respected the average movie fan. Each year more and more of the top films are made less and less available. Galas have to be purchased separately or with an expensive pass. This has now extended to the Special Presentations program as well. In the past the films were made available to the “riff raff” with several showings during the day that allowed average fans with average incomes to enjoy the movies. No more, I noticed this year that you were lucky to find one showing and sometimes not during the day. The cost of single tickets is now over $20.00 and the passes, while once a bargain are now more and more expensive. This Saturday when single tickets went on sale to the public the lines were outrageously long, the processing hopelessly inefficient and the computer system crashed at least twice. Trying to buy on line was as much a joke as going in person. There is never an apology and never any obvious effort to plan for the demand or find more efficient ways to serve the public. It is clearly so much about the management, the film promotion and making money that it is getting embarrassing. I still marvel that they are able to find people prepared to “volunteer” to do the work. With the money the festival is clearly making, they could afford to pay people and then they might actually get competent people who could be trained and serve the public more effectively.

Standing in line on Saturday I was interested to see how many people were irritated with the whole process but somehow feel it is okay. This is because TIFF continues to live on its original amateur status and benefit from being in a city where movies thrive. With the new headquarters and the clear evidence of success all around, this good will may not last many more years. Please TIFF – I beg you – pay attention to the real fans and be the greatest festival in the world. We, who love the movies deserve better from you.