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Reel Injun |
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Reel Injun does a
decent job of contextualising the role of the "Injun", or stereotypical
Aboriginal North American, through the last century of cinema.
Drawing interviews from the likes of Clint
Eastwood, Adam Beech, and Sacheen Littlefeather (who talks, finally, about her
Oscar moment), Diamond takes us on a road trip through America, seeking the
voices of those represented often as the "bad guys" on screen.
At its heart this is a well made, provocative
made-for-television documentary, a mix of movie clips and talking head
interviews. |
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Directed by: Neil
Diamond
Grade:
B- |
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My Dog Tulip |
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Essentially a memoir about a
man and his dog, this animated film is a quirky, charming feat. Narrated with
gusto by Christopher Plummer, this is no hagiography of a fine specimen - tulip
is a unwieldy bitch, and to the great consternation of her hapless owner, she
gets into all sorts of trouble.
The sketch style of animation provides a great
immediacy to the drawings, often small vingettes unfold atop yellow lined
paper. This handcrafted look compliments greatly the first person narration, as
if we're seeing the sketches that accompany the diary-like prose, glimpsing
doodles in the margins of the text.
This is at its heart a love story between a man
and his dog, and the adventures that unfold are a mix of sweet, ridiculous and
absurd. A charming little piece, a pleasurable distraction from more heady
films. |
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Directed by: Paul and
Sandra Fierlinger
Grade: B |
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Hipsters |
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Described as Hairspray
meets Swing Kids, Todorovksy has crafted an epic musical about Soviet
era dissidents, kids that would flaunt conservatism to dress like crazy cats
and dance to the pop music of their day.
Superficially, this is a kids-against-the-system
tale, but underlying it is a fairly sophisticated political message. Much more
akin to Moulin Rouge, the director has taken post-Glasnost rock and
reappropriated the songs, tweaked the lyrics, and set them against a previous
time period. This juxtaposition of styles and musical forms against the drab
locales of the Soviet period provide a context for questions about liberty,
self expression, and the desire for freedom.
There's a telling moment towards the end where,
coming back from the "real" New York, one of the ex-Hipsters points out that
these Russian kids would be laughed at on the streets, that the fashion has
passed them by, their sense of revolution now old-hat in the land from which it
originated. This is a telling moment, one beautifully executed.
Yet, soon after, clearly not knowing (or
caring) how to bring the events to a close, a glorious 10 minute closing number
breaks out on the street. A single shot with hundreds singing and dancing on
the streets, a variety of "tribes" of youth, from punks to rastas, from goths
to headbangers, all sing of the unity of their expression of freedom.
The music's fun, the production design top
notch, this unexpected little treasure was an absolute joy. |
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Directed by: Valery
Todorovsky
Grade:
A- |
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Mr. Nobody |
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This film came out of nowhere
for me and completely floored me. I was expecting just another sci-fi, time
bending narrative, and instead was simply entranced by this engaging, original,
provocative, downright stunning film from Van Dormael.
It is a film with
an unrelenting structure, bending time and our perception of it in delightful
ways. A man lying in a hospital bed reflects upon his choices, and we see the
various threads of his past unfold in tandem, his life chosen among three wives
lived simultaneously through the retelling of the tale. We see categorically
how each choice has different effects depending on the effects of those choices
that come before, and this cascading of loves and lives becomes a bewildering
yet never overwhelming feast of insightful fiction.
This is a
(relatively) big budget artfilm, an experimental web of a story that in less
sure hands certainly could have become a torrid mess. With strong performances
by all involved (Leto as the title character is great, but Toronto's own Sarah
Polley finally regains well deserves credibility after some truly terrible
films like Splice) we have both an appealing character drama and an
ideas movie with few peers.
This is thought provoking without
pretentiousness, full of ideas and passion that deserves a wide audience. I
fear that many will be put off by what first appears to be a convoluted
narrative, but giving oneself over to the film is a pleasure that's not soon to
be repeated.
Extraordinary, exemplary, a highlight of this year's
festival. |
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Directed by: Jaco Van
Dormael
Grade:
A+ |
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A Town Called Panic
(Panique au village) |
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A crazy jumble of joy,
Panic uses dollar store plastic toys, poorly stop motion animated, to
tell a tale of, well, uh, stuff.
The plot is a bit of a headscratcher, but we've
got Horse, Cowboy, and Indian coming to save they day after the walls of their
unbuilt house are being stollen by frogmen to create an upside down home in
their underwater kingdom
Sure, whatever.
This is just silly fun, a bunch of plastic
people that seem at times, shockingly, to have quite a bit of character depth
and nuance. Mostly, however, it's gag after gag, and does run out of steam
towards the end.
Still, this part adventure/love/action story is
a whole different bag than usual MM fare (it's rated "G"!), yet is a wonderful
addition to this year's slate. |
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Directed by: Jaco Van
Dormael
Grade:
B+ |
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