Day 2: September 8

Yesterday's Borat breakdown left me with a dilemma - choosing between two MM screenings, The Host at the Ryerson, and the make-up screening at the Elgin. Fate helped me decide - I couldn't get into the screening of Shortbus, so I went to the press and industry screening instead.

I make it a policy to never see MM films at a p/i screening - a huge part of the enjoyment of any of these genre pics is the crowd you see it with. Luckily, I had the pleasure of last night's crazy crowd still in mind when I sat down, and the reception of the industry audience was quite effusive. Still, I can't help but wish that after the fun of Michael Moore and friends last night the screening would have picked up and we'd have enjoyed the rest of the flick.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, bouncing from film to film 'till the late night cab ride home.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Directed by: Larry Charles

Grade: A

There is little that is subtle about the Borat film - it's a "make sex on your face" kind of experience, an onslaught of Jew, Gay, "foreign", Baptist and Texan jokes. It's also very, very funny.

The film, part road movie, part SNL-style skit fest, holds together as a narrative quite well. Borat travels across the country in search of his true love that he spies on late night reruns. Along the way he sings at a rodeo, befriends a bear, throws money at cockroaches, and wears the finest bathing thong of the season. Additionally, the naked fight is sure to go down as one of the greatest on screen duels in cinema history (be damned, Adventures of Robin Hood - a longer (and blacked out sword) has taken over for now.)

This is cutting satire at its best, unflinching in its brutality. The Borat character takes Andy Kauffman's "foreign man" schtick to a new level, mixing in some of Peter Sellers' timing and physical slapstick to create a unique character. Borat is in fact a richer vein for comedy than even Ali-G, Coen's other alter ego from the HBO series. His lampooning skewers the scared cows of comedy, with racism, misogyny and homophobia bandied about with side-splitting aplomb.

Simply put, Borat is a hilariously unsettling examination of hatred and ignorance in all its forms. It's "wa wa wee wah!" good.

Stranger Than Fiction
Directed by: Marc Forster

Grade: B

A literate, literary film with a Hollywood high-concept hitch: a man starts hearing voices, then realizes it's actually the narration of his own life, whereupon he learns about his impending death.

Often cute premises like these (think Click from this year) end up become trite extremely quickly. To this film's credit, the conceit never wears out its welcome, and the script has enough self referentially to keep it fresh to the end, all while providing some very palatable romantic comedy tropes along the way.

The chemistry between Will Ferrell and Maggie Gylenhall seemed a bit creepy with the decade age difference, but no one seemed to be complaining. Dustin Hoffman's professor is a dapper role for him, hardly a stretch, while Emma Thompson seems to be trying too hard whilst Queen Latifah (!) jiggles along pleasingly. Tony Hale just made me miss the Bluth family.

Still, in the end it's a cut and dry romantic comedy with a bit of lit crit thrown in to make it seem smarter than it really is. Reminds me of university quite a bit, now that I think of it...

Brand Upon the Brain!
Directed by: Guy Maddin

Grade: A-

A unique, surreal TIFF experience - Guy Maddin, iconoclastic Canadian filmmaker, has created a live cinematic performance. His 1920s style silent film was presented with a live orchestra, three-piece Foley artist group, live narration, and faux Castrato singer to interject some vocalizations to the proceedings.

The film is a bizarre mess of monster movie, teen detective novel and coming of age, cross-gendered romance film. The film and its titles bounce across the screen, images brought back over and over as the rapid-fire editing, in-camera irises and quirky title cards conjure the cinema of another age. The sets, costumes, and makeup all convey this sense of this being a lost film, archaeologically rescued somehow by Maddin and brought to TIFF for its overdue premiere. In fact, it is only the sly cheekiness of the story, its ridiculous characters, gadgets and situations that serve to the remind the audience the film is firmly planting its tongue against its cheek.

I enjoyed the live score thoroughly, and found myself torn between watching the ever changing imagery and staring at the Foley artists as they worked their brand of sonic magic with a myriad of tools. I think I would have liked a more profound narrator, but I'm sure the small town Canadiana twang of the actor fit Maddin's idea perfectly.

Band Upon the Brain was certainly a unique filmgoing experience, one I am extremely pleased to have attended.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Directed by: David Leaf, John Scheinfeld

Grade: B

A slightly misleading title - rather than simply focusing on Lennon's fight with the Immigration service over the early part of the 70s, this film presents a polished, authorized look at the peace movement in general, Yoko and John's involvement with the radical elements of the era, situated during the death of "flower power". Authorization has its benefits, and the involvement of Yoko provides quite a number of rare footage of the family, along with the usual clips trotted out when documenting this period (bed-ins, bag-ins, etc.)

The breadth of interviews was quite good, and the film goes to great pains to situate Lennon within the wider political framework of the day. Everyone from G. Gordon Liddy to Geraldo are trotted out to either decry or justify the treatment that the Nixon government gave the couple.

Certainly the film isn't hard hitting or overtly political (save the usual comments thrown out by Gore Vidal - I can't help but think of his role in Bob Roberts for obvious reasons every time he talks about this time period). Yoko's involvement does mean a hesitancy to criticize Lennon overtly. Still, both the government that prosecuted the couple, and the radicals such as Abby Hoffman that used the singer for their own promotion are shown to be two sides of the same coin, both the Nixon government and the Radical movements using Lennon's image for their own benefit. It's all the more remarkable, then, when you hear Lennon's own defences for his political stand, the passionate and clear articulation that's lacking from so many politicians these days, let alone rock stars.

The Host
Directed by: Bong Joon-ho

Grade: B-/C+

What more could you want? Giant Alien-like mutant tadpole running through the streets of Seoul causing havoc, mowing down pedestrians, vomiting bones and escaping Tarzan-style under the nearest bridge? It should add up to MM gold!

Unfortunately, the film is bogged down with SARS metaphors, pointless exposition, and an annoying main character. Sure, the quirky "family fights vagina-mouthed, mutant legged frog baby" storyline has a lot of great scare moments. The CGI (excepting some flame elements) is top notch for a lower budget flick, and there are enough great sequences to keep it from being a total waste. Still, I found there was more downtime than genuine thrills, and a great deal of pointless exposition (talk about protein deficiency during childhood, for example, was one of the weirder tangents).

When the film settles down to a traditional hunter and huntee dynamic, the big scary monster chasing the little girl, it all becomes too generic, and goes on for far too long. I was disappointed what started out as a very promising genre pic became weighted down by its own pretensions. Cut 30 minutes from the running time and I think it would have been a far better MM flick.