Reviews

OK, I have to start by being honest. I am NOT a Lars Von Trier fan. My first experience with him was in 1996 when I saw "Breaking the Waves" at the Toronto International Film Festival. When it was over I found I'd been both bored and depressed. I was very impressed by Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgard, but beyond that, I've never understood why critics were so impressed by it. I feel pretty much the same way about Melancholia. First, it's the perfect name for this film. And the blue planet is just the right colour. The film left me feeling blue. Which would have been fine, if it hadn't also left me feeling like that was two hours of my life I'm never going to get back. And I even fast- forwarded over a few parts. The film is absolutely oppressive. From the despair of the main character, who is borderline suicidal on what should be the happiest day of her life, to the anger expressed by her brother-in-law, played by Kiefer Sutherland, because he paid so much money for a wedding that is starting to feel more like a funeral. That's not to say the film is without any merit. Once again the acting is first rate. While I don't like Von Trier as a writer or a creator, he does have a talent for getting the best from his actors. Kirsten Dunst is so depressing she made me want to slit my wrists. The rest of the cast of primarily A-List European actors also turn in fine performances. However, while I thought they did a great job with the material, part of my problem is also the attitude that most of them take with regard to the possibility of impending doom. There are momentous events taking place in the world around them, but the characters seem totally uninterested, even disconnected.

So I guess I came away from this Von Triers nightmare feeling pretty much the same as I did after seeing Dancer in the Dark and Dogville. Not Idiots though, I just plain hated that experimental disaster. Once again Von Trier has treated us to a film that is visually striking, and very well acted. But the stories that these actors present are for the most part confusing and tiresome. There is certainly a lot of originality in his work. Of that there is no arguing. But for me, once you get past the performances, the icing if you will, there's no cake. So the whole experience leaves you empty, and dying for a cup of coffee to wake you up! If you want to see a movie about the sudden appearance of a companion planet, I would instead suggest "Another Earth" by Mike Cahill and starring the terrific William Mapother and the fresh new Brit Marling. This movie has a few of the same problems, like the lack of surprise that seems to accompany the news of an identical Earth suddenly appearing in our sky. But the plot is so much more compelling that the flaws are much easier to forgive.

I saw the premiere of "Phone Booth" at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, and I LOVED IT! It's unusual for a feature like this to even show at the TIFF, which should say something about it. I know it sounds like a hard sell. The whole thing takes place outside a phone booth in Manhattan, and it was shot in 10 days for less than 2 million dollars. But this movie is electric. It BLEW ME AWAY! Stuart `Stu' Shepard (Colin Farrell), a sleazy publicist, uses this phone booth to call his girlfriend, because his wife checks his cell phone bills. The phone rings, and when he picks it up, all hell breaks loose. The voice on the other end (Kiefer Sutherland is just terrifying) warns him that if he leaves the booth he will be killed. At first Stu doesn't believe him, but we find out pretty quick that his life is in real danger, and the stranger on the other end of the line knows EVERYTHING about Stu and his life. Then the police show up, (Forest Whitaker is wonderful as always as the cop in charge) and order Stu out of the booth. I spent the next hour on the edge of my seat. I don't want to give anything more away, but it is one of the most suspenseful movies I've seen in a very long time! You should go see this movie! I don't think it's going to get a very big release, even though it's directed by Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo's Fire, Flatliners, Batman and Robin, 8mm, Tigerland). Schumacher was at the screening, and he talked about how a number of different actors (including Mel Gibson) and directors had been attached to the script, and it had taken years to get it to the screen. He was able to do it with Colin Farrell after 20th Century Fox exec's saw him in `Tigerland' and decided to take a chance. But he's still not considered a `big' star. And Kiefer only came to the project at the end (though Schumacher said he was the only guy for the role, and I agree), and you don't see him much. So the movie may not get much of a push when it comes out. Don't let that dissuade you. If you like a good ride, you should go see this movie.

I saw the North American premiere of Auto Focus at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. I enjoyed the movie, but for some reason, it played more like a TV movie than a feature. I know it's hard to make a biopic grand enough for the big screen, especially a biography of a TV star. And I give Paul Schrader full marks for trying. Still, the movie seems better suited to the small screen. It's a sordid tale, almost a morality play, and Greg Kinnear is terrific as Bob Crane, from his early days as a radio personality, to his rise to stardom as Colonel Hogan on the hit series "Hogan's Heroes," to his subsequent fall and depraved final years, traveling the country doing dinner theatre and picking up a different girl each night. He would take these willing women back to his hotel, where they would drink and party, and where Crane would photograph or even videotape his ever more depraved sexual activities. The writers put most of the blame for his downfall, and his eventual murder, on a character named John Carpenter, played brilliantly by Willem Dafoe. He's terrific as a sleazy, lowlife eager to use Crane's celebrity to fulfill his own addictions. The movie implies that had Crane never met Carpenter, that the husband and father of two would be content with his white bread life, never tempted by the women and the drugs that were so available to him as a TV star. That aside, the movie is pretty compelling. I hesitate to say it's entertaining, because by the end it's almost painful to watch as Crane gets more and more desperate for new experiences, while his personal and professional lives self destruct. Still, it's like a highway accident. You can't help but watch. I think this movie is superficial, never really trying to understand WHY, instead simply presenting a chronology of events. Schrader does get some great performances especially from Kinnear and Dafoe, and from Maria Bello and Rita Wilson. And look out for Kurt Fuller as Werner Klemperer. He is amazing! Every time he finished a scene as Colonel Klink, the audience applauded. Not a great movie, and Schrader has certainly given us better, but if you're interested in Bob Crane, or in celebrity, then check it out.

I was at the World Premiere of The Four Feathers at the 2002

Toronto International Film Festival, and I really wanted to like the

film. It has a lot going for it. Heath Ledger, Kate Hudson and Wes

Bentley are all great young stars, and all are terrific in this film.

The scenery is beautiful, and so are the battle sequences.

Shekhar Kapur is the award-winning director of `Elizabeth,' so we

know he can handle the period piece, and he does a wonderful job

recreating Victorian era England. But this movie just doesn't gel.

On the eve of being shipping out to war in Africa, Harry Faversham

(Ledger) resigns his commission. His friends present him with

white feathers of cowardice. Then his fiancé Ethne (Hudson) also

gives him a feather, and breaks their engagement, her respectability more important to her than her husband's life. In an

attempt to regain his honor, and Ethne, Harry sneaks off to Africa

and disguised as a local, he takes work with his old regiment. He

befriends an African slave named Abou (played by Djimon

Honsou) and the two of them have a number of adventures trying

to take care of Harry's friends and regain his honor. And I just

didn't care. The movie just never worked for me on an emotional

level. Harry's best friend Jack (Bentley) also loves Ethne, but the

love triangle is unconvincing. I found it hard to believe that Harry

could masquerade as an African without knowing the language,

just by growing a beard. And I didn't really care when his friend's

lives were threatened by the war. I know that people of that period

found it undignified to show their emotions, but I just found the

characters dry and uninteresting. It's a shame because on a

technical level this film is spectacular. It looks and sounds great.

But I like to experience emotions in the movie theatre, and this

movie left me cold.

Bend It Like Beckham had its North American Premiere at the

2002 Toronto International Film Festival this week. At today's

Award Ceremony, the movie won an honorable mention for the

AGF People's Choice Award. The Toronto festival is unique

because the big award presented at the end is voted on by the

public, not by critics or film-makers. Bend It Like Beckham was

one of 2 runners' up for this honor. It's a real feel-good film in the

tradition of "The Full Monty" or "Billy Elliot." Parminder Nagra is

Jess, whose traditional Indian family frowns on her desire to be a

soccer player. Respectable Indian girls don't show their ankles,

and they don't run around playing with boys. They learn how to

cook and look after their husbands. So when Jules (Keira

Knightley) asks Jess to join her women's soccer team, the sparks

fly. And when she falls in love with Joe, (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers)

her decidedly non-Indian coach, both her family and her new best

friend Jules (who is also in love with the young man) decide

enough is enough! Director Gurinder Chadha tells a great story,

brimming with both drama and humor. This movie is hilarious,

and Chadha gets a lot of laughs from the ethnic backgrounds of

her characters. In the hands of a non-Indian director this movie

could have been derivative, even offensive, but the humor is

affectionate, and the director admits, autobiographical. Shaheen

Khan is absolutely hilarious as a mother trying desperately to

make her daughters conform to her old-world, decidedly

UN-European sense of respectability. But the movie is not about

race, it's about friendship, and family, and hope. Nagra and

Knightley are terrific as two friends desperate to achieve their

dreams, and Chadha is unabashedly hopeful. You can't help but

cheer for Jess and Jules, and you won't be disappointed! This

movie is already a huge hit in England, and I'm sure it'll also be a

crowd favorite on this side of the Atlantic. I loved it!

I saw Michael Moore's new film "Bowling for Columbine" at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is nothing short of amazing. All of Michael Moore's movies have been controversial, but none more so than this, about the US and it's obsession with guns. There were over 11 000 deaths due to gun violence in America, compared with less than 300 in Canada, and less than 100 in Japan. Why is the US a war zone? According to Moses himself, Charleton Heston, it may have to do with America's racial diversity... that's right, he says that right up on the screen. And that's only one of many revelations in this brilliant documentary. In the end it asks more questions than it answers, but it's a very illuminating trip. And for America, it will be a VERY bitter pill to swallow. He takes students wounded at Columbine High School to K-mart to return the bullets still lodged in their bodies. As a result, K-mart has removed all handgun and assaut rifle ammunition from their stores. He talks to gun nuts and relatives of victims of gun violence. he goes to NRA rallies and he tours Columbine and the town that became infamous as a result. And he suggests that maybe government sponsored acts of violence do not set a good example. If you believe that there are too many guns and something must be done about it - go see this movie. If you think all Americans should have the right to keep a loaded handgun or automatic rifle in their bedroom closet - GO SEE THIS MOVIE! If it changes some minds and makes the United States a little safer for innocent bystanders then all the better. Michael Moore has a unique sense of humor, and while this is certainly the most serious movie I've seen in a while, it was also one of the funniest! A VERY entertaining film, well worth the price of admission.

I just saw "The Emporer's Club" at the Toronto International Film Festival. In the end I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It took a while for me to warm to the story, primarily because of the parallels to another film, the similarly titled "Dead Poet's Society." But once you get past the title and the all boys private school setting, these movies are pretty different. Kevin Kline, who thrilled me at last years festival screening of "Life as a House," is once again brilliant as history teacher Arthur Hundert. he is confronted with a new student, a senator's son and a disruptive influence in his otherwise orderly classroom, and his life in general. He makes a mission of shaping this boy into a better student, and better school citizen, through the Mr. Julius Caesar contest. The ending is a little frustrating because the anti-hero never really suffers the consequences of his actions (and you REALLY want him to) but it's a brave ending, and I admire that about it. And in the end it isn't the lessons of the student that are important, but the lesson Kline's character learns. This is a very entertaining, intelligent movie, more challenging than I would have expected.

I was fortunate enough to attend a gala screening of White Oleander at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. I loved it. The performances are wonderful - Michelle Pfeiffer is just terrific as Ingrid, the artist/mother arrested for murdering her cheating boyfriend, and Robin Wright-Penn and Renee Zellweger are great as foster mothers who take in her daughter. But the real revelation of this movie is the daughter, Astrid, played brilliantly by Alison Lohman. Her life is instantly and irrevocably changed when the police come to her door early one morning to take her mother away. The movie is really about how she grows and changes in the company of the women who take her in, and how she copes with her constantly changing circumstances. Lohan is completely convincing, subtle and graceful. Any 21 year old newcomer who can steal a scene from Pfeiffer or Wright-Penn is definitely somebody to look out for. I couldn't take my eyes off her, as she turned from her mothers little girl into a bright, talented young woman. The script is brilliant. At the same time we are watching as Astrid is forced to grow up almost overnight, we are also learning that her relationship with her mother is anything but simple. Ingrid is controlling and jealous, but she is also brilliant and talented. Astrid must break free of her mothers grasp before she can really know herself. And while her mother is telling her to think for herself, she is at the same time trying to tell her what to think. With Ingrid locked up, Astrid is desperate to regain some sense of safety and security, and it is only through her exposure to a number of very troubled women, and a boy who finally offers her some kind of unconditional love (played brilliantly by Patrick Fugit (the young star of Almost Famous)), that she finally finds that security within herself. The movie is full of surprises, doling out information as we need it, and never resorting to cheap sentimentality. The film is bright and colorful and just a joy to watch, and the score by Thomas Newman is absolutely beautiful, the best I've heard this year, and certain to be an Oscar contender. The Film Festival isn't over yet, but I'm certain White Oleander will be one of my favorite films this year.

I just came from a Toronto International Film Festival gala screening of "Moonlight Mile," the new film from Brad Silberling (City Of Angels). The movie is just wonderful. Of course performances by Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman are terrific. They play the parents of a young woman who is murdered, only weeks before she is to be married, and they are brilliant as flawed but decent parents, dealing with their grief and trying to get on with their lives. But the real star of this movie is Jake Gyllenhaal (October Sky) who plays Joe, the son in law to be. The plan was for Joe and his bride to move back to the small Maine town where she grew up, so he could join the real estate business her father runs. So now he lives in their house, and they treat him like a son. Without giving too much away, it's obvious that this arrangement can't go on forever. The way these three characters deal with the new reality that the person they all loved is gone, is both touching and funny. And as we come to learn, each has secrets, and each has their own way of dealing with the loss. The script is warm and human, it's hilarious at times and it's sentimantal without being syrupy. It made me feel the way few movies can anymore. I was moved by it's honesty, and by it's 70's soundtrack. This is not a movie about grieving and loss. It's a movie about how love comes in many forms, and from the most unusual places. Mostly it's a movie about hope. I LOVED IT!