I saw a total of 45 feature selections
during TIFF. The following grades those
with very brief notes under each title.
I will do longer reviews of the more significant films when they are
released. It is worth noting that the
streaming giants (Netflix, Amazon) have become major players in both producing
films and getting them to the public. So
increasingly, even if you do not live in a metropolitan centre with theatrical
choices, more and more cinematic content is coming to your home screen.
TIFF Documentaries
A+
Agnès Varda, who died at age 90 this
past March, is one of the great treasures of French cinema. This is both a
reflection on her career and a master class in appreciation of the moving
image.
The Cordillera of Dreams (Chile/France
2019)
A
From another master filmmaker, Chilean
expatriate Patricio Guzmán, this memoir, alluding to his native country’s
Andean spine, is the third in a trilogy exploring both landscape and a violent
past.
Once Were Brothers: Robbie
Robertson and The Band (Canada/US 2019)
A-
The first Canadian documentary to open
TIFF draws on the memoir by Canadian songwriting genius Robbie Robertson of his
years in “The Band”, arguably the greatest folk-rock group of the 20th
century. It reflects his perspective as one of only two surviving members of
the five-man group.
Red Penguins (US/Germany/Russia
2019)
A-
A fascinating look at the NHL’s
incursion into the Russian market in the wild years after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, with the Pittsburgh Penguins bailing out the storied Red Army
Team, and much else happening off the ice.
Coppers (Canada
2019 http://www.primitive.net/copper.html)
A-
Another penetrating exploration from
director Alan Zweig that probes the sometimes traumatic experiences of police
officers told in their own words.
Citizen K (UK/US
2019)
A-
From veteran documentarian Alex Gibney,
this is the incredible story of Mikhail Khodorkovsky who went from the heights
of post-Soviet oligarchy (creating Russia biggest oil company) to anti-Putin
imprisonment and exile.
Western Stars (US
2019)
B+
Also the title of Bruce Springsteen’s
latest album this will be a must for fans of “the boss”, the New Jersey
singer-songwriter who just turned 70.
TIFF
Dramas
The Two Popes (UK/Italy/Argentina/US
2019)
A+
This Netflix production helmed by
Brazilian Fernando Meirelles is truly exceptional in exploring Jorge
Bergoglio’s rise to the papacy and its recent history, notably the resignation
of Pope Benedict that led to Pope Francis.
Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce are at the height of their powers as
respectively Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio/Pope Francis.
Parasite (South
Korea 2019 https://www.parasite-movie.com/)
A
For the second year in a row the Cannes
festival’s Palme d’Or has gone to an Asian director. Bong Joon-Ho skewers the gullible rich in
this savage satire of how a family living in squalor connives to become
employed by an affluent couple with a young son. But after discovering
something else in the basement, their takeover descends into the blackest
comedy with a vengeance. Class war shouldn’t be this much fun to watch!
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France
2019)
A
Writer-director Céline Sciamma won both
best screenplay and the “queer palm” at Cannes for this luminous exquisite
story of a female portrait painter in 18th century Brittany who is
commissioned to do a portrait of an elusive sheltered young woman for her
wedding engagement and becomes drawn to her subject beyond the female gaze.
A Hidden Life (Germany/US
2019 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/ahiddenlife/)
A
Writer-director Terrence Malick’s
masterwork tells the story of an Austrian peasant farmer who risked
imprisonment and death as a conscientious objector during the Nazi occupation. It’s
dedicated to those whose hidden lives resist evil and based on his letters to
his wife and three little girls. (He was beatified as a martyr by the Catholic
Church in 2007.)
Corpus Christi (Poland
2019)
A
The astonishing story of a juvenile
delinquent Daniel who upon his release from detention is able to impersonate a
priest in a small town riven by the fatal consequences of a recent car
accident. The fallout is both spiritual and personal.
Terminal Sud (France/Algeria
2019)
A
In an unnamed country that evokes
Algeria’s bloody past a doctor tends to the casualties, is abducted, tortured,
and faces a harrowing existential choice.
Clemency (US
2019)
A
Awarded the grand jury prize at
Sundance, a female African-American warden of an American prison must oversee
executions by lethal injection, following the protocols of bureaucratic
barbarism. To call it intense is an understatement.
Sorry We Missed You
A
British master filmmaker Ken Loach tells
another absorbing story of working families struggling under the pressures of
contemporary capitalism—in this case those of the “new economy” driven by
social media and fast delivery in which caring for people can get left behind.
JoJoRabbit (Germany/US
2019 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/jojorabbit/)
A-
I confess I voted for this winner of the
“People’s Choice Award” in which anarchic Kiwi director Taika Waititi plays
Adolph Hitler and mentor to the boy Nazi of the title, whose mother is hiding a
young Jewish girl. The audaciously outré
“anti-hate” satire was massively acclaimed by TIFF audiences while severely
dividing critics. It succeeds in leaving
no one indifferent.
Just Mercy (US
2019)
A-
A dramatization of the work of crusading
Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson who moved to the deep south to work
with local advocates for the wrongly convicted, especially those on death row including
the notable case of Walter McMillian.
Pain and Glory (Spain
2019)
A-
Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar delivers
a semi-autobiographical reflection on the moments of a career from the maternal
love of childhood onwards to other key relationships in the intersection of
life and art.
The Lighthouse (US/Canada)
A-
Nova Scotia is the setting for this dark
stormy tale of two men in a remote lighthouse.
Great performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as well as
cinematic magic in the atmospheric play of light and shadow.
Chicuarotes (Mexico
2019)
A-
Actor-director Gael García Bernal (also
in Ema) helms this story set amid the
struggle for survival on Mexican mean streets where crime and domestic abuse
are rampant. The casting of local non actors gives it a powerful authenticity.
Honey Boy (US
2019)
A-
Actor Shia Labeouf plays his own father,
an abusive former rodeo clown, from a script that he developed while in rehab.
Noah Jupe plays the young “Otis” at age 12, and Lucas Hedges is Otis at 22 as
he struggles with the legacy of addictions.
Ford v. Ferrari (US
2019 https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/ford-v-ferrari)
A-
Noah Jupe also has a role in this true
story about how in the 1960s ace car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon)
convinced the boss of Ford to take on Ferrari in the 24 hours of Le Mans race
which Ferrari had dominated. The other key character is volatile ace driver Ken
Miles (a superb Christian Bale looking nothing like his Dick Cheney role in
last year’s Vice).
Bad Education (US
2019)
A-
Thankfully this isn’t an American remake
of the 2004 Almodóvar film but the true story, uncovered by a student reporter,
of an enormous public school embezzlement scandal involving a superintendent of
schools and a corrupt business manager.
Hugh Jackman is excellent as the suave superintendent who poses as a
“widower” but is actually a gay man with lovers in different cities.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
(US/China
https://www.abeautifulday.movie/)
B+
Tom Hanks plays the much loved TV
personality Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys is the skeptical journalist Lloyd
Vogel, assigned to do a magazine piece, who is also troubled by a deep
estrangment from his father. The relationship that develops between Rogers and
Vogel offers a welcome note of empathy and kindness in these cynical
times.
Marriage Story (US
2019, coming to Netflix)
B+
Writer-director Noah Bamubach’s searing
portrait of a relationship falling apart, with an eight-year son caught in the
middle, had a few too many melodramatic episodes for my taste as mercenary
lawyers get involved and raise the stakes. Still Adam Driver and Scarlett
Johansson (also in JoJo Rabbit) are
in top form as the quarreling couple.
The Report (US
2019)
B+
Based on the actual events of the US
Senate Intelligence Committee’s landmark investigation in the CIA’s use of
torture on detainees post 9/11, Adam Driver stars as the committee’s lead
researcher on a team that pursues the truth in the face of bureaucratic
national security roadblocks and pressures to suppress evidence and prevent any
public release of the findings.
It Must Be Heaven (France/Qatar/Germany/Canada/Turkey/Palestine
2019)
B+
Nazareth-born writer-director Elia
Suleiman is a masterful observer of the human comedy as exemplified in this wry
take on life’s absurdities which nonetheless holds out hope for the Palestinian
future, even if not in this lifetime.
The Perfect Candidate (Saudi
Arabia/Germany 2019)
B+
Also from the Middle East, female Saudi
director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s third feature centres on the determination of a
young female Saudi doctor’s determination to run for office in local elections,
underlining the contradictions of the kingdom and its oppressive gender
segregated restrictions.
The Truth (France/Japan
2019)
B+
Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, who
took the Palme d’Or in 2018 for Shoplifters,
ventures into new territory with this story of a fraught relationship between a
mother and daughter after the mother Fabienne (played by French screen legend
Catherine Deneuve) publishes a memoir and is confronted by daughter Lumir
(played by another great French actress Juliette Binoche). This may be a minor
work but it’s a delight just to see Deneuve and Binoche together on screen.
Workforce (Mexico
2019)
B+
The owner of a mansion under
construction tries to evade responsibility for a workplace fatality. When he
dies with no heirs the workers move in but there are further tragedies and
complications as others arrive and try to assert squatters’ rights.
A White White Day (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden
2019)
B+
After the wife of a police chief dies in
a car crash in heavy fog, he begins to suspect a local man of having had an
affair with her. His suspicions become
obsessions that spiral into uncontrollable grief and threats of violence that
take a toll on his loved ones as well.
The County (Iceland/Germany/Denmark/France
2019)
B+
Rural Iceland is the setting for another
excellent feature, this one helmed by Grímur Hákanarson (Rams). After a farm wife is widowed she is determined to keep the
dairy operation going despite the pressures brought by a powerful co-op cartel
that has become a self-serving monopoly. She starts a movement for dairy
producers to unite while facing the threat of bankruptcy and eviction. She’s a woman at war with the local powers.
Lyrebird (US
2019)
B+
Based on Jonathan Lopez’s nonfiction
account The Man Who Made Vermeers, in
Holland in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War a wealthy artist and
art dealer Han van Meegernen (Guy Pearce) goes on trial accused of
collaboration with the Nazis including selling them Dutch masterworks. But an
Allied soldier investigator (Claes Bang) believes in van Meergen’s innocence as
a master forger who duped his Nazi clients.
The Burnt Orange Heresy (UK/Italy)
B+
Claes Bang (The Square) also stars in this art-obsessive story based on a 1971
novel. Bang plays a renowned but unscrupulous art critic who enters into a pact
with a wealthy collector (Mick Jagger) for access to a reclusive artist (Donald
Sutherland). It will lead to disturbing
revelations and even murder.
Seberg (UK/US
2019)
B+
Kristen Stewart plays the girl from Iowa
Jean Seberg who became an acclaimed actress of the French “New Wave” after
starring in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.
She was also a political activist who supported the Black Panthers and was obsessively
spied upon by Hoover’s FBI. In 1968
Seberg left her husband and young son behind to take a role in the US. After becoming involved with radical Black
activist Hakim Abdullah Jamal her life was destined to take a tragic turn.
Spider (Chile/Argentina/Brazil
2019)
B+
This remarkable drama of vigilante
violence goes back to the turbulent year of 1971 when three friends were part
of a far-right “Fatherland and Liberty” movement (under the sign of a spider)
engaging in acts of sabotage against the socialist Allende government which
would be overthrown by a military coup. One, an assassin who became a “martyr”,
returns from exile as the past haunts the present with shocking consequences.
Ema
B
Chilean director Pablo Larraín moves
away from his acclaimed political drama to focus on the transgressive sexual
relationships of a group of “Reggaeton” dancers in a story that also involves
an adopted Colombian boy.
Guest of Honour (Canada
2019)
B
The latest from veteran auteur Atom
Egoyan centres on a daughter’s complicated relationship with her recently deceased
father. A teacher, she has served prison time for an inappropriate relationship
with a student and seems to want the maximum punishment. He was an embittered
public health inspector, the terror of restaurant owners. Mal appetit?
Blow the Man Down (US
2019)
B
In this intermittently effective sea
shanty set in wintry Maine, two sisters are grieving the loss of their mother
as the murder of a young woman needs to be solved, with possible links to the
town’s brothel known to a circle of older women.
Uncut Gems (US
2019)
B
Helmed by brothers Benny and Josh
Safdie, this is a frenetic noisy ride that ends with a bullet to the
brain. The protagonist in this
swear-a-thon of mumbled dialogue is a sleazy Jewish gambler and gem dealer
played by Adam Sandler in overdrive.
Endings, Beginnings (US/South
Korea 2019)
B-
In this minor relationship melodrama
from Drake Doremus, Shailene Woodley plays Daphne, a young woman who in the
aftermath of a breakup toggles between two male lovers. Text messages appear on
screen in pastel hues. There’s a dog, and later she decides to have a child on
her own.
The Barefoot Emperor (Belgium/Netherlands/Croatia/Bulgaria
2019) http://thebarefootemperor.com/)
B-
In this mocking satire of far-right
nationalism the last king of the Belgians gets shot in Sarajevo and is then
confined to treatment on what was Tito’s private island where, triggered by the
collapse of the European Union, he is proclaimed the first emperor of “Nova
Europa” by a Dr. Ilse von Stroheim. An absurdity too far.
Frankie (France/Portugal
2019)
C+
Despite the presence of the great
Isabelle Huppert in the title role, this minor melodrama from Ira Sachs is so
low-key it quickly fades. “Frankie” has
a terminal illness when she invites family members (including current and
ex-husbands) and a stylist friend to a last gathering in Portugal. A treasured
bracelet has a role but not much happens before the subjects walk into the
sunset.
Lucy in the Sky (US
2019 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/lucyinthesky/)
C+
Natalie Portman plays a female astronaut
Lucy Cola (based on the life of Lisa Nowak) who is transfixed by her experience
in space but then goes off the rails after having an affair with a fellow
astronaut. Somehow the impact is underwhelming.
I Was Home … But
C
There are donkeys, dogs, and rabbits in
this baffling narrative that appears to centre on a teenage boy and his
mother. The boy, who is performing in a
school production of Hamlet, disappears for a time. The mother has bad luck buying a bicycle
through a classified ad, and gets into an argument with a filmmaker. Make of it what you can.
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