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Two More TIFF Selections Hit Theatres: Beautiful Boy and Free Solo


Two More Toronto film festival selections reach theatres:

Beautiful Boy   (U.S.)
Timothée Chalamet turned heads and earned an Oscar nomination in last year’s Call Me By Your Name.  With his classical features and mass of wavy curls, the screen loves Chalamet, who excels again, this time in a real-life role, as Nic Sheff, a talented young man in the throes of drug addictions.   Also excellent is Steve Carell as the father, journalist David Sheff, who stands by Nic through a series of rehabs and relapses culminating in a near-fatal overdose.  Nic has younger siblings from his father’s second marriage. He spends some time with his concerned mother Vicki (Amy Ryan) in another city. Nothing seems to work and the increasing strains on all concerned are palpable.  Helmed by Belgian Felix van Groeningen (best known for The Broken Circle Breakdown), the screenplay draws on the revealing memoirs published by both father and son in 2008: David’s Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey through His Son’s Addiction and Nic’s Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines.  The good news is that Nic not only survived but has thrived as a successful scriptwriter. This story of his struggle with addiction is raw and compelling.  B+

Free Solo    (U.S.)
Filmmaker/professional mountain climber Jimmy Chin and partner Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi were the directing team behind the 2015 Sundance prize winner Meru about a death-defying Himalayan ascent.  Here their focus is on a solitary and even more extreme pursuit—that of legendary free climber Alex Honnold to conquer Yosemite’s “El Capitan”, the sheerest and highest 3,200 foot granite rockface on the planet, alone and without the aid of ropes or any other devices.  The filmmakers delve into the back story of Honnold’s childhood and climbing obsessions.  He is an odd bird indeed, living alone in his van for many years. But he does have a devoted girlfriend Sanni McCandless and has established a nonprofit foundation that currently promotes solar energy in the developing world. We see a complex, driven young man who is more interesting than the image of the loner misfit.  The film captures all of these human sides, including setbacks from injuries and an abortive attempt begun in pitch darkness. The drama of several years of preparations builds to the astonishing successful free-solo ascent of El Capitan on June 3, 2017 in just under four hours—the dizzying heights and breathtaking angles captured through multiple camera positions from drone shots to intense close-ups by an expert film crew.  The realization that the smallest mistake means recording a death is always on their minds. One of the camera operators has to repeatedly look away before Honnold reaches the summit and expresses “delight” with his accomplishment.  Both as ultimate climb and absorbing character study, Free Solo, winner of TIFF’s documentary People’s Choice Award, never loses its grip.  A+   [I might add that the film also features scenes with a main climbing partner of Honnold’s, Tommy Caldwell, whose own exploits on El Capitan—a seemingly impossible 2015 wintertime ascent with companion Kevin Jorgeson—is the subject of another heart-stopping documentary The Dawn Wall (http://www.dawnwall-film.com/), a 2017 Austrian production that took the documentary spotlight audience award at the 2018 South By Southwest Film Festival.]  

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