MONDOmagazine

By Jess Skinner and Doug Nayler

Most people are aware that receiving an Oscar isn’t simply a matter of being the best in your category. There are endless other considerations that enter the mind of that small group of Academy Award voters. Often a director or actor will be recognized for an inferior movie because the voters feel guilty for overlooking them in the past (see: Martin Scorcese). People would argue that some years have more than a little to do with tokenism. And then sometimes, nobody has any clue what happened. But at any rate, there is one thing that is for sure: the Oscar selection process is so strange and weird, it’s impossible to predict them accurately. That said, we’re still going to try.

Best Picture of the Year

Nominees: Atonement, No Country For Old Men, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood

Jesse’s Thoughts:

Probable Winner: No Country for Old Men - This movie went a lot further than I thought it would. I expected quality, but not such a great wave of hype and praise. It arrived certainly.

Personal Favourite: There Will Be Blood - Daniel Day-Lewis eats everything alive and spits it back out in PT Anderson’s epic. A cynical melodrama it is, but also a truly bizarre slap in the face.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable Winner: There Will Be Blood – While I see the race this year as a dead heat between this and No Country, I’m going to give the edge to this one because the director prize is most likely going to the Coens.

Personal Favourite: As long as it goes home with There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men, I’m happy.

Best Director

Nominees: PT Anderson – There Will Be Blood, The Coen Brothers – No Country for Old Men, Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton, Jason Reitman – Juno, Julian Schnabel – Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jesse’s Thoughts

Probable: The Coen Brothers – Up-and-coming has nothing on long overdue, and Anderson still may have to crank out a few more deserving attempts to win.

Personal: Jason Reitman – You know, they say comedy does not get enough respect, and their right. Reitman doesn’t do anything flashy, but his is the invisible guidance holding everything together.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: The Coen Brothers – Agreed. They took the DGA prize, and it seems like everyones’ consensus is that there time is now.

Personal: PTA – Yes he’s still very young, etc., etc. However in pure quality of work the man has outshone most of his peers and each film just seems to get better and better. If he keeps it up, this prize is as good as his, but I think he deserves it now.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees: Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: the Golden Age, Julie Christie – Away From Her, Ellen Page – Juno, Laura Linney – The Savages, Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose

Jesse’s Thoughts

Probable: Julie Christie – Getting old and dying is something the Academy voters can probably relate to, not to disparage Christie’s performance or anything which I haven’t seen so I should just stop talking about.

Personal: Laura Linney – In The Savages, Linney perfects the kind of role she has been trying for a while. That is, the befuddled intellectual facing reality and all that. It’s an admirable achievement in what will probably be another loss for her.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Laura Linney – A wise, sage friend of mine has informed me that in the Best Actress category if there’s only one American actress, she always wins it. He’s pointed out to me countless examples where that’s been true in the past, so I didn’t argue; and this year Linney is the only American actress in the category. And besides, after The Squid and the Whale, Kinsey, and You Can Count On Me, I think Linney’s now in the overdue category, even if this role wasn’t as worthy as those two.

Personal: Marion Cotillard – Believably playing Edith Piaf from her teens to her 40s-which-looked-like-her-90s, Cotillard completely disappears into the role. It’s an extremely impressive display of acting.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees: George Clooney – Michael Clayton, Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd, Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood, Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises, Tommy Lee Jones – In the Valley of Elah

Jesse’s Thoughts

Probable: Daniel Day-Lewis – A fairly sure bet, if you are the kind of people who bet on the Oscars. I know who you are. This Irishman, previously seen in Gangs of New York, continues to display a knack for playing crazy fucking Yankees.

Personal: George Clooney – Clooney gets trashed by people I know. I go to his movies because it’s refreshing to watch an actor with that profile and reputation barely even try. I mean that in the most positive way. He just walks out, half-asses it and gets away with it. I admire that.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Daniel Day-Lewis – Are you kidding? This is the only sure bet of the night.

Personal: Daniel Day-Lewis – Part of the reason Lewis is a sure bet is because nobody else in this category has done a performance anywhere near the same league.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees: Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men, Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War, Hal Holbrook – Into the Wild, Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Jesse’s Thoughts

Probable: Javier Bardem – However silly he may look, Bardem is positively spooky as the shuffling killer, another in the Coen Brothers’ long line of stoic and implacable maniacs.

Personal: Tom Wilkinson – Giving the best acting performance onscreen in 2007, Wilkinson is so good he deserves to be the guy who should have won the award, sure to be robbed by hype and bad luck. Even more proof of how good an actor he is: after watching movies with him in them for years, it was only like two months ago I found out he’s English and not American.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Javier Bardem – He took the SAG trophy both on his own, and as part of Best Ensemble Cast for No Country. And with very good reason. If he hadn’t been as terrifying and fascinating in his role, the whole film would’ve potentially fallen apart.

Personal: Tom Wilkinson – For one thing, Michael Clayton is mis-titled because Tom Wilkinson’s role is what really gives the movie heart. And for another, from his roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Normal and In The Bedroom, Wilkinson is one of the best actors in Hollywood today.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees: Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There, Ruby Dee – American Gangster, Saoirse Ronan – Atonement, Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone, Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Jesse’s Thoughts

Probable and Personal: Cate Blanchett – Androgynous is the new retarded when it comes to Oscar-nominated acting, but Blanchett does a damn good job here and deserves the award. That having been said, I’d make a case for Amy Ryan, who was the best thing I could care to name about the otherwise forgettable Gone Baby Gone, managing to remain convincing despite everything going on around her not making an ounce of sense.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Amy Ryan – Don’t ask me why, but I think Ryan’s won enough of the other pre-Oscar awards to be credible as the night’s first big upset.

Personal: Cate Blanchett – One of the few truly fascinating things to watch in the nearly unwatchable clusterfuck that was I’m Not There is Cate Blanchett’s complete dissappearance into Bob Dylan circa Don’t Look Back.

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees: Diablo Cody – Juno, Nancy Olivier – Lars and the Real Girl, Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton, Brad Bird – Ratatouille, Tamara Jenkins – The Savages

Jesse

Probable: Diablo Cody – A cinematic hipster icon for the modern age, Cody deserves some kind of award just for pulling off a movie like Juno and not completely missing the point.

Personal: Brad Bird – Ratatouille was the best reviewed movie of the year but somehow got nudged out of most of the important awards. Give them some sort of recognition, and I won’t get angry.

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Diablo Cody – Despite my constant misunderstanding as to why Juno is such a big thing, there is no denying that it is a big thing. And the screenwriting category is often where the more out there films that deserve more recognition get it. So, even though Alex Huls and I are apparently the only two people alive who don’t think so, everybody else thinks Juno fits perfectly in that category.

Personal: Tony Gilroy – I don’t think Michael Clayton’s going to get much on the award front anywhere else, so I think it should get it here. Gilroy deserves some real props from taking a very tired, boring, worn-out genre and bringing it back to life.

Predictions for the 81^st Academy Awards, 2009

Best Supporting Actor

Doug’s Thoughts

Probable: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight – I obviously have yet to see the movie, or any other film that could possibly be nominated, but this is just a hunch of mine. Mix the existing huge buzz and interest in Ledger’s turn as the Joker with the almost universal feeling that he passed away before he was able to reach his considerable potential. Add to that a related, new-found guilt amongst the Oscar crowd for not giving him a statue for his turn in Brokeback Mountain, and I think there’s already a very good chance that Ledger will get a post-humous statue. But, we’ll have to wait a year to see.

Thoughts on the WGA Strike

By Jess Skinner

The chilling, pathetic grasp at relevance that is the Golden Globes has been tossed into the can this year – which does not bother me, as award ceremonies were getting close to being culturally disruptive. The only one who should be upset is 90-year-old Ernest Borgnine, nominated in something called Grandpa for Christmas. What a crappy gift that would be. Borgnine and his ilk will have to stay home Sunday night, or perhaps create their own awards ceremony to fill the void. That is, I think, how all these things get started.

The cause of this cancellation (or the cause of the cause) would be the ongoing strike by the Writer’s Guild of America, divided into East and West. This strike means that all union members are barred from creating new written material for television and film. After having reached the beginning of a new cycle of contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a stalemate has arisen. The increasing profit from home video sales being received (gained almost entirely from DVDs) is ostensibly archaic, recalling a time when the market was dominated by VHS tapes. DVDs and a similar residual conflict in Internet content signal the desire for a movement into a time where what is outdated is no longer practiced. I am glad we are starting with award shows. Patrick Verrone, the President of the Writer’s Guild West, has said that the issue is primarily one of pay, in which residuals given to producers should also apply to writers.

What constitutes new written material remains to be seen. Outside of award shows, causalities of the strike still seem to be grappling: late-night personalities like Jay Leno have come under fire for writing their own monologues. Some, like Stephen Colbert, have resorted to scraping through material written just prior to the strike. In Hollywood, Da Vinci Code prequel Angels and Demons has already been postponed.

What would a long-term strike mean for the viewer? I imagine possible scenarios in this fallout. The first I imagine, and something that has been seen already, is a steadily increasing repetition of content circulating in our multiplexes and on our television screens. What should be realized is that something akin to experiencing this repetition is practiced by many of us. It’s called going to the movies, or watching TV. Truth is, they do not really need writers to make money. What makes money is more a cobbling together of old ideas, abuses of technology, and spastic energy. Do we think it reasonable that a cultural niche like film could survive if its authors are shoved out of the equation? To see ourselves further entrenched into display, that is, drawn into spectacle in content, would be to see our arts devolve into sideshows.

This leads to my second imagined scenario, in which new filmed content is created by its producers. Imagine the process, through which a television show would be created based entirely on what is believed to be most desired by the viewer. Would it compare to someone trying desperately to be liked but never succeeding, or would it be capable of influencing and dominating the tastes of the masses? The relationship between Hollywood and its audiences is often bait-and-switch, in that the former offers new content but reveals something substituted – but who is really in power? The reality of this content-and-material void has nothing to do with the general audience, the people who have – through some kind of will – decided what stays and what goes, what is canonized and what isn’t. It is possible that producers would learn to satisfy an audience’s unquenchable thirst for new ideas, or else wither and die like Ernest Borgnine.

The third possible scenario is that entertainment could become completely improvised. Imagine it: movies that are thought up on the spot, and based entirely on the subconscious reactions of their creators. Eliminate the entire process of writing, and give us something that is in complete defiance of narrative logic.

Something has to break first, is all I am saying here, and maybe once content backlog will run dry, going to the movies or watching television will become baffling ordeals. I myself am curious as to what kind of material can be produced under these conditions. Whether repetitious or incomprehensible, it sheds a lot of light on how the business side of Hollywood views its product, as well as its audience. Movies that fall under its heavy influence tend to follow a slow trend of stylisation, in that nothing aggressively alienates the audience in its presentation; tastes change too slowly for it to work any other way. In the end, content may be disposable but the audience is not…it stays in the seats or the industry collapses.

An IMDB Content Keyword Discovery

By Caesar-is-the-gigolo-personages-by-the-unidiomatic-whipping-hole Martini

I stumbled across an interesting feature on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), which is where I get most of my info when I’m doing movie reviews (length and rating and writers and information like that). Did you know that you can search for movies via content keywords? If you look up any movie, you’ll see that there are a bunch of plot keywords — tags, for the web 2.0 crowd — associated with it. Tags like character name in title, hit by car, karate, flashback sequence, and so on. Things you can generally expect to see in the movie in question.

If you click on any of these tag phrases, a list of movies come up that include the tag that you selected. You can further narrow down that list of movies by clicking on more tags. This lets you select a movie by content. So for example, if I wanted to get a list of movies that featured mobsters, someone getting stabbed in the head, large breasts, and an exploding house, I would click on the appropriate tags and there you go. If such a movie exists and is appropriately tagged, it pops up for me.

So, as a matter of social experimentation, I clicked on a few of the more ridiculous tags to see what would come up. The tags I selected were:

Female nudity
Kicked in the crotch
Kicked in the face
Male underwear

I got a movie called Silver (1999). It’s some kind of crazy Japanese movie. I delved a little further. The plot synopsis was empty, which left me no idea of what this movie was about, except that it maybe had a naked chick kicking a dude in his crotch and face whilst in his underwear (although a user did leave a helpful comment: “Tarantino’s nuts in a handbag”).

So I scrolled down to check out viewer reviews. One reviewer gave his opinion on the movie. Here’s an excerpt or two:

As far as the personages the situation is aggravated from the fact that the actors are rather anonymous in their performances, beginning from the protagonist whom it interprets Jun, that is Petronia the Atsuko Sakuraba, lucky person owner of two breasts that could make competition to those of Anna Ohura. But, as very you will know, in the greater part of films it is not not only recited with the torte (or palomino), and in as far as espressività the Sakuraba it is not just the maximum.

And one is bored to us, decidedly. Not to mention the most open end that cannot not inversive or of personages who appear and scorpion (the overflow is a personage who is not understood who is and that he appears in a single scene but that seems a cortisone beautiful powerful. The only indication is the fact that this encumber comes from the unidiomatic Whipping Hole, probably one lair of gigolo).

As you can tell, it’s bloody gibberish. What the hell is an unidiomatic whipping hole?

Anyhoo, the review is obviously by an Asian person and has been so horribly translated into something that you could only loosely describe as English that it’s completely indecipherable. I did, however, get the impression that the person was kind of underwhelmed by the film, but they rated it an A+. That might be because this person doesn’t know what the letter A represents in English, who knows.

A second person offers a much more readable review. Please read:

An artistically accomplished, taboo-breaking, and utterly engrossing banquet of violence, with a complex plot that draws the viewer down a path to ever-darker territory. Woman-breasted Jun (Shinobu Kandori) is a pro wrestler who takes her job very seriously, lovingly tackling her opponent to assuage the drudgery of the masses. Her family was murdered by the evil underworld gang, Paradise, and now she only lives for revenge. She conspires with Yusuke Minamida, her senior at the government’s secret organization, and sneaks into a women’s professional wrestling group. Having her face as a star wrestler, Silver Jun, she goes into a fierce battle with Paradise and is drawn into a police case involving the apparent murder of her family, who appear to have killed with a chainsaw. The eye Jun extracts from one of the corpses, however, tells a different story, and is glazed over with gelatine. Jun is warned by a Buddhist cult leader to cease her “unholy” practice of masked wrestling, Yoshiki’s head is stolen from the dumpster, and his mourning, egocentric girlfriend exhibits some very strange behavior. So begins a dizzying descent into an underworld of organ trafficking, yakuza turf wars, multiple personality disorder, and illegal octopus lobotomies, combining truly grisly effects with the Biblical intricacies of an old El Santo picture, and a metaphysical commentary on the transience of traditional values.

Did everyone catch that part about illegal octopus lobotomies? Well, though I’m still confused, I at least have an idea of what the movie is about now: masked, large-breasted female wrestling; gang wars; and grisly death. And obviously, it’s worth watching. Hell, after scrolling down the provided list of the rest of the tags that apply to this movie, I decided it was a must-see right there. In addition to female nudity, kicked in the crotch, hit in the crotch, and kicked in the face, this movie also includes:

Sadomasochism clothing
Vaginas
Wrestling
Lesbian interest
Leg spreading
Urine drinking
Male nudity
Explosions
Menace
Karate kicks
Masturbation
Fire
Death
Jumping
Whipping (probably the aforementioned whipping hole)
Blonde Asians
Eye gouging
Nipples
Penis
Large penis
Naked man
Painful sex
Deviant sex
Strap-on dildos
Rough sex
Unusual sex acts (every kind of sex, apparently)
Snipers
The Secret Service
Chainsaws
Evil
A duel
and of course, Sensuality (it sounds very sensual indeed) That is maybe only a quarter of all the tags this movie has. Basically, it has just about everything you could possibly put into a movie, except maybe aliens. Though I’m not going to make the effort, I admit that I am intrigued. Just for the illegal octopus lobotomies and crotch kicking alone.

2007: Revival of the Genre Films

By Doug Nayler

Before I get into my Top 10 list for this year, I feel that a disclaimer is very much in order. Actually, two disclaimers. The first of which relates to the film There Will Be Blood. There has been much discussion concerning whether this film is to be considered a film of 2007 or 2008. There is little consensus to be found online as to when it is being released where. There are claims of December 25th, 29th, and January 4th release dates. As far as I can determine, its earliest release in Canada is not until January 4th. For that reason I have decided to consider it a 2008 release. Otherwise I fear that it would be too grave an omission from consideration in a Top Films of 2007 list. And there are already enough omissions without adding a major one.

Which brings me to my second point. As you are aware, MONDO is a community of young, starving writers who have found a way to get our take on the worlds of art and culture out there. As such, many of our writers and editors (including myself) are also in school, and in many cases employed as well, to keep those mean people who own the buildings where we live from tossing us out on the street. So, unlike a “professional” film critic the amount of time I have to devote to film going is more limited than I would prefer. Thus, for transparency’s sake, I felt that this list should be accompanied by a list of films I have yet to see. All of these are films released in 2007 that I wish I could’ve considered before compiling my Top 10:

God Grew Tired of Us; The Good German; The Italian; Color Me; Kubrick; Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters; Red Road; Year of the Dog; Hot Fuzz; Zoo; Away From Her; Once; Paris, Je T’Aime; Paprika; A Mighty Heart; Rescue Dawn; Eastern Promises; Into the Wild; Lust; Caution; Lake of Fire; Lars and the Real Girl; Gone Baby Gone; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead; Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains; My Kid Could Paint That; The Savages; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Juno; Grace is Gone.

So now, with all that said, here are my top films of the year:

10. The Lives of Others
While not as insightful a character study as the marketing copy made it seem to be, The Lives of Others‘ portrait of living, working, and relationships in Eastern Germany proved very compelling. The world the film constructed felt authentic, right down to the material of the couches.

9. Ratatouille
Damn you Pixar! Why must you keep making big budget, mass-appeal films that are still clever enough to bore into the chests of us cynics where they promptly tug at our heartstrings. While I still feel guilty about giving Disney my $12, this tale of a rat who wants to be a world-class chef is impossible not to like. Now if only Patton Oswalt could get a film more in tune with the tone of his stand-up comedy.

8. Superbad
Being a young Canadian male in his 20s who came of age not long ago, it’s probably not that surprising that I responded so strongly to in-his-20s Seth Rogan’s coming-of-age tale based on his teenage experiences in Vancouver. What proved funniest to me was how finely pointed the film’s jabs at male teenage insecurity were. I could’ve almost characterized it as too close for comfort if I hadn’t been laughing so much.

7. Michael Clayton
Legal thrillers are often fucking boring. As far as I was concerned, the ’90s orgy of John Grisham-ism had killed the entire genre. Enter Michael Clayton, an unsettling, heady film that understands that tension has to be built, not just thrown in with music. This film is also smart enough to know not to set the stakes of the story so high that it starts becoming absurd. The title is something of a misnomer, however. While George Clooney’s titular “janitor” is the fulcrum around which the story turns, it’s Tilda Swinton’s CEO and Tom Wilkinson’s off-his-meds defence lawyer who give the film its heart and soul.

6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I saw this film three months ago, and I am still trying to sort it out. This film features fantastic imagery, excellent performances, and one of the best train-robbery sequences I’ve ever seen. Yet the characters and the audience both wrestle with the nagging worry that the “point of it all” is always just out of reach. It makes for a fascinating new take on an old genre rife with archetypes and images buried in the modern subconscious. If only it had been more precisely edited, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford would probably be even higher on this list.

5. Knocked Up
While many have heralded Superbad as the superior of this year’s two Judd Apatow blockbusters, my money is on Knocked Up. Ever since his television days, Apatow has had a great skill for pulling great comedy out of characters and relationships that seem quite present day and relatable. This film also marked a much-deserved breakout role for Seth Rogan, the man with the perfect comic delivery.

4. Zodiac
The latest film from David Fincher has shown many an excited film nerd of the ’90s that he still has great things in him. Zodiac is about a serial killer, yes, but has more in common with a film like The Conversation than Fincher’s Se7en. The film focuses less on the killer or the crimes than on the toll it takes on the investigators trying to sort it out. Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Jake Gyllenhaal all shine as the investigators who each in turn are consumed by the case that won’t be solved. Like some of the others on this list, Zodiac is notable for taking a tired, winded old genre and turning it in a smart, unique direction.

3. Margot at the Wedding
Critics and audiences both hated this one, but I feel that the wrath is quite undue. The complaints focused primarily on how cruel and spiteful the characters were; how director Noah Baumbach was working out personal demons and “would’ve been wiser to spend the money on therapy.” I can only wonder if the film provoked such a strong reaction because it touched a nerve. The film’s focus on selfishness, insecurity, and the complicated relationships of family is genuine and unblinking. The dark, bitter tone comes as the result of how the film bravely refuses to pull any punches. If you’re willing to make the investment, Margot at the Wedding is a film brimming with hard truths.

2. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Director Ken Loach’s take on the Irish Republican struggle in the 1920s makes a number of choices that cause it to stand out from other historical epics of the year. Instead of trying to show all the major players and events of the period, Loach stays focused on life in the rural Irish county of Cork. Here we see the conflict exclusively through the eyes of ordinary people who couldn’t take it anymore. And, like those individuals, the viewer only hears about the goings-on of the leaders and big conflicts in Dublin and Ulster. The result is a film that is much more accessible in its approach to history. By seeing how choices developed for the ordinary man joining the IRA, the viewer is engaged to wonder what they’d do in the same situation. And it soon becomes very apparent that it’s easier to define what you’re fighting against, than what exactly is the shape of what you’re fighting for. There are no easy answers here.

1. No Country for Old Men
Raved about by critics long before its release, No Country for Old Men was surprisingly able to live up to the hype and then some. In an age of hopelessly quirky-so-it-must-be-edgy “independent” films, it’s very encouraging to see the Coen brothers play it straight. What’s most successful about this film is the way that tension is built and controlled not through music or camera tricks but by simply, discretely showing the story unfold. Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones deftly carry the weight of the film, and the Coens proved shrewd in allowing them to do so without unnecessary frills. This film doesn’t even have any soundtrack music, but you wouldn’t notice if I hadn’t mentioned it. The tone and momentum are so well developed you don’t ever miss it.

Gremlins (1984)

By Jess Skinner

Ponder on whatever supremely unfortunate Christmas gift you’ve received in your life, and take pleasure in the probable truth that it never tried to claw your face off. This cannot be said for Zach Galligan’s holiday, circa 1984, which resulted in nothing less than vicious monsters running amok in his once-idyllic town. This is Gremlins, a movie beloved by many but analysed probably only by me. I find it one of the most curious of movies, one of those pop-culture artefacts that seem designed for nobody; in this case too grotesque for children, too cartoonish for adults. I love it for precisely this reason; it is a self-conscious middle finger to any potential mass market. But it was successful anyway, proving once again that moviegoers are sometimes smarter than I think they are.

Gremlins takes place during Christmas but has little to do with the holiday, instead cheerfully exploiting it as a counterpart to the mayhem of the creatures. This is a particular kind of mayhem, as unlike a lot of movie monsters, these ones are conscious and articulate in their destruction. I particularly enjoy the scene in which they drive a snowplow into a house. Or when they ambush a mall Santa and (presumably) slay him. So inappropriate, and yet sublime. Another reason why I should never have children: I’d probably make them watch this annually.

Favourite Films of 2007:

10. Juno
09. Ratatouille
08. Ils (Them)
07. Paris, je t’aime
06. Rescue Dawn
05. Once
04. Michael Clayton
03. Zodiac
02. No Country for Old Men
01. I’m Not There

Three cheers for celebrity decadence, directorial pretentia, and Noah Baumbach’s deep-seated psychological issues.

By Doug Nayler

With hundreds of films, 24 different screens, and enough hype to choke the entire world’s equestrian population (if there was some way to exchange ‘hype’ for something capable of doing so… perhaps a large number of softballs?) it gets very difficult to see even a third of what goes on at the Toronto International Film Festival. And I’m speaking strictly of the screenings, not even mentioning the all-night orgies at Holt Renfrew attended by Joaquin Phoenix and Roman Polanski. No, TIFF is nothing if not overwhelming: it comes into town like a hurricane, then leaves with a wake of destruction, as if it’s taken half the money in town with it. In part because it has.

Despite all this, I managed to successfully attend some films, and here are some comments upon them. I’ve decided to just give a series of mini-reviews to whet your appetites for the full length, uncut, hardcore reviews that will come when the films are actually released. So, without any further ado:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Directed by Andrew Dominik
Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007

This film is going to make for millions of very unhappy teenage girls. Despite featuring the couldn’t-be-more ubiquitous chiseled good looks of Brad Pitt, Jesse James is not by any stretch of the imagination a mainstream film. Unlike this month’s other big western release, 3:10 to Yuma, this film has more in common with out there westerns such as Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man or Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller than it does to shoot em’ ups like Silverado. It’s such a heady, meditative, and uncommercial film that I can only assume any viewer will either consider it pure genius or hopeless pretension. I myself am still unsure.

One thing I am sure of, however, is that the acting is superb for almost everyone in the film. Who ever knew that Casey Affleck had range? Although the film is loaded with Affleck’s patented ‘look down and smirk’ maneuver, he subtly embodies the character of Bob Ford and his mixed worship, admiration, disappointment and hatred for his boyhood hero Jesse James (Pitt). He never really decides how he feels about what he does or the man he does it to.

However, it’s this very grasping, ambivalent, unresolved tone to the film that is sure to frustrate the hell out of a lot of viewers. The film is very effective in leaving the audience unsettled and conflicted about what has played out in front of them, but there are a lot of Brad Pitt fans out there that probably aren’t really looking for that experience.

Margot at the Wedding
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Paramount Vantage, 2007

Anyone who has any doubts that Noah Baumbach had a very dysfunctional childhood need only watch this film. His follow-up to the fantastic The Squid and the Whale proves itself even more biting and vicious than the previous film. Margot (Nicole Kidman) takes a trip to her childhood home, where her estranged sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is planning to get married. As tends to be the case in films of this sort, old conflicts and behaviour patterns start popping up right away.

The film is an excellent example of what can be done within a minute scope. The whole film takes place within the few days of Margot’s visit, mostly at the family home, and with really no more than 5 or 6 important characters. However, the arguments, conversations, and reactions prove more than compelling enough fuel for the film. One feels just as intimately trapped in the relational knot as the characters themselves. As a result, one feels instantly relieved at being able to escape after only ninety minutes, to face their own far less daunting friends and family. Poor, poor Noah Baumbach…

Short Cuts Canada Programme 3

Almost as a fluke, I was able to see one of this year’s Short Cuts Canada programs, featuring the best of Canadian shorts. Although all 8 of the films were well executed, very slick, and easily watchable, three really stood out for me:

Hirsute
Directed by A.J. Bond
2007

This is a clever and stylish relationship comedy masquerading as a time travel film, the hook being that the relationship is between a struggling scientist striving for time travel and his future self, returning successfully and more than a little arrogant. A fairly well trod premise for anyone who’s watched Saturday morning cartoons or the early work of Keanu or Michael J. Fox, but this short is smart enough to make the shtick its own.

Terminus
Directed by Trevor Cawood
2007

Although (and this could be said for all of the evening’s CGI-laden entries) seemingly considering its own visual tricks as both means and ends, Terminus is an interesting little film: a man in a subway station is surprised to find a colossus of concrete columns begins following him everywhere he goes. With no explanation for why this has occurred, the man becomes more and more unstable. Eventually, things build to a crisis point as he sees that most other people have a creature of the same sort following them that they’re mostly unaware of. Hell if I know what it’s supposed to mean, but it’s fun to watch.

Farmer’s Requiem
Directed by Ramses Madina
2007

The only film that I felt was truly extraordinary was this short piece, and it was easily the simplest of all those shown. The visuals consist of black and white footage of a dilapidated farm. In voice-over, the old farmer who spent his whole life there discusses his life and experiences. This is accompanied by the music of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. That’s it. However, these three elements combine into an absolutely beautiful visual poem that is completely transfixing from the first frame. It’s also only 9 minutes long, and (depending on music rights) probably cost half as much as any of the other films screened.

A glimpse inside the mind of our film editor.

By Doug Nayler

The period between Victoria Day Weekend (or “Memorial Day Weekend” as it’s known in the US) and Labour Day Weekend (“Labor Day Weekend,” respectively) is very important for the people who fund movies; this is the time they look forward to all year, their palms slick with sweat and their mouths tacky in anticipation. Because this is when the big money gets made. This is when all the other failures, bombs, coke-fueled jet trips, and useless vanity projects get paid off. It’s the Shreks and the Evan Almightys of the world that pay the bills, and puts all of Los Angeles back into the black.

However, the summer leaves a big vacuum in the life of a lot of people. People who invest a lot of their identity in movies. People who rely upon obscure, inaccessible, subtitled films to feel more cultured, intelligent, and insightful than their fellow man. With all the multiplexes clogged up with 14 screens of Pirates of the Carribean, is there any hope for the insecurely intellectual? Well, come along with me, and let’s find out what nobody will be seeing this summer. Disclaimer: Since these are limited release films it is notoriously hard to predict when they’ll be opening in what city, so take all release dates with a very large grain of salt.

Red Road
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Release Date: June 29th, 2007

Arriving in North America armed with a shitload of international awards (including the Jury Prize from Cannes 2006), Andrea Arnold’s feature debut is being billed as a gritty, street level portrait à la Ken Loach crossed with a paranoid psychological thriller incorporating a variety of security camera footage.
Rescue Dawn
Directed by Werner Herzog
Release Date: July 4th, 2007

Pushed back from an original release date in May (always a surefire sign that the distributor has no idea how the hell to market it), Werner Herzog revisits his 1997 documentary Little Deiter Needs to Fly in scripted adaptation form. Watch Christian Bale starve and trudge through the Laos as he escapes a prison camp. Wonder once again whether Herzog is a genius, or completely batshit crazy. Find absolutely no answer to that question.

Sunshine
Directed by Danny Boyle
Release Date: July 20th, 2007

Ready for the most ridiculous premise you’ve ever heard? The sun is going to explode, so a bunch of people get on a spaceship to go and fix it. Somehow. So, why is it in here? Because this film is the work of Danny Boyle, famous for Trainspotting and more pertinently, 28 Days Later. Can he do the same to revitalize sci-fi the way he did horror? Only one way to find out.

Superbad
Directed by Greg Mottola
Release Date: August 17th, 2007

Knocked Up may be getting all the attention and all the box office revenue, but it’s little brother Superbad is shaping up to be pretty hilarious. The film was written by Seth Rogan, produced by Judd Apatow, and starring Jonah Hill from Knocked Up. Plus, there’s the excellent addition of Michael Cera and director Greg Mottola, both veterans of Arrested Development. Really only good things can come of this.

With these films out there on the market, how can one not eschew the masses and feel superior? Good luck, and may you look down on everyone you meet.

Keeping the Faith, Smashmouth, Get Over It and Muppet Treasure Island.

Keeping the Faith has shown me that Ben Stiller can be funny actor without mooking around like an idiot. Here he plays alongside Edward Norton (who looks like he’s having fun in a role for once) and the chemistry is surprisingly good. Every time I watch it I laugh out loud. Not only that, but it’s also a rather touching movie which has lots to say about love and (duh) faith. This movie is actually a personal favourite.

PS: Watch for the scene with spiky-headed guy from X-Men 3 as a karaoke machine salesman.

Smashmouth in Rat Race by Sam Linton

For all its flaws, I really enjoyed this movie. Its harkening back to zany “chase” comedies such as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines is well worth the expense of having to endure some of its more questionable choices. This is actually a very funny movie if you give it a chance, it just happens to be marred by one of the worst endings ever to bedevil any film. For those who haven’t seen it, everyone gives away the money they’ve been after all movie to Smashmouth (yes, that Smashmouth) after they’ve somehow stumbled onstage at a famine relief concert. I didn’t bother prefacing that with a SPOILER ALERT because it does a pretty good job of spoiling the movie on its own. But, if you can ignore the ending (and the use of the Baha Men’s reprehensible cover of Anslem Douglas’ originally enjoyable “Who Let the Dog Out?” [the subject of a future “In defence of”, perhaps?]), Rat Race is actually pretty good. John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson are fun, even if they are phoning it in. Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Jon Lovitz, Amy Smart and even Cuba Gooding “Snow Dogs” Jr. give solid comedic performances. Hell, you can even look at the horrible ending in a positive light if you suppress your gag reflex. Next time you see something completely out of the blue, a really obvious Deus ex Machina, just say to yourself “Hey! It’s Smashmouth!” It adds a pleasant ironic distance to the previous concept of “grinning and bearing it.”

Get Over It by Alexander B. Huls

On the surface, Get Over It is just another teen romantic-comedy. Well, beneath the surface, it basically is too. In fact, it’s not even an original one at that. Mix together 10 Things I Hate About You, Some Kind of Wonderful and She’s All That and presto: Get Over It. What does differentiate the film from the rest of the teen (not wolf) pack, and the reason it holds a special place in my heart, is its feverish, kooky, often-bizarre energy. At times this movie is just so weird and over-the-top, it makes one wonder if it’s satire. It often reminds me of one of my favorite teen comedies, Better Off Dead. I mean this movie has a musical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in it, with original songs (composed by a flamboyant musical director played by Martin Short), one of which is in boy band style. Yet despite all its absurdity, it does hit surprisingly poignant (albeit a bit derivative) moments along the way.

Also there is a hot scene of Kirsten Dunst in a bikini. You know, if that’s your thing.

Muppet Treasure Island by Doug Nayler

Whether intentionally or by coincidence, the history of the Muppets is often portrayed much like that of Western Civilization. According to popular chronology the Muppets reached their Grecian pinnacle in the late 70s and early 80s under the direction of creator Jim Henson. The wildly popular Muppet Show, the outstandingly innovative children’s TV juggernauts Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock, and the original trilogy of Muppet films (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan) are considered to be the creative height of all things Muppet. Following the tragic early death of Henson in 1990, the franchise began to slowly erode. The Muppet Show became copied by scribes into shows of increasingly inferior quality, such as MuppeTelevision and Muppets Tonight. Likewise, the filmic output eventually declined into their final theatrical outing to date, the disappointing Muppets From Space. The franchise is now considered to be in the depths of its Dark Ages, with hopes among many for an eventual renaissance.

However, I refute this history as I think it is biased by the history makers. Indeed, this history is the history of my elders. A generation that has its affection for the Muppets tied up in the aforementioned original successes. And since this is where their allegiances lie, the book writers view any later output to be inferior. I stand here to argue that two films featuring the Muppets were released in the 1990s that were just as vital, creative, and original as their forebears. Those films are 1992’s A Muppet Christmas Carol, and 1996’s Muppet Treasure Island. While Christmas Carol still gets its dues being pulled back out into syndication each year during the holidays, Treasure Island has been greatly forgotten. Which I feel is a great shame.

Treasure Island takes great fun in its elaborate period sets, and satirical jabs at British colonial and class reality of the 18th century, as well as pirate genre film archetypes. Indeed, the film includes some of the funniest bits to be found in a Muppet film for years: Fozzy’s foppish, eccentric aristocrat guided by Mr. Bimbo, the man who lives in his finger. Gonzo’s discovery of Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy amongst a pirate’s personal belongings. Honestly, just go to Youtube right now and search for “Muppet Treasure Island Roll Call.” Tell me that sequence isn’t one of the best ever to appear in a Muppet movie.

I will admit that the Muppets have lost something in terms of their popularity and relevance since Henson’s death. The last few made-for-TV efforts have definitely been quite lacking. But Muppet Treasure Island offers a great mix of comedy, drama, adventure, music, and satire that most people have simply forgotten about. It may not have made the most money, but damnit, it sure was a lot of fun. So go out and give it another chance. And ignore the way the guy at the Blockbuster glares at your pedophile-looking-ass the whole time you’re renting it.

Once again, Hollywood made it look too easy.

By Justin StollerPosted January 28th, 2007

Anyone who has seen Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will tell you three things: it’s a little longer than most movies, DiCaprio’s accent gets a bit annoying, and it makes you wonder about some things.

DiCaprio plays a diamond smuggler (Danni Archer), who meets up with Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist working on exposing the terrible situation of blood diamonds in Africa. DiCaprio does an excellent job of bringing the audience to the side of a likeable but detestable character, even eliciting sympathy for his plight involving Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), who guides him to a rare pink diamond that can free them both. DiCaprio’s accent is done very well, and true to the character’s history, but even my South African friends were annoyed with it after some time (it was that close to the real thing).

In attempting to justify his career, Archer accuses westerners of having the greater complicity in purchasing illicitly got diamonds by either their negligence or apathy towards the situation in Africa. Fortunately, this practice is common knowledge now, and most occidentals are sensitive to the issue. But in an age where even Cathy Lee is unwillingly part of the problem, what are we to do?

However, there is some truth to Archer’s implication. Some of our favourite toys, like cell phones, are comparable to the blood diamonds from the film. Cell phone batteries use a lot of tin ore, which has been extracted from Africa using comparable means to the virtual slave conditions Solomon endures in the film. Surprisingly, this most recent exploitation of Africa started with the best of intentions.

For environmental reasons, the European Union joined Japan in late 2002 in a movement to ban lead from the solder used in electronics. Lead free solder is comprised of about 95 percent tin, creating a greater demand for tin on the market. As always, the world looked for inexpensive and ready sources. Cassiterite, or tin oxide, is mined within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under inhumane conditions, by unpaid soldiers and desperate starving workers. Cell phone and laptop computer batteries are made with a very small amount of tin oxide, which — just to make things worse — is difficult and costly to separate from these devices to recycle. The increased demand on tin has contributed to an already unstable situation in the DRC.

Should we all feel guilty for consuming cell phones each year? Probably not. The efforts of the environmentally-inspired ban on lead in electronics, and its negative consequences, teach a valuable lesson: as long as the unjust political, economical, and military situations exist in Africa as they are, no simple measures on our part can elicit any real positive change. There will always be a new mineral, jewel, or other product to be consumed from African nations, ready to rise as the new popular demand.

This lesson is the true message of Blood Diamond, but is forgotten as quickly as it was learned because it comes via a movie. It is too easy to come away from the film thinking that this is a problem of the past (albeit recent), or that we can do our part simply by asking about the diamonds we purchase. Movies have a wonderful way of capturing our minds and swaying our beliefs, but once those doors open and the illusion is no longer maintained, how long do we really remember? Movies that show real problems through a fictitious story preach awareness, but in reality act more like an entertaining Green Peace poster with much higher production values. Of course this is not Hollywood’s fault; it is simply the nature of the beast.

For more information, please see “War, Murder, Rape…All for Your Cell Phone” by Stan Cox, and the link to Jonathan Miller’s award-winning television report within that article. See also the criticisms of the conclusions they draw, following the article online, and discover just how complicated this history is.