The 49th Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with a whimper on September 5th with the world premiere of David Gordon Green’s latest (apparent) misfire, the Ben Stiller-starring Nutcrackers. Amidst the tumult of significant sponsors dropping (long-time year-round sponsor Bell has been replaced by festival-only sponsor Rogers; audience favorite Bulgari has also dropped TIFF by the wayside) and controversial sponsors staying on board (petroleum industry- and Israeli military-supporting RBC garnered a small protest during TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey’s introduction to Nutcrackers, and the RBC sponsor ad has since been booed at many screenings), TIFF has continued to ramp up the pressure on members and public attendees, with face value of tickets as high as $CAD 95 (sometimes even for “premium” screenings without cast in attendance and with no director Q&A or other premium experience) and no end in sight to ticket scalping through Ticketmaster and other resale fora. A continued focus on world premiere screenings also brings TIFF further away from its original mission as the “festival of festivals,” collating the best of Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other high-profile fests, and many of those few films in attendance from competing festivals have been shuttled off to the smallest screens available, accessible almost exclusively to high-dollar donors. The People’s Festival, indeed!
All that said, TIFF remains the premiere and most easily accessible festival for North American cinephiles, and this year’s lineup is jam-packed with hundreds of exciting films, from world premieres like Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Ron Howard’s Eden to Golden Bear winner Dahomey, Palme d’Or winner Anora, and Golden Lion winner The Room Next Door. I’ll be here viewing and reviewing films for the first ten days of the festival, and for all you Mama Mordor fans, she’ll be in tow for this first post as well! Read ahead for my thoughts on the first few days of TIFF 2024, and chime in down below if you’re also at TIFF! (Looking at you, Prighlofone!)
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In Miguel Gomes’s latest, Cannes Best Director winner Grand Tour, the filmmaker and his characters all embark on a literal Grand Tour of Asia – covering present-day Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, and China – at the same time that viewers are taken on a grand tour of genres and styles that varies from drama to noir to slapstick to musical, from black-and-white to technicolor, from period to contemporary. British diplomat Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), suffering from a grave case of cold feet, flees Rangoon to escape his incoming fiancée, Molly (Crista Alfaiate); as she doggedly chases him across the continent, the two feast on Asian cultural traditions and take boats, rickshaws, cars, and trains through landscapes so sumptuous and vital that it’s easy to forget it isn’t in color.
For all of the visual and thematic richness of Grand Tour, the first hour of the film – focusing primarily on Edward – often drags. Part of it is that Edward is the sort of lazy, rich, hedonistic drip that we’ve seen in thousands of period pieces, but stylistic decisions also mean we don’t spend much time with the character as he sprints from one country and travel nightmare to the next, largely conveyed through narration over imagery of local scenery and art. Where the film really opens up is when we’re introduced to Molly, played with raspberry-blowing delight by Alfaiate, and an almost anachronistic boldness. As Molly chases Edward and flees her own demons, we get to spend more time with locals – not just other colonizers – and actually dig into the character of this woman foolhardy enough (or is it brave enough?) to travel solo around the world in the post-World War I haze.
Grand Tour: ★★★½
Grand Tour will be released by MUBI, date TBD.
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Leonardo is having a rough go of it. His nose is bleeding all the time, he’s getting inconvenient erections, his mom is a nag, his vision is getting blurry, and he’s just so much smarter than everyone else in every room at all times. Life is hard, yknow? That Leondardo, the withdrawn and acerbic protagonist of Diciannove is a 19-year-old college fuck-up in London…and Siena…and maybe Torino…transforms this confident debut feature for both director Giovanni Tortorici and star Manfredi Marini from portrait of a tortured artist into tense and frustrating coming of age story.
There are many excellent pieces here. To name a few: Marini’s performance; Massimilliano Kuveiller’s cinematography, particularly effective in and around Siena; and a pervasive feeling of creeping dread, inculcated by gross imagery, Leonardo’s increasing withdrawal from society, and his obsessive focus on the gruesome and apocalyptic literature of 14th century Italy. It doesn’t come together in a wholly satisfying manner, though, with Leonardo’s withholding feeling as much like a guessing game for the audience as the people around him, and an ending that feels less deliberative and more rushed to come in at time.
Mama Mordor says: “He seemed really lost, I want to know if he’s okay.”
Diciannove: ★★★½
At time of writing, Diciannove does not have U.S. distribution.
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Marianne Jean-Baptiste masterfully walks on a knife’s edge as the verbally abusive, volatile, explosive Pansy in Hard Truths, the latest lean character study from social realist master Mike Leigh. It would be so easy for this larger-than-life performance to feel like a caricature, but Jean-Baptiste breathes life into Pansy, whose soulful gaze occasionally offers glimmers of the loving daughter, sister, wife, and mother this woman hurling obscenities at every shopper and shop clerk around her must once have been – before Covid, before her cruel mother’s death, before chronic pain, before systemic racism and the weight of the world got to be too much. Now Pansy leads with insults, hilariously ranting about raincoats for dogs and pockets in baby clothing, or hurling invective at store clerks and fellow shoppers (“Oh, you can pipe down and all, standing there like an ostrich!”).
Jean-Baptiste is aided in this titanic endeavor by a supporting cast that remains stoic (husband Curtley, played with patience and quiet charm by David Webber; son Moses, an imposing and childlike Tuwaine Barrett) or possessed by a practiced and almost aggressive sunniness (Pansy’s beleaguered sister Cantelle, masterfully rendered by Michele Austin, and her daughters Aleisha (Sophia Brown) and Savannah (Tiwa Lade), full of their own secrets). They all stand by this truly nasty woman in the face of her histrionics for reasons we’ll never know nor understand, but do know exist. It’s enough.
Mama Mordor says: “That Pansy was hysterical! But where’s the rest of it? Like that murder mystery I just read that ended with the baker finding a body.”
Hard Truths: ★★★★
Hard Truths will be released by Bleecker Street on December 6.
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Mike Flanagan takes a slight (but, for someone wholly unfamiliar with Stephen King’s short story, only surprisingly slight!) detour from his regular diet of psychological horror to bring us the fantastical and awe-inspiring story of The Life of Chuck. A cast of heavy hitters bring their A-games (seriously, when is the last time Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, or especially Chiwetel Ejiofor were well-used, much less all three of them in the same film!? Even Mark Hamill gets a rare meaty live-action role, though his accent is decidedly not it) to a tale that is alternately apocalyptic, effervescent, heartbreaking, and supernatural, as Ejiofor’s English teacher Marty spends the end of the world reconnecting with his ex, Gillan’s ICU nurse Felicia, and wondering why there are ads absolutely everywhere thanking accountant Chuck (Hiddleston) for 39 great years.
The material requires a heavy dose of exposition and far too much heightened, stagey acting (seriously, does every character need multiple deep philosophical monologues?). Particularly regarding the latter, Flanagan has covered similar thematic ground more subtly in his television work (take for example the way the five stages of grief are addressed in The Haunting of Hill House versus being explicitly flagged here by a character whose sole purpose is to do so). The Life of Chuck is an emotional, engaging, and thoughtful ride that ultimately feels a bit too constrained by its commitment to the source material.
Mama Mordor says: “I wondered what was going to be in the room, and I did not expect that! I had no idea what it was going to be. I’m glad it wasn’t creepy like the Stephen King stuff your uncle reads.”
The Life of Chuck: ★★★½
At time of writing, The Life of Chuck does not have U.S. distribution.
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R.T. Thorne’s feature debut 40 Acres is a competent post-apocalyptic home invasion thriller that wants to be a character study and maybe a meditation on racial animus. The parts are all there – a stellar cast led by Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman and Michael Greyeyes as Galen, her partner; an original setting for a dystopian thriller (a Canadian farm that’s been in Hailey’s family since the American Civil War); just enough details on what’s happened to society to hook you in; and some really great fight choreography – but by trying to be everything, 40 Acres ends up excelling at nothing. The characters make one clichéd, boneheaded move after another. For Hailey’s kids – especially the powerful and emotive Kataem O’Connor as Manny – who grew up in this world without examples of the type of movie they’re living in, it makes sense, but what is their parents’ excuse?
The Canadian setting muddies the racial tension and impact of a second Civil War that the film suggests but never shows. The characterization falls flat since every bit of strength these characters exhibit ends up serving their own myopia and hubris. If there’s one thing Thorne definitely understands though, it’s how to ratchet up the tension. Action setpieces are claustrophobic and graphic, with a viscerality that few modern action CG-dumps achieve.
On another note, Thorne and his producers have been publicly called out by a number of crew members and local businesses where 40 Acres was filmed for outstanding bills. The production team has yet to address these allegations.
Mama Mordor says: “I started closing my eyes if I knew something bad was going to happen, but that was a mistake because then I took a little nap.”
40 Acres: ★★½
At time of writing, 40 Acres does not have U.S. distribution.
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If you don’t think “man operates as a middleman between whistleblowers and corporations through a phone relay” sounds like an edge-of-your-seat thriller, well have I got news for you! Riz Ahmed is excellent as said middleman in Relay, the latest from Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie. In supporting roles, Sam Worthington is sinister and uncharacteristically good as a corporate enforcer trying to find and take him down; Lily James has her moments but is mostly her normal damp sponge self as a reticent biotech whistleblower.
Relay is uninterested in dissecting the moral ambiguities of any of its players, but it has a perfectly suited, propulsive score, makes fascinating use of modern and antiquated technologies in ways that any Bond movie would be jealous of, and does more to promote the USPS than they’ve done for themselves in decades.
Mama Mordor says: “WOW. Wow wow wow.”
Relay: ★★★★
At time of writing, Relay does not have U.S. distribution.
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It takes a special kind of director to elicit such stiff, affectless performances across the board in a film that is suppose to be about illicit passions, but Daniel Minahan proves up to the challenge in On Swift Horses, based on the book by Shannon Pufahl in which Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones), the wife of Korean War veteran Lee (Will Poulter, with great hair and a bad tan), discovers financial and sexual liberation at the racetrack at the same time that Lee’s gay brother, gambling addict Julius (Jacob Elordi) finds love on the budding Las Vegas strip with coworker Henry (Diego Calva). It’s not much of a surprise seeing a ho-hum performance from Elordi, but Poulter and Calva have both shown more promise than On Swift Horses belies. Characters drift from scene to scene, acting seemingly on impulse despite making decisions that should feel momentous and dangerous for an American in the 1950s. If there’s one bright spot in the film, it’s Edgar-Jones: not only does the woodenness of Minahan’s direction serve her character well, she’s also afforded the only truly passionate scenes in the movie, when she’s acting opposite the pleasantly surprising Sasha Calle as neighbor Sandra.
A special shoutout to the last five minutes of the film, which impressively made me roll my eyes at least three times.
Mama Mordor says: “…did YOU like it? Those guys freaking out in front of us on the sidewalk on the way back were more interesting than the movie.”
On Swift Horses: ★★
At time of writing, On Swift Horses does not have U.S. distribution.
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Fantastic performances from Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, and Himesh Patel (quite possibly Olsen’s best performance since Martha Marcy May Marlene, in fact) anchor The Assessment, the mature, vivid debut feature from Fleur Fortuné. In a dystopian future where couples must undergo an intensive one-week assessment to determine if they’re permitted to invest the resources to have a child, bioengineer Mia (Olsen) and AI programmer Aaryan (Patel) have made it to the top 0.1% of applicants and are anxious to begin their assessment with the cold and robotic Virginia (Vikander). Shock of shocks, the assessment isn’t quite what Mia and Aaryan expected and significant hijinks ensue that may shake their faith in this isolated post-apocalyptic society.
Retro-futuristic dystopian production design, inventive VFX, and a suitably intense score augment this twisted, tense, and evocative film. Top it off with a hilarious, scenery-chewing, saying-what-we’re-all-thinking turn from Minnie Driver (seriously, when’s the last time someone didn’t criminally underuse Minnie Driver?) and you’ve got the recipe for a thoughtful and provocative time.
Mama Mordor says: “Wow. That was really really good.”
The Assessment: ★★★★½
The Assessment will be released in late 2024 or early 2025 by Amazon Prime Video.
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Bury your gays, but make it Thai! Naruebet (“Boss”) Kuno’s new feature The Paradise of Thorns is absolutely wild. Gay couple Thongkam (Jeff Satur) and Sek (Pongsakorn Mettarikanon) have spent the past five years creating a potentially lucrative durian farm together, but on the eve of their first growing season a tragic accident takes Sek’s life. The land is in Sek’s name, and as Thai law does not recognize their marriage the land and Thongkam’s home pass to Sek’s manipulative mother Saeng (Seeda Puapimon), vindictive adopted sister Mo (Engfa Waraha), and Mo’s innocent and easily manipulated brother Jingna (Harit Buayoi). As The Paradise of Thorns evolves from tragedy to dramedy to farce to revenge thriller, it gets harder and harder to root for any of the characters at all, but at the same time you find yourself rooting for almost all of them for significant stretches.
It’s a testament to the surprisingly strong characterization Kuno wrings out of his script and actors that this lush highwire act of a film doesn’t crumble under its own twists, turns, and narrative weight. If you come in with no expectations and leave yourself in Kuno’s hands, you will not be disappointed.
Mama Mordor says: “Now that was LIVE action! Whoa. It kept me awake, that’s for sure!”
The Paradise of Thorns: ★★★½
At time of writing, The Paradise of Thorns does not have U.S. distribution.
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Okay, that’s it for the first half of the festival! See y’all again in a few days!
You can find more of my reviews (and musings on the Oscars) here on The Avocado, and on Letterboxd.