TIFF 2K11: DAY 4

Take This Waltz, dir. Sarah Polley. In my last year of a film studies degree, my Studies in Canadian Cinema prof cited Away From Her as proof of a vital contemporary domestic film industry. Take This Waltz is equally important. A seriously great Canadian film (named after a song by another Canadian: Leonard Cohen), set in Toronto (playing itself), telling a kind and real story.

Unsurprisingly, Michelle Williams expertly plays Margot, an emotionally complex and relatable character; the wife of a man she loves dearly and has a close friendship with. Margot finds an instant connection with a man who lives across the road: an attractive artist / rickshaw driver.

There are no punches pulled when hard choices are made. And still, when the characters are happy, the audience feels that joy and partakes in it. (Doesn’t hurt that the jokes are on-point.) The characters are deep and relatable. I’m attracted to intelligent, holistic approaches to familial and romantic relationships, and Polley excels in this.

My only complaint about the film was its reticence to end (a complaint I have about many films in this fest), but this has been since tempered with alternative interpretations. There are a couple scenes when contrivances to push plot forward are made overly obvious and behave clunkily in the narrative, but they’re small bumps in a great feature. I’m no good at reviews, am I? I just hesitate to give away plot points and dance around subjects.

Anyways, watch this film! Support Canadian cinema! Support dick jokes from Sarah Silverman! Support Seth Rogan cooking chicken! Support hesitancy and frustration and love and all those things!

A Letter to Momo, dir. Hiroyuki Okiura. Oh, don’t watch this. I wanted to watch some Japanese anime, and this one has a very Ghibli-esque aesthetic (even more so than From Up On Poppy Hill, which is actually directed by Goro Miyazaki), but it is preachy and full of poor lessons.

The eponymous Momo is, unsurprisingly, our protagonist. She is, in a word, boring. Without understandable intentions, without any depth, she’s a protagonist foil for a plot that goes almost nowhere. She meets three “guardian” / “goblin” amigos, who look interesting but are also without depth.

Ostensibly a film about family and love (particularly obsessed with appreciating your mother) — the story devolves into nonsensical lessons on violence and theft. The mythology isn’t solidly constructed, so the groundwork actually changes over time. Every moral lesson is laid out so blatantly within dialogue that I actually started cringing. Our protagonist barely matures. The artifices are so blatantly constructed, it’s impossible to get into the film at all.

It’s always a pity when I feel like this about animation, especially hand-drawn animation, because the construction is so arduous you just want it to be good. But this isn’t. I squirmed in my seat. I looked at the faces next to me. I only stayed til the end to see if the demons do any crazy shit that would be super detailed and look awesome (nope).

Redeeming qualities! Gotta have em! It did look good. I did stay for the entire thing. New Japanese animations in the Ghibli tradition almost make me feel at home, or at least young again.

Barrymore, dir. Erik Canuel. Christopher Plummer shines in a surprisingly engaging theatre-on-screen adaptation.

My previous complaint about A Dangerous Method (which I like less, the more I think about it) was that the playwright seemed to run (and limit) the film. In embracing the theatrical aspect, and selecting an excellent lead player, Barrymore brings the theatre to the cinema.

Playing John Barrymore, a towering legend of the cinema, Plummer brings the audience through well-told and intricate stories. His character is engaging, so much so that I was not bored with just watching a sole character speak to himself (and to his stage manager in the wings, forever unseen).

Maybe I wouldn’t watch this in a cinema again (it was kind of a fest time-filler, to be honest), but I value its audacity and ability to make the tradition interesting.

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A talk with Morgan Spurlock, dir. of Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan’s Hope speaks. He says his private funders get no say in the finished product. He also says this is one of the only times Comic Con bigwigs have greenlit a documentary to be shot about the fest, mostly due to the support of Spike Lee and Joss Whedon. He’s fun and engaging and of course people asked obnoxious questions about Super Size Me.

A talk with Lynn Shelton, Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass about Your Sister’s Sister. The movement toward barely-scripted, half-improvised films is palpable, they say. Actors like it because it gives them something to work with and get into. Duplass directed a film in this fest: Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Another mumblecore flick from the guys who brought you Cyrus.

A talk with Bruce McDonald about documentary filmmaking. He’s still wearing that straw hat. Also: he likes sex and drugs, purportedly. Nothing more to report, a fairly banal interview (as far as my interests go). He does encourage indie filmmakers to think about marketing their film and to provide many marketing materials, to which I say: HALLELUJAH!