TIFF '09 Day 10: A Few of My Favourite Flics

I was able to see more pre-festival films this year than ever, so I had a record-breaking year for the number of films I was able to see at TIFF. I tried very hard, but I could not get my list down to a Top 10. To do so, I would have had to eliminate 2 films based on the fact that they were attached to "big name" directors or producers: Jacques Audiard's A Prophet won the Grand Prix at Cannes, and Lee Daniel's film Precious (a.k.a The Oprah Movie) won rave reviews at Cannes, won awards at Sundance, and picked up the Audience Choice Award today at TIFF. These two films are well-told stories and it would have been an injustice to penalize them because they are attached to known names.

MY TOP 12 FAVES (in Alpha Order)
Air Doll
Cairo Time
Castaway on the Moon
Crab Trap
Every Day is a Holiday
Face
Hipsters
Melody of a Street Organ
Precious
A Prophet
V.O.S.
Vengeance

HOW I CHOSE MY FAVES
To choose my favourites, I had to be pretty ruthless. From 56 films I got my list down to 20, and from those 20 films I kept the ones that elicited the strongest emotional response in: How did I feel after seeing the film at TIFF, and do I still have the same response? Are these well-made films? Could I defend my faves if challenged to do so? Would I add these films to my DVD collection? (I buy DVDs only if I will watch the film more than 3 times per year.)

MY ULTIMATE FAVE And the award for donna g's favourite film at TIFF '09 goes to...Castaway on the Moon. This film had all the elements I look for in a film, and is simply, unforgettable.


WHAT'S ARE YOUR FAVES?As you can see my choices are very personal. Whether we go with friends or alone, we always take ourselves to the movies, so what we like will depend on our individual life experiences. Here's a simple example: if you can't stand someone with a certain name/look/or voice, chances are you're going to flashback to that person during the screening and this will impact how you perceive the film; no one else is going to have that same perception because this is your experience.

Please feel free to share your personal faves with me. With over 300 films screening at TIFF, I'm sure we didn't all see the same films. Let loose people, and leave your comments.

Photo Credit: top photo by donna g; photo stills from V.O.S., HIPSTERS, CAIRO TIME, and CASTAWAY ON THE MOON courtesy of http://tiff.net/default.aspx

TIFF '09 Day 2: The Vampires, Orphans, and a Prisoner

DAYBREAKERS Vampires are harvesting humans for their blood, unfortunately, the supply is running out and blood substitutes fail with each clinical trial. Starring Ethan Hawke as a vampire with a conscience, Sam Neil as the corporate giant whose company is behind the farming of humans, and Willem Dafoe as "Elvis", this film is a great mix of jump-in-you-seat horror and bloody entertainment. Willem Dafoe must have taken this movie for the corny, cheesy lines he delivers. You can almost see the glint in his eyes as he compares being a human in a vampire world as being as dangerous as "bare-backing a five-dollar whore", or when he quotes the original Elvis. Great use and timing of the special effects. A film like this could have easily been destroyed by spending too much screen time on CGI and not enough time on the actors and plot development. Twins, Micheal and Peter Spierig (Undead) harness this movie well, providing a good balance of all the elements. They know how to get us involved in the story from the beginning with enough scares and kick-ass action (armed vampire soldiers vs. humans).

MELODY FOR A STREET ORGANI misread the running time of this Ukrainian film, thinking it was much shorter than its actual 153 minutes. I had already invested too much time in this Christmas fairy-tale of two orphan children wondering the streets, looking for either of their fathers. Their mother has died and rather than be sent to different schools, they decide to search for fathers with whom they have lost contact. TIFF programmer Dmitri Eipides, is so correct in labelling director, Kira Muratova's style as "charming mercilessness". That description is why I couldn't leave the press screening, even though I had arranged to meet friends at an earlier time. I was absolutely captivated by the colours, the pathos, the excessive greed displayed with abandon in front of these two beautifully sad children. With every step of their journey, you keep hoping that a Christmas miracle will happen, but Muratova constantly reminds you of harsh reality by sprinkling ugly, societal truths throughout her scenes. This cinematic journey, is long, sad, cold and beautiful, proving why Muratova is in the Masters section of the programme guide.

PRESUMED GUILTYIt's hard to watch this documentary without shaking your head or wanting to raise your clenched fists in frustration at the Mexican "in-justice" system. It's almost like you are watching a satire, where the main characters have to navigate in a world of insane and absurd logic. Unfortunately, for Toñio, he is spending 20 years behind bars based on evidence provided by one witness. The other three witnesses that were never interviewed in his case all stated that they saw him at work during the time of the murder he was supposed to have committed. Given the fact that Toñio works in an open market, where he is highly visible, how could he have been accused of this crime? The answers will boggle your mind. In Mexico, since you are presumed guilty, you have to prove your innocence. The catch. If everyone presumes you are guilty, then the case is obviously closed. NEXT! Crazy, but true.

Lawyer turned filmmaker for this project, Roberto Hernandez and his partner, Layda Negrete, were working on prison stats when they were approached by Toñio's girlfriend Eva. What happens next, is a true story that, even if you are familiar with the Mexican system, will still defy reason. Sharing the director's chair with Hernandez is English Surgeon director, Geoffrey Smith. Spread the word about this one.

You never know who you'll meet at TIFF's Midnight Madness. Virginia (looking fabulous in her PVC nurse's outfit) stopped to pose with me while friends and I were chatting and eating in the line up outside Ryerson Theatre. Virginia also handed me a flyer for Spike & Mike's Twisted Festival of Animation (Sept. 18th - 26th at the Bloor Cinema), which will be showing short films from around the world. Spike and Mike proudly refer to themselves as "the Kings of Tasteless Toons", so don't say I didn't warn you.