CAC's TIFF 2012 Preview: Top 10 Picks

Hello CAC on Film readers and fellow TIFF goers. It's that time of year yet again in which Torontonians, industry-types and movie fanatics from around the world begin their descent into Hogtown for arguably the biggest publicly accessible film festival on the planet. So amidst the general feelings of overwhelming excitement, anxiety and anticipation for the Toronto International Film Festival and the massive amounts of data we have to sift through to plan our respective festival schedules, I give you my personal top 10 picks of TIFF 2012.

As usual, this year is jam packed with highly anticipated prestige studio films, small, challenging indies and passionate, provocative pictures from the world over, so hopefully you'll find a flick or two from this list that might poke at the part of your brain that contains your inner film buff.

1. To The Wonder

Special Presentation

Dir. Terrence Malick

Monday September 10 Princess of Wales 7:00 PM (Premium)

Tuesday September 11 Princess of Wales 3:00 PM

Sunday September 16 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 9:45 PM

Master American director Terrence Malick’s second completed picture in the last few years has been shrouded in secrecy since news broke of its production after the release of 2011’s Palme D’or winning, Oscar nominated Tree of Life. What we know about To the Wonder is that it is a romantic drama starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams. Not much else is known plot-wise, but one thing we know we can count on is a visually arresting, challenging and provocative experience. Tops of my personal picks for this year’s TIFF because Tree of Life made me cry. It was the first film to do so since 1996’s Jack.

 

2. The Master: Presented in 70mm

Special Presentation

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Friday September 7 Princess of Wales - 9:00 PM (Premium)

Saturday September 8 Lightbox 1 - 3:15 PM
Sunday September 16  Lightbox 1 - 6:00 PM

A film that has been engulfed in a sort of curious controversy since it was branded as cinema wunderkind P.T Anderson’s “Scientology film”, for me, this could potentially be one of the most revelatory experiences at TIFF 2012. Presented in 70mm, early buzz has been intensifying, centered mostly around the raves for Joaquin Phoenix’s comeback performance and the gorgeous cinematography.

3. Seven Psychopaths

Midnight Madness

Dir. Martin McDonagh

Friday September 7 Ryerson Theatre 11:59 PM (Premium)

Saturday September 8 Scotiabank 1 3:30 PM

I love Colin Farrell, but he brings me down sometimes. Tigerland cemented his place in my book of extremely talented acting people, but Colin: Alexander, Miami Vice, now Total Recall? Come on man. Well back in 2009 he layed down his best performance in years, starring in In Bruges, Irish playwright-turned-filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s first feature film. Here he reunites with McDonagh, along with Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits and other badasses which, playing in Colin Geddes’ Midnight Madness program, should be another rollicking, vulgar and violent ride.

4. The Central Park Five

TIFF Docs

Dir. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon

Sunday September 9 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 11:45 AM

Thursday September 13 Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 7 9:30 PM

Saturday September 15 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 9:15 AM

Legendary Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ return to more concise fare from his lengthy, multi-part PBS mega-specials, The Central Park Five looks to represent the best of Burns’ oeuvre: incisive, provocative, and heavily concerned with the evolution of American race relations. Chronicling the “Central Park Jogger”  rape case of the late eighties, this saga of litigation and an outraged public garnered very positive word out of Cannes. My top TIFF Doc pick this year

5. The Place Beyond the Pines

Special Presentation

Dir. Derek Cianfrance

Friday September 7 Princess of Wales 6:00 PM (Premium)

Saturday September 8 Ryerson Theatre 11:00 AM

Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance’s sophomore feature The Place Beyond the Pines boasts a stunning cast in the form of Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne and lead Ryan Gosling, and promises to be a taut, unforgiving drama. Gosling plays Luke, a motorcycle stunt rider from Schenectady, NY (his second stuntman/criminal role TIFF premiere in two years with last year’s Drive) who falls into some criminal business and attracts the ire of Bradley Cooper’s cop-turned-politician. Said to be something of a cross between Godfather and The Deer Hunter, if all the elements work well here, we could see potential awards buzz and a nice push for a strong box office take.

6. No

Special Presentation

Dir. Pablo Larrain

Monday September 10 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 6:00 PM

Tuesday September 11 The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 3:00 PM

Chilean director Pablo Larrain returns to TIFF to complete his trilogy of films chronicling life, death and hardship in dictator Augusto Pinochet’s reign of Chile. The first film of the cycle, Tony Manero, was a relentlessly intense, downbeat and horrifically violent look at the dreams of Pinochet’s poor amidst military dictatorship. This film, led by the always interesting Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Bad Education, Babel) explores the downfall of Pinochet and the political atmosphere that toppled his government. Early buzz says the film, shot on analog videotape to mimic the visual aesthetic of late 1980s television, is a suspenseful, thought-provoking winner.

7. The Hunt

Special Presentation 

Dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Monday September 10 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 9:15 PM

Wednesday September 12 TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 3:00 PM

Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Valhalla Rising) won the best actor award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his portrait of an innocent man accused of child molestation in Thomas Vinterberg’s (The Celebration) return to the festival circuit. The film comes to TIFF with a fair amount of hype given reviewers’ raves for Vinterberg’s “powerful” and “controversial” direction. Sure to be a conversation starter, this looks to be one of the stronger contenders for breakout foreign-arthouse pic at this year’s festival.

8. Argo

Gala Presentation

Dir. Ben Affleck

 

Friday September 7 Roy Thomson Hall 6:30 PM (Premium)

Saturday September 8 Visa Screening Room (Elgin) 11:00 AM

Saturday September 15 Visa Screening Room (Elgin) 3:00 PM

Ben Affleck continues his creative ascent in the second stage of his career, stepping behind the camera for the third time for his first period film, a historical thriller that recreates the mostly untold, but generally known tale of the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979. Affleck takes the lead role as CIA “exfiltration” expert Tony Mendez, top-lining a stellar cast that includes Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler and Alan Arkin.  Affleck took The Town to TIFF 2011 and received nearly unanimous critical praise, giving a substantial boost to that film’s awards buzz and box office take. Surely Warner Brothers hopes this film continues that tradition.

9. Kinshasa Kids

Contemporary World Cinema

Dir. Marc-Henri Wajnberg

 

Thursday September 6 TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 7:15 PM

Friday September 7 Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 9 3:00 PM

Sunday September 16 Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 3 6:00 PM

A pick by TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey, this is one of those films that swims deep under the radar of the mainstream festival populace, but has the potential to be one of the most joyous, entertaining films screened this year. Kinshasa Kids is a verite-styled tale about a group of Congolese street kids that discover music as a means of escaping the violent paranoia of Kinshasians obsessed with purging the “child witches” from their city. The trailer (http://bit.ly/P4KsqO) paints a startlingly real, gritty and kind of funky picture of these kids’ lives in Kinshasa. Certainly one of the more intriguing films screening at TIFF 2012.

10. Eagles w/ Ron Levi

  

Contemporary World Cinema

Dir. Dror Sabo

Sunday September 9 Scotiabank 3 9:30 PM

Tuesday September 11 Jackman Hall (AGO) 4:00 PM

Sunday September 16 Scotiabank 4 9:30 PM 

This year TIFF has joined up with the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for Global Affairs to offer extended Q&A sessions for five films in the Contemporary World Cinema program with world renowned speakers and experts. Dror Sabo’s Eagles is the story of two elderly, formerly elite Israeli army soldiers who decide to take the law into their own hands after becoming increasingly alienated by the state of affairs on the crime ridden streets of Tel Aviv. Ron Levi, an expert on global justice and human rights will lead the extended Q&A after the film, which promises to be a poignant, hard-edged look at elderly war veterans in an increasingly youth-focused world.

Review - Take This Waltz (Polley, 2011) ***

Disclosure: I am proud to be a born and raised Torontonian, so it was hard for me not to get wrapped up in the stunning, sun-soaked portrayal of the city in Actor/Writer/Director Sarah Polley's sophomore feature Take This Waltz. The film itself is a love letter to the giant, amorphous city that I live in, but it is also a dizzyingly honest, if at times heavy handed treatise on the insecurities that plague us and the dangerous allure of infatuation; an almost apt metaphor for those who have fallen in love with the city, but are consistently disillusioned by its faults and inability to love them back.

Michelle Williams is breathtaking as Margot, a 28 year old pamphlet writer living in Toronto's characteristically quirky West End with her simple, but adoring husband Lou, played by a surprisingly convincing Seth Rogen. When Margot travels to the Maritime province of Nova Scotia, she meets and instantly develops a sexually tense bond with Daniel, an intelligent, hauntingly handsome artist who just so happens to have moved into a bachelor apartment across the street. Daniel and Margot's relationship quickly intensifies, but lies dormant under the weight of Margor's committment to her love for Lou, his family and their life together, despite the emotional distance growing between the married couple.

This is a poignant, humanistic look at the most desperate, idealistic form of love. The kind of love that is dreamed, never realized, but always sought after. Sarah Silverman plays Lou's sister Geraldine, a recovering alcoholic whose addiction Polley writes in as a thematic parallel to Margot's struggle to maintain control while being pushed towards romantic idealism. Is Margot addicted to delusions of a grand love? Polley toys with the answer, building her characters through sometimes subtle, sometimes metaphorically overbearing, but mostly memorable moments: a kaleidoscopic spin on a chaotic amusement park ride is effective, but hints at pretentiousness. A late night swim shared by Margot and Daniel at a local community center pool (which happens to be *my* local community center pool) is also lensed carefully, with an assured rhythm that permeates a number of key scenes.

Polley strikes a more provocative, interesting tone in the third act that almost absolves the film of its slightly overbearing symbolism. The film is paced somewhat like a Summer love affair. It's hot, full of passion, but has an inevitable tinge of melancholia that comes with its conclusion. There is something of a slight plot twist that I really liked in its powerful simplicity. Characters make decisions that have life-changing consequences, but we know their regrets will always linger. As Seth Rogen's Lou comments near the end of the film, "sometimes things stick." Polley's strengths as a writer and director come from her ability to create indelible cinema out of moments that feel entirely natural. In a recent interview, Polley said making this film was an opportunity to "experiment" after the critical success of her first feature, Away From Her. All filmmakers' experiments should hope to be as delicately crafted, if a little undercooked, as this Take This Waltz.