Let’s see -- 271 movies in ten days, that’s 27.1 movies a day. Which means that most Toronto Film Festival-goers are going to have wildly divergent takes (and tickets) as they queue up with their circled and underlined schedules, waiting for whatever the next show is at the Varsity or the AMC plexes, the Elgin or the Cumberland, or the other venues spread around town. (A town celebrating its 175th year.)
And so far, my festival has been a grim one – thematically, that is. With the exception of the happily loopy, sort-of-true The Men Who Stare at Goats and its tale of secret paranormal military ops and New Age army dudes (including a Dude-like Jeff Bridges), I’ve seen nothing but doom, death and depression.
Sure, the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man – drawn from Joel and Ethan’s experiences growing up in 1960s suburban Minnesota -- is laced with typical Coensian irony and close-up absurdity. But the film’s protagonist, a physics professor played by Michael Stuhlbarg, has the luck of Job: his wife wants a divorce, his brother, a jobless social misfit, has moved into the family house, the tenure committee has been receiving unfavorable, anonymous letters, and a foreign student is threatening to sue. On top of that, the X-rays from this ill-fated father and husband’s most recent doctor’s visit seem ominous. Laff riot.
Consider Up in the Air, Jason Reitman’s adaptation of the Walter Kirn novel about a guy who fires people for a living (George Clooney). This dark, quiet comedy achieves levels of documentary-like pathos with a series of talking head “interviews” with everyday Joes (and Jills) who have just been laid off, let go, made redundant. Tears, rage, despair and suicide permeate the pic, which also stars Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman and Anna Kendrick and which addresses the current economic climate (and near-10% unemployment rate) with chilling relevancy.
Or The Road, the post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son (Viggo Mortensen and the Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee) slogging across gray, dangerous landscapes looking for food and safe haven. John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel is bleak, powerful stuff.
And then there’s Triage, Danis Tanovic’s drama about an Irish photojournalist (Colin Farrell) covering the strife in ’80s Kurdistan: a bloody report about battle, bombings, amputation, mercy killings and debilitating post-traumatic stress. At the world premiere at the Winter Garden, Tanovic (No Man’s Land, Hell) introduced the film with grace and humor, and then introduced Farrell, who shuffled out onto the stage, nodding nervously. He could be up for an Oscar.
Friday and Saturday, interviewed Penelope Cruz and Lluis Homar for Almodovar’s Broken Embraces (more loss, more melancholy); The Art of the Steal’s Philly-based doc director, Don Argott; Viggo Mortensen (talking like a proud dad about the talents of his pipsqueak co-star), and Jeff Bridges, reflecting on his career, his dad, and the upcoming remake of True Grit he’s going to do with his Big Lebowski auteurs, the Coens. (He hasn’t run into them here.) Upcoming interviews: Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air and Niki Caro’s The Vintner’s Luck.)
Sick parenting moment on Yorkville Avenue, as a father and his toddler daughter negotiate the sidewalk near the Four Seasons and the crowd of celebrity gawkers stationed there: “Want to try your sunglasses on so you can look like a movie star?”
Sick marketing moment in same Yorkville nabe: a stand emblazoned with Matt Damon’s image and a The Informant! sign, distributing corn, still green in the husk, to passers-by, promoting Steven Soderbergh’s tonally wacked agri-business whistle-blower comedy thriller.
Get it now
Philly.com Promotions
