Checking in from the Toronto Film Festival

Dave Filipi, director of Film/Video, has spent the last few days at the Toronto International Film Festival. He checked in this morning with thoughts on some notable films.

The Alloy Orchestra performing at the Wex tonight meant a slightly abbreviated Toronto International Film Festival for me, but I still managed to catch plenty of strong films, and that's not counting a number that I've already seen (The Neon Bull, Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which screens here on Halloween, and Guy's Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton) or that we will be showing soon (Jafa Panahi’s Taxi, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin).

Of the films I saw, these eight stood out for me (no particular order): 

Evolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France) and The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece) were both compelling dystopian visions of alternate or not-too-distant futures. The former was beautifully photographed, the latter which touted a surprisingly A-list cast including Colin Farrell, John C. Reilly, Rachel Weisz, and Ben Whishaw, is the first English-language film from the director of Dogtooth, which made its Columbus debut at the Wex a few years ago.

Sunset Song (Terence Davies, UK)
Davies' adaptation of this classic Scottish novel about the life of a farming family straddles the maudlin line in a couple of moments but it's so beautifully acted and shot and the story told with such sincerity that those less successful moments are easy to overlook.  

Cemetery of Splendor and Fireworks (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
Otherworldly, mysterious, funny...how can a film with such a measured pulse be so energizing? The filmmaker known to many as "Joe" also had his captivating Fireworks presented as an installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It’s also always a pleasure to see a past Wexner Center Artist Residency Award recipient continue to develop such rich and fascinating work.

Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, France)
This year’s Palme d'Or winner is a timely story of Sri Lankan migrants trying to build a life in the sketchy suburbs of Paris. Great filmmaking almost undermined by an unexpected ending that recalls Taxi Driver.

Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece)
From the maker of Attenberg, Chevalier is the story of a group of men stranded on vacation who devise a game to decide who among them is the best at everything, a game which Tsangari follows to its humorous and unsettling results.

Remember (Atom Egoyan, Canada)  
I can't say much about Egoyan's tale of geriatric Holocaust survivors as the film relies on its twists and turns, but it is one of his oddest films. If one only listened to the soundtrack it would be next to impossible to guess the nature of the film as it alternates between the music once would expect in a light Lifetime comedy and that which one would expect from a grim thriller.

The Phantom Boy  (Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli, France)
A strong follow-up from the creators of the animated A Cat in Paris. Like Cat, Phantom Boy is a rousing blend of beautiful animation and witty humor within a crime story milieu. 

Desde Alla (Lorenzo Vigas, Venezuela)
Winning the top prize at Venice made this a suddenly VERY hot ticket and I was one of the lucky ones who got in line early enough for the press screening. Desde Alle tells the story of a middle-age man who forms an unusual bond with a younger man after paying him to come back to his home for a sexual fix. A compelling story of attraction, class, and power dynamics, which accelerates to a twist ending.