Timer

TIMER (2009) - Sept. 30, 2010
An enjoyable romantic comedy about a society where there is a product that will count down to when you'll meet your soulmate.  It's kind of a strange premise, but it definitely works -- the film never feels overly quirky or artificial.  It's well acted, engaging and quite enjoyable throughout.  ***

The Marriage of Maria Braun

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (1979) - Sept. 28, 2010
An enjoyable enough and decently made film about a calculating woman's struggles to stay sucessful in WWII-era Germany.  Well acted and mostly engaging, it's... I don't know, it's been a few months.  I should have probably written this sooner.  **1/2

Catfish

CATFISH (2010) - Sept. 28, 2010
A basically decent but seriously over-hyped documentary about a guy who starts a long-distance relationship over facebook, and then starts to realize that all is not as it seems.  I think this is a case of hype (and marketing) seriously hurting the film, as the film has been billed as a thriller with an insane twist, which is really not the case.  I mean, there is a twist, sort of, but it's not particularly mind-blowing, and it's pretty low-key.  Certainly, calling this any type of a thriller is an outright lie (and the quote in the trailer calling this "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed" is almost laughably absurd).  Aside from the fairly blatant false advertising, this was a decent but unspectacular documentary.  Shoddily filmed but slickly edited, the whole thing was kind of interesting but mostly forgettable.  I'm really not sure how this was the most buzzed about film at Sundance when it played -- must have been slim pickings.  **1/2

The Young and the Damned

THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED (1950) - Sept. 28, 2010
A decent drama by Luis Bunuel about the struggles of a bunch of very poor kids in the slums of Mexico.  Decently made, if not particularly memorable.  **1/2

Wings of Desire

WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) - Sept. 27, 2010
About a couple of angels who wander around Germany listening to people's thoughts (and all Germans, apparently, think exclusively about poetry and philosophy), this was a maddeningly pretentious film.  I'm kind of shocked that this is as well-regarded as it is; it's meandering and a bit pointless.  Maybe if there were a single person who felt authentic the film might have had a bit more of an impact, but as it stands the film feels like a thinly-veiled excuse for Wim Wenders to explore philosophy (i.e. it's the philosophy equivalent of a dumb Hollywood action movie in which the characters are just an excuse to get to the action).  *1/2

The Battle of Algiers

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (196?) - Sept. 27, 2010 (Second Viewing)
I’ll admit that I was really not looking forward to revisiting this film; my memory of it was that it was dull and completely overrated. Well, I didn’t exactly love it this time around, but at least I can say that I’m no longer baffled by the film’s enduring popularity. It just goes to show you that it’s sometimes a good idea to revisit certain films; I’m not sure why my opinion on this film changed. Maybe I was just in a weird mood the first time I watched it, or perhaps my tastes have changed over the years. It’s funny, because the opposite thing happened when I revisited Amarcord — I liked it on my first viewing, but not so much on my second.  I can see why I didn’t particularly like this film the first time around; there aren’t really any characters, or at least none that we get to know beyond their politics, and there isn’t much of a narrative to speak of. But there’s something oddly fascinating about watching the minutia of the revolution unfold. It probably helps that I watched a film called Outside the Law at this year’s TIFF, which also dealt with the Algerian resistance, and which gave this film some added context that it wouldn’t have otherwise had.  I’m still not sure that this is the all-time classic that many make this out to be, but it’s definitely an interesting film. Pontecorvo’s gritty, documentary-like style suits the movie well, and there are some pretty great moments here — for instance, a tense sequence in which three Algerian women disguise themselves as Westerners in an attempt to get through a checkpoint with bombs. The ending is oddly abrupt, though the more I think about it, the more I think it works. ***

The Town

THE TOWN (2010) - Sept. 25, 2010
Another winner from Ben Affleck, and confirmation that Gone Baby Gone wasn't just a fluke.  About a bank robber who winds up falling in love with one of the victims of his last robbery, this was quite well made and well acted (including Affleck himself, who may just give his best performace ever here).  I don't think there's a single thing here that felt particularly original, but it was so entertaining and well executed that it didn't really matter.  ***1/2

Three Days of the Condor

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) - Sept. 22, 2010
A superlative thriller about a CIA analyst who returns to his office from lunch to find everyone killed, and who then must try to figure out who wants him dead.  Really well directed by Sydney Pollack, this was somewhat slow-paced but always interesting and kind of electrifying in parts.  Robert Redford is pretty much perfect in the main role, and is a big reason why the film works as well as it does; he just creates a really compelling character.  The supporting characters are just as good -- Faye Dunaway and Cliff Robertson are both quite good, and Max von Sydow manages to make a fairly big impact with a small role (there's a scene between him and Redford towards the end of the film that was definitely one of the better things I've seen in a while).  ***1/2

Devil

DEVIL (2010) - Sept. 21, 2010
Kind of like an extended episode of the Twilight Zone, this was a well made little thriller about a group of people who get stuck in an elevator thanks to the Devil himself (who just happens to be taking the form of one of the people inside).  Featuring solid direction from John Erick Dowdle (which is leagues better than his work on the mediocre [REC] remake), this is a thriller that doesn't have particularly big ambitions, but which accomplishes what it sets out to do quite well.  ***

Stake Land

STAKE LAND (2010) - Sept. 19, 2010
A really well made film about a grizzled vampire hunter in a post-apocalyptic America who takes a young man under his wing and attempts to travel to "New Eden," a place which is supposedly vampire free.  This is a post-apocalyptic film refreshingly devoid of the typically desaturated colours and visual style that has essentially become the standard in this genre; the cinematography here is actually quite striking.  There are also some really tense moments here and some great action, all of which works as well as it does because the film does such a great job of developing the characters and getting us to care about them.  ***1/2

The Illusionist (2010)

THE ILLUSIONIST (2010) - Sept. 19, 2010
A bit of a let-down after the exceptional Triplets of Belleville, this was a really well animated, well made film that was just a little bit too low-key and slow-paced for its own good.  I was never all-out bored, but I was never really engaged, either.  **1/2

Fire of Conscience

FIRE OF CONSCIENCE (2010) - Sept. 19, 2010
Another hopelessly convoluted Asian crime story, this was about a gritty cop doing gritty stuff.  There isn't much here that we haven't seen before, though the action is impressive enough to make the movie moderately worthwhile.  **1/2

John Carpenter's The Ward

JOHN CARPENTER'S THE WARD (2010) - Sept. 19, 2010
Not quite the triumphant return of John Carpenter that I might have hoped, this was a kind of mediocre but essentially entertaining film about a young girl who finds herself locked up in a sinister asylum.  Though John Carpenter's command of the camera and the widescreen frame remains intact, there film itself just wasn't all that compelling.  It was pretty obviously leading up to a twist, so I spent much of the film trying to figure out what the twist was going to be, which is never a sign that you're watching a great movie (to the film's credit, aside from knowing that things were obviously not as they seemed, I wasn't able to guess the twist).  The film featured an excess of jump scares, but little by way of tension or dread.  It was basically entertaining, but a bit of a let-down coming from a master like Carpenter.  **1/2

Confessions

CONFESSIONS (2010) - Sept. 19, 2010
Featuring a fractured narrative that traces a murder and its aftermath, this was a kind of interesting film that I think probably worked better on paper than in execution.  Though the general style and use of music suggests that the director intended this to be riveting all the way through, I got tired of the overly-dense, narration heavy narrative fairly quickly, making the film kind of a slog to sit through.  The movie is constantly throwing information at the viewer, and never really slows down to allow us to process it or develop the characters in any meaningful way.  Because of this, it was kind of hard to care about anything that unfolded.  The whole thing worked much better as a novel, I'm sure.  *1/2

Super

SUPER (2010) - Sept. 18, 2010 (Second Viewing)
Yep, good stuff.  ***1/2

The Butcher, The Chef, and The Swordsman

THE BUTCHER, THE CHEF, AND THE SWORDSMAN (2010) - Sept. 18, 2010
Quite literally one of the worst films I've ever seen, this was a horifically bad film about...  I don't know, a chef out for revenge?  It kind of had a few different stories -- all terrible.  Featuring awful, unfunny humour so broad and silly that even a five-year-old would find it juvenile and beneath him, this was not merely unfunny -- it was  gratingly, in-your-face, cringe-inducingly unfunny.  It doesn't help that this was billed as a martial arts action film and features (maybe) five minutes total of sloppy, awkward action.  It also didn't help that there wasn't a single likable character in the bunch (and at least a couple of characters who were so infuriatingly annoying that I had the overwhelming urge to punch someone in the face -- preferably the director, the actors, or TIFF programmer Colin Geddes for subjecting me to this garbage).  I honestly cannot think of a single thing I liked about this mess.  SO TERRIBLE.  ZERO STARS

Sandcastle

SANDCASTLE (2010) - Sept. 18, 2010
Well, I fell asleep again.  Not for too long, but long enough that I can't really give this film a rating.  About a boy whose grandfather dies, and who starts to learn about who his father was, this was generally well made but very slow.  NO RATING

Womb

WOMB (2010) - Sept. 18, 2010
Pretentious and super slow-paced and yet also oddly compelling, this was a strange film about a woman whose childhood love dies, and who then decides to carry his clone.  Bizarre, unabashedly arty and kind of obtuse, I can't really say I fully get what the point of this film was, but I guess I was never all-out bored, and there was something kind of intriguing about the premise and the meticulously framed visuals.  **1/2

Bunraku

BUNRAKU (2010) - Sept. 17, 2010
Nope, not a fan.  About a couple of guys who both want to kill the same guy, set in a strange, gunless future society.  Featuring bizarre, super-stylized visuals that make everything look like cardboard cutouts in a stage play, this was definitely a unique looking film, but there's only so far that unique visuals can go.  The main problem here is that all of the characters are almost absurdly dull.  Featuring dialogue that consists almost entirely of one-liners and pseudo-hard-boiled dialogue that must have seemed clever to someone at some point, the whole thing got tiresome pretty fast.  The film had quite a lot of action, but with the exception of one pretty great scene (that shamelessly ripped off Old Boy) it was all kind of mediocre.  Meh.  1/2*

Blame

BLAME (2010) - Sept. 17, 2010
About a group of students who set out to murder one of their teachers, who they perceive to be responsible for the death of their friend, this was a well directed and downright intense film.  Though it's essentially all dialogue in one house, it never feels stagey; it's quite cinematic, and the film is pretty tense throughout.  It helps that it's very well written and acted; the constant revelations keep things interesting throughout.  The director does a really good job of slowly giving the audience all of the information, keeping things tense without being annoyingly or artificially vague.  Definitely one of the better films at the festival so far, and another winner from Australia.  ***1/2

Home for Christmas

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (2010) - Sept. 17, 2010
Meh.  Generally well made but just not particularly compelling, this was about a bunch of characters in a small town in Norway around Christmas.  Some of the stories were a bit better than others, but mostly this was passable but dull.  **

The High Cost of Living

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING (2010) - Sept. 17, 2010
Featuring a better than expected performance from Zach Braff (though it did take me a few minutes to buy him as a very non-JD-like character) this was an above average film about a guy who causes a pregnant woman to lose her child, and who then befriends said woman (without her knowing his role in her accident).  Melodramatic (but not in a bad way), this was well made and quite well acted.  Plus, I've found myself thinking about it on and off pretty much all day.  ***1/2

Peep World

PEEP WORLD (2010) - Sept. 16, 2010
An enjoyable dramedy about a guy who writes a semi-autobiographical novel about his dysfunctional family, and the uproar that this causes among said family.  Though the film wasn't anything particularly special, it was well made and well acted by a cast pretty much crammed full of recognizable actors (I'm pretty sure every single major role was a familiar face).  ***

I Saw the Devil

I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
A well made but seriously flawed film about a cop (or a secret agent or something -- it's never really made clear) who seeks elaborate vengeance when his fiancee is murdered.  My main problem with this film is the ludicrous choice the character makes of catching the killer and then letting him go so that he can catch him again (in an effort to make him suffer as much as possible -- as if there is no other way than an ill-conceived catch-and-release plan to make a man suffer).  I never bought for a second that any even remotely intelligent person would make such a stunningly stupid decision -- an act I found so irrational that it took me out of the movie.  Aside from that the film was well made and definitely had its moments, but it was a bit overlong and it dragged in parts.  But ultimately, I just couldn't buy into the ridiculous premise.  **

Essential Killing

ESSENTIAL KILLING (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
Someone needs to explain this movie to me.  Why did this particular story need to be told?  About a member of the Taliban (we assume -- the character never speaks and we learn nothing about him other than a couple of brief flashbacks that imply he has a wife) who is captured, escapes and then runs away through a seemingly endless snowy forest.  This could have been exciting and/or suspenseful, but we never learn a thing about the character and thus have no reason to care about him, so the whole thing ends up coming off as a pretentious excercise of some sort, despite the fact that it's reasonably well made.  *1/2

Henry's Crime

HENRY'S CRIME (2010) - Sept. 15, 2010
A really low-key but enjoyable film about a guy who is wrongly sent to jail for robbing a bank, and who then decides to actually rob the bank.  Featuring a pretty solid cast with people like Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga giving above average performances (Caan, in particular, is probably better here than he's been in a while).  There's pretty much nothing here that we haven't seen before, but it's quite affable with characters that we really come to care about.  ***

Black Swan

BLACK SWAN (2010) - Sept. 14, 2010
Another big winner from Darren Aronofsky, and final confirmation that the man has serious talent, and that I need to revist Requiem for a Dream (and even if that movie is as bad as I remember, it's just a blip in an otherwise primo filmography).  About a ballerina who gets the lead role in a production of Swan Lake, and who then starts to unravel, this was a really well made, seriously compelling film.  Though it starts off seeming stylistically similar to the Wrestler, the film also has some very overt thriller elements, and even some horror thrown in.  It's really well made, well acted, and flat-out entertaining all the way through.  ****

Our Day Will Come

OUR DAY WILL COME (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Seriously pretentious and almost criminally self-indulgant, this was an inscrutable mess of a film, with characters who do odd things seemingly just for the sake of being odd.  I thought that perhaps it was all supposed to be a metaphor or an allegory for something, but the Q&A with the director after the film seemed to indicate that it was all supposed to be taken at face value.  If that's the case, seriously, why did the characters do pretty much everything they did in that film?  Why did these two strangers just randomly decide to take a road trip together?  Why did they go nuts and start murdering people at the end?  The whole thing just made me mad, because the director obviously has a fair amount of talent (or at the very least, a keen eye for visuals), but he seems to have little to no interest in making a coherent film, and in fact seems to want to thumb his nose at anything resembling convention just for the sake of being different.  1/2*

Outside the Law

OUTSIDE THE LAW (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Not quite the "epic gangster movie" that the TIFF guide promised (that's a seriously misleading description of the film, and I have to wonder if the person who wrote it even watched the movie), this was a decent film about the Algerian uprising in France in the '50s.  Well made and featuring a fairly epic scope without feeling too overlong (despite a running time of well over two hours), this was a good movie that I was just never all that involved with, despite never being bored.  **1/2

Super

SUPER (2010) - Sept. 13, 2010
Sort of like a more twisted version of Kick-Ass, this was a really fun film about a guy who decides to become a superhero after thinking he's heard the word of God.  Really well made, I think the Kick-Ass comparisons are going to be inevitable, but I think this is funnier and less slick, and definitely deserves to stand on its own (I liked Kick-Ass, but I liked this more).  Features a surprisingly good lead performance from Rainn Wilson; you definitely forget about the Office pretty early on, as his character here is quite far from Dwight.  The supporting cast is just as good, though it's Ellen Page who really steals the show as Wilson's overzealous sidekick.  Good times.  ***1/2

Late Autumn

LATE AUTUMN (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well made but almost absurdly slow-paced, this was a decent film about a young Chinese woman, let out of prison for a couple of days to go to a funeral, who strikes up a relationship with a seemingly carefree Korean gigalo.  The film is well directed and reasonably well acted (though it's fairly clear that neither of the leads knew English too well).  It's actually quite compelling in parts, and the characters are definitely likable.  But it's insanely slow, and would probably benefit from some generous cutting.  There's also a fantasy sequence that just seems out of place and kind of slows down what little momentum the film has. **1/2

The Piano in a Factory

THE PIANO IN A FACTORY (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well, it had to happen.  At least I got it out of the way early this year: I fell asleep.  I was pretty tired, but the movie being fairly poor certainly didn't help.  Directed with a fussy, overly composed visual style that gave the film an unpleasantly artificial theatricality and put the viewer at a constant arm's length, this was just not a particularly compelling film.  NO RATING

Easy Money

EASY MONEY (2010) - Sept. 12, 2010
Well made and quite fast-paced throughout, this was about an ambitious young man who finds himself working for a group of drug dealers.  Directed with a gritty visual style that suited the film quite well, I definitely enjoyed this.  ***

Outbound

OUTBOUND (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010
A typically European art house type of film (but a well done one), this was a well made and well acted film about a woman who gets out of jail -- supposedly for 24 hours only -- and who sets out to leave with her son.  The film follows her over the course of the day as she attempts to get her affairs in order, and features a naturalistic style that is quite reminisent of the work of the Dardenne brothers (but mostly without the handheld camerawork).  The film also features one of the more abrupt endings that I've seen lately, which seemed to irk the crowd I saw it with -- when someone asked the director to elaborate on what happened at the end, there were definite murmurs of appreciation (and of course, he didn't answer).  ***

Inception

INCEPTION (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010 (Fourth Viewing)
Yep, awesome.  And it definitely worked quite well on the large Imax screen, if not quite as brilliantly as the shot-for-Imax stuff from the Dark Knight.  ****

Wasted on the Young

WASTED ON THE YOUNG (2010) - Sept. 11, 2010
An interesting and well made film about a girl who overdoses and is subsequently raped at a party, and how this affects those around her.  Directed with visual flair by first-time director Ben C. Lucas, the film provided a unique spin on the high school drama.  ***

Cirkus Columbia

CIRKUS COLUMBIA (2010) - Sept. 10, 2010
A basically well made but uneventful and kind of boring film about a man who comes back to his small town in Bosnia after a twenty year absence, and winds up shaking things up.  There wasn't any particularly element of this film that was badly done, it was just kind of meandering and by somewhere around the mid-way point, I had completely lost interest.  *1/2

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN (2010) - Sept. 10, 2010
Though it started out with one of the better action sequences I've seen in a while (it was seriously awesome), the rest of the movie just wasn't up to that level.  About a famous resistance fighter in 1920s China, the film was just completely bogged down with political maneuverings, which left the characters themselves woefully underdeveloped.  It also didn't help that the first hour was pretty much action-free (aside from the aforementioned awesome opening), which completely threw off the pacing of the movie.  It picks up somewhat in the second hour, but it had pretty much lost me at that point.  It also closed with a pretty spectacular action sequence, but for the most part this movie was a let down.  Donnie Yen was awesome as usual, however.  **

Bedtime Stories

BEDTIME STORIES (2008) - Sept. 6, 2010
A surprisingly bad film about a man who realizes that the stories he's telling his neice and nephew are starting to come true.  Unabashedly juvenile, it becomes clear pretty much immediately that the film is aimed squarely at undiscrimating children, with no attempt to appeal to anyone over the age of twelve.  The film was pretty episodic, and lacked any particular narrative momentum.  Blandly directed and completely laugh-free, there really wasn't too much that worked here.  *1/2

The American

THE AMERICAN (2010) - Sept. 5, 2010
A well made if somewhat slow-paced film about a skilled hitman who hides out in a small Italian town making a custom sniper rifle.  The film kind of has a cool, emotionally distant tone that always keeps you at an arm's length, but it's well directed by Anton Corbijn and does a good job of evoking a European art-house vibe.  It also features a really strong central performance from George Clooney, who manages to create a compelling character (who is a bit different from his usual thing) without all that much dialogue.  ***

Machete

MACHETE (2010) - Sept. 3, 2010
Meh.  Based on the fake trailer from Grindhouse, this was about an ex-Federale who finds himself double-crossed by the people who hired him to assassinate a politician.  Further proof that Robert Rodriguez just isn't a very good director, this was decent in parts, but mostly it was just kind of flat, and it was never nearly as fun as it was trying to be.  Perhaps if it had been about half an hour shorter it would have been an enjoyable enough diversion, but at 105 minutes it definitely over-stays its welcome.  Plus, it's yet another movie where the violence is sullied by an over-use of CGI.  **