Toronto International Film Festival '05 : Day 8

The tiredness kicked in late in the day and after All the Invisible Children being so hit and miss I knew there was no way I was going to last so again I skipped a film. I also ran in to Meg from Madison again. It's weird how over the course of the fest you can see the same people over and over, I also recognized some people from the previous year. Of course when you talk to people (or they're just very vocal nearby) it makes it easier to remember. Favorite film of the day: a/k/a Tommy Chong

Thumbsucker

Paramount 2

3.5/5 A "Feel Good" movie

Yay another coming of age story! :) Okay but it *was* a good one. Thumbsuker is basically about how it can take some people a long time to really sort themselves out, because the pressure to be normal (whatever that is) can be tremendous. I thought Keanu was really good as the hippie orthodontist, a nice smaller role. My favorite scene has to be when they're going over a Ritalin pamphlet and one of the signs to look out for is "makes mistakes" - literally every person I ever knew in high school needed to be on Ritalin according to this pamphlet. So yeah everyone makes it through the movie and it's probably not the most "Film Festival"y movie I could have seen, but it did the job.

Romance & Cigarettes

Paramount 2

4/5 Lonely is a man without love

You really need to just let go and enjoy Romance & Cigarettes for what it is or you're going to end up really frustrated. This is an energetic, visceral, and dirty movie - think of maybe a cross between Grease and Rocky Horror, set in Brooklyn. One of the neat things I liked was the use of song titles as speech, which tied in really well with all the musical numbers. John Turturro as there and although I couldn't stay for the Q&A session afterwards, he did have this to say before the film: "It's a little early for a dirty movie".

a/k/a Tommy Chong

ROM

4/5 Up in Smoke

I remember watching Up in Smoke as a kid and of course thinking it was hilarious, and I've really enjoyed seeing Chong on That's 70's Show in recent years. a/k/a Tommy Chong is a documentary about the jailing of Chong on charges relating to the selling of Bongs. The director does a really good job of two things: Showing how absurd the effort to get Chong was, and showing what a compassionate loving man Chong is. Of course contrasting the two makes it even better. It's also made very clear that in the end they basically busted him because he made movies glorifying marijuana use in the 70's. Think about that for a second - jailed for making a movie. Really that's a ll I'm going to say about that. The result of all this was to martyr Chong and turn him in to a crusader - great move!

Pavee Lackeen

Cumberland 2

4/5 Travelling Ireland

Pavee Lackeen is a docudrama about the "Travellers" of Ireland - a group of Celtic gypsies. Most of the cast were Travellers and the director worked very closely with them to weave the story in to it's final form. We follow life as a Traveler through the eyes of Winnie, a young girl who has trouble in school and just generally tries to get by day to day. It's a really good look at a marginalized people in an nation that has been getting richer in recent years. It also is really just like so many films at the festival I've seen this year: "What is it to be a kid?"

I managed to stay for the Q&A session and learned some really interesting things: A lot of the scenes were a mix of script and improv. Many Travellers have a problem distinguishing between reality vs. fiction on TV, and there was one scene which really had the main character worried that others might think something in the film was real in regards to her. The director has not shown the film in Ireland yet, and yes they are hoping this stirs up controversy over there.

All the Invisible Children

Paramount 3

3/5 Meh

Somehow this just didn't meet my expectations - I thought there was maybe going to be a little clearer thread throughout all the shorts. Of the seven the ones to stand out were by Spike Lee and John Woo. I was so tired by now these were the only two I could really keep it together for. I still like the idea of the film but I was hoping for a more complete message.

Posted at 08:30 AM to Film By: John Fairley