Toronto International Film Festival '05 : Day 10

Last Day! Took it easy on myself and started late (Noon) which gave me a whole extra 2 hours of sleep. I'm so glad I did because the first two movies of the day were definitely worth being awake for. I skipped the last movie so I could come home and write up a few days worth of "reviews". It's been a good festival for the most part and of the movies I saw I couldn't say there were any real stinkers - some boring films, but nothing seriously bad. I'm saving the total recap for another post so that's it for now. The obvious question I expect to get is of course: "What's my favorite film of the Festival?" Really I can't answer that yet, it'll take time to sort that out. Now - Time for some sleep :)

Something I thought of over the past few days: I've probably seen more foreign films in the last week than some people will see in their entire lives. I don't say that to "say something", it's just an interesting fact.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Paramount 2

5/5 Wow

Man if I ever need a revenge drama/thriller made I know where I'm going! Sympathy for Lady Vengeance was unbelievably great, well beyond my expectations. I missed Old Boy at last years Festival but caught it later on, and now I have to see Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance.

It was just so smart, and by smart I mean smart - Chan-wook really sweats the small stuff and there are some great details woven into the story to round out all the characters. The narrative is equally engaging, flipping between the past and present when need be. The acting is great, there is so much emotion both exposed and repressed. The whole look of the film, the lighting, ... aw just see it. It's not for everyone, it's bloody - not as f*cked up as Old Boy though so more approachable to a wider audience.

Runaway

Varsity 8

4/5 Unexpected

What I liked most about Runaway was that even though I *thought* I got what was really going on, I was wrong. I love that! This of course makes me not want to talk about it too much, but I will say I really enjoyed the acting and story. It had been so long since I chose this movie I had no idea at all what it was about when I sat down to watch, and I think that helped. Something to always think about is how bad does where a person comes from have to be that wandering around homeless seems like a good idea? Yeah, pretty bad. Runaway has that going for it but also much more reveals itself as the story goes on. Excellent.

SPL

Varsity 1

3/5 Great Fights

I wish I had better things to say about SPL, because I saw lots of other people who really liked it and one guy was going on about it near the lineup right before I went in. Yes, the fights are really good, and fast, and creative - everything you want. Other than that maybe I've just seen movies like this a bit too often because there weren't any real surprises, and at this point I need something more than just cool fights to make a movie like this get a better rating.

Posted at 10:30 PM to Film By: John Fairley