Confessions kicks off with an extended monologue given by a schoolteacher whose daughter has drowned in a swimming pool. She gradually and coldly reveals that students in her class are responsible for her child’s death. The students act like typical apathetic teenagers, laughing and texting through the whole thing. As I was watching this, I wondered where the film was going to lead. Would it keep the structure of the opening sequence and have the teacher tell the story in flashback? Or would it switch to a more conventional route and show the consequences of the girl’s death? As it turns out, I could never have guessed where it was going to go.
If serialized TV series can be likened to novels, and movies are analogous to short stories, then Confessions is like poetry. It never adheres to a linear narrative, instead jumping between chapters that play like psychological profiles of the various characters in the film. At the same time, the plot reveals itself one fragment at a time, until a clear picture forms of the twisted schemes of the teacher and her students. There are no innocent characters in this film; everyone is motivated by some dark internal forces.
I admit that during the more abstract sections of Confessions, I tuned out slightly; being accustomed to more structured narratives, I found it hard to pay attention when it didn’t feel like the plot was being advanced in some way. However, I realized afterwards that those scenes would pop back into my memory, and it was because the visuals that they present would draw parallels to more significant scenes in other parts of the movie. For example, there is an image that sticks in my head of the students splashing through rain puddles in slow-motion. On its own, you might call it pointless, but later on, the schoolteacher character experiences a cathartic moment in a scene that has a similar visual palette.
Generally, I subscribe to the idea that the more you remember and contemplate a movie after watching it, the better it is. In that sense, Confessions was the best movie I saw at TIFF this year, because it was with me for days, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it again.
4.5 out of 5
N.B. I don’t automatically like a movie just because it has a Radiohead song in it. To avoid accusations of same, I hereby relegate to a footnote the brilliant use of the song “Last Flowers” in a couple of key scenes of this movie. That is all.
In Even the Rain, a Spanish film crew, lead by the director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal), travels to Bolivia to shoot a movie about Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World. Structurally, it brings to mind some of Larry David’s more self-referential moments, but in a dramatic, instead of comedic, context. (Think the fourth season of Seinfeld, where Jerry and George create a show within a show, or the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where at one point, Larry David plays himself playing himself.) There are extended scenes of Even the Rain that essentially show the finished product of what the Columbus film would look like. It’s a credit to the filmmaking that these scenes carry an emotional impact even though that we know that, as a movie within a movie, it’s two levels removed from reality and requires double suspension of disbelief.
Of course, if the movie relied on an interesting structure alone, it would devolve into gimmick. Thankfully, Even the Rain effectively uses the layered structure to reflect the different attitudes of the characters and the ethical issues of the situation they find themselves in. It’s clear that Sebastian’s goal for his Columbus film is to denounce the mistreatment and exploitation of the Native Americans while lionizing the Spanish priests who defended the Natives’ rights. At the same time, the film crew hires local Bolivians of Native descent as extras, and brag to their producers about having cheap labour. In other words, the themes of the film they’re making reflect and contrast against the themes of the film that we, the audience, are watching.
In particular, the character of the actor who plays Christopher Columbus in the inner film is very complex and multidimensional. As Columbus, he is completely inconsiderate towards the Natives, which is what the role requires. In his interactions with the other actors who play the heroic priests, he is callously skeptical of their idealism and doubts if they truly believe the same things that their characters believe. However, as the conflict with the Natives escalates, he shows yet another side to himself that was previously unexpected.
All in all, Even the Rain was entertaining and thought-provoking. It becomes a bit generic towards the climax, but I enjoyed the first act so much that it earns its melodramatic ending.
The promotionalmaterials for The Hunter emphasize the events that occur in the latter half of the film. Without going into spoilers, I can say that this is a reasonable decision from the marketers because the second half does sound pretty exciting. However, I think to focus on the thriller-esque plot points is slightly misleading and sets up some undue expectations. After reading the official synopsis, and especially after the hard guitar rock accompaniment of the opening credit sequence, I was ready for an energetic crime film, and that’s not what The Hunter delivers.
I know it’s unfair to judge a movie by its promotional materials, and I don’t intend to do so. In fact, after I had settled into the slower-than-expected pacing, I found a lot to like about the film. The cinematography stands out the most; there were many well-composed shots that you could take a still frame and hang on a wall. The camera effectively captures both the grays of the urban environment of Tehran and the greens of the forest that is the setting for the latter parts of the film.
The director and writer, Rafi Pitts, also stars in the lead role. His performance, on the surface, is very stoic; you might even say stone-faced or boring. But I think he does a good job of conveying a quiet rage and sadness beneath the surface, especially in the scene where he is first notified of his wife’s death. He plays it as if he’s almost about to break down in an emotional outburst, and sustains it throughout the lengthy scene.
The main flaw I found with The Hunter was with the plotting in the second half. For long stretches, we lose sight of the main character and the story shifts to the police officers who are pursuing him. Many political themes are brought up at this point, but I didn’t think the moralizing fit in with the mood of the first half so I found it more distracting than thought-provoking. In the end, style won over substance, but in a good way.
The Warrior and the Wolf was a Chinese historical drama. The titular warrior hides out in a village during a break in the battle and meets a woman in the village and they develop a relationship. “The wolf” could metaphorically refer to any number of things and is open to interpretation, so I won’t give anything away by discussing it.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. While I found the basic plot satisfying, and the visuals nice to look at (especially one special effects shot of a desert sandstorm), there were some issues with the film that prevented me from really getting into it. First, I had a problem with the introduction in the first 20 minutes or so. It attempts to give the background of the war and the warrior’s involvement in said war in a non-linear way. It jumps back and forth in time and I had a hard time following what the current storyline was. I don’t have a problem with non-linear storytelling, but to use it to establish the foundation for the rest of the film didn’t work, and it affected the experience for the remainder.
The other big problem I had was with the relationship between the warrior and the village woman. It reminded me of the flashback sequence in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which was my least favourite part of that film). Boy meets girl, boy holds girl captive, boy rapes girl, girl inexplicably comes to love boy. Obviously within that culture and in that historical time period, gender roles were different, but I just couldn’t believe in that relationship.
At the end of the film, there was a Q & A session with the director and main cast. Someone asked a question regarding how the two stars of the film (Maggie Q and Joe Odagiri) and the director (Tian Zhuang Zhuang), who all speak a different native language, dealt with the communication barrier on set. The gist of their answers was that it wasn’t a barrier, and that the energy and the emotion of the film was understood by all, regardless of language. A nice sentiment, but unfortunately, I don’t think this energy translated to the screen. In the end, I think the movie felt like a series of well-done scenes, but didn’t come together into a coherent whole.
I attended a press & industry screening1 of this documentary about Daniel Ellsberg, a government official who, during the Vietnam War, leaked some top secret Pentagon documents (the “Pentagon Papers”) that proved that the war was based on government lies. Americans probably know the history of the event, but ignorant Canadian that I am, I was not familiar with it. So on one level, I enjoyed the movie as a history lesson. But what really drove the film for me was Ellsberg’s personality. (He narrates the film and is seen throughout in the typical talking head interviews.) When he speaks, you can tell that he’s absolutely committed to doing the right thing. More than that, he followed his words with actions—actions that put his own freedom at risk. I have great respect for this, and I think that he is a true hero.
On the negative side, I thought they overdid the portrayal of Nixon as a bad, bad man. The repeated use of sound clips of Nixon saying vulgar and awful things almost came off as unintentionally funny because it was so on the nose. (E.g. someone in an interview would say something like, “Surely, the government would not do XYZ.” Then it would cut to a tape of Nixon saying “By God, we better goddamn do XYZ to those sons of bitches.“) I would have preferred a little more subtlety. Minor criticisms aside, this was a very fascinating doc.
3.5 out of 5
Footnotes
My volunteer reward vouchers give access to these insider screenings that are not available to the public—a very nice perk. As an aside, P&I screenings are a completely different experience compared to public screenings. Everybody is there to work, not necessarily to “enjoy” the film, so it’s totally lacking in energy. For example, Suck was also a press screening, and I heard maybe two people laughing. I’m sure that there would have been a much bigger reaction at a public show. ↩
I didn’t watch Suck with 100% attentiveness because I was working as an usher/anti-piracy cop for the screening. (It really sucks watching a movie standing up and facing sideways.) But I did get enough of it to form an opinion. The movie is a comedy about a rock band where one of the members becomes a vampire.
I liked some parts, and I would have been laughing out loud had I not been wearing my professional volunteer mask. There is a scene—a flashback sequence involving Malcolm McDowell’s character, which incorporates footage of a young McDowell from some old movie—that was really well done. Ultimately though, the jokes were hit and miss, because it was kind of cheesy, goofy humour which doesn’t always work for me. But I can see this becoming a “cult favourite” type of film with a good fanbase. Oh, and it’s Canadian.
Two men kidnap a girl. That’s pretty much all I can say about The Disappearance of Alice Creed without giving away the various twists. What I found interesting about this film was that the three main characters are the only people in the whole movie. Also, almost the entire story takes place within 2 rooms in an apartment, and everything develops from the dialogue and interaction between the characters and the performances, which were great. In that sense, it’s kind of like a play. On the other hand, it’s shot with some stylish cinematography, which gives it sufficient “movie-ness” that you might not even notice how small the scope is. (Some people in the audience actually chuckled when the credits rolled and they realized that there were only 3 people in it.)
Excellent acting, great script, great style, and some very cool and unexpected twists. My favourite of the festival so far.
4 out of 5
About Me
Hi! Albert here. Canadian. Chinese.
Writing software since 2001. “Blogging” since 2004. Reading since forever.
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