Review: World of Comedy Festival Short Appetizers and a Feature Chaser
The second program of the World of Comedy Film Festival on Saturday afternoon had a mixed bag of shorts and a 77 minute feature film. With the exception of one very short film about dressing Christmas tree, the theme was oddball crimes — and watching bad criminals is pretty funny! Read more
Review: World of Comedy Festival Animation & Other Wonders
The Animation and Other Wonders program of the World of Comedy Film Festival, on this weekend, was full of laughs and oddities on a sunny day. Read more
Review: At Home By Myself…With You
Last night The Royal screened, to an enthusiastic audience, the Toronto opening of At Home By Myself…With You. The presence of the director (Kris Booth), producer, and members of the cast added to the ‘film-premiere’ feeling of the event (I totally love it when films are introduced by someone on stage!). After viewing this charming, lighthearted romantic comedy (set and filmed in Toronto), I can safely say that director Kris Booth certainly made the very most of his tiny $40,000 budget! Read more
Review: Zooey & Adam
Reading about the concept of Sean Garrity’s Zooey and Adam, I was very intrigued by the writer’s improvisational approach to the art of film-making. This movie was constructed in such a way that the actors themselves did not know the script – rather, they were thrust into situations and are forced to say whatever was on their mind in the context of a given situation. With little budget and no artificial lighting, it is surprising that what resulted was a very authentic approach to the art of film-making and a genuine performance from the lead actors. Though the story was fictitious, it came off as a documentary, embedding the audience in a realism that depicted the inner turmoil of a young couple with excruciating honesty. But then again, what else can we expect from Winnipeg-based Garrity, whose previous films Inertia and Lucid have received national acclaim and skyrocketed Garrity’s reputation as an avant-garde filmmaker in Canada’s independent scene.
The movie follows a young couple who are trying desperately to have a baby but are having no success. One fateful night, they venture out into the woods for a camping trip when they are discovered by a gang of brutes that pick a fight with the couple. One of the gangsters holds Adam (Tom Keenan) down, while the other two proceed to rape Zooey (Daria Puttaert) right in front of Adam’s eyes. The terrible aftershock of this event is further complicated when Zooey realizes she’s pregnant. Since she is worried that she may never again be able to conceive, Zooey decides to keep the baby and Adam reluctantly agrees that the baby’s true parentage doesn’t matter – they decide to raise the child as their own. Adam’s unwilling acceptance of Zooey’s decision to keep the child takes a toll on their relationship and the rest of the movie deals with the ways in which each person copes with the situation they’ve had to endure.
The couple’s on-screen chemistry is indisputable. From the first time that Zooey and Adam blaze onto the screen the audience is captivated by their mutual adoration. This chemistry, combined with the element of spontaneity that the actors achieve through improvisation, makes the unraveling of their emotional ties that much more heartbreaking. The techniques used to emulate this disintegration are unlike any I had previously witnessed. The camera crew is made up of one man – Garrity himself. The lack of professional lighting really does let the viewer focus on the raw emotion of the piece. Garrity also utilizes lack of light to convey the chaos of the rape scene. It is completely shrouded in mystery and darkness, where we see glimpses of Adam, Zooey’s legs, and the perpetrators – all illuminated momentarily by the crackling fire. Certain shots add to the overall feeling of loneliness and inefficacy, like one in which Zooey and Adam are seen walking inside a grocery store from a distance. The industrial atmosphere and vastness of the store echoes Zooey’s emptiness. In the middle of the vastness, she bursts into tears, and through the simplicity of shots such as these, Garrity manages to drive his point across to the viewer.
This emptiness is also echoed in the odd cuts that are made throughout the movie. Seemingly displaced shots are situated side by side to simulate the tumultuous events surrounding the leads. In addition, Garrity does not employ any music in the film, save the opening scene and the credits. This accentuated the awkwardness and slightly alienated me from the story, while simultaneously allowing greater focus on the performances of the lead actors without the added superfluity of music.
This is not to say that the whole movie is a downer that hits one gray note and rolls with it. It is highlighted with moments of hilarity that are made all the more humorous by the excellent casting. Watching Tom Keenan fumble over a pregnancy self-help book while Zooey’s water breaks is an awkward situation that received laughs from the audience. The brilliant striped boxer briefs that he wears as he attempts to solve the problem make the situation all the more light-hearted and entertaining. The early stages of the couples’ love are also charming and funny. Their whimsical love is almost child-like in the sense that dreams reign supreme before the tragedy of Zooey’s rape bursts their bubble. The couple has a hard time realizing that life can’t cater to their eternal optimism.
My only criticism of the movie is that it moved too fast, but I sense this is more of a personal preference. The subject matter is so dense and so controversial, that I felt that more time should have been devoted to certain scenes, particularly the climactic final one which begins and ends rather abruptly. Despite this, the movie is still an avant-garde work that will acquire waves of attention upon its release. Humorous at some moments and frighteningly melancholy at others, Zooey and Adam is infused with an overall ambiguity that I truly enjoyed. Their disintegrating relationship is marked by a twisted hint of mutual understanding towards the end of the film that leaves you wondering what could happen next. Don’t expect to find out the parentage of the child for certain, though there are implications that lean towards one side quite strongly. As a result of this ambiguity, the viewer contemplates the film for hours after watching Zooey and Adam and ultimately realizes that the beauty of the film’s ending rests in the unknown. Zooey and Adam opens in Toronto at The Royal on March 5, 2010.
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Review: The White Ribbon
If you were only able to view the trailer for Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, you would not be left with a whole lot to know about this magnificent film. Its ominous tone heightened by the use of black and white film stock is quite a treat. As in his previous film Cache, the whodunit formula is applied, although the film’s strength is that it is less about the whodunit and more about the why. Like most great filmmakers, Haneke relishes the use of interpretation in his films, rather than spoon-feeding moviegoers and providing simple clichéd answers. Read more
Review: The Last Station
Watching The Last Station is like watching a race between a snail and a rabbit — the decks are stacked so far in the favor of one that it is almost painful to watch. This is not to say that the film lack in performance value or great cinematography or in beautiful costumes, but the depiction of Leo Tolstoy’s last years and the unenthusiastic support of his wife Sofya may not inhabit some of the better characteristics of other historical dramas. Read more
Review: The Crazies
When I first heard that they were remaking The Crazies, I was pretty wary. Did we really need another crappy remake of a pretty solid 70s horror movie, let alone one by the legendary George A Romero himself? So I sat, with skeptic’s eyes and watched the latest 90-minute reboot of one of my favorite horror classics — and I was not disappointed. Formulaic at times and with much of its political message ripped out, it still remains one of the more solid genre offerings to emerge in recent memory. To use the technical term, it was awesome. Read more
Review: Valentine’s Day
My suspicions surrounding Valentine’s Day had to do with its cast. When a casting director crams as many big names into a movie as they possibly can, one has to wonder why. Is it a compensation for lack of substance? Is there any way this movie would have been produced had it not been for the all-star cast and the famous director, Garry Marshall? For these reasons, my expectations for Valentine’s Day were reasonably low and the movie itself only re-affirmed my predictions. However, through its blatant cliche, inexplicably useless scenes and over-characterization, this movie was surprisingly punctuated with points of sincerity which – dare I say – brought a tear to my eye at certain moments. Read more
Review: Katalin Varga (ToRoFF3)
This movie is hands-down my favourite of the ones I caught at the 3rd Annual Toronto Romanian Film Festival – and I really enjoyed most of what I saw. Katalin Varga is definitely an impressive debut from the writer and director, Peter Strickland. It is spooky and disturbing without being the slightest bit over-the-top, and, although it is by no means fast-paced, it is intense enough to keep the viewer on the edge. Read more
Review: Apocalypse on Wheels (ToRoFF3)
Alexandru Solomon’s Apocalypse on Wheels, which was screened on February 7th as part of the Toronto Romanian Film Festival, explores the everyday, never-ending horrors of traffic in the city of Bucharest. This documentary shows the anarchic ways of the road mainly through the car windows of several drivers. The aggressive driving seen in the film is truly appalling. We see that, in Bucharest, at any moment you can expect a car to speed, make an arbitrary turn, cut you off, or do something else reckless and illegal. Read more
