By: Henry J. Fromage –
Day 4 of TIFF featured a veritable smorgasbord of stars to see on the big screen, and where I was lucky, in person.
411. Bird
So, it turns out that kitchen sink and magical realism are oil & water, at least in the hands of Andrea Arnold. Imagine a typical, if equally accomplished Arnold movie about a young girl growing up in seedy circumstances with a charismatic fuckup of a father played by a famous face (this time Barry Keoghan), but also there’s Franz Rogowski playing an innocent drifter named Bird who just wants to be her friend in a way that’s not supposed to be creepy (but which is, in fact, pretty damn creepy). There’s something supernatural about him, yet arguably if you excise him altogether the rest of the film plays out more or less as it does, minus an unnecessary climax. It just doesn’t work, a hearty swing for something different but not too different from Arnold that unfortunately misses. Four Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: birds!
Take a Drink: Bird!
Do a Shot: bird Bird!
412. Saba
The second outright success I’ve seen at the festival, I only caught this when other plans fell through, and now I’m glad I did. A daughter hustles to care for her disabled mother with a weak heart in Dhaka, Bangladesh, eventually striking up a tentative romance when it at first appeared she never had the time to have the interest. It’s a simple story, but beautifully executed in every detail, from the evocative cinematography to the complex, at times even unlikeable, but never unempathetic performances. Keep your eyes out for this one. A Toast.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: whenever anyone talks about food
Take a Drink: for every mention of surgery or the hospital
Take a Drink: whenever dreaded Auntie comes up in conversation
Do a Shot: alcohol!
413. Sharp Corner
Jason Buxton follows up his striking debut Blackbird with another challenging drama, although in a very different register. Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders star as a couple with a young son who have just moved into their dream house. The only catch? The sharp rural highway corner in front of it that proves to be a bit of a magnet for car crashes. She wants to move the hell out, but he, perhaps in response to several other lightly emasculating characteristics of his life and work, becomes obsesses with being prepared for the next one, to save someone before the ambulances arrive. Foster and his character are both mundane yet heightened, off, and that tension drives the film, even if it proves resistant to driving either empathy or censure for his actions in a way that feels more avoidant than intentionally ambiguous. Three Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: whenever tires screech
Take a Drink: for every therapy session
Take a Drink: whenever Josh blows off work
Do a Shot: for every car crash
414. On Swift Horses
The possible winner of buzziest cast so far at the festival is this sweeping post-(Korean) War drama starring Daisy Edgar Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Sasha Calle, and Diego Calva. They play the principal five whose pursuit of love and happiness in constantly changing order drives the drama. Those two things, of course, take many forms, some particularly dangerous in this time and place, yet each create complex characters you want the best for, even if they don’t always agree on the things they themselves want. An actor’s showcase with soul. Two Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: whenever anyone smokes
Take a Drink: whenever anyone speaks codedly
Take a Drink: whenever money is shown
Do a Shot: for the horse
415. The Return
J.K. Simmons may have started a bit of a trend by getting old man-ripped, as Ralph Fiennes joins him with veiny gusto as a war-scarred Odysseus returning to an Ithaca that barely remembers him. An increasingly violent group of suitors is after his wife’s hand in marriage and his throne, presuming him long-dead, as does his adult son. He returns alone and naked (very naked), but it’s not that which holds him back, but rather a reluctance to return to the bloodshed he’s clearly loathe to. This is a classical entertainment with a modern mindset towards the cost of violence, although it could do with trimming a bit of the runtime. Three Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: whenever tires screech
Take a Drink: for every therapy session
Take a Drink: whenever Josh blows off work (I feel ya, man)
Do a Shot: for every car crash
416. Relay
David Mackenzie has crafted a reputation for delivering edge of your seat thrills in his career, and I’m happy this is more of the same, and perhaps his most start-to-finish propulsive film yet. Riz Ahmed stars as a man with a very particular career- he helps potential whistleblowers who are too afraid to proceed and who want to just return the information they have for assurances the evil corporations after them leave them be. He’s the best because he always strictly adheres to his fascinatingly detailed procedures, but when Lily James becomes his client, he ever so slightly bend those rules to account for her innocent mistakes. I won’t say more, but the way each are able to craft characters you deeply feel for is what makes the danger that much more palpable. Two Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: for every relay call
Take a Drink: for admonition to follow instructions- strictly!
Take a Drink: whenever Tom eavesdrops on her
Do a Shot: Gasp!
417. The Assessment
This original dystopian sci-fi from first-time filmmaker Fleur Fortune (whose experience directing slick music videos for a host of big names certainly shows) is about a future where society is effectively immortal, but also severely downsized in population due to resource constraints (with dissidents exiled to the Old World). Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel play two hopeful parents who have reached the in-person interview stage of The Assessment, which every prospective parent must go through, and only the very best candidates are chosen. The seemingly severe Alicia Vikander plays their in-person assessor over the next week, but by the next morning it’s clear that her mandate is to fuck with them in any child-adjacent way possible. This is an absolute actors showcase with some intriguing if at times underdeveloped ideas. Three Beers.
TIFF Special Drinking Game:
Take a Drink: whenever Elizabeth Olsen’s mother comes up
Take a Drink: for visits to the sea
Take a Drink: whenever Alicia Vikander does something creepy or deranged
Do a Shot: for fire phobia
