In Contention

Tag: festivals

  • ‘Never Let Me Go,’ ‘Rabbit Hole’ among Toronto premieres

    Toronto International Film Festival organisers unveiled a typically cluttered lineup of galas and premieres for this year’s edition — including, as usual, a number of films pencilled in as 2010 awards contenders.

    Of the 50 titles announced thus far, half will be world premieres: those include such highly anticipated works as Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole,” Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator,” Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction” and Rowan Joffe’s “Brighton Rock.” The remaining half have either appeared at previous festivals — with a hefty contingent from Cannes, including Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” and Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” — or look set to make their debut at Venice the week before.

    With Venice due to reveal its own lineup tomorrow, the fact that such still-unseen titles as Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” Francois Ozon’s “Potiche,” Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” John Madden’s “The Debt” and Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” are all marked only as North American premieres would appear to confirm that they are all Lido-bound. (I’m surprised, however, that Guillaume Canet’s “Little White Lies” will be making its first appearance at Toronto rather than at a European festival.)

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  • Taymor’s ‘Tempest’ to bookend Venice fest

    Days after naming Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” as the festival’s curtain-raiser, the Venice Film Festival’s have picked another not-entirely-expected title to close the fest on September 11: Julie Taymor’s long-delayed Shakespeare adaptation, “The Tempest.”

    The decision to bookend proceedings with highly anticipated U.S. productions suggests the Venice brass are aiming for higher star wattage on the Lido than at last year’s low-key edition, which opened with Giuseppe Tornatore’s misfire “Baaria” and closed with the little-seen Chinese portmanteau pic “Chengdu, I Love You.” More strategically, this choice of closer seems calculated to compel journalists to stay for the full duration of the fest — something of a challenge when Toronto begins but a few days earlier.

    I admit I hadn’t counted on seeing Taymor’s film, which stars Helen Mirren as a gender-switched Prospero in the director’s typically loose interpretation of the Shakespeare standard, in the fall festival pack — though distributor Disney (picking up where Miramax left off) had already confirmed a December release date.

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  • ‘Get Low,’ ‘Monsters,’ ‘Skeletons’ among Edinburgh winners

    I have an irritating habit of missing key prizewinners at film festivals, so it was with some astonishment that I perused the list of films honored at the close of the Edinburgh Film Festival — only to find that I’d seen most of them. Considering the brevity of my visit, and my mostly random selection procedure, I can only conclude that the less I prepare for a fest, the better I do.

    Clearly, it’s not because I have a natural nose for a winner — I’d never have guessed that Aaron Schneider’s sluggish, self-regarding folk tale “Get Low” was a likely winner of the festival’s Audience Award, yet the public evidently responded to it more than I did. No accounting for tastes, I suppose.

    This particular award has proven something of a good luck charm in recent years, with winners like “Tsotsi,” “Man on Wire” and “The Secret of Kells” all going on to bigger things — perhaps last year’s Toronto buzz for the Robert Duvall vehicle wasn’t a false alarm after all.

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  • ‘Four Lions,’ ‘Thunder Soul’ take audience awards at LAFF

    The poor Los Angeles Film Festival has had to battle major sporting events at every pass this year. Beats being screwed by World Cup refs, I guess.  The final press release, in part:

    Today Film Independent…announced its 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival audience award winners before the Closing Night film, Despicable Me. The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by The Los Angeles Times, with its central hub at L.A. LIVE, began Thursday, June 17 and ended today.

    The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Four Lions directed by Christopher Morris and the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Thunder Soul, directed by Mark Landsman. Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith’s Presumed Guilty won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.

    The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No, directed by James Blagden. The video for OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass, directed by James Frost, OK Go, and Syyn Labs won the Audience Award for Best Music Video.

  • EDINBURGH: ‘Monsters,’ ‘The Dry Land,’ ‘Mouth of the Wolf’

    My brief trip to the Edinburgh Film Festival came to an end Friday evening, as I hopped on a bus to Glasgow for a weekend with friends — sadly, that means I missed Tilda Swinton’s flashmob dance event, but I’m waving my right hand in the air as I type. It’ll have to do.

    I had planned to do a separate post for each of my final two days at the fest, but the notable films from that period can be squeezed into a single roundup. It’s perhaps kinder not to dwell on the likes of Britfilm “The Kid” — a paperback misery memoir put to film that bottoms out with Natascha McElhone trying to out-monster Mo’Nique in National Health glasses and oddly well-conditioned hair — while some titles are already old news Stateside.

    I dipped into Icelandic director Dagur Kári’s “The Good Heart,” for example, to see if the critical pounding US critics gave it in April was justified. Alas, it was: after this and “The Extra Man” (easily the worst film I saw here) Paul Dano should be wary of any script that calls on him to shack up with batty old codgers in Manhattan. Thankfully, my final day provided me with two of my favorite discoveries of the week, a happy conclusion to a cheerily-run festival that has been needlessly mauled in certain media quarters.

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  • ‘A Family,’ ‘Make Believe’ win at LAFF

    I haven’t been able to cover this year’s LA fest with the diligence I had hoped, given that I’ve had company for nearly two weeks.  But today the jury winners were announced, so as a quick break from World Cup drama today, the press release, in part:

    Today Film Independent…announced its 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival award winners at a brunch at CHAYA Downtown. Audience award winners will be announced tomorrow afternoon…

    “There were thousands of movie fans at the festival this year, discovering new stories from our talented filmmakers,” said Film Independent Executive Director Dawn Hudson. “We are delighted to have the support of the Los Angeles film-going community for these films and their creators”

    The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award, each carrying an unrestricted $50,000 cash prize, funded by Film Independent, for the winning film’s director. The awards were established by the Festival encourage independent filmmakers to pursue their artistic ambitions.

    “In a year that celebrated an exhilarating spectrum of American and international cinema, it’s so fitting that these jury awards reflect the incredible diversity of the Festival,” said Festival Director Rebecca Yeldham.

  • EDINBURGH: ‘Get Low,’ ‘Restrepo,’ ‘Vacation!’

    My third day in the ‘Burgh (shut up, I have legitimately heard people call it that) wasn’t as film-heavy as the previous one: social commitments and a certain football match between Slovenia and some other country got in the way. Under these circumstances, three screenings — taken together, as disparate a cross-section of the U.S. indie scene as one could ask for — felt like an entirely honorable commitment, particularly when the first (and worst) of them rewarded me with the still-smarting black eye I mentioned yesterday.

    Chalk it up, however unfairly, as a further gripe I have with a would-be Oscar vehicle for Robert Duvall that has been pestering the festival circuit since last fall.

    “GET LOW” (**)

    Oscar-winning short director Aaron Schneider’s feature debut is the kind of prestige production that has critics reaching for adjectives like “handsome” (or, at a push, “elegant”) in the absence of any more compelling emotional connection to the material. If anything, however, the ample visual burnishment on display (it’s no surprise to learn Schneider began his career as an acclaimed cinematographer) only ends up smothering a decidedly minor-key narrative: a folksy slab of mini-Americana that Horton Foote might have penned in a particularly mannered mood, and then binned for lack of consequence.

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  • EDINBURGH: ‘The Extra Man,’ ‘Two Eyes Staring’ and others

    My third afternoon at the festival finds me wandering around the premises boasting a still-expanding black eye – not, alas, from a macho fistfight with Patrick Wilson over yesterday’s evaluation of “Barry Munday,” but from an accidental collision with a handrail after sneaking late into a pitch-dark screening theater this morning. The more I try to explain it, the stupider it sounds; perhaps it’s better to let people think I’m a critic who is truly prepared to fight for his darlings.

    Not that such darlings are thick on the ground: yesterday’s slate of five films, each one slightly better than the last, nonetheless turned up no true gems.

    “THE EXTRA MAN” (*)

    It’s a sign of deep-seated trouble in a film when, in spite of an ensemble that includes Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John. C. Reilly and Celia Weston, it’s Katie Holmes’s appearances that you start looking forward to most. Not that hers is an especially remarkable performance, mind: but playing the kooky, environmentally-obsessed dreamgirl to Paul Dano’s perma-geek protagonist, she’s the only recognizably human element in this insufferably affected society comedy.

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  • Ruffalo is back with ‘Kids’

    Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right” opened the Los Angeles Film Festival last Thursday night, right across 11th Street from the Staples Center downtown as the Lakers triumphed in Game 7 of the NBA playoffs.  No, they weren’t rioting on Figueroa because the movie’s good, but it IS a solid piece.

    I spoke briefly about it in the 6/11 edition of Oscar Talk, but on the occasion of its recent festival showcase, I wanted to again address what I think is the film’s key ingredient: Mark Ruffalo.

    For me, “The Kids Are All Right” is a return on the investment anyone put into Ruffalo 10 years ago when he first made waves in Ken Lonergan’s “You Can Count on Me.” After the actor frankly seemed incapable of tapping back into that essence for the better part of the decade, his work here makes good on the promise his charisma and raw talent made back in 2000.  Aside from Tahar Rahim’s inarguable work in Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet,” Ruffalo’s is the most refined, natural performance I’ve seen all year.

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  • EDINBURGH: ‘Au Revoir, Taipei,’ ‘Barry Munday,’ ‘brilliantlove’

    Arriving at a festival at the halfway mark is a little like turning up late to a party where the food has been eaten and the guests you know are already starting to leave – the night may not be over, but you’re going to have to work your way into it.

    So it was when my train pulled into Edinburgh yesterday afternoon: the comparative glamour of last week’s UK premieres for “The Illusionist” and “Toy Story 3” are old news, the press contingent has already thinned out and one is left to badger those who remain for hot screening tips. Admittedly, I hadn’t really done my homework beforehand: for the first time, I turned up at a festival having only glancingly browsed through the programme.

    Not that that’s too much of a disability at Edinburgh, a festival so thick with new names from the indie sector that most screenings can be seen a lucky dip of sorts: five films in, I’ve only scored once. (With a film is delightful as the first reviewed after the cut, however, once is quite enough.)

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  • Edinburgh fest kicks off with ‘The Illusionist’

    Last year’s Edinburgh Film Festival served me rather well, giving me my first look at “Antichrist,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Fish Tank,” “35 Shots of Rum,” “Mary and Max” and “London River,” all of which wound up in my Top 20 of 2009. (It was also where a little film called “The Secret of Kells” made its first awards bow, more than seven months before Hollywood cottoned on to it.)

    This year’s edition begins today; unfortunately, I’m unable to cover the entire fest this time, though I will be there for five days next week. Thanks to my other festival exploits this year, however, I am already acquainted with tonight’s opening film, “The Illusionist.”

    I reviewed Sylvain Chomet’s sublime beyond-the-grave Jacques Tati collaboration out of Berlin in February, and the film still sits comfortably atop my Best of 2010 list. Tonight’s Edinburgh premiere should be a sweet one, given how besotted the film is with that very city.

    More on the film, including a new trailer, after the cut.

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  • CANNES: Starfish and coffee

    “Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye,” you might have thought (or even sang, in gravelly Leonard Cohen tones) after my rushed response to yesterday’s Cannes winners. But having recharged overnight with a hearty curry and a good 13 hours’ sleep, it’s time to properly put a bow on Cannes 2010.

    Perhaps it was quite a Tim Burton-flavored festival after all. Jury presidents at Cannes often seem at pains to choose the last film anyone would associate with their own work — which is partly why I picked the sober ecclesiastical drama “Of Gods and Men” for the Palme — but Burton and his cohorts swung in a quirkier direction. “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” which I flippantly likened to a parallel-universe take on Burton’s own “Big Fish,” becomes the first fantasy film (of a type) to take gold at Cannes since “Miracle in Milan” almost 60 years ago. (More surprisingly, it’s also first Asian winner since 1997.)

    I wish I could personally groove to the film the way almost everyone else does (my C+ grade sticks out like a sore thumb on indieWIRE’s critic score roundup) but objectively speaking, it’s the best choice Team Burton could have made for the Palme: the undisputed critical favorite of the festival, a wholly unique, challenging piece from a distinctive major auteur, and a film that can truly benefit from the award in securing international distribution that could prove elusive otherwise. Plus, it won me £50 on a Palme bet I made weeks before the fest started. I’m liking the film more already.

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  • ‘Uncle Boonmee,’ Bardem, Binoche take gold at Cannes

    No prizes for guessing which award here makes me happiest. I’m quite proud of having semi-called (who sees a tie coming, anyway?) Elio Germano for Best Actor — didn’t hear anybody else mentioning his name. Also got the top two prizewinners, just in reverse order. More discussion later, but for now, I have a dinner appointment to keep. The list of winners:

    Palme d’Or: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”

    Grand Prix: “Of Gods and Men”

    Best Actor: (tie) Javier Bardem, “Biutiful” and Elio Germano, “La Nostra Vita”

    Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, “Certified Copy”

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  • CANNES: What will win… and what should

    Okay, so that took longer than I expected. I had hoped to get this post up last night, but instead got quite easily talked into a night on the tiles with a band of merry Film Dweebs led by James Rocchi — not the wisest idea with a morning flight to catch, but by the time we found ourselves in a friendly 3am chat with Atom Egoyan about our respective issues with the ending of “Chloe,” that hardly seemed important. (Name dropped and duly picked up. Apologies.)

    Anyway, after a smooth morning’s traveling, I am now writing to you from my North London living room — not quite as glamorous as the Croisette, though surprisingly, just as sun-splashed.

    In a few hours, Cannes 2010 will come to a close as Tim Burton and his fellow jurors reveal their selections for the best of the fest, perhaps shedding some light on the burning question I’ve asked myself after every Competition screening: “But what does Kate Beckinsale think?”

    (More analysis, and full list of predictions and preferences, after the cut.)

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  • ‘On Tour,’ ‘Of Gods,’ ‘HaHaHa’ take early Cannes prizes

    The big guns, the Competition jury, announce their prizewinners tomorrow night, but ahead of that, there are a host of smaller, independent juries making their voices heard.

    I’ve just returned from the Un Certain Regard award ceremony, a short, sweet tuxedoes-and-sneakers affair presided over by UCR jury president Claire Denis. As delighted as I was to see one of our greatest living filmmakers in the (tiny) flesh, I was less pleased with her team’s selection — by handing their top prize to Hong Sangsoo’s wispy romcom “HaHaHa,” they continued an increasingly disconcerting trend whereby films that I walk out of at major festivals are handsomely rewarded. (Hey, I wasn’t alone: James Rocchi bailed too.)

    The Ecumenical Jury got that memo, too, handing their top prize to another film I didn’t finish, Xavier Beauvois’s “Of Gods and Men.” Of course, that was a gimme — if you don’t know, the Ecumenical Jury Prize was established in 1974 by a group of Christian film professionals to reward expressions of faith and/or humanism in Competition. How was the true-life tragedy of monk massacre in Algeria not going to win?

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  • CANNES: All things being sequel

    I began my final day in Cannes with some dutiful, and not greatly anticipated, ticking of boxes, taking in my last two Competition screenings back-to-back this morning.

    That brings my final tally to an elegantly symmetrical 14 and 1/4 films seen of the 19 selected. (That sneaky fraction represents my fatigue-induced walkout on the bookies’ Palme d’Or favorite “Of Gods and Men.” Quelle dommage.)

    I was shooting for a 100% record when I arrived, but scheduling conflicts and screening shutouts conspired against me. As it stands, of the ones I missed, only “The Housemaid” is really nagging at me.

    I’ll post some thoughts on the runners and riders for the Competition gold later today; tonight, however, brings the Un Certain Regard award ceremony, where Claire Denis (hurrah) and her jury will reveal what they deem the best of the festival’s B-league. I’m doing even less well on the UCR front, having caught only 11 of the 19 selections, though the promising-on-paper lineup has generated surprisingly few talking points across the festival.

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  • CANNES: ‘Life, Above All,’ ‘Tender Son,’ ‘Cameraman’

    “It is finished so soon?” asked the chipper French festival volunteer manning the theater doors as I slunk out of Hong Sangsoo’s “Hahaha” just before 11pm. No, I explained — it had a good hour left to go.

    “Is it that boring?” he asked. No, I explained — it wasn’t that boring. Modestly boring. Sweetly boring, if you will. But it wasn’t making any effort to grab me, even gently.

    So, as my bum knee began to twinge in protest at yet another couple of hours locked at a 90 degree angle, I realized that what I really needed was to be outside a movie theater for the rest of the night, to buy a Grand Marnier ice-cream cone from the excellent gelateria by the Grand Palais, and to go eat it barefoot on the beach. I told the volunteer as much, minus a few extraneous details. He nodded sympathetically.

    “I understand,” he said. “I’ve watched some of the films. What you’re saying is that they have no … no balls, you mean?”

    Ladies and gentlemen, a great critic is born.

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  • CANNES: Machinists, masochists and monkey ghosts

    “Are you eating at all? Are you sleeping? You don’t look like you are,” observed our good friend Anne Thompson yesterday afternoon, her face etched with motherly concern, before whisking me off for a hearty al fresco meal.

    I wanted to tell Anne that I tend to cut a pretty gaunt figure even on my best days — but having just read someone on AwardsDaily noting my allegedly striking resemblance to Christian Bale in “The Machinist,” I had to concede that festival fatigue may have hit me pretty hard.

    But hey, the Mayor of Cannes is holding a Provençal lunch for the festival press tomorrow afternoon in the old town quarter, so I won’t keel over just yet. If there’s one lesson I’ve learnt at the festival, it’s that there’s always such a thing as a free lunch.

    If you weren’t tipped off by the fact that I’ve spent 150 words musing on matters of alimentation rather than movies, Cannes 2010 is beginning to wind down. Much of the U.S. press contingent (including Anne, Jeff Wells and Sasha Stone) have gone home, the hot movies — such as they were — have been unveiled and the crowds have thinned out to the extent that even a lowly yellow-badger like me can rock up two minutes before a screening and enter without hassle.

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