TIFF ’21 Capsule Reviews, Round Six

By Jim Slotek, Linda Barnard, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, Liam Lacey, and Bonnie Laufer

The 46th annual Toronto International Film Festival continues apace. Similarly, Original-Cin writers continue screening films to offer best bets (and must-avoids) for your movie-watching time and money. Check back each day to catch a new crop of capsule reviews, interviews and more.

Need details on purchasing in-person tickets or streaming titles digitally? Go here.

Wondering why our content isn’t organized by date of first screening? It’s because we O-C kids are observing TIFF-imposed embargoes. Yeah, we’re good like that. And if you have seen anything cool that we might have missed, please let us know in the comments section below.

Silent Land (Platform)

Wed, Sep 15, In-Person, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 5:30 pm; Wed. Sep 15, Digital Screening 9 pm.

Attractive, comfortably-off blond and blue-eyed Polish couple Adam and Anna rent a villa on an Italian island but are annoyed when the pool they’ve paid for has no water. The landlord hires an Arabic illegal worker to do the job, who promptly has an accident. Questions arise as to what degree the couple were culpable, but neither the truckloads of troops occasionally passing them on the roads nor police investigation can stop them from enjoying fine meals and going dancing. But as the carabinieri continue asking questions, the marriage bonds begin to fray. Followers of Michael Haneke (see 2017’s Happy End) and Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (2014) will be familiar with this sort of cold-eyed exploration of privilege, guilt, denial and masculine fragility in Aga Woszczyńska’s didactic but skillfully fashioned take on the trembling ramparts of fortress Europe. LL

Spencer (Special Events)

Wed, Sept 15, 6 pm, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

A warning to Diana fans who expect convention. This is not the work of cinematic Royal stenographer Peter Morgan. Rather, it is a “a fable taken from tragic reality” by Pablo Larraín, who has now made two impressionistic, existentially focused films about famous women descending into madness (the other being Jackie). It’s set during a Christmas executed with military precision by the staff at the Queen’s Sandringham estate (where Diana had grown up on a rented part of the property). There is interaction with people who are caricatures of people and joyless robots who are supposed to represent the Royals. Kristen Stewart’s Diana is a wounded animal with a decade’s worth of crust and cynicism, just prior to her divorce from Charles. There is bulimia, hallucinatory interactions with Anne Boleyn, betrayal by trusted staff, all backed by a soundtrack that ranges from funereal chamber music to discordant jazz-noise meant to inspire dread. The descent-into-madness is both a trope and an irresistible challenge to actors, and Stewart is definitely up to it. But the movie itself is a demanding watch, even more so than Jackie. JS

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Gala Presentations)

Wed, Sept 15, 4 pm, Cinesphere IMAX Theatre; Fri, Sept 17, 7 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox

It’s a testament to director Will Sharpe’s vision and humanity that a story predicated on mental illness, poverty, death, and heartbreak ultimately comes across as hopeful and lovely — whimsical even — while looking gorgeous on the screen. Of course, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain also has Benedict Cumberbatch in a brilliant, lived-in performance as the real-life polymath (and possible schizophrenic) of the film’s title whose famed illustrations of cats elevated the creatures from disdained four-legged mousetraps to venerated companion animals. Now thanks to Sharpe’s tremendous biopic, Wain will get some overdue recognition.

The story opens in 1881; the eccentric Wain is the reluctant breadwinner for his mother and five sisters. The hiring of sassy governess Emily (Claire Foy) to educate the girls persuades Wain to finally nail down a job that so Emily can be kept on. The pair are soon a couple (scandalously, she was older). Their story ends swiftly and sadly, but also opens the door to a stray who offers Emily comfort and Wain inspiration for what would be a brilliant if vexingly unremunerative career. Cinematographer Erik Alexander Wilson conjures a shimmering, kaleidoscopic 19th century England as thrilling as the era’s many technological advances, like the electricity of the title, which serves as a metaphor for Wain’s troubled inner thoughts and his illuminating output. Stunning costumes, sentimental, often amusing narration by Olivia Colman, and two marvellously weird cameos cement the film’s status as a People’s Choice shoo-in. KH

You Are Not My Mother

You Are Not My Mother (Midnight Madness)

Wed, Sept 15, 9 pm, digital Premiere Screening digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Director Kate Dolan stirs few demons in turning an Irish folktale into a macabre contemporary horror story. From the bleak corners of an Irish working-class neighbourhood, an older woman commits a deplorable act, a quiet teenager endures unconscionable bullying, and a mother goes missing. Angela (Carolyn Bracken) mysteriously disappears after leaving her daughter, Char (Hazel Doupe) with the words, “I can’t do this anymore.” Angela returns but without explanation and sporting a new attitude. Before the disappearance, Angela was joyless, suffering from depression, and unable to care for Char. Now she wears bright summer dresses, prepares dinners, and dances to pop tunes. But Granny (Ingrid Craigie) fears that not all change is good, and this change might be the start of something horrifying. When Angela starts attacking Char’s high school bullies and spontaneously breaking into bone-snapping feral dances, Char can no longer dismiss Granny’s warnings. You Are Not My Mother might be a bit of a slow-burn for the likes of a Midnight Madness crowd — and there is not a lot that the title doesn’t already reveal — but Dolan has made an eerie atmospheric tale that is about as urban as an urban myth can get. TE

Terrorizers (Contemporary World Cinema)

Wed, Sept 15, 5 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The setting (Taipei) and title recall Edward Yang’s 1986 masterpiece of the same name. This contemporary film by Wi Ding Ho is a more conventional tale of interlinked Taiwan citizens connected to a crime, late to a sword-slashing attack at a train station. Separate chapters follow the characters of Yu Fang, a good-natured chef, Xiao Zhang, who wants to be Yu Fang’s boyfriend; another aspiring actress, Monica, trying to put her porn career behind her, but still willing to use her sexuality to get ahead; Kiki, a teenaged waitress and cosplay flirt; Lady Hsiao, a middle-aged masseur, and finally, the slasher, Ming Liang, Yu Fan’s taciturn roommate, who’s lost in a world of fantasies induced by porn and video games. Unconventional structure aside, the theme that virtual reality, social media, misogyny and isolation are a volatile cocktail does not seem particularly fresh or profound. LL

Dug Dug

Dug Dug (Discovery)

Wed, Sept 16, 1:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Sat, Sept. 18, 9 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Indian filmmaker Ritwik Pareek’s keen-eyed, satirical directorial debut begins with the drunken martyrdom of Thakur (Altaf Khan) the town lush whose half-awake motorcycle ride home from the tavern involves many scary near misses, heart-stoppingly filmed. After the inevitable happens, however, the bike keeps mysteriously returning to the scene of its owner’s death. Word spreads, Thakur is declared a saint, and a religious fervor develops around the bike (worshippers are encouraged to leave alcohol as an offering). Commercialism follows. Ultimately even-handed in its sharp spoofery, there is clearly room in Pareek’s worldview to respect people’s irrational desire to believe, while mocking religious hypocrisy and profiteering. JS

Aloners (Discovery)

Wed, Sept. 15, 9 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

The protagonist of the wry Korean dramedy Aloners is a twenty-something office drudge named Jina (Gong Seug-yeon, who has a great bored-to-meet-you face). She lives by a routine — reading robotic scripts at a credit card call centre and returning home to her cramped apartment to fall asleep in front of the television. One morning she notices a foul smell on her apartment floor and discovers that her loner neighbour was crushed to death by his stacks of porn magazines. That reminder of mortality, and a new assignment supervising a painfully eager young woman trainee, begins to mess with Jina’s grimly conformist pose. Of course, there’s a back story: Jina occasionally dials up a remote camera to watch her widowed father, who she resents, having too good a time, inviting guests to his apartment to share memories of her late mother. The feature debut from young woman director, Hong Sung-eun, Aloners resolves a bit patly into a public service message about mental health though, in truth, character of Jina is the most entertaining when she refuses get along with anyone. LL

Jagged (Gala Presentation)

Wed, Sept 15, 5 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox; Wed, Sept 15, 8:30 pm Visa Skyline Drive-In at Ontario Place; Sat, Sept 18, 3pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Canadian superstar Alanis Morissette is celebrated in the new doc, Jagged though according to the singer, she is none too pleased as to how it turned out. Part of the Music Box series coming to Crave TV, Jagged brings us up close and very personal with Morissette, following her journey from teen pop singer to hard-edge global best-selling artist. Over the past few days, Morissette has vehemently said that she was duped during her sit-down interviews with the film's director Alison Klayman, and says this is not the story she agreed to tell. Still, the doc does have loads of great footage from her early days slogging it out with Canadian media and an abundance of behind-the-scenes interviews along with some very candid revelations from the singer herself. Her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill sold 33 million copies worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling album by a female artist (behind fellow Canuck Shania Twain). The album was the inspiration for the Broadway musical, Jagged. The enormous success of the album is something the singer does not take for granted. Morissette might not be happy with the doc, but after watching it, I have a whole new respect for our Canadian music icon. BL

The Worst Person in the World (Gala Presentations)

Wed, Sept 15, 1 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox; Fri, Sept 17, 5:30 pm, Roy Thompson Hall.

It starts as a rom-com snapping with all the familiar tropes: flirtations, neuroses, off-beat humour and charm, and ends in a different but no less wonderful place. Norwegian director Joachim Trier centres his movie around Julia, about to turn 30 at the start of the film. She’s smart, beautiful, and determined to do something with her life that will measure up to her ideals. Simultaneously driven and drifting, she keeps changing her mind about her vocation, falls into relationships and starts to dig into adulthood. She’s simultaneously in the moment, and impulsive. The Worst Person in the World is a deceptively easy-going film that captures a moment in life that many of us experience, where we’re playing the role of adult, making choices, holding down jobs, but inside are still searching. Trier, who cowrote the script with his frequent collaborator Eskil Vogt, does the familiar without cliché, for a movie that is both joyful and achingly poignant. Renate Reinsve won best actress at Cannes for her role as Julia. There are many other wonderful performances here, in particular Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel. KG

France

France (Special Presentations)

Wed, Sept 15, 3 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox; Wed, Sept 15, 8 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Fri, Sept 17, 10 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Fri, Sept 17, 1 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The latest from Bruno Dumont (L’Humanité, Hadewijch) is a film about a French news celebrity named France who specializes in putting herself at the centre of any political conflict or refugee tragedy, until she herself experiences a series of personal crises. Taken as a satiric melodrama about TV news (big fish, small barrel) seems a trite exercise for the French philosopher-filmmaker and self-styled Christian atheist, but once you get past this slick television editing and luminous star presence of former Bond girl Léa Seydoux (wearing fire-engine red lipstick against alabaster skin), it’s possible to see Dumont’s film as an examination of how human suffering has become a media commodity. Allusions to his own films, Life of Jesus and L’Humanite, suggest Dumont knows he’s part of the same dark game. France’s surname “de meurs” suggests “of death,” implying a nation caught transfixed by a nihilistic spell. LL

Whether The Weather Is Fine (Contemporary World Cinema)

Wed, Sept 15, 5 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox; Sat, Sept 18, 9 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

A depressed young man, Miguel, his irrepressible girlfriend, Andrea, and his determined mother struggle to exit their typhoon-devastated city in Carlos Francisco Manatad’s debut feature, an unorthodox disaster movie with flashes of surrealism and mordant humour. Based on the director’s experiences following the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan — which destroyed much of his town of Tacloban — the film mixes a landscape of apocalyptic wreckage and the mundane human behaviour: familial squabbles, religious fanatics, rampaging groups of school kids and bored soldiers. The effect is unexpectedly potent, evoking the scale of the disaster that overwhelms a coherent response. LL

Three Minutes — A Lengthening (TIFF Docs)

Wed, Sept 15, 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Thu, Sept 16, 1 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox; Sat, Sept 18, 5 pm, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

A little more than a decade ago, writer Glenn Kurtz found a 16-mm film clip in his parents’ Florida home. It was a tourist souvenir shot by his American grandfather David Kurtz, in 1938, that included footage of people on the marketplace of the Jewish quarter of Nasielsk, Poland, 20 kilometres north of Warsaw. By the end of the next year, most of the 3,000 Jewish residents of the town were sent to the Nazi death camps. In 2014, Kurtz wrote a memoir about his investigation of the footage and the world it represented, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and NPR. Dutch writer-director Bianca Stigter, in a sober, moving adaptation, runs that three-minute clip repeatedly in the course of the film, as Kurtz and narrator Helena Bonham Carter describe the work to preserve and contextualize the footage and raise questions about the manipulation and preservation of images for memorial and historical purposes. LL

Check out the TIFF films Orignal-Cin writers most want to see.