Tuesday (TIFF Day 6)

A late start today (my first film was at 2:30) but still able to squeeze in five flicks. Today also marks the first day that I've overstretched myself by timing movies just a little too close together. I've had to run-subway-run to two movies this afternoon, making the trip from Dundas to the Varsity in less than 15 minutes. Not recommended. In the future, I'll need to remember that every movie ends 15-20 minutes later than scheduled.

At any rate...

Not Quite Hollywood ~ Not Quite Hollywood is a frustrating film for anyone who loves movies. Frustrating not because it isn't excellent and insightful (it is!) but because the film talks in detail about a lot of exciting films that we will probably never see in Canada. At the very least, it creates a whole new shopping list of treasure-hunt DVD titles. Collectors and completists will lose their minds. (I've already started the hunt for Turkey Shoot, Man from Hong Kong and the delicious Razorback. Road Games, which I own, and the recently released Rogue have also jumped to the top of the queue).

Presented to some degree by Quentin Tarantino, Not Quite Hollywood follows the rise of Australian genre cinema of the 70's and 80's (or what the film calls "Oz-ploitation"). The film is astonishingly fun, tackling every aspect of Aussie cinema from wild sex comedies (ockers) to full-on gore and creature features to adrenalin-filled road movies (including Mad Max). Acting like a greatest hits tape, the film puts some of the scenes in context with interviews from the filmmakers. The background stories (particularly those involving Dennis Hopper) are almost as batshit-crazy as the up-front features.

The film also provides, almost by accident, a lunatic tour of Tarantino's influences (and to some degree the cinema-savant mapping of his brain). Tarantino isn't shy to point out the innovative Aussie scenes that he has co-opted or outright stolen through the years. Included is a great story about lifting elements of cult-hit Patrick for Uma's Kill Bill coma scenes.

This an amazing doc and a true love letter to a sort of drive-in cinema that most of us will never get to enjoy in a proper context. I can't wait to see it again just so I take better notes of titles and performers. There's a magnificent marathon to be found in the borders of this doc.

***

Pontypool ~ A Canadian zombie film? How could you not?

I went into this cautiously, recognizing that Bruce McDonald would not be delivering a Romero experience. In fact, the reputation was that the premise was sort of artful: the zombie virus is transmitted by language (!) There are no zombies to be "seen" in this movie. And in most respects, it's not really a zombie film at all since the afflicted are either slaughtered or still alive (as far as I could tell there was no un-dead!) Cautious or not, the final product is spectacular.

Here's one of those films that you watch without breathing - not because the tension is high, although it is - but because you are watching a film that is so delicately set up in the first two acts that you begin to worry that it won't find the right way to finish. The good news is McDonald sticks the landing (though it's worth pointing out that it's that final third that deviates the most from the traditional zombie set-up, by digging deep into the clever and sophisticated linguistics-as-virus material).

So it works in two ways: it's a smart film about communication and media, and it's also a finely-tuned horror film, watching the end-of-the-world from the perspective of a small-town radio station. And McDonald knows his horror: the decision to show us nothing outside of the basement radio station is one of the smartest. After years of zombie films, we can imagine as much or as little as we'd like. And we're trapped with the characters throughout, thinking the worst but able to confirm nothing.

Special mention should also be made to Stephen McHattie (or Canada's answer to Lance Henrickson). I could watch this guy in anything.

***

Zift ~ An atmospheric first film that could have been much much more, but nevertheless delivers the promise of some greater things to come. Lifting directly from Hollywood film noir and some classic heist films (Rififi came to my mind more than once), Zift is an imaginative crime film that is more remarkable for its visuals than its plotting.

Here is a film that introduces principle characters with names like The Mole, The Mantis, The Sloth, The Skin and The Eye. Everyone is similarly sketched with tattoos as if you couldn't keep their names straight. The plot is equally inventive, setting up the Mole's release from prison even as it flashes back to the heist (and relationship) that put him there. While every scene is dazzling in its own way, there is not enough overall sizzle to keep the plot warm throughout and Zift gets off-topic on a number of occasions. To be a classic, a movie like this needs to be constructed like a laser, but Zift trips up in colourful digressions that seem more suited to a Paul Thomas Anderson film than a crime film of this sort.

It should also be noted that this a Bulgarian film that deals with some pretty particular 1940's and 50's politics. As a result, I got a sense that there were dimensions and nuances to the story that were floating over my head. I wonder what Bulgarians made of this story.

[You can check out the visual dazzle (and the principle reason I added this film to the line-up) of the trailer here.]

***

The Brothers Bloom ~ Showing the same visual wow and smart-kid plotting as Brick, Rian Johnson improves on his sophomore effort by adding two new colours to the mix: light comedy and sugary sweetness. Brothers Bloom, as if it weren't obvious, is the story of two brothers, and some of the best scenes come early as we see the gentle interplay between them. There's affection and protection happening between them (particularly for older brother Ruffalo who seems to set up his con largely to let young brother Brody play out his unspoken desires). And in that first half, everything is firing perfectly. For a spell, Brothers Bloom feels like one of the most effortless and endearing movie-movies in a long time as Johnson uses all his virtuoso tricks to set up the characters, backstories and con-game in short visual strokes.

But in the second half, the storm clouds roll in. Once the con is in play, the film sags under the weight of it, losing focus (and lightness) in the very parts where the pieces should be coming together. The performances are still very good (Brody and Weiss seem to have the most fun) but the playful qualities and visual inventiveness all but disappear. In short, Bloom settles down to be just another movie (something it is NOT in the first half).

Still, the film is by no means a complete disappointment, even if the final package doesn't hang together as completely as Brick. Johnson is still clearly a blossoming master with a voice and personality that it unique among scores of other new directors. I'll just as eagerly be lining up to see his next genius project.

***

The Burrowers ~ Described as a Western Horror in the TIFF program (a sort of Searchers-meets-The Descent experiment), The Burrowers was pretty much nothing more and nothing less than promised. The short version is that a hunting party on the trail of some kidnapped settlers uncovers a group of subterranean creatures (whom they initially mistake for natives). Director J.T. Petty takes his sweet time finally introducing the creatures (which is tough for a midnight sit) but ultimately delivers a goodly amount of eaten-alive horror.

Still, as you might guess from the mash-up premise, apart from mix genre trappings, there is hardly a new element to be found in this film. And when your film makes Tremors feel a bit like a trailblazer, there might be a problem. Worse, after hanging the audience on expectation for most of the first half of the film, the second half (and particularly the ending) doesn't really deliver a climax satisfying enough for the clever premise. Big problem for a movie that finishes screening at 2:00 am.