Films bound for this year’s festival
Here’s our first batch of reviews for everything from sci- fi and romance to drama and comedy
3 Faces (★★★ out of 4): Metaphors speak louder than words in this stealthy new drama by state- harassed Iranian filmmaker f Jafar Panahi. A road trip operating as a work of fiction, inviting broader factual interpretations, Panahi turns the camera on himself as he travels with Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari to asmall rural town. They’re investigating a young girl’s apparent suicide, which has been recorded via smartphone video but leaves only frustrating clues about ww what happened. What they turn up is disturbing evidence of a land staunchly resistant to gender equality and modernity. Peter Howell
Animal Behaviour (★★★): A pig, a cat, a bird, a praying mantis and a leech meet with a psychotherapist dog for a group gg session about social anxiety and self control ... and then an ape named Victor walks in. Sounds like a very strange joke, and it is, but it’s also the first NFB animated short in 25 years for husband- and- wife team David Fine and Alison AA Snowden, Oscar winners for Bob’s Birthday. Can good intentions overcome basic animal instincts? Will Fine and Snowden win another Oscar? Discuss — but don’t eat, squish or kill your fellow group members. PH
Asako I & II ( ★★1/2 ): Love’s lost in Asako I & II, the Japanese romance by Ryusuke Hamaguchi that contrasts expectations with reality. A young woman named Asako ( Erika Karata) finds herself attracted to two men who seem to be identical twins physically, although their behaviour is very different: one is mysterious mm and distant, the other an open book close at hand. They couldn’t be twins, could they? Or is it one man pretending to be two? ( Masahiro Higashide plays both men.) It’s a fascinating conceit, artfully considered, but am I wrong ww for caring more about the fate of t the film’s charming cat? PH
Ash Is Purest White ( ★★1/2 ): “See things slowly, appreciate things,” a character says in Jia Zhangke’s lugubrious latest, which, at 2.5 hours, doesn’t justify the claim. Ash Is Purest White does, however, maintain Jia’s signature commentary on China as a country, reflecting on old world traditions in 21st century contexts. While actress Zhao Tao delivers a fierce and focused performance as a gangster’s determined lover, this romance mostly meanders around her, never succeeding to burn white- hot. PH
Assassination Nation ( ★★★1/2 ): When a hacker starts spilling the in- nermost secrets of people in the town of Salem, starting with the mayor and the high school principal, the thin veneer of civility and civilization begins to fray before full- out mayhem ensues, directed at Lily and her three BFFs. Director Sam Levinson has crafted a dark and bloody fable that has much to say about the ills of the digital age, and he draws a truly fine performance from Odessa Young as Lily. Bruce DeMara
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (★★★★): Zacharias Kunuk’s acclaimed 2001 Indigenous breakthrough is now a Can- con classic, screening in the tt TIFF Cinematheque program. This f first feature made in the Inuktitut lan- guage, starring a mostly Inuit cast and embracing an oral tradition of millennia past, tells of one man’s struggles to balance aa the good and evil spirits that sur- round him. The natural beauty of Baffin Island envelops every scene, including the tt famous pursuit of the title hero, who f flees naked along an ice floe. Atanarjuat succeeds both as drama and as affirmation of an ancient culture. PH
Blind Spot (★★★): Norwegian filmmaker Tuva Novotny spins a tale shot in real time that sees an innocuous day turn tt into a nightmare for an ordinary f family. The film opens with school chums Thea and Anna walking home after a sports practice, talking about homework. But when their paths diverge vv and Thea comes home to Mom and aa younger brother Bjorn, something inexplicable and unexpected happens. The performances are solid all around and aa the mystery — the blind spot — at t the film’s heart is wrenching. BD
Capernaum (★★★★): An absolute heartbreaker. Bravura filmmaking by Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki, whose Where Do We Go Now? won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award in 2011. Titled for a biblical town where Jesus Christ is said to have performed healing miracles, Capernaum follows 12- year- old Zain, played by Syrian actor Zain al- Rafeea, who ww has a face out of Italian neo- realism a and the heart of a lion. Bereft of proper parental care, Zain struggles for freedom and life on the streets of Beirut. He’s watching over a toddler sibling and also aa trying to protect a threatened youn- ger sister, who has been sold into what amounts to marriage slavery. Zain is hoping there are still a few miracles left, in a city where no documents means no humanity. PH
Cold War (★★★1/2): Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski, maker of the Oscar- winning Ida, returns with a border- hopping love story set in postwar Poland and Paris. Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot star as singer/ dancer Zula and musician Wiktor, WW two people in love who can’t q quite stay together. Something is always pulling them apart, including the tug between the capitalist West and the communist East. Zula’s expressive songs, beautifully rendered, often seem to mirror the drama. Pawlikowski shrewdly maintains suspense until the end, with a movie superbly executed in form, ff story and performance. Shot in lustrous B& W, as was Ida. PH
Dogman (★★★): Billed as an “urban western” ww about a meek dog groomer ( Marcello Fonte e ) trying to grapple with a terrorizing bully in his neighbourhood, Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s latest movie plays more like an excellent character cc study and morality play than it does a rough and tumble drama from the mob world. Fonte channels a young Al Pacino in looks and twitchy energy, while ww Garrone’s great storytelling en- sures the film’s biting comedy matches its violent bark. PH
Emu Runner (★★1/2): Newcomer Rhae- RR Kye Waites charms as Gem, a young y girl living in a remote area of Australia AA who finds solace after the death of her mother by connecting with a wild emu, the totem bird linking her ancestors aa to the earth. Writer- director Imogen Thomas’s film is shot with care and is rich with Indigenous lore and magical elements. With a cast primarily made up of non- professional locals, it has a pleasing, unvarnished naturalism, although a side plot with a misguided young yy social worker feels like an after- t thought. Linda Barnard
Everybody Knows (★★1/2): Iran’s Asghar Farhadi spins great yarns of doubt and tension and he’s got a kidnap whodunit dd worthy of Agatha Christie with his latest, set in Spain. Penélope Cruz and Javier JJ Bardem co- star, but it’s an en- semble success. A wedding in a small village vv reunites members of a far- flung f family but also reopens old wounds about land claims, personal loyalties and matters of the heart. Cruz plays Laura, who ww returns home from Argentina with her teenage daughter and young son, eager for love — but then lights go out and her daughter is suddenly gone. It’s Farhadi’s most mainstream movie yet, but that’s OK. PH
Float Like a Butterfly (★★★): This quietly qq powerful 1960s drama from Ire- land’s Carmel Winters takes place inside the rarely seen world of Ireland’s clannish and nomadic Travellers. Teen Frances ( Hazel Doupe, excellent) has t two goals: boxing like Muhammad Ali and aa pleasing her alcoholic dad Michael ( Dara Devaney), a prideful man with narrow views about male and female roles. Strong- minded Frances chafes at local prejudice and knows more about the world than people give her credit for. But she’s also a girl who misses her late mother and feels the weight of responsibility for her family. LB
Giant Little Ones ( ★★★1/2 ): Finally a film ff about teenage sexuality and its inherent fluidity that has something authentic and intelligent to say. After best friends Franky and Ballas have a drunken late- night sexual encounter, Ballas turns on him, leaving Franky to deal with the consequences. But things are not always what they seem. There are some great performances, especially Josh Wiggins as Frankie. Writer/director Keith Behrman de- serves plaudits for crafting a tale teeming with insight and poignancy that has something to say. BD
Girls of the Sun (★★1/2): The horrors of war seen through the eyes of Kurdish women Eva Husson. soldiers, The and writer/ those of director France’s brought her first film Bang Gang ( A Modern Love Story) to TIFF’s Platform program in 2015, where it shocked and impressed viewers with its frank depiction of teenage life. Girls of the Sun, based on a true story, stars Golshifteh Farahani ( Paterson) and Emmanuelle Bercot in a drama about an all- female battalion seeking to retake a Kurdish town once held by militants for Daesh, also known as ISIS. PH
The Image Book (★★★): Jean- Luc Godard is a lion in winter, fairly roaring with w this visual essay about life on planet Earth. Movie clips, newsreels and his trademark slogans are in this raging montage, making him more editor than director this time, but all the more potent. Here’s some of the film’s life advice: “Tell lies” ... “Everything is possible” ... “Shut up, Cassandra!” PH
Les Salopes or The Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (★★★): You can’t take your eyes off actress Brigitte Poupart ( Ravenous), boldly gazing right back at us in her character’s most intimate moments as Montreal dermatology professor/ researcher Marie- Claire. Her scientific exploration of arousal is framed by pursuits of her own pleasures in Canadian director Renée Beaulieu’s gloriously frank examination of fully- realized female sexuality. A married mother in a loving relationship, Marie- Claire lives without apology or explanation for her affairs, until a scandal upends her compartmentalized world. A boundary- breaking film. LB
Museo (★★★): Gael Garcia Bernal plays Juan, an aimless young man with a disdain for history who decides to make a fool of authorities while earning some ready cash, by ripping off some priceless ancient treasures from a national museum in Mexico City. It’s a fine performance by Bernal as the impetuous Juan well matched by Leonardo Ortizgris as Benjamin, his weak- willed partner in crime. Their plans understandably hit a major snag when it comes time to selling the loot. BD
Persona (★★★★): The ne plus ultra of films exploring duality and identity, a landmark of modernist cinema. Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 classic, screening as a TIFF Cinematheque attraction in advance of a planned fall retrospective honouring the Swedish’s auteur’s 100th birthday, stars Liv Ullmann as a mute aa and emotionally wrought stage actress, and Bibi Andersson as her attentive nn nurse. Brought together in a summer cottage on a remote island, their physical resemblance noted, their sense of self becomes mutually transformed. Endlessly influential, echoed in such recent films as Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II ( at TIFF 2018). PH
Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz (★★★): “Law, not war” is Ben Ferencz’s mantra, and tt there’s no person alive who can advance tt this argument more persuasively than this t 99- year- old lawyer. The remarkable subject of Barry Avrich’s new doc is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. The lesson Ferencz learned from that ee experience, at the age of 27, is that geno- cide ensues when war trumps justice. He’s spent his post- Nuremberg life helping to create the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague, a mechanism he deems all the more essential today, as the spectres of global conflict and revived Nazism loom large once again. PH
Rafiki (★★★): The title means “friend” in Swahili, a term familiar to gay couples everywhere who have felt obliged to hide a romantic partner. What’s surprising about the film is how little sex there is in it between charismatic teen leads played by Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva, given the uproar it has caused back home in Kenya, where homosexuality is illegal. Writer/ director Wanuri WW Kahiu and her co- writer Jenna Bass adapt Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko’s prizewinning 2007 short story Jambula Treefor the screenplay. Rafiki hardly breaks new narrative ground, but Kahiu’s fluid direction and wholly empathetic performances by Mugatsia and Munyiva make the movie special. PH
Shoplifters (★★★1/2): Japan’s Hirokazu Kore- eda ( Nobody Knows) took the Palme d’Or at Cannes for this gentle story of a multi- generational family of grifters that slowly reveals its secrets. Our first inclination is to marvel at the brazen ingenuity of a man and boy seen casing a grocery store and then smoothly making off with purloined edibles. But then, heading home, on a cold winter’s day, the pair discover a 4- year- old girl freezing on an apartment balcony, apparently abandoned. What begins as a heist movie is transformed into a moving meditation on what truly constitutes a family. PH
The Subject (★★★1/2): Montreal animator Patrick Bouchard wrote, animated, directed and also composed music for this arresting NFB short, Canada’s flag bearer at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It’s his visceral exploration, via stop- motion animation, of a clay- like moulded double of his own body, replete with blood and fingerprints. The synopsis says Bouchard’s film “pays homage to the animator’s vocation — namely, breathing life into the inanimate.” More than this, it contains surreal mechanical elements that suggest a commentary on our increasingly tech- driven world. He sings the body electric. PH
Transit (★★★): Filmmaker Christian Petzold does something rather interesting, adapting a novel from the 1940s about German Jews in France desperate to flee the ongoing Nazi war machine, but setting the story in modern times. It’s an enigmatic tale suffused www with ith tension unusual and characters, dread and including populated FF Franz Rogowski as Georg, a man who encounters unforeseen difficulties after assuming the identity of a dead writer. BD
Wildlife (★★★): A bleak but artful coming- of- ager, based on the acclaimed novel by Richard Ford, in which a young teen watches his parents’ marital meltdown in the Montana of 1960. In this auspicious feature directing debut by actor Paul Dano, Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver solid performances as the dissolving spouses/ parents. She’s a swimming instructor with a roving eye; he’s a firefighter who’d rather be saving forests than spending time at home. But The Visit’s Ed Oxenbould is a knockout as Joe, a kid forced to become an adult too soon. PH
The Wild Pear Tree (★★★1/2): Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns following his 2014 Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, as bracingly contemplative as always. The Wild Pear Tree illuminates the gap between what is desired aa and what is achieved, following a dis- illusioned young author named Sinan ( Aydin Dogu Demirkol) who returns to his hometown to confront significant people in his life ( including, importantly, his deadbeat gambler of a father). At just over three hours in length, Ceylan’s signature slow cinema continues to resist the multiplex, but it’s time thoughtfully spent. PH
What Is Democracy? (★★): In the age of Trump and rising populism, filmmaker Astra Taylor asks a vital question qq and provides some useful his- torical context — Plato in particular — but the journey is a meandering one that often strays far from the point. Race relations in the U. S., fiscal austerity and the refugee crisis are explored in Greece, while wws ome various interesting talking commentary. heads provide But since the National Film Board of Canada is funding the work, wouldn’t a stop here have made sense? Apparently not. BD
Working Woman (★★1/2): While her hh husband struggles to open a new restau- rant, young mother Orna thinks she’s finally landed the lucrative dream job that will keep her family afloat when she’s hired by a Tel Aviv real estate developer. But her boss gradually makes it clear there is a price to be paid for her success as she rises in the company. Israeli director Michal Aviad shows her documentarian roots while bringing slow- simmering intensity to this timely story of workplace harassment and impossible choices. LB