Commentary by Sergio Martínez
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place
between September 8 and 18. For those of us who had the opportunity to enjoy
it, it was a delightful reunion with theatrical screenings after two years of
the pandemic. Once again, it is gratifying that Canada — in this case, its
largest metropolis — hosts this important cultural event. This year's selection
has been very satisfactory, at least in terms of the films that, as a critic, I
had the opportunity to see.
SOME OF THE BEST
By the way, one's view of the festival is always limited
because of the more than two hundred films presented. One can only see a
limited number.
Of the total number of films seen, I have selected nine as
the best of TIFF.
LIVING (Oliver Hermanus, UK): The humanization of the
bureaucrat.
This film is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Japanese
classic Ikiru (1952), with Bill Nighy as Mr. Williams, an ageing bureaucrat
ensconced in a London city administration office. "Maintaining the status
quo is more important than progress in paperwork" is the unwritten motto
of the civil servants.
An unforeseen change in his life as a result of a medical
examination will give the old bureaucrat a sense of humanity. A friendship with
a former employee of his office, plus the efforts of a group of neighbours who
want the city to build a playground on an abandoned site, will help Mr.
Williams see life from a different perspective.
A well-presented story, with excellent acting and a
realistic 1950s town setting, makes Living one of the best films of the 2022
edition of TIFF.
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL (Sebastian Marnier, France-Canada):
There are no "good guys" here.
Between drama and a bit of an ironic look at human
relationships is how this film full of unexpected twists and turns could be
characterized. A young woman working in a fish packing plant faces a difficult
economic situation. On the emotional level, she also has difficulties because
her girlfriend is in jail. The solution to her problems would come when she
manages to reunite with her father, who had abandoned her and her mother.
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| The Origin of Evil |
However, her reinsertion into her father's life – who is
now a man of great wealth – will not be easy: neither Serge's current wife, his
father, nor his other daughter, nor even the maid, will look favourably on
someone they perceive as an intruder who comes looking for money. However,
things are somewhat more complex when the wife and the other daughter have
their own scheme to get their hands on the father's fortune. But-and therein
lies much of the film's charm- not all the characters are what they seem to be.
Except that none is the "good guy or gal" in the movie.
THE FABELMANS (Steven Spielberg, USA): From fantasy to
unusual autobiography.
Well known as a director of films that take us to meet aliens or explore fantastic places, this time, Steven Spielberg has given us a much more personal and intimate vision of his own life. The Fabelmans are a Jewish family living in the 1950s, with an engineer father (Paul Dano) dedicated to the then new but promising field of computers and a mother (Michelle Williams) who has artistic aspirations, which in any case fail to materialize.
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| The Fabelmans |
DALILAND (Mary Harron, UK-USA): Dali's surreal moments.
Ben Kingsley and Barbara Sukowa deliver an unforgettable
performance in this film covering Salvador Dalí's years in the United States.
The narrative is told primarily through the eyes of young James (Christopher
Briney), who becomes part of Dali's entourage after his work in an art gallery.
Dalí's creative genius is also combined with a life of excess that has
repercussions on his financial status and some practices that today would be
highly reproached.
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| Daliland |
Above all, the film delivers a stark vision of the artistic
milieu in which Dalí moved and those who revolved around him to profit from his
fame.
EMPIRE OF LIGHT (Sam Mendes, UK-USA): Beauty, tenderness,
and cinema.
Probably since that beautiful film Cinema Paradiso, we
haven't had the chance to see this combination of great tenderness and love,
set around cinema and, more specifically, in the Empire, a movie theatre in a
seaside town in Great Britain. Set in the 80s, the Empire is one of those
glamorous movie palaces, but which, already in those years, begins to suffer
the decline that would end up replacing them, for the multiplexes we know
today. But the Empire will still have a time of glory and largely due to the
dedication of its own employees: Hilary (Olivia Colman), the projectionist
(Toby Jones) and the newcomer Stephen (Michael Ward), a black man who, in those
years will have to face the racist outbursts present in British society. The
theatre manager (Colin Firth) obtains sexual favours from Hilary. Still, she
will have to deal with the consequences when she decides to end this situation.
Above all, however, what remains is the atmosphere of the
movie palace, the Empire, the centre of these human adventures and
misadventures. In my opinion the best film of the entire Festival.
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| Empire of Light |
THE UMBRELLA MEN (John Barker, South Africa): A band in
more than one sense.
A comedy, but also with a particular social commentary, is what we find in this film. The "Umbrella Men" are a musical band, but their other role will be to serve as the distraction in a clever ploy to rob a bank right on Carnival Day in Cape Town.
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| The Umbrella Men |
There is also the settling of scores
with a neighbourhood mobster looking to take over a historic jazz venue. And,
of course, there's no lack of romance either.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Edward Berger, Germany):
The war doesn't seem to be over.
A remake of Lewis Milestone's famous 1930 film, based on
Erich Maria Remarque's novel of the same name, itself considered the most
powerful account of trench warfare during the 1914-1918 world conflict. The
film depicts the transition of the young men who enthusiastically enlist to
fight for the fatherland to soon after beginning to live the rigours of one of
the cruellest conflicts of the 20th century. Excellent acting and a narrative
that does not elude the war's most brutal moments and images. One of the best
films presented at TIFF.
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| All Quiet on the Western Front |
THE WONDER (Sebastian Lelio, UK-Ireland): Faith and its
use.
Chilean director Sebastian Lelio, whom we have already seen
dabble successfully in international productions; this time tackles the theme
of faith and its use in a small Irish village in the 19th century. The film is
an adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh), a nurse
who had been part of Florence Nightingale's corps of nurses in the Crimean War,
is hired by the municipal council of a small village in Ireland to observe,
together with a nun, the strange phenomenon of Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord
Cassidy), an 11-year-old girl who has not eaten for four months. Her family and
the locals make the girl a miracle case, but the nurse will try to get to the
bottom of the situation. Certainly, faith, but also the uses to which it can be
put, is a factor that Lib will have to deal with, facing more than a bit of
hostility.
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| The Wonder |
STORIES NOT TO BE TOLD (HISTORIAS PARA NO CONTAR, Cesc Gay,
Spain): The complicated search for love and sex.
This entertaining film revives the episodic format, with
four stories in which the central theme in three of them are love, sex and
somehow the couple's commitment and fidelity. In the fourth one, the focus is
more on the desire to maintain a certain image on the part of a group of
actresses in decline. Treated in a very humorous way by the director, the
characters try to deal with their barely disguised vulnerabilities and
dissatisfactions—a remarkable comedy with an irreverent look at human
relationships in these times.
IT WAS WORTH WATCHING THEM
DOMINGO AND THE MIST
(Domingo y la niebla, Ariel Escalante Meza, Costa Rica-Catar).
A combination of the mystical and earthy consequences of
road expansions (complete review in the article on Latin American presence at
TIFF).
ARISTÓTELES AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE
(Aitch Alberto, USA)
Two boys of Mexican origin but living in the United States
face the experience of finding meaning in their own relationship (complete
review in the article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
EL AGUA (Elena López Riera, Spain): The myth and its
meanings.
This young Spanish filmmaker's film was very interesting to
watch because of the way it intertwines myth and legend around water in a small
Spanish town: especially the legend of how water possessed certain young women
in the town.
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| El agua |
The story is told through the adolescent experiences of the protagonist, Ana (Luna Pamies), both in her relationship with her mother (Bárbara Lemmie) and her grandmother (Nieve de Medina). All of this is framed by the presence of water as a factor of life and destruction and threat.
LA JAURÍA (Andrés
Ramírez Pulido, Colombia)
A peculiar method of rehabilitating young people in the
middle of the jungle produces unexpected results (complete review in the
article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
COYOTE (Katherine Jerkovic, Canada): Someone must make a
sacrifice.
Like many Latinos in Montreal, Camilo (Jorge Martinez Colorado) works for a company that cleans office buildings. In a better time, he had owned a restaurant, El Coyote, but circumstances that he will reveal later led to the end of the business. However, the possibilities of returning to his profession as a chef seem to be on Camilo's horizon again. Still, he will have to move out of the city to do so.
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| Coyote |
The unexpected visit of his daughter Tania (Eva Avila), whom he has not seen for years, will cause changes in Camilo's life, especially when she asks him to take care of her son while she goes to a drug rehabilitation centre. The director gives us an intimate and well-articulated vision of the father-daughter-grandson relationship. However, in the end, there may be a bitter aftertaste. A film worth seeing.
ALLELUJAH* (Richard Eyre, United Kingdom): Health in
trouble.
Not only do we see how health services are deteriorating in
Canada, but Great Britain, the cradle of public health services in the West,
also suffers this situation with the closure of hospital wards. The threat of
closure threatens the hospital in this film, Bethlehem, specializing in
geriatric care. The dedication of its doctor and the work of many volunteers will
try to save the venerable Beth. At the same time, other dramas unfold within
its walls.
* This is the spelling used by the film.
LOVE AND MATHEMATICS (Claudia Sainte-Luce, Mexico)
A comedy with elements of romance, in which the
protagonists must face the dilemma of following or breaking the rules (complete
review in the article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
PRESENCIAS (Luis Mandoki, Mexico)
This film was not part of the program but was one of the
private screenings out of the schedule. We received an invitation and went to
see it. We were curious about a "Mexican horror film". It was indeed
a film with horror elements but also an incursion into the mystery of the human
mind. (Complete review in the article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER (Peter Farrelly, USA): From
patriotism to harsh reality.
Set in the year 1967, the Vietnam War is at its height, and
in New York, during a night in the neighbourhood bar, John "Chickie"
Donohue (Zac Efron) sets himself a very crazy task but is inspired by a sincere
patriotic feeling: to go to Vietnam, to visit his friends and neighbours who
are deployed there, to bring them encouragement and, in addition, a suitcase
full of American beer. Donohue will have to go through many ups and downs to
accomplish his mission, but in the process, he will learn a lot about the
conflict. Foremost, the war was not the way the government portrayed it. His
patriotism will be put to the test. (This film is based on a true story).
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARIES
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| Theater of Thought |
THEATER OF THOUGHT (Werner Herzog, Germany-USA): The brain
of the future.
Herzog presents in this documentary a fascinating foray
into the latest research on what happens in the brain when we are conscious.
Incidentally, it also examines the prospects of future artificial intelligence
and how it would be similar to or different from human intelligence.
WHILE WE WATCHED (Vijay Shukla, United Kingdom): The
manipulation of information.
This is a very topical film set in India. Still, it could be relevant in practically any other country where the media are subject to pressures, whether from governments or other powerful interests.
The documentary focuses on a veteran Indian journalist, Ravish Kumar, who, despite pressures, hardships and even threats to his life, tries to maintain the integrity of the journalistic profession.
THE GRAB (Gabriella Cowperthwaite, USA): Water, the oil of
the future.
Another documentary of current interest, based on a
thorough journalistic investigation, focused on how large corporations have
been acquiring land for some time, especially in African countries, in order to
supply the food needs of developed countries. Water and land with access to the
vital liquid are transformed into desirable assets for these large companies.
In many cases, such as the one illustrated in the film, this has meant the
displacement of local populations from their ancestral lands. A film that shows
a burning issue with images and interviews conveys the message effectively and
directly.
UN PAIS IMAGINARIO (An Imaginary Country, Patricio Guzmán,
France-Chile): And so, it goes on.
France-based Chilean director Patricio Guzman covers in
this film the period between the social outbreak that occurred in Chile in 2019
to its culmination in the formation of a constitutional convention charged with
drafting a new constitution for the country and the election of a leftist
president in late 2021. Emotionally powerful as all this director's films, this
documentary, with its hopeful message, contrasts with the reality of the defeat
of the constitutional project, obviously not covered by the film. However, it
could certainly be a very good topic for a future foray by Guzman into his
country's recent history.
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| An Imaginary Country |
THOSE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
NIGHTALK (Donald Shebib, Canada): A somewhat weak story.
A potentially interesting story: beautiful Toronto
detective Brenda Roberto (Ashley Bryant), who comes from a family of cops, is
confronted with a murder case in which she suspects Tom (Al Makadam), an
enigmatic character on a highly erotic dating website, may be involved. Brenda
contacts the suspect, but at stake is not only her professional interest but
also the fulfilment of her own sexual fantasies. The story, however, lacks
plausibility and has some loose ends.
CHARCOAL (Carolina
Markovicz, Brazil-Argentina)
A loosely linked story in which a nurse in a Brazilian
border town instructs a family to harbour an Argentine drug trafficker
(complete review in the article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
CORSAGE (Marie Kreutzer, Austria): An inefficient
narrative.
Set in 1877, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps)
faces the gradual deterioration of her relationship with her husband, Emperor
Franz Joseph (Florian Teitchmeister). The film's title alludes to the corset
worn by the sovereign, but without further development on that theme. A
sometimes-confusing narrative and a certain liberality with history (the
presence of electric lamps and a tractor, for example, long before such
implements were invented) detract from the verisimilitude of the narrative.
THE WORST OF THE FESTIVAL
THE HOTEL (Wang Xiaoshuai, Hong Kong): A dull product of
boredom.
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| The Hotel |
TIFF presented Wang Xiaoshuai as a Chinese auteur with an important career to his credit. This film, however, made under exceptional circumstances in which the filmmaker, his family and other friends were confined to a hotel in Thailand at the onset of the pandemic, fails to rise above the category of a creation of boredom caused by confinement, which in the end turns out to be profoundly boring as well.
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| So Much Tenderness |
SO MUCH TENDERNESS (Lina Rodriguez, Canada): Platitudes.
Full of platitudes, the wife of a lawyer murdered in
Colombia arrives in Canada as a refugee with her daughter, this is a flawed film by Colombian-Canadian director Lina Rodriguez.
(More
complete review in the article on Latin American presence at TIFF).
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