My Name is Kate

TIFF Film Review: Mistress of Spices

Mistress of Spices: B+

I am deeply torn about this film.  Mistress of Spices had the potential to be a great food movie like "Chocolat" or "Like Water for Chocolate".  It is visually rich and gorgeous to look at, from the spices, the sets, the scenery and the people.  This is an absolutely beautiful film.  And I like the idea of the plot: a secret order of women, dispatched across the globe, using the power of spices to help and heal (physically and spiritually) others. 

But the writing was really poor .. the dialogue was stilted and unbelievable.  It really gave the actors nothing to work with ... so there was a lot of meaningful LOOKING at each other, but not a lot of great interaction.  Which is really too bad.  Also, Mistress of Spices had some really weird editing.  I was TENSE through this whole movie .. there were lots of jarring sounds and fast cuts.  Was it a gun shot or a bus backfiring?  The store bell rang -- friend or foe?  This edginess seemed out of place in a romantic feel-good movie. 

So .. am deeply ambivalent.  It's so visually compelling, but it just doesn't deliver beyond the look of it.

TIFF Film Review: Beowulf and Grendel

Beowulf & Grendel: A

Exceptional film.  A true epic.  The setting is gorgeous.  Andrew Rai Berzins, the screenwriter, took the core of the Beowulf legend and built a believable (and more importantly, incredibly watchable) story around it.  The main cast all did a super job (though I question the casting of Sarah Polley.  She seemed really out of place, was the only one who didn't have some kind of accent or voice stylings.  I found her a bit too modern in this piece.)  They really got into the souls of the characters. 

Through the script, Rai Berzins raised issues about the nature of violence and vengeance.  Notably, Sturla Gunnarsson, the directorr, kept the blood, gore and violence to a minimum which is pleasantly surprising in such an epic film that centres around a series of violent events.  The one exception I have is the rape of the witch Selma (Polley) by Grendel.  I feel this one addition to the story showed a lack of imagination ... the rape resulted in a child which was a convenient narrative foil for a poignant end.  The same issue could have been handled with more panache like the philosophical and psychological narrative of the rest of the film.   

But the Iceland landscape is a wonder to behold.  Go see it on the big screen, just for the cinematic sense of it all. 

Website: http://www.beowulf-movie.com/

TIFF Film Review: U-Carmen eKhayelitsha

U-Carmen eKhayelitsha: B+

An updated version of Bizet's Carmen.  Great setting: South Africa.  Great twist on the original story: characters are cigarette factory workers and drug smugglers.  Phenomenal singing!  Worth it just for that.  The rework of the story and the language are all outstanding. 

But herein lies my issue: with the update to the setting and to clearly street-savvy modern people, I had a hard time buying the typic opera modus operandi.  The one where they repeat everything eight times.  For example: Lovesick Cop chasing after Carmen in bar.  Rural Bethrothed of Lovesick Cop follows him into bar, singing "Your mother is dying."  Lovesick Cop, "I love Carmen and cannot leave."  RBoLC sings "Your mother is dying."  LC, "I love Carmen and cannot leave."  RBoLC, "Your mother is dying." LC, "What, my mother is dying?  I must leave."   

Also, I have very little patience where these characters just can't get over themselves.  DUDE, Carmen is a no good criminal who does not love you.  Do yourself a favour and go back to Hometown with your brother's widow who is cute and *does* love you.  Yeah, Carmen is a sexy woman.  But get over it.  There is no future here.  Seriously.  No, don't stalk her at the big concert.  Listen to your mother.  Go home.  Dude. DUDE!  Great.  Now you've killed Carmen.  And you'll go to  prison.  And you've killed the person you "love".  Where's the win/win here?  No where.  *That's* where.

But the singing is exceptional.  And Pauline Malefane is HOT!  She is one sexy lady.  Wow. 

Website http://www.u-carmen.com/

TIFF Film Review: The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes: C

Every year I pick an "artsy" film to go to because a). I believe that that's one of the reasons to go to a film festival and b) I'm a perennial optimist and hold out hope that one year I will actually "get it".  Not this year. 

TPTOE is deeply and unabashedly visually interesting to look at.  The Quay brothers made a visually delightful film.  But the plot was lost on me.  Mad Scientist plots to kidnap Opera Singer so she can star in Mad Scientist Opera on Mad Scientist Island.  Opera Singer kidnapped and whisked away to Mad Scientist Island.  Mad Scientist hires Piano Tuner who a) tunes automatons that show vignettes of progressing film and b) plays role in Mad Scientist Opera.  Turns out Mad Scientist Opera is an operatic re-enactment of initial kidnapping scene of Opera Singer.  Piano Tuner and Opera Singer end up trapped in an automaton. 

I admit it .. I'm a hick and didn't get it.  Also, I feel there was one layer of the sound track missing.  People in the film kept referring to "haunting music" and "beautiful singing".  I never heard it.  But the best thing about TPTOE is the "Is this the real forest" line!

TIFF Film Review: Dreaming of Space

Dreaming of Space: C+

I really wanted this film to be better.  Or at least more consistent.  The film description says

When the Soviet Union launched its first satellite into space in 1957, the Soviet people were filled with an immense feeling of optimism. Space represented freedom, an enormous realm of potential outside their own experience, one unburdened by paranoia or deception. Dreaming of Space is about the hope for the future that gripped a nation corroded by cynicism.

And I think "Yeah, kinda.  But only for about three minutes.  What I really think happened is that the writer saw some footage of Yuri Gagarin with his shoelace untied and then worked backward from that. 

Which is really unfortunate because when it wasn't about "Horsie" being clueless, it was actually quite interesting.  The fascination with the West, with getting into space, the nuances of soviet life in the late 50's.  That was all really nifty.  The narrative just didn't really hang together.  Acting was mixed.  The two women who played Lara and Lara's sister, Irina Pegova and Elena Lyadova, were great, but the two lead male actors, Yevgeny Mironov and Yevgeny Tsiganov were stilted and came off as bad soviet stereotypes.

TIFF Film Review: Souvenir of Canada

Souvenir of Canada: A-

OK, this was a very North American film: it has *my* sense of humour, was in *my* language, features one of *my* favourite authors. It was not a stretch for me to *get* this film. Douglas Coupland is much funnier and genuine than I expected. See, I have this made-up construct of how jerky Coupland is in my head: he cancelled an appearance at the University of Waterloo back in 1992 or 1993. I had purchased a hard-cover first edition of Microserfs (a book I love dearly) for him to sign and skipped a class to see him. When I got to the bookstore, there was a big sign saying he'd cancelled. I've been bitter for 12 years. But after seeing Souvenir of Canada, I've been able to get over it.

This film is fun to watch. Though it's another one of those films that seems to end a couple of times. The whole film is an exploration of "what it means to be Canadian" mostly told through commentary on various Canadian pop-culture fads. At the end, there is a tacked on bit about how what it really means to be Canadian is our connection with the wilderness. The transition from pop-culture to wilderness was kinda weak and didn't really fit. But overall the film was snappy and funny and self-effacing and filled with those "inside" jokes Canadians love about themselves. Oh, and some really kickin' title design.

A more detailed summary as well as highlights of the director's Q&A following the screening I saw have been posted on the IMDB (fyi .. the comment about the Hinterland Who's Who spots was made by my friend, Daniel).

And, I totally stole this pic from Kurt's Film Blog.

TIFF Film Review: Perpetual Motion

Perpetual Motion: A

Someone asked me, when I initially described this film, "So, was it like the Joy Luck Club?" I was happy to answer a resounding NO! It is so GREAT to see movies direct from the source. In this case, China. Now I liked Joy Luck Club, but it's a movie about Chinese women in North America. This is about Chinese women in China. Really really interesting, but still very accessible -- even to a hick like me. I enjoyed the story as well as seeing the cinematic sensibilities of Chinese filmmaking.

Roro has a great summary of the film and gives a bit of context about the unique mix of these women in this particular film. Me, I just wish I spoke Mandarin because the older Chinese couple next to me in the theatre were *killing* themselves laughing. I laughed a lot from what they translated into the subtitles, but I sure there were several layers I totally missed. Great film.

TIFF Film Review: Eve and the Fire Horse

Eve and the Fire Horse: A-

A really great offering from up and coming writer/director Julia Kwan. All the acting was excellent .. the two young girls, Phoebe Kut and Hollie Lo, were super. Telling the story of two sisters trying to reconcile their Confucian upbringing with their new-found Catholicism and their mother's recent adoption of Buddhism makes for some charming scenes.

Kwan complements the main narrative with some fantastical scenes where Eve (the younger sister) converses with household goddesses, Buddha and Jesus. Really fun. I didn't like the ending .. it felt like the movie ended twice; however, a minor issue. A fun feel-good Canadian movie.

TIFF Film Review: 3 Needles

3 Needles: B+

Incredible film to look at. Landscapes were visually stunning. Pretty good acting. Wasn't Dukakis' best. Chloë Sevigny as the novitiate, Clara, was excellent. My favourite scene of the movie: Sevigny dressed all in white comes across a herd of giraffe in Africa savannah. Gorgeous. Lucy Liu as a Chinese blood runner/smuggler was quite good as well.

Thom Fitzgerald, the director, shows us the impact that AIDS has on three different cultures/communities. How well-meaning, but ignorant people can lose everything; how the most scientifically savvy among us can be duped; how, fundamentally, money rules the world. There was a lack of political commentary about sex education in Africa, in particular, and the current American policy of requiring that abstinence and marital fidelity be proferred as the best way to combat AIDS. Bush and his cronies need to see this film. There is no place for prudish Christian morals in trying to combat this global epidemic.