My last day at the Toronto International Film Festival I see the documentary Samsara, Steve McQueen’s Shame and the film Dustin Jansick was most excited about at the festival ALPS. Here are my first impressions and mini reviews of the films.

Without a doubt one of the most beautiful films I have ever laid my eyes on. Shot in over 50 countries, this documentary has no narrative, no spoken words. Just images set to intoxicating rhythms and beats. An absolute stunner of a film. Shot on 65mm film. The filmmakers travel the world to show life and death in nature and the every sprawling metropolises of the world. Showing the ever changing landscapes of our world and our growing reliance on all things unnatural, Samsara is a must see. Probably the documentary of the year for me.

Director Steve McQueen had one of the best debuts of the last decade with Hunger in 2008. McQueen returns this year with his star of Hunger, Michael Fassbender (2011’s rising star) for his newest film about a man struggling with his addiction to sex. Fassbender gives the performance of the year as Brandon, a man living in New York who is completely at the mercy of his addiction. It all unravels when his long lost sister shows up unannounced to stay with him. Fassbender gives a mesmerizing performance that will hopefully nab him an Oscar nomination. Carey Mulligan as Brandon’s sister is equally stirring. Both give fearless performances. McQueen pulls no punches when it comes to showing the lengths Brandon will go to to get his fix. One thing is for sure, this one doesn’t end on a happy note. A brave ending Shame ends on. McQueen is one of the best right now and I for one cannot wait to see what he does next.

This movie perplexes me. One one half, you have a fantastic premise. A group of people get together to ease the pain of people who lose a loved one. They enter their lives AS that person who has died. They wear their clothes, say things the deceased would say, they live in the homes of their loved ones. Just to ease the loss. I was waiting for this one to be a big emotional movie. What it ended up being was a more drier and funnier movie about loss and boredom. The second film by the director of Dogtooth is unfortunately in the same vein as that film (which I loved by the way), where it could have had more emotional high points given the material. I felt the movie went in the wrong direction with it’s tone. I did end up liking the movie out of how well it’s made, but I rue the fact that it could’ve gone in a better direction. This is still a movie to watch out for and the director has loads of talent. The film begs for repeat viewings. There is one scene of particular brilliance that even Tarantino would be proud of.

Day 4 of the Toronto International Film Festival I see Rampart which stars Woody Harrelson in a familiar role and the film I was most excited for at TIFF, the Mexican thriller Miss Bala. Here are my first impressions and mini reviews of the films.

Woody Harrelson gives one of his best performances of his career in this film, which sadly doesn’t deserve his performance. The movie is just so depressing and ugly despite being set in the beautiful and sunny Los Angeles. It follows Harrelson’s drunk, drug addicted cop (jeez where have I seen this before) as he barely makes it through his life. He works for L.A.’s Rampart Division, a special group set inside the LAPD. He lives in the garage of BOTH his ex wives, he is under an investigation for illegal conduct on the job and his ‘relationship’ with his daughters is even worse. I found it really hard to believe that a cop could be under investigation for beating an unarmed man and then be suspected of shooting ANOTHER unarmed man and STILL have a job. The director’s previous work was The Messenger which I absolutely loved. It’s a shame this movie doesn’t work. As I stated before, Harrelson is terrific and in a different year or part of his career could’ve seen an Oscar nomination. This was based on a true story, but I can see a few spots of this film being stretched from reality.

This was the movie I was looking forward to the most coming into TIFF.The original word out of Cannes were raves and the first trailer was ASTONISHINGLY well done. The final product is very VERY well done. Bala is about a young girl from Tijuana, Mexico who wants to enter in a beauty pageant titled Miss Baja California. On her way to one, her and her friend go to a night club to party with some friends. When Laura (the protagonist) shows up, her friend is dancing with some DEA agents. She retreats to the bathroom where some members of a deadly and ruthless drug cartel show up and kill everyone. They kidnap Laura and use her for days, whether it’s transporting money across the border or ammo back over the border. They use and abuse her. They promise her fame and money as they put her through excruciating circumstances. The film is uncompromising in it’s vision of the drug war being fought in Mexico. One that has claimed over 50,000 lives in the last 5 years and another 10,000 people missing. The movie took about 45 minutes to grow on me. But the director’s style and cinematography are brilliant. Reminiscent of Michael Mann’s Heat, the camera is almost never not fixed. Always steady and sure. I do not recall a use of shaky cam at all. This is one of the best thrillers of the year.

Day 3 of the Toronto International Film Festival I see The Descendants, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Extraterrestrial and the documentary Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. Here are my first impressions and mini reviews of the films.

Fantastic movie. This is gonna be a big crowd pleaser. George Clooney stars a Hawaiian land baron whose wife is in a boating accident that leaves her in a coma. After finding out that she will never wake up he goes on a quest to tell friends and family about the bad news. He first picks up his oldest daughter from a prep school on a different island. Clooney in this is a horrible father has utterly no clue on how to raise two daughters and rightfully admits it. The movie is very funny. Lots of great one liners that will have people smiling. Mixed with that comedy is a lot of heart. Some very great moments between Clooney and his oldest daughter. Clooney will surely walk away with the Best Actor Oscar come February. The film was directed by Alexander Payne who has made one of my favorite films in Sideways. This film isn’t as good, but it is a terrific follow up.

Far and away the best film I’ve seen at TIFF this year. This movie is listed as a psychological thriller but make no mistake this is the best horror movie of the year. Very VERY unsettling film about a girl who leaves a cult in upper New York state and tries to assimilate back into normal life with her sister and her new husband. The movie shifts between past and present events, making it murky enough that sometimes you don’t know at which point in time you’re at. But it’s never confusing. John Hawkes plays the leader of the cult and is downright scary. Never losing his cool always remaining calm, you never know when he’s going to burst. He is excellent. Elizabeth Olson (younger sister of the Olson twins) is mesmerizing in the lead role. She wants help but you can tell she just doesn’t know how to ask or she’s either too afraid to. This movie rattled everyone to the bone at my screening. Beautifully shot and edited. This is a must see.

This is the new movie from the director of Timecrimes (which is a phenomenal film by the way). The plot involves a love triangle (or is it a love square?) that is interrupted by an alien invasion. This movie was fun. It had absolutely no aliens in it at all. The film concerns itself with how humans react in dire situations. How they treat each other, themselves. The film asks a lot of questions, like what would you do if you were locked in an apartment with the woman you loved and her boyfriend? If you were threatened by one of her neighbors who knows secrets about you. Very fun, very funny lark of a science fiction film.

The third (and hopefully final) film in the documentary series about the West Memphis Three. If you haven’t followed this story, it’s about 3 teenagers in 1993 who were convicted with the murder of 3 young boys in the woods of Arkansas. No evidence was provided at the trial to link them to the murders. They wore black, listened to heavy metal and dabbled in the Wiccan religion. One was sentenced to death and the others to life in prison. With absolutely no physical evidence to tie them to the murders. The first film was about the trial and getting to know all parties involved whether they were the victims parents or the convicted boys’ families. The second film shifted it’s focus to one of the parents of the victims as possibly being a suspect. This third film presents new evidence showing the 3 teenagers (now men in their mid to late 30’s) could not have possibly committed the murders. It also shows a possibly new suspect in the case.

Day 2 of the Toronto International Film Festival I see The Artist which seems to be getting a lot of buzz right now. I also saw The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe, the North American Premiere of Melancholia which Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at Cannes. Lastly, I went to a Special presentation screening of Drive. Here are my first impressions and mini reviews of the films.

People are going to love this film. People who love film are going to LOVE this film. An ode to Hollywood of the yester years. Terrific performances, amazing black and white cinematography, laughter aplenty. This film is a blast. Telling the story of a silent film actor in Hollywood at the genesis of talkies. The main character George is full of too much pride to realize the change in technology. He soon begins to suffer as his love interest’s fame starts to sky rocket. Together him and his very well trained pooch try to figure out a way to stay in the pictures. It all comes together in a dazzling final 20 minutes. Audiences will chew this one up.

A slow burning Australian film about an American Mercenary (Willem Dafoe) hired by a mysterious European Bio Tech corporation to find the last of the Tasmanian Tigers. A brooding thriller that becomes more about protecting a widow and her children than the hunt itself. Dafoe turns in a good performance as always, the movie itself didn’t really speak to me. It was a little slow in parts and the plot of the film wasn’t that interesting to me. Of course I had Melancholia and Drive to follow, so my mind was kind of elsewhere.

I have only seen one Lars Von Trier film prior to this, his extremely tough to sit through Antichrist (which I actually quite liked). The opening sequence of Melancholia is utterly spectacular. Shots of Kirsten Dunst with electricity coming out of her hands and being stuck in tangled black webs coming from the earth are all shot in a very arty way by Trier. He finishes off the opening sequence with the planet Melancholia crushing Earth and it is as beautiful a shot from any science fiction film I’ve ever seen. If you can see this in a theater I would highly recommend it. The sound system of the Ryerson theater was spectacular. The movie concerns a woman just newly wed at her reception with her absolutely insane family. The second half the film is concentrated on her sister and how she deals with the depression and despair the planet Melancholia brings. The final 20 minutes are brilliant, scary and beautiful all at once. One of the best films I’ve seen so far.

I was looking forward to Drive probably the second most out of any film at TIFF this year. Nicolas Windig Refn got up before the movie and introduced the cast and talked a little about the movie. The dude is seriously funny as hell. Drive disappointed me. It’s a good movie, but it’s not a great one. It has so much going for it. An incredible style courtesy of Refn, a soundtrack that works very well with the material. Some terrific turns from Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks. Also, the violence is extremely grisly and well executed. I’m not one to LOVE violence in movie, but when a movie has a good mean streak I to appreciate it. My problems with Drive are these. For starters, the movie starts out with a great story between a lonely shy man and his neighbor who he confides in while her husband is in prison. All of that is built well and all, but once the movie kicks into gear, it feels like the film ditches all those great emotions it created and just goes with pure brutality. And I like said earlier I don’t mind extreme violence but you gotta back that up with some feelings. I felt like Drive didn’t earn them. The second thing I didn’t like about the film was that it kinda wrapped itself up early. The movie could’ve easily added another 15 minutes and would’ve been perfect. Drive was going pretty well until it hit autopilot. It was like the movie realized it was ending soon and just wrapped up it’s plot. Terrific style, terrific score and performances. Just wish it didn’t ditch the heart it was building in the first half and ditch out on what could’ve been a great ending.

Day 1 of the Toronto International Film Festival I see Keyhole and 360 by two highly acclaimed directors (Guy Maddin and Fernando Meirelles). Here are my first impressions and mini reviews of the films.

Completely esoteric. A maddening experience. Guy Maddin’s latest film (my first Maddin film) is an editing wonder. Light and sound explode on the screen. I don’t really know what it all meant. Maybe that places contain more history than we can understand. Jason Patric gives a terrific performance (as always) as the lead gangster back in his old house trying to get upstairs to the room containing his wife. The ghost of her father is chained to the bed waiting to be released so he can stop him. Probably the most avant-garde film I’ve ever seen.

The first ever screening of Fernando Meirelles’ City of God new film is a light weight effort compared to his earlier outings. However, his filmmaking skill is still at a high level. His editing is terrific. The movie tells the story of love, connections and the choices we make and how they effect us and those around us. Spanning the globe the movie contains 4 or 5 stories from England, Austria, France and the U.S. The stars of the movie: Jude Law, Rachel Wiesz, Anthony Hopkins are all good, but it’s the non famous actors in the movie that really shine. Then there is Ben Foster who plays a man just released from prison who can’t catch a break. He is put in an situation that is completely volatile.