2013 was filled with plenty of tremendous films, and just as many memorable moments. As a companion to our Best Films of 2013 list, we asked our staff to come up with some of their favorite moments in movies this year. Covering all our favorites would just take too much time, so below we have singled out a few moments (15 to be exact) that stuck in our heads the most throughout the year.

Way Too Indie’s Favorite Movie Scenes From 2013

Sex scene – Her

The story of a man falling in love with his computer is an absurd sitcom-ready premise, but through Spike Jonze’s vision it’s looked at in a disarming and surprisingly sincere light. When Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) installs his new OS Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), their relationship feels naturally developed aside from the fact that Samantha doesn’t have a physical form. When Theodore, after going on a bad date, comes home and tells Samantha about it they finally act out on their feelings. Jonze avoids showing the sex scene, instead fading to black and letting the audience hear Theodore and Samantha make love. It’s a graceful move by Jonze, and a ballsy one to let the audience be left in the dark with only the sounds of the two leads moaning. But Phoenix and Johansson put in excellent performances, and the scene shows how, when you take everything else away, there’s an undeniably pure love between these characters. [CJ]

Oscar Grant Shooting Re-enactment – Fruitvale Station

One of the main reasons Fruitvale Station has touched a nerve with audiences across the world is the pervading air of authenticity: Like Oscar Grant, the film’s slain inspiration, director Ryan Coogler is a Bay Area native, and it was imperative to him that he shoot the film exclusively in the neighborhoods where Oscar lived his life. The tragic final moments of Oscar’s life (which were captured in real life by onlookers via camera phone) were spent face down on a BART platform until one of the police officers detaining him shot and killed him. Coogler and his crew filmed their reenactment in the exact spot it took place, with Michael B. Jordan, playing Oscar, laying his torso directly onto the bullet hole left from Oscar’s murder. His performance and Coogler’s direction make for a stunning, powerful cinematic moment. [Bernard]

The Hanging – 12 Years a Slave

Many parts of 12 Years a Slave are particularly hard to watch, but none was so impacting to me as when Solomon Northrup is strung up to a tree to hang after defending himself against an overseer who wrongfully attacked him. He escapes hanging but is left on his tippy toes gargling for breath for what seems like hours. Rather than show time passing by cutting away or letting the audience imagine how horrifying such a situation would be, director Steve McQueen forces us to watch as other slaves go about their business and the mistress of the plantation looks on, always hearing the low gurgle of a man literally barely holding on for life. Never as an audience member have I felt so helpless. This scene will likely hold its place in film school classes teaching the awful power of the camera’s gaze. [Ananda]

“Everytime” montage – Spring Breakers

Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers is a visual delight. The 95 minute film feels like one giant montage that never ends. Korine uses all the tricks he can muster to attack your senses. Every scene is filled with bright colors and flashy editing set to the hypnotic score by electro whizzes Skrillex and Cliff Martinez. At times its sensory overload and can be hard to comprehend what we’re looking at. In the middle of all the debauchery Korine does manage to slow the film down for a treat for the ages. Alien (played by James Franco) sits poolside of his Floridian mansion, playing a white grand piano. His three new friends that he’s rescued from jail emerge with pink ski masks toting guns. They ask him to play a song and he indulges with a rendition of Britney Spears’ “Everytime”.

Just as we’re about to laugh at the scene because of how completely odd it is, the actual song by Spears fades in as we’re treated to a montage entirely in slow motion of Alien and the pink ski masked girls beating and robbing people violently. The scene must be seen to be believed. I’ll never forget sitting in the theater with a gigantic smile on my face as I watched Alien jumping on a bed with maniacal grin while the girls were giving a bunch of bros bloody lips. The scene comes at the perfect time in the film. For 60 minutes you are bombarded with eccentric images and just when you think you can’t take any more of it, Korine slows it all down for you. Just in time of course for the climax to explode all over the screen. [Blake]

Shower scene – Stoker

The scene that was most prominent to me this year was Chan-wook Park’s particular spark of controversial genius in Stoker. India (Mia Wasikowska), the 18 year old girl who is the focus of the film, struggles with the loss of her father (Dermot Mulroney) and becomes overly and inappropriately intrigued by her estranged uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) who visits after his brother dies. The shower scene in which India masturbates in the midst of washing away the dirt and trauma of what she has just experienced, was not only initially confusing to myself, but was also totally shocking. Despite the scene being awkward at first, it juxtaposed the scenes that made up the disturbed realisation of the weakness and confusion India feels. [Amy]

Opening shot – The Place Beyond the Pines

The technical achievement of pulling off the elaborately choreographed three minute long continuous shot at the beginning of The Place Beyond the Pines is simply speculator. A muscular man paces back and forth while flipping his butterfly knife before a knock on his trailer door indicates that it is show time. The uninterrupted scene continues as the man grabs his jacket and begins to weave around games and tents that produce loud noises and bright lights at a carnival. Walking with clear determination, the man travels across the heavily populated fairground to a tent where a large crowd of people is gathered to cheer for him. The announcer introduces the heartthrob over the loudspeaker as he proceeds to get on his motorcycle. Just before he puts on his helmet we see his face for the first time. After a few thrusts of his engine he joins two other stuntmen in a metal cage where they ride upside-down, narrowly missing one another. This tracking sequence establishes the confident personality of Ryan Gosling’s character, as well as getting a taste of what his character is capable of on a motorcycle—both of which are relevant during the course of the film. [Dustin]

The Birds – Leviathan

The beauty and terror of Leviathan could be easily summed up in the astounding shot that closes the film. At night the camera, presumably tied to the back of a ship, is bobbing up and down in the ocean as dozens of birds are flying around. The footage is flipped 180 degrees, making everything upside down. Pitch-black ocean, only identified by the brief glimpses of crashing waves, is now sky as we view multitudes of small, moving white lines float underneath it. It’s a disorienting image, one that turns the familiar into something otherworldly, and is a good showcase for why Leviathan has bowled over so many people. [CJ]

Opening scene – Post Tenebras Lux

Admittedly there are many scenes in this Carlos Reygadas directed film that are likely to stay with a person. A glowing red devil walking in a house at night, a man punching a dog severely, and a crazy French orgy all come to mind, and are also reasons I wouldn’t actually recommend this film. But if you watch any of it, watch the first ten minutes where a small child wanders alone in a cow pasture. She shuffles in the mud giggling with delight as giant cows graze around her and herding dogs do their best to keep her from danger. The scene switches between the view of seeing the child, a huge and sun-streaked sky behind her, and the narrowly focused and low perspective of the child running among the animals. It’s impossible not to feel fear for the child’s well-being while simultaneously be in awe of such a spectacle. [Ananda]

Safe Haven – V/H/S/2

Technically this is not a scene as much as it is a short film, but we are counting it because of the way V/H/S/2 is comprised of several of these sequences. Also because Safe Haven happens to be one of the most enjoyable horror segments of the entire year. The basic premise of Safe Haven involves a documentary crew interviewing a local man who runs a cult. After questioning the man’s beliefs (at one point they almost laugh at him), they ask him to take them to his compound so they can get an account of daily life.

The final 15 minutes of Safe Haven is an orgasmic release of unapologetic, ritualistic, and unbelievably bloody violence. Director Gareth Evans holds nothing back. Kids swallow suicide pills, a room full of men blow their brains out with pistols, men chasing each other with shotguns, and dead people come back to life as zombies. In one scene a man wills his body to explode sending his innards all over the walls of a hallway. All of this leads up to a magnificent scene of an 8 foot demon sticking its horn through an innocent woman’s stomach as she gives “birth” to Hell on Earth. And as the last survivor desperately tries to find his way out of the compound, you’ll shiver as the growls of the demon echo throughout your sound system as if Satan himself was ringing the dinner bell notifying his vermin that it’s time to eat. Safe Haven isn’t the best horror film that 2013 has to offer, but for a quick 30 minutes you’ll be struggling to pick your mouth up from the floor. [Blake]

Eva and Chloe – Enough Said

In Nicole Holofcener’s terrific Enough Said (if you haven’t seen it yet, what’s stopping you?), a lot of attention (and flack) has been given to a subplot involving Eva’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) friend Sarah (Toni Collette) fretting over replacing her maid. Sadly not as much attention is being paid to another subplot within the film, one that seemingly comes out of nowhere. As Eva’s daughter prepares to move away for college, her best friend Chloe (fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson, making her acting debut) starts to replace Eva’s daughter. It’s an unexpected and hilarious storyline, serving as a perfect complement to Eva’s fears of separation throughout the film. The subplot is one of the more original and bizarrely funny things to come out of 2013, and it shows why Holofcener is one of the more consistent and undervalued directors working today. [CJ]

The Big Twist – Stories We Tell

In Canadian director Sarah Polley’s experimental, poetic documentary about the relationship between people (her family, specifically), stories, and identity, she investigates the validity of the lingering family joke that her dad, Michael Polley, isn’t her biological father. After a 108 minute-long roller coaster ride of twists, turns, and revelations, the credits roll, and we’re left with a pretty clear idea of who Polley’s biological father truly is. That is, until a couple minutes into the credits, when a snippet of footage turns everything we thought we knew about the story on its head. The beauty of this final twist is that it strongly emphasizes Polley’s primary observation, that memories are abstract, malleable, and elusive. [Bernard]

Butterfly Metaphor – Dallas Buyers Club

Towards the end of Dallas Buyers Club, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) returns to the Mexican hospital where he first received medications to effectively help him battle his HIV. Shortly after Ron and the doctor discuss a new possible treatment evolving from caterpillars Ron wanders into a back room full of monarch butterflies. Simultaneously back in Texas, his business partner, fellow HIV sufferer, and possibly the best friend Ron has ever had is succumbing to the aggressive disease. Rayon (played with perfection by Jared Leto) is a transgendered woman who never did get the sex change she wanted. Watching Ron among those possibly life-saving butterflies, as his best friend undergoes the ultimate cocoon transformation leaving her poor frail body behind, is the best kind of cinematic metaphor. [Ananda]

Under The Bed – The Selfish Giant

It’s impossible to go over the specifics of this sequence without delving into spoilers, so I’ll try to speak as generally as possible. In The Selfish Giant, best friends Arbor and Swifty spend their days collecting scrap metal and copper wire for a local junkyard owner. Right from the opening we see how Arbor and Swifty’s relationship operates. Arbor, a hot-tempered adolescent with some sort of behavioral issue (never specifically mentioned but hinted at by his refusal to take medication), is first seen lying underneath his bed having a fit. He screams and pounds at his bed until Swifty takes his hand, finally calming Arbor down. Writer/director Clio Barnard eventually revisits this moment in the final act with devastating results. In one quiet, simple shot Barnard breaks viewers’ hearts while putting them directly in Arbor’s state of mind. In this moment, and the one immediately after involving Siobhan Finneran, it’d be near-impossible to find anyone with a dry eye. [CJ]

Opening shot – Gravity

I certainly did not expect to see a better opening sequence this year after The Place Beyond the Pines’ three minute long tracking shot, but Gravity ups the ante with a fifteen minute continuous shot which masterfully introduces us to each character, as well as the weightless environment of space. The first couple of minutes of the film we only hear the radio communication between the astronauts and mission control as Earth slowly fills the screen. In the distance a white dot very slowly starts to enter the foreground and before long the space orbiter shape is recognizable. The camera floats around this orbiter in all directions, visually establishing the weightlessness of space. When Sandra Bullock’s character accidentally lets go of a screw and it flies right into the camera instead of straight down, the audience also feels no gravity for the next hour and a half. At this point the film is leisurely introducing the environment and the characters, however, this suddenly interrupted when news comes in that space debris is heading their way. The film is one long thrill ride after that. There is no doubt that what makes Gravity such an impressive work of art are the visual effects and cinematography, both are on full display in the film’s opening moments. [Dustin]

Car scene – Before Midnight

While Alfonso Cuaron’s space ballet opening scene in Gravity is arguably the pinnacle of cinematic spectacle for 2013, an early scene in Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight–the Rohmer-ish, talky third film in his beloved Before series–creates spectacle in a stealthier fashion, via a boldly extended single shot and sublime verbiage. As we watch gabby lovers Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) chit chat about their career plans, twin daughters, and the beautiful Greek surroundings, the camera (planted firmly on the dashboard) keeps rolling…and rolling…and rolling, until it dawns on us that we’re watching a master-stroke of a shot. The unparalleled naturalistic dialog, the gorgeous Greek landscapes rolling out behind them, and the monumental length of the thing, make for a sequence every bit as elegant and awe-inspiring as Cuaron’s anti-gravity mini-opus. [Bernard]

If you combined the provocative tenacity of Ulrich Seidl with the non-narrative structure and beautiful cinematography of Terrence Malick then you would get somewhere close to Carlos Reygadas’ baffling Post Tenebras Lux. There is a narrative found within the film but not only is it very limited, it is found within a storyline that bounces back and forth through time with very little dialog or sense of direction—the extreme opposite end of holding a viewer’s hand. During an interview Reyadas admitted that he demands a lot from the viewer in terms of figuring out what Post Tenebras Lux is all about, so consider this the first of several warnings.

The opening shot of Post Tenebras Lux is hands-down the best the film has to offer. A young girl (Rut Reygadas) stomps her way through muddy puddles gawking at the cows, horses, and dogs that surround her while she mutters “father” and “mother”. The camera switches back and forth between up-close shots of her chasing the camera to a first-person perspective view at her level. As night falls a thunderstorm rolls in and soon the lightning is the only thing that illuminates the screen. That is until a glowing red figure appears at the front-door step of a house. The devilish figure moves through each room of the house with a toolbox in hand until it settles on a room after starring down a little boy across the hall. Does it represent a guilty feeling father returning home from work or a child’s nightmare of their evil father? As with the rest of the film, the definitive meaning behind this is open for interpretation.

Most of the film is based around a family of four who live in a luxurious house in a remote area of Mexico. The relationship between Juan (Adolfo Jimenez Castro) and his wife Natalia (Nathalia Acevedo) is not a pleasant at the moment because of Juan’s dangerous temperamental behavior—on display in a hard to watch scene where he randomly punches one of his family dogs. Juan believes Natalia wants to break things off but promptly reminds his wife that they should stay together for the kids.

What stands out the most in Post Tenebras Lux are the magnificent visuals thanks to Alexis Zabe’s awe-inspiring cinematography. The most fascinating part of the visuals was the decision to use a fisheye lens that blurs and distorts everything around the edges, almost as if it was replicating an actual eye with peripheral vision. Sometimes we see from the perspective of the characters, and sometimes from the perspective of evil. Several images throughout the film will stick with you for a while, though dog beating, decapitation, and a sex orgy with a bunch of overweight sweat lodgers are not exactly pleasant memories.

Post Tenebras Lux feels like a personal film for Carlos Reygadas, maybe a little too personal as it ends up alienating viewers with its obscurity. For example, there are two separate scenes where we suddenly land in the middle of group of English boys playing rugby for reasons you have to presume are autobiographical for the director. This becomes especially apparent when you realize that the two young children are played by his own. It is not to say the film does not have a specific meaning or purpose, just do not expect to know what it is after the first watch. Even though most of the film ends up being a head-scratcher, there are still certain characteristics that can be appreciated.

Post Tenebras Lux trailer:

Nearly a month ago the first wave of 22 tiles were announced that would play at the 2012 Chicago International Film Festival and today the rest of the lineup has been revealed. Some of the notable additions to the lineup were; Paradise: Love which played at Cannes, Carlos Reygades’ baffling Post Tenebras Lux, the obsessive The Shining documentary Room 237, Brandon Cronenberg’s debut Antiviral and SXSW winner Gimme The Loot.

CIFF is shaping up to be a festival that is worth attending as the lineup is certainly stacked with some reputable films including the controversial Holy Motors and other Cannes film festival titles such as Beyond the Hills and Like Someone in Love. Other anticipated films that will play at the festival are; The Sessions, Leviathan (which was CJ’s favorite film at TIFF) and The Impossible.

Also a special presentation of Cloud Atlas will play at the festival and serve as the Centerpiece Film. Scheduled to attend that screening are the directors of the film; Tom Tykwer and the Chicago natives Lana and Andy Wachowski.

The 48th Chicago International Film Festival will be held on October 11th through October 25th 2012 at AMC River East 21 in downtown Chicago. This year I will be attending the festival and reporting back with capsule reviews and tweets for Way Too Indie so stay tuned.

2012 Chicago International Film Festival Lineup
Here is a link to .PDF with schedule and descriptions of the films.

The ABCs of Death (various directors)
After Christmas (Benjamin Kegan)
After Lucia (Michel Franco)
Ken Nordine Presents Agenbite of Inwit
Agon (Robert Budina)
Alaskaland (Chinonye Chukwu)
Another Bullet Dodged (Landon Zakheim)
Antiviral (Brandon Cronenberg)
Any Day Now (Travis Fine)
Art of Conflict (Valeri Vaughn)
As Goes Janesville (Brad Lichtenstein)
Astrid (Fijona Jonuzi)
Bad Seeds (Safy Nebbou)
The Believers (Clayton Brown Monica Long Ross)
The Bella Vista (Alicia Cano)
Benji (Coodie and Chike)
Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
Bite of the Tail
Black Pond (Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe)
Black’s Game (Axelsson)
Body Memory (Ülo Pikkov)
Boys Are Us (Peter Luisi)
Cadaver (Joseph Ansell)
Caesar Must Die (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani)
Café Regular, Cairo (Ritech Batra)
A Caretaker’s Tale (Katrine Wiedemann)
CatCam (Seth Keal)
The Central Park Five (David McMahon, Ken Burns and Sarah Burns)
The Chair (Grainger David)
Chill (Hana Jušić)
Citadel (Ciaran Foy)
The Cleaner (Adrian Saba)
Clip (Maja Milos)
Cloud Atlas (Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer)
Color of Sky (Dr. Biju)
Come to Harm (Bokur Sigthorsson)
Coming of Age (Gerhart Ertl and Sabine Hiebler)
The Conquerors (Sarolta Szabó and Tibor Bánóczki)
Consuming Spirits (Chris Sullivan)
Dad, Lenin and Freddy (Rinio Dragasaki)
Day of the Crows (Jean-Christophe Dessaint)
Dear Hunters (Zack Bornstein)
The Delay (Rodrigo Plá)
Diaz: Don’t Clean up this Blood (Daniele Vicari)
Dinosaur Eggs in the Living Room (Rafael Urban)
Don’t Click (Tae-kyeong Kim)
Dragon (Peter Chan)
Dreams for Sale (Miwa Nishikawa)
Drought (Everardo González)
The Drudgery Train (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
Edmond Was A Donkey (Franck Dion)
Ellen is Leaving (Michelle Savill)
Empire Builder (Kris Swanberg)
Everybody’s Got Somebody…Not Me (Raúl Fuentes)
The Exam (Peter Bergendy)
F*ckload of Scotchtape (Julian Grant)
Fable (Lester Hamlet)
Faces (Said Najmi)
The Final Member (Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math)
Flight (Robert Zemeckis)
Flowerbuds (Zdenek Jirasky)
Footnote (Joseph Cedar)
Friend Request Pending (Chris Foggin)
Full Circle (Zhang Yang)
Germania (Maximiliano Schonfeld)
Gimme the Loot (Adam Leon)
Hemel (Sacha Polak)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
Hometown Boy (Hung-I Yao)
The Impossible (Juan Antonio Bayona)
In Hanford (Chris Mars)
In Their Skin (Jeremy Power Regimbal)
Jai Bhim Comrade (Anand Patwardhan)
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (Chris James Thompson)
John Dies at the End (Don Coscarelli)
Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)
Kern (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala)
King Curling (Ole Endresen)
Kuma (Umut Dag)
La Demora (Rodrigo Plá)
The Land of Eb (Andrew Williamson)
The Land of Hope (Sion Sono)
Land of the Heroes (Sahim Omar Kalifa)
The Last Friday (Yahya Al Abdallah)
The Last Ice Merchant (Sandy Patch)
The Last Sentence (Jan Troell)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
Maniac (Franck Khalfoun)
Marie Kroyer (Bille August)
Marla (Nick King)
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Alex Gibney)
Meeting Leila (Adel Yaraghi)
Mekong Hotel (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Modest Reception (Mani Haghighi)
A Monkey on My Shoulder (Marion Laine)
Mr. Christmas (Nick Palmer)
Mr. Sophistication (Danny Green)
Murderer Alias X (Lynn Devillaz & Antonio Veiras)
My Bow Breathing (Enrico Maria Artale)
Next Door Letters (Sascha Fülscher)
Night Across the Street (Raoul Ruiz)
Not Fade Away (David Chase)
Numbered (Dana Doron and Uriel Sinai)
Of Snails and Men (Tudor Giurgiu)
Off White Lies (Maya Kenig)
Oh Willy… (Emma de Swaef)
Old Man (Leah Shore)
Once Upon a Time Was I, Veronica (Marcelo Gomes)
Otelo Burning (Sara Blecher)
Our Children (Joachim Lafosse)
Out in the Dark (Michael Mayer)
An Oversimplification of her Beauty (Terence Nance)
Paradise (Nadav Kurtz)
Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)
The Patsy (King Vidor)
Paul (Adam Bizanski)
The Perfect Fit (Tali Yankelevich)
Pitch Black Heist (John Maclean)
La Playa DC (Juan Andres Arango Garcia)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
Postcards from the Zoo (Edwin)
The Pub (Joseph Pierce)
Quartet (Dustin Hoffman)
The Queen of My Dreams (Fawzia Mirza)
Rat Fever (Cláudio Assis)
Reality (Matteo Garrone)
The Repentant (Merzak Allouache)
Return (Shay Levi)
Rhino Season (Bahman Ghobadi)
Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)
Room 69 (Claude Barras)
A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel)
The Runner (Ana Lazarevic)
The Sapphires (Wayne Blair)
The Scapegoat (Charles Sturridge)
Sea Shadow (Nawaf Al-Janahi)
A Secret World (Gabriel Mariño)
The Sessions (Ben Lewin)
Shadow Dancer (James Marsh)
Shameless (Filip Marczewski)
Sharqiya (Ami Livne)
Shun Li and the Poet (Andrea Segre)
Simon Killer (Antonio Campos)
Sister (Ursula Meier)
Sleep Tight (Jaume Balagueró)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
Stand Up Guys (Fisher Stevens)
Starlet (Sean Baker)
StringCaesar (Paul Schoolman)
Tastes Like Chicken? (Quico Meirelles)
Tchoupitoulas (Bill Ross and Turner Ross)
Tey (Alain Gomis)
This is London (Mohammed Rashed Buali)
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Rania Stephan)
TSTL/ King Lost His Tooth (Gheith Al-Amine)
Under the Colors (Esmaeel Monsef)
Valley of Saints (Musa Syeed)
Voice Over (Martin Rosete)
Waiting for P.O. Box (Bassam Chekhes)
War Witch (Kim Nguyen)
The Weekend (Nina Grosse)
Westerland (Tim Staffel)
Where the Buffalo Roam (Brad Bischoff)
Winter of Discontent (Ibrahim El-Batout)
The World Is Funny (Shemi Zarhin)
Written in Ink (Martin Rath)
Xingu (Cao Hamburger)
Yardbird (Michael Spiccia)
Yuma (Piotr Mularuk)
38-39°C (Kangmin Kim)
43,000 Feet (Campbell Hooper)

2012 Toronto International Film Festival came to close on Sunday when officials announced the Audience Award went to Silver Linings Playbook, a film that now has some serious Oscar potential. We did not attend a showing of that crowd-pleaser film but below is a recap of the films that Way Too Indie writer CJ Prince did see at this year’s festival.

Recap of Way Too Indie coverage of 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

Day #1: An Introduction to the festival

An informative article about Toronto International Film Festival along with helpful film festival pointers.

Day #2: Spring Breakers and The Master

The first actual day at the festival was full of delays which resulted in leaving early from Spring Breakers to catch P.T. Anderson’s highly anticipated The Master.

Day #3: Tabu, Amour, 90 Minutes, No One Lives

This was the busiest day at the festival as it consisted of four different films including Amour which many believe to be a front runner at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language.

Day #4: Cloud Atlas and The Land of Hope

Easily the largest budgeted film we cover, Cloud Atlas, ended up being one of our favorites that we saw.

Day #6: Berberian Sound Studio and Here Comes The Devil

Back from taking one day off from the festival we cover a film that was on Way Too Indie’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Films at TIFF 2012.

Day #7: The Hunt and Leviathan

This day would end up be to the best overall day, Leviathan which ended up being the best film we saw by far and The Hunt which was a crackling drama.

Day #8: Post Tenebras Lux and When Night Falls

Two films from TIFF’s Wavelengths programme which are films that straddle the line between conventional and experimental.

Day #11: Penance

Finally we close out the festival with an epically long 5 hour film that ended the festival on a mediocre level.

Way Too Indie on Twitter

Follow @WayTooIndie on Twitter to see all of our festival coverage as well as daily reviews and news. Below is a recap of some our TIFF ’12 coverage.

Front of the spring breakers line is almost entirely young girls who are here for the cast. Poor souls have no clue what they’re in for.

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 7, 2012

Screening delayed already, dammit. Gotta catch the master no matter what even if it means skipping on this movies ending #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 7, 2012

From what I saw SPRING BREAKERS was a typical Korine movie for me. Hit and miss, with incredible highs and dull lows. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

THE MASTER: going to take another watch before I get a better idea of what to think. Plenty of amazing stuff but it doesn’t come together

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

Filling in for AMOUR #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 8, 2012

Say hello to the directors of CLOUD ATLAS #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

CLOUD ATLAS: Welp, they did it. Huge epic, it’s faults are overshadowed by its huge ambitions. #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 9, 2012

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: Some fantastic moments but it gets too bogged down in its insanity to be truly great #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 11, 2012

Thomas Vinterberg at a Q&A for THE HUNT which got a standing ovation twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 12, 2012

Overheard someone say they thought Morgan Freeman died a week ago, so anyone who thinks that #TIFF12 is for intellectuals can rest easy

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 12, 2012

LEVIATHAN: holy shit. Holy shit. Holy Shit. Holy. Shit. HOLY SHIT #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

In my 5 years of attending #TIFF12 I have yet to meet a nice person with a lanyard.

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

POST TENEBRAS LUX: Uh… #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

Well guys it has been a fun #TIFF12. Thanks for the follows, RTs and support. I now hand the reins back over to Dustin, see you next year

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 16, 2012

For day 8 I delved right into TIFF’s Wavelengths programme which has been expanded this year. The programme used to cover avant-garde film only but now feature films that straddle the line between conventional and experimental are included as well.

My first film, Post Tenebras Lux, might be familiar to some as one of my most anticipated titles at Cannes from earlier this year. I still approached Carlos Reygadas‘ newest film with some hesitation since the guy is anything but predictable, and sure enough Lux is one strange film. There’s a story (involving a family living in Mexico’s countryside and a contractor working at the family’s home) but there’s no narrative whatsoever. At the drop of a hat Reygadas will suddenly flash forward to a family reunion, go back in time to a couple’s vacation at a disgusting bath house, or just focus on different characters entirely. Characters who appear in flash forwards will die in the present story, and plenty of fantastical elements come into play. Reygadas has explained exactly how personal Lux is for him; the house they shot as was his own, the children in the film are his own and a lot of scenes are directly lifted from personal experiences. It would be best to take in the film as a mood piece, but Reygadas rarely hits the emotional highs he’s shooting for. Running nearly 2 hours long, Post Tenebras Lux eventually feels like Reygadas is just farting around. Alexis Zabe’s cinematography is drop dead gorgeous (he’s definitely one of the best cinematographers working today), but as a whole Lux rarely impresses. I still can’t deny that parts of the film resonated with me, and down the road I might come to appreciate it more, but right now I feel mostly indifferent to what I saw.

RATING: 6/10 but a question mark would be more appropriate

Post Tenebras Lux

Next up was When Night Falls, a Chinese film that’s well-known for the story surrounding it. In a lengthy opening using narration and various images from the true events that inspired the film, Wang Jingmei (Nai An) explains what happened to her son Yang Jia. Years ago Jia was taken in by police after they suspected he stole a bicycle, was brutally beaten after not co-operating and endured constant harassment when he tried to report the officers. According to the Chinese authorities, Jia had enough and murdered six officers in a brutal attack on his town’s police station. It may sound like an open and shut case, but the government acted in a way that cast doubt on what really happened. CCTV footage of the attack vanished, and Wang Jingmei was illegally detained in a mental hospital for 143 days so she couldn’t have a presence at her son’s trial. 

When Night Falls picks up immediately after Jingmei is released from her imprisonment. With only days left before her son is executed, she frantically tries to submit evidence in her son’s favour to try and hold off his death. Of course Wang Jingmei’s battle is a losing one before she even decided to fight, and we see how the deck has been stacked against her as she faces more and more obstacles. Subject matter aside, When Night Falls is a tough film to watch. Director Ying Liang sticks to long, well-composed shots that go on for several minutes at a time. While other directors have worked well with a minimalist style, When Night Falls feels like a slog to get through at times despite its 70 minute length. At the same time I can’t deny that the film’s existence is essential with how it brings this tragic story into the spotlight. With news of the Chinese authorities threatening to arrest Liang if he steps foot in China again while trying to buy the film off of him in order to bury it, When Night Falls has probably gotten more coverage than it would have if it was left alone. I just wish that it could have been as interesting to watch as the story surrounding it.

RATING: 6.5/10

When Night Falls

NEXT UP: I’ll make my way back to TIFF on the final day to check out Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 5 hour miniseries Penance. Wish me luck!

Recap of some of my Tweets from today:

Follow @WayTooIndie for full coverage of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival!

POST TENEBRAS LUX: Uh… #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

WHEN NIGHT FALLS: An essential film,but one that isn’t an easy watch.#TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 13, 2012

The jury announced the winners at the Lumiere Theater Sunday night for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Michael Haneke’s Amour was awarded the top prize of the Palme d’Or as many thought would happen for the Cannes veteran director. Some of the other awards seemed to be less obvious, Best Director went to Carlos Reygadas for Post Tenebras Lux and Reality won Grand Prix. Behn Zeitlin was awarded Camera d’Or for his first feature film Beasts of the Southern Wild.

See the full list of nominations.

The entire list of 2012 Cannes Film Festival Award Winners:

Amour, (director Michael Haneke)

Reality, (director Matteo Garrone)

Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux

Cristian Mungiu, Beyond The Hills

Beasts Of The Southern Wild, (director Benh Zeitlin)

The Angels’ Share, (director Ken Loach)

Cosmina Straten, Beyond The Hills
Cristina Flutur, Beyond The Hills

Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt

The 65th annual Cannes Film Festival is underway currently and the staff at Way Too Indie wanted to highlight the Top 13 Films we are anticipating to see the most. We are still about a week away before we will be hearing from the jury which films they decided to give awards to. There are over 20 films that are in the In Competition category and if we had to guess who walks away with top prize of the Palme d’Or, it would be one of the films we listed below. Without further ado, Way Too Indie’s Top 13 Most Anticipated Films at Cannes Film Festival 2012.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (director Benh Zeitlin)

Immediately after watching the trailer to Beasts of the Southern Wild I made note that this is a film I need to see. Chatter around this film started when it won the dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award at Sundance this year. It looks like it could have some Where the Wild Things Are elements to it but perhaps with a more gritty and serious story to it. If Beasts of the Southern Wild is half as good as the trailer makes it out to be, we should be in for a real treat with this film. Roger Ebert recently tweeted that Beasts of the Southern Wild is the best film he has seen this year. Cue the goosebumps. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Beasts of the Southern Wild

Post Tenebras Lux (director Carlos Reygadas)

After Battle in Heaven, Carlos Reygadas must have had some sort of epiphany. His follow-up, Silent Light, was one of the best movies of the last 10 years and felt like it was light years ahead of everything he did previously. His most recent work, the short film This is my Kingdom from the omnibus film Revolucion, might be his best work to date. Post Tenebras Lux looks like Reygadas is only maturing and developing even more. The first images and clips from the movie are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, the director of Cannes has been more or less openly gushing about it, and it’s already being compared to Tree of Life. Reygadas is one of the more exciting directors working today, and if Post Tenebras Lux lives up to the hype it should be unlike anything we’ve seen before. [CJ]

Mud (director Jeff Nichols)

Director Jeff Nichols is on a hot streak. His first feature Shotgun Stories was an indie sensation and had a lot of people singing his name from the rafters as a promising young director. Then his second feature with Michael Shannon (who is one of the top actors right now), Take Shelter, was a great step for the director. Working again with Shannon and few other top actors including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Paulson, Sam Shepard and Joe Don Baker (a personal favorite), Mud looks to be a winner with this pedigree working together. [Blake]

Moonrise Kingdom (director Wes Anderson)

The mere fact that it has been three years since Wes Anderson has graced us with his unprecedented style and passion is reason enough to want to see Moonrise Kingdom. The film is about capturing the feeling of being madly in love at the tender age of 12. Backed by the cast of his regulars, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzmann along with some Anderson newcomers Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton is another reason why I am excited to see this film. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Moonrise Kingdom

Mekong Hotel (director Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

I’ve only seen two movies by Joe (his nickname for people who have a hard time pronouncing his full name) but they’re both masterpieces. Joe’s films are so hypnotic, bizarre and immersive with their lack of focus on time or narrative that they can feel like they come from another plane of existence entirely. Mekong Hotel sounds like a horror film from its synopsis involving a cannibalistic ghost but things are never that simple with Joe’s movies. Here’s hoping that Mekong Hotel can live up to at least half of the quality of his other films. [CJ]

Rust and Bone (director Jacques Audiard)

Jacques Audiard made a great movie a few years ago called A Prophet which made my top ten list the year it came out. I then went back to watch his breakout feature The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which is one hell of a movie. Now comes Rust and Bone, with Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as a killer whale trainer who falls in love a man named Ali. There bond only grows stronger after Stephanie (Cotillard) suffers a horrible accident. [Blake]

The We and The I (director Michel Gondry)

Willing to overlook Michel Gondry’s previous Hollywood adventure The Green Hornet in hopes that he has returned to his old style of films that put him on the map as an acclaimed film director. His more avant-garde style of films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep show off his creativity as a visionary director. Not a lot is known about this film yet but the talk is the film is closer to his earlier work. Knowing his potential, it is hard not to look forward to see what Michel Gondry has come up with now. [Dustin]

Love (director Michael Haneke)

Michael Haneke is back from his massive success involving The White Ribbon with what looks like something on a smaller scale. As with most of Haneke’s films the information given out so far is limited. It involves a family whose lives change after the mother has “an attack.” Isabelle Huppert, who gave Haneke the Palme D’Or for White Ribbon, has what looks like a small role in this so hopefully their collaboration will be as good as when they got together for The Piano Teacher. Haneke is considered to be one of the best directors working today by some (including myself) so no matter what there will always be an excited audience for whatever Haneke does next. [CJ]

Killing Them Softly (director Andrew Dominik)

Formerly titled Coogan’s Trade, Andrew Dominik’s newest film has internet film geeks abuzz with its powerhouse cast being lead by the director who has made two fantastic features in Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and starring one of the biggest, if not the biggest actor on the planet Brad Pitt. Along with Pitt you got, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard (him again), James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta. Pitt plays a mob enforcer tasked with investigating the robbery of a mob run poker game. All this talent has me salivating at the mouth. [Blake]

Laurence Anyways (director Xavier Dolan)

The synopsis of Laurence Anyways, a man on this 30th birthday tries to save his relationship with his fiancé after telling her he wants to become a woman, made me curious enough to watch the trailer. After watching the trailer, it looks to be an emotional filled unique love story. Xavier Dolan’s first two films I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats also both premiered at Cannes cementing him as an acclaimed upcoming director. Unlike his previous films, in Laurence Anyways he decides to stay behind the camera instead of also acting in the film. [Dustin]

Cosmopolis (director David Cronenberg)

After making more conventional films for almost a decade, David Cronenberg appears to be diving head first into the weird-ass types of films that made him get so popular in the first place. It seems like people didn’t realize how much they missed the days of Dead Ringers or Videodrome until the first trailers for Cosmopolis came out, launching it straight into a position as one of the most anticipated films this year. Hopefully Cronenberg can live up to the hype that’s suddenly surrounded this movie in the last few weeks. [CJ]

Paradise:Love (director Ulrich Seidl)

Ulrich Seidl is a director I’ve never heard of before, but one that I will now follow, and the trailer has me completely sold. The subject matter sounds ripe for the picking and the style of the film, which looks like a documentary, will only add to how powerful the film could end up being. Taking place in a tropical paradise, a white middle aged woman who is on vacation becomes involved with a local a black man. Judging from the trailer, love and heartbreak look to be inevitable. [Blake]

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet! (director Alain Resnais)

This wasn’t on my radar at all until I saw the fantastic trailer for it along with the bizarre synopsis involving the massive star-studded French cast playing themselves performing a play they’ve all been in at some point throughout their careers after the playwright posthumously invites them to see a young theatre company perform the same play (you might need to read that a few times to fully understand it). Resnais is still going strong in his later years, and if anything his new movie is going to be one of the more unique titles in competition this year. [CJ]

The lineup announcement for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival came in today. We reported that Moonrise Kingdom from Wes Anderson would be opening the 65th annual festival. Today we learn that the film will also be in competition, which is not always the case. The festival runs from May 16th through May 27th 2012.

The biggest letdown is that P.T. Anderson’s The Master is not going to premiere at the festival like many had hoped. Other notable films missing were Terrence Malick’s untitled film and Quentin Tarantio’s Django Unchained.

The full lineup for 2012 Cannes Film Festival:

Moonrise Kingdom (director Wes Anderson)

Amour (director Michael Haneke)
The Angel’s Share (director Ken Loach)
Baad EL Mawkeaa (director Yousry Nasrallah)
Beyond The Hills (director Cristian Mungiu)
Cosmopolis (director David Cronenberg)
Holy Motors (director Leos Carax)
The Hunt (director Thomas Vinterberg)
In Another Country (director Hong Sang-Soo)
Im Nebels (Dans La Brume) (director Sergei Loznitsa)
Killing Them Softly (director Andrew Dominik)
Lawless (director John Hillcoat)
Like Someone In Love (director Abbas Kiarostami)
Moonrise Kingdom (director Wes Anderson)
Mud (director Jeff Nichols)
On The Road (director Walter Salles)
Paradies: Liebe (director Ulrich Seidl)
The Paperboy (director Lee Daniels)
Post Tenebras Lux (director Carlos Reygadas)
Reality (director Matteo Garrone)
Rust & Bone (director Jacques Audiard)
Taste Of Money (director Im Sang-Soo)
Vous N’Avez Encoure Rien Vu (director Alain Resnais)

Une Journee Particuliere (directors Gilles Jacob and Samuel Faure)
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath)
Dario Argento’s Dracula (director Dario Argento)
Io E Te (director Bernardo Berolucci)
Hemingway & Gellhorn (director Philip Kaufman)
Ai To Makoto (director Takashi Miike)

Miss Lovely (director Ashim Ahluwalia)
La Playa (director Juan Andres Arango)
Les Chevaus De Dieu (director Nabil Ayouch)
Trois Mondes (director Catheron Corsini)
Antiviral (director Brandon Cronenberg)
7 Days In Havana (directors Benicio Del Toro and Laurent Cantet and Gaspar Noe and more)
Le Grand Soir (directors Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern)
Laurence Anyways (director Xavier Dolan)
Despues De Lucia (director Michel Franco)
Aimer A Perdre La Raison (director Joachim Lafosse)
Mystery (director Lou Ye)
Student (director Darezhan Omirbayev)
La Pirogue (director Moussa Toure)
Elefante Blanco (director Pablo Trapero)
Confession Of A Child Of The Century (dir. Sylvie Verheyde)
11.25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate (director Koji Wakamatsu)
Beasts Of The Southern Wild (director Benh Zeitlin)

Der Mull Im Garten Eden (director Faith Akin)
Mekong Hotel (director Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Villegas (director Gonzalo Tobal)
A Musica Segundo Tom Jobim (director. Nelson Pereira Do Santos)
Journal De France (directors Claudine Nougaret and Raymond Depardon)
Les Invisbles (director Sebastien Lifshitz)
The Central Park Five (directors Ken Burns and Sarah Burns and David McMahon)
Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (director Laurent Bouzereau)

Therese D. (director Claude Miller)