I recently attended
TIFF for the 8
th year in a
row.
TIFF is held every September and
just concluded its 44
th festival, featuring over 300 films from around
the globe.
They just announced the
coveted
Grolsch People's Choice Award, which went to the WW2 satire, JoJo Rabbit.
Depending on who you talk to - they either
loved the movie or hated it, so it should be interesting to see where that film
winds up during awards season.
I did not
see JoJo Rabbit but 15 other films.
While
I will not review all 15, here are a few films that I think may deserve Oscar
attention and those that were underwhelming.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfZ70ZNw20pcpyKcBjTvJwGG8qr5H1mp-pfrBN61QulZ_VILKP-rABR6wSdFwjy7NyHZHATi_hjKsnDCVaytw3wYcUNzvdwqkPjM8ho3C5wMFVGk81k7zwrlUCSDv6Lf3umbIJROOhEyE/s400/renee.jpg) |
Renee Zellweger at the Judy premiere |
1 How to Build a Girl: Beanie Feldstein has been making a name
for herself in films like Lady Bird and Booksmart, proving that she’s just not
only Jonah Hill’s little sister.
Feldstein is perfectly cast to play Johanna, based on British writer Caitlin
Moran, who wrote the screenplay. (I hope this film gets a screenplay nod) Johanna
is a bored early 90s suburban teen with an active imagination and writing
talent. She enters a writing contest and becomes a music critic for a hipster
rag based on the NME, reinventing herself in the process. She becomes a meaner and sexier version of
her former self, estranging herself from her family in the process.
Feldstein is believable and hilarious in
the role and I also enjoyed the early 90s soundtrack featuring female fronted
bands like Elastica and Bikini Kill. It
also features a nice acting turn by Alfie Allen as Johanna’s musician crush and
Emma Thompson in a bit part as an editor who helps Johanna find her authentic
writing voice.
Bad Education: I was particularly excited to see this film
directed by Cory Finley, since it was about a school district scandal a couple
of towns over from where I grew up on Long Island. Hugh Jackman plays Frank Tassone, the Roslyn Schools
Superintendent who was convicted of embezzling millions from the district in
the early aughts. Allison Janney effectively
plays a school official who was also convicted of the same crime, funneling
school funds to pay for renovations on her Hamptons beach home.
The film captures the competitive culture
of the North Shore where school ranking and Ivy league admissions make people want
to live there.
Jackman is both sympathetic
and mystifying as Tassone, a closeted man who is dedicated to his students’
success but also steals from them.
In addition
to Jackman and Janney, the cast includes Ray Romano, Annaleigh Ashford, Stephen
Spinella and Australia’s Geraldine Viswanathan, who breaks the story in her
high school newspaper.
I would like to
see Jackman nominated, as this is his meatiest role in years and had me
convinced he was a local.
ETA:
HBO picked up Bad Education, so it won't be eligible for the Oscars. However, it will be eligible for the Emmys possibly in 2020.
3 Judy:
I had seen pictures of Renee Zellweger costumed and made up to be Judy Garland
in the last year of her life, prior to the film and she definitely looked the
part. But nothing prepared me to actually
see her act in the role and completely disappear. Zellweger also did vocal training to sound like
Garland in her later years, and her singing is quite effective. I predict that Zellweger is a lock for a best
actress nomination. The rest of the film,
directed by Rupert Goold, is quite good,
including flashbacks of Judy as a teen trying to rebel against movie boss Louis B
Mayer, but it’s definitely made special by Zellweger.
4 A Beautiful Day in the Neighboorhood: Like Zellweger, Tom Hanks does a
remarkable job becoming Fred Rogers, embodying his goodness and carefully
controlled emotions. He plays a
supporting role in this film to Matthew Rhys’ Esquire journalist, who has daddy
issues and learns to deal with his anger by interviewing and befriending
Rogers. Directed by Marielle Heller with
humor and sensitivity, the film never gets overly sentimental, yet the script
is a bit too predictable. Still this film
is worth seeing as a companion piece to last year’s excellent documentary “Wont
You Be My Neighbor.” I also predict an Oscar
nomination for Hanks. Whether it will be best actor or supporting, we shall see.
5 The Report: Written and directed by Scott Z
Burns, The Report examines the investigation led by Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette
Bening) and special investigator Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) into the CIA’s torture
practices (aka Enhanced Interrogation Techniques) post 9/11. Driver is excellent as he relentlessly tries
to bring to light that the techniques were illegal and not effective. I found
the ending of the film particularly home hitting with a speech by the late Senator
John McCain. The film also stars Jon
Hamm as a member of the Obama administration.
I hope the script gets a screenplay nod.
6 The Aeronauts:
Starring the Theory of Everything’s Eddie Redmayne and Felicity
Jones, this Amazon produced adventure about 1850s air travel via balloon is a
wild ride. The story is nothing too
extraordinary but the special effects and chemistry between the leads is. I hope this film gets some technical nods.
Disappointments
The Goldfinch:
Having read Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer prize winning novel and seeing the handsomely
shot trailer for this film, I was really looking forward to seeing this. Unfortunately, the film strips The Goldfinch
to its basic plot about a young boy named Theo who loses his mother in a
terrorist attack at the Metropolitan museum.
He winds up stealing a painting in the confusion and the film traces Theo’s
life over the next 15 years or so. The
richness of the characters is more or less gone and the film becomes a beautiful
bore, not helped by the lifeless performance of Ansel Elgort as the adult Theo.
(Oakes Fegley as young Theo is much better).
There are some bright spots in the performances including Finn Wolfhard’s
Boris, Theo’s Russian friend with a sketchy upbringing and Geoffrey Wright as
Hobie, the antiques artisan who becomes Theo’s surrogate parent.
The Laundromat:
Also written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Stephen Soderberg, the
Laundromat takes a satirical look at the
Panama Papers scandal of 2016, involving legal and illegal dealings of the 1%
and offshore accounts. Despite a stellar
cast led by Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, the film has too
many threads, some dropped and tries to be a bit too clever.
3 My Zoe: Written and directed by Julie Delpy, a
favorite of mine, this was a polarizing film for me. Delpy plays a devoted mother to Zoe, her eight
year old daughter, who suddenly grows ill from a brain injury. Delpy is going through a separation from her
husband, which complicates their custody issues of the little girl. Zoe eventually is pulled from life support
and her mother in an act of desperation, takes some of her tissue to see if she
can be cloned. The last third of the movie
was interesting and poses some interesting ethical questions, but I felt it
could’ve been a movie all on its own.
The happy shoe-horned ending doesn’t feel earned either.