Cutting class and roaming to Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-13) is a beautiful thing. Over 300 films in… The Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-13) is a beautiful thing. Over 300 films in a little over a week. I caught 13 in my four-day trip. All of them were in grand theaters, all sold-out, packed with respectful, enthusiastic ‘film people.’ Most were introduced by their directors and/or actors. It was a blast. When I couldn’t possibly miss any more classes, I had to pry myself away from the festival. Afterward, going to the movies in Pittsburgh was almost unthinkable for a while — all the fanfare of the festival had spoiled me.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Here’s a look at 9 high-profile North American premieres I caught at the festival.

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‘The Human Stain:’ Director Robert Benton (‘Nobody’s Fool,’ ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’) turns Philip Roth’s novel into a film that’s not the sum of its parts, but has enough going for it to make it worthwhile. Anthony Hopkins plays Coleman Silk, a respected professor who falls victim to his university’s wrong-headed political correctness when he’s fired for innocently inquiring whether a couple of absentee students are ‘spooks,’ as in ‘ghosts;’ incidentally, the students turn out to be African Americans. Coleman has a secret past that makes his being labeled a racist even more outrageous — he reminisces on his painful youth as he romances Faunia (Nicole Kidman, sexy as ever), a suicidal janitor half his age. While the film’s various plotlines never quite gel, the film is handsomely shot and superbly acted. Ed Harris is a standout as Faunia’s lunatic ex-husband. (October 31)

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‘I Love Your Work:’ The festival hosted the world premiere of this showcase of Hollywood twentysomethings-on-the-rise — Giovanni Ribisi, Franka Potente, Joshua Jackson, Jason Lee, Christina Ricci, Nicky Katt and more — directed by busy young actor Adam Goldberg. You may not know it, but you’ve seen Goldberg in ‘Dazed and Confused,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and a ton of other films. The plot follows Gray Evans (Ribisi) — a mega movie star with a mega movie star wife (Potente) — who’s paranoid about fan obsession; he’s sure a stalker is going to kill him at any moment. Goldberg shows some filmmaking prowess, but the second half of his film is way too heavy-handed. Watching the film, a look from the other side at our obsession with celebrities, immediately after gawking at Christina Ricci in person was a bit weird. (TBA 2004)

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‘Elephant:’ Fresh off top film honors at the Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant’s (‘Drugstore Cowboy,’ ‘Good Will Hunting’) school-shooting drama took many filmgoers aback at its North American premiere. It is a stark, uncluttered look at a single day when tragedy — closely resembling that of Columbine — strikes an anonymous high school. Non-actors play honest, unforced personalities you’ll actually recognize from your high school. Van Sant’s film is comprised mainly of long, slow tracking shots that eventually start intersecting, creating a very tangible sense of a few key points in time and space. He manipulates time a great deal though — we know what’s coming and he keeps holding it back, pumping up the dread. The film is worth its buzz; Van Sant’s best in years and the most powerful film I saw at the festival. (Slated to open in Pittsburgh November 21)

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‘Dogville:’ My favorite of the festival. I have a hard-to-define love/fear relationship with the work of director Lars Von Trier (‘Breaking the Waves,’ ‘Dancer in the Dark’); his films are usually as alive as any art you’ll find these days, but also painful. They are bleak, harrowing journeys. I approached his ‘Dogville,’ a three-hour beast that left audiences scratching their heads at Cannes, with much trepidation. It is a long, slow cinematic burn, but also a staggering, unforgettable piece of work. Von Trier creates his tiny American town of Dogville on a soundstage, without proper sets. The houses are without walls — to our eyes at least — and represented only by chalk outlines. The concept takes a while to settle into, but achieves great effect. Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, a mysterious woman seeking sanctuary in Dogville from we-don’t-know-what (the law we presume). The townspeople agree to give her refuge, but only if she’ll help them with their daily tasks. As the arrangement plays out, the townspeople are slowly corrupted by their ability to control Grace, to make her do whatever they want under threat of being cast off. Kidman once again shines in an offbeat role. And the ending — you won’t believe your eyes. (TBA 2004)

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‘Coffee ‘amp; Cigarettes:’ Imagine my disappointment — the film that Jim Jarmusch, oddball genius and one of my favorite directors, has been piecing together since the ’80s turns out to be no better than hit-and-miss. Still, there are plenty of laughs in the film, essentially a collection of shorts — all featuring characters chatting over coffee and cigarettes — starring various cool names including Roberto Benigni, Cate Blanchett, Steve Buscemi, Bill Murray, Iggy Pop, the RZA, Tom Waits, the White Stripes and Steven Wright. And the film’s North American premiere was the place to be at the festival — Jarmusch was there — with an entourage — to present it and take questions after, and many celebs showed up just to check it out. Watching a film with Francis Ford Coppola sitting a few rows behind me was truly surreal. (TBA 2004)

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‘Haute Tension’ (aka ‘Switchblade Romance’): Okay, I snuck this one in here. It was hardly a high-profile premiere. Rather, it was part of the supercool ‘Midnight Madness’ series of screenings, where they put the festival’s more, um, ‘colorful’ films, usually bizarre and gory horror and sci-fi flicks. Seeing ‘Haute Tension,’ a ferocious French slasher film about two young girls in a secluded country home descended upon by a murderous truck driver, in the midst of so much classy, intellectual cinema was a riot — something like a shot of whiskey at afternoon tea. As director Alexandre Aja warned in his introduction, there’s not much worry about censorship in France, so blood flows freely in the film. Though I’d wager it’s far too gory to play American movie theaters, the film has been picked up by Lion’s Gate, the studio that recently released ‘Cabin Fever,’ for some level of release next spring.

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‘Love Actually:’ Man, this is a whole lot of romantic comedy. Cute, major studio romantic comedy. And just not what I was looking for at the time. It’s a mostly decent, occasionally clever film directed by Richard Curtis, writer of several hit British/American lovefests, including ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ and ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary.’ But in the context of the festival, it had so little edge that I struggled to pay attention. It’s got an impressive cast — including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Billy Bob Thornton and more — and it could be a big hit this holiday season, but I don’t think I could sit through it again. (November 7)

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’21 Grams:’ All the makings: exciting cast (Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts), exciting director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, following up his assured debut, ‘Amores Perros’) and way cool title (not the drug reference it seems to be, but rather a reference to the fact that everyone’s bodyweight drops 21 grams at the moment of death). The first half is exciting — the film frantically cuts between several different time periods without cluing you in on the proper chronology. If you thought ‘Pulp Fiction’ was fractured, you’ve seen nothing yet. After the halfway point, though, once you’ve pretty much figured out the timeline, there’s nothing left to discover in the film and the conclusion is a brooding drag. The plot swirls around a car accident that kills Watts’ character’s husband, gets Penn’s a heart and sends Del Toro’s to jail, and one other event — whether it happens before or after the accident, we don’t know at first — that causes the three to intersect one more time. Bummer. (Slated to open in Pittsburgh December 26)

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‘The Company:’ When iconic ’70s director Robert Altman misses the mark, he misses big time. Why he chose to indulge Neve Campbell’s ballet fantasy — the actress stars in the film, does all her own dancing, and receives ‘story by’ credit — I’ll never understand. Partway into the film, I was shocked to realize that ‘The Company’ is half concert film, frequently coming to a halt for lengthy ballet sequences. They look great, and the first few are interesting, but after that, I’d had enough. Plot is minimal; what little there is takes an unstructured look behind the scenes of a ballet company, focusing somewhat on Campbell’s character. There is some nice photography and overlapping dialogue that’s vintage Altman, and Malcolm McDowell gives his best performance in ages, but most of time I felt like nodding off. (Opens in limited release December 25)