Hello Dayton937 & NEON Fans!
Today took some fun turns…including a great text from an old friend at Searchlight Pictures – offering me a great seat for tomorrow’s premiere of RENTAL FAMILY. I’m excited to fit in another public screening of a highly anticipated film. You’ll be able to read all about it tomorrow.
I started day #2 with a lesbian coming-of-age story – THE LITTLE SISTER (dir: Hafsia Herzi – France, Germany) “Hafsia Herzi’s sensitive and affecting coming-of-age drama The Little Sister tells the story of Fatima, a devout young Muslim woman, as she struggles to balance the dictates of her religion with her sexuality.” Beautifully shot with great performances, this synopsis really spells out this film. There’s nothing terribly new here, but it’s done very well and honestly…and the characters make it worth spending time with this film. (TIFF catalog) No trailer…but here’s a clip:
There wasn’t much to go on except for some name recognition for my next film – TUNER (dir: Daniel Roher – United States) “Documentarian Daniel Roher dazzles with his narrative debut, a whip-smart thriller about an unusual safecracker (Leo Woodall).” (TIFF catalog) Because it was starring Dustin Hoffman & Leo Woodall (who I loved in the ONE DAY series), I took a chance. The set-up, the characters, the writing…it was so fun. A piano tuner with a hearing disorder (where loud sounds cause terrible pain) stumbles into underground work as a safecracker. If you look at the scribblings I write in the dark, you would see that I was loving this film for the first 30+ minutes. I was writing things like “what a find” and “this is so fun.” Then it took some ridiculous turns and a lot of its charm was lost for me. Overall, I still liked the film…I just didn’t like how big and over-the-top it got.
There is no trailer yet for TUNER…just some still photographs. Here’s one:
After a cocktail with dear friend and former NEON Board member Susan Strong and her husband Bob (who now live in Minneapolis), I was off to my next film. While in line, a man behind me asked what films I had seen so far…and after chatting for a bit, he asked what I do. I told him I run an arthouse cinema in Ohio…and he asked if we were playing TWINLESS. I explained that we had just opened the film today…and that I was a fan of actor/director James Sweeney. To that, he pulled out his phone and called James and handed the phone to me. What a treat! This could only happen at TIFF! David Permut was the producer’s name, and he shared some details about upcoming productions he has in the works. And interestingly, he plans on producing the next film from Agnieszka Holland…who directed the next film I saw – FRANZ (dir: Agnieszka Holland – Czech Republic, Germany, Poland) “Toggling between past and present, the latest from filmmaker Agnieszka Holland is a masterful tour de force portrait of legendary writer Franz Kafka, who remains celebrated worldwide for his books, short stories, fables, and aphorisms.” (TIFF Catalog). I’ve been an admirer of Agnieszka Holland’s work since I saw EUROPA, EUROPA when I was 18, and her 1993 film THE SECRET GARDEN is one of my favorite adaptations of children’s literature. This new film is certainly Holland’s most experimental work. It’s a challenging film about a challenging author – working on multiple timelines and commenting on how he has been “clichéd” and turned into a tourist attraction in Prague. Holland and most of the cast were at this screening, and the Q&A added some very interesting insight into the film. Seeing Holland in person was a treat. Even during the Q&A, she was directing.
My last film of the night was ERUPCJA (dir: Pete Ohs – United States of America, Poland) “American filmmaker Pete Ohs observes the combustible chemistry between a Polish florist (Lena Góra) and a British tourist (Charli xcx) in this charming postcard of sapphic synchronicity.” (TIFF catalog) TIFF calls Pete Ohs an “American filmmaker,” but I’ll go one step further and call him and “Ohio filmmaker.” One of Ohs’ earlier films was called YOUNGSTOWN – a city just 20+ minutes from where I grew up (I have to find this movie). This new film stars CharliXCX – a musician/performer I’ve grown to admire more and more over the last couple years (her SNL sketches with Please Don’t Destroy were hysterical). With influences of the French New Wave, this little fly-by-night film was a stylized love letter to Warsaw. Ohs, as well as cast members Jeremy O. Harris, Will Madden and Lena Góra were in attendance. Once again, the Q&A added such great insight. Finding out exactly how Ohs approaches his films (without a script, without much of a crew, etc.) was both intriguing and inspiring.
There is no trailer yet for ERUPCJA – just still photos. Here is one of them:
And now it’s time for bed. I’ll be up in about 6 hours…ready to pack in screenings again tomorrow.
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan
Did you miss Jonathan’s Day 1 post?
