Hello Dayton937 & NEON Fans,
Day #3 didn’t start off the way I had hoped. At 8:00 every morning, there’s a chance to get last-minute, public tickets for the day…and I sadly didn’t get anything for the mid-afternoon slots that I wanted. This isn’t a huge surprise since it’s the first Saturday of the festival. Tickets are at a premium. I did get in line for a movie I wanted to see this morning, and arriving an hour early seemed like a good idea. It was…but it wasn’t. When I got to the TIFF Lightbox (the venue for the screening), there were already a hundred people in line. I was glad I got there early – until I realized they were mostly there for a different film. I was there for STEVE, and they were mostly there for an even later film called THE TESTAMENT OF ANNA LEE (which I had on my list…but didn’t fit with the rest of my day). I’m hoping a screening of ANNA LEE get added – as I would like to see it.
My first film of the day was a powerful one. STEVE (dir: Tim Mielants – Ireland, United Kingdom) “Oscar winner Cillian Murphy anchors this gripping adaptation of a bestselling novella from 2023. Faced with ever-increasing pressures, the head of a crumbling reform school for boys navigates a pivotal, fraught day while clinging to a fading sense of hope.” (TIFF catalog) This story is set on the day when a camera crew has descended on this school to do a interest piece. The pairing of lead actor & director (who both worked together on SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE) is a strong partnership…but everyone in this ensemble is terrific – the teachers, the staff, the cameracrew, the boys (it was nice to see Tracey Ullman in a dramatic (but sometimes still funny) role). It’s a film that’s scary, touching and emotionally taxing, and I wish all people who deal with at-risk youth would see it…as well as people who deal with funding issues. This statement from the TIFF catalog sums it up beautifully. “STEVE is a bruised elegy for institutions under siege and a character study shaped by the courage of those who persist within them; a chamber piece of forceful commitment, lost boys, and stubborn acts of hope.” Sadly, I think this film will get lost in the heap of Netflix and not get a proper theatrical release.
Next up was highly anticipated…as I’m a big Saoirse Ronan fan. It’s been fun watching Ronan grow up on screen at TIFF – from ATONEMENT to BROOKYN to LADY BIRD to ON CHESIL BEACH to this new film – BAD APPLES (dir: Jonatan Etzler – United Kingdom) ” The satirical thriller Bad Apples stars Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) as a primary school teacher forced to take drastic action because of a foul-mouthed, violent student, and uncovers how her community will turn a blind eye to the most outrageous events to preserve harmony and their sense of safety.” (TIFF catalog) I had no idea that this film would be so thematically similar to my first of the day…but tonally, theses films are from completely different planets. This dark, satirical comedy starts off with notes of honesty and then goes bonkers. That said, you can’t wait to see what happens next. At its core, it’s a film about teachers being under-resourced for at-risk kids…but it also has a lot to do with how the public will turned blind eyes to issues if their lives are better due to someone else’s pain and suffering. There’s a lot to un-package about what could easily be tossed aside as just a dark comedy.
There is no trailer yet for BAD APPLES, just a still photo.
An friend from Searchlight got me a prime-seat ticket to the world premiere of my last film for today – RENTAL FAMILY (dir: HIKARI – United States of America, Japan) “Oscar winner Brendan Fraser stars as an American actor in Tokyo who suffers a colossal case of impostor syndrome when he becomes a professional surrogate in this wise and whimsical dramedy from director HIKARI (TIFF ’19’s 37 Seconds).” (TIFF catalog) This crowd-pleaser of a film is full of laughs…but with an undercurrent of sadness. Brendan Fraser plays Phillip, a man who lives alone in Japan (with a REAR WINDOW-like vantage point from his apartment) – feeling quite lonely and trying to find acting roles. He stumbles upon a company that wants him to be substitute character in people’s lives – a man to introduce to your parents, an author to interview your father so he can feel special in his old age, a dad so your daughter can have two parents when interviewing for a prestigious school. It’s a fascinating concept (I have seen this concept before in a Yorgos Lanthimos film called THE ALPS…though not at all a crowd-pleaser), and the director confirmed that it’s an actual business in Japan. Though the service fills some familial gaps, it can also be dangerous work – physically and emotionally – for both client and actor. The film got a nice standing ovation, and HIKARI and Fraser did a nice Q&A. I think this film will be well received by audiences later this season.
I should be back to 4 films tomorrow. We’ll see.
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan
Catch Jonathan’s previous tiff posts:
Day 1 post
Day2 post
