Yesterday majority of the lineup for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2013 were announced. The festival will run from September 5 to September 15, 2013.
I'm excited that I will be working the festival for a second year. And what a year! 2013 has an incredibly strong lineup of films. Here is a link to the TIFF website that has the recently announced list. http://tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming Among some of the films that I'm excited for and would love to see... praying to the film gods.
Blue is the Warmest Color (Cannes 2013 Palme D'or Winner)
Directed
by Nicolas Winding Refn. Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya
Pansringarm and Rhatha
Phongam.Written by: Nicolas Winding Refn. Released
July 2013.
Only God Forgives follows Julian (Ryan Gosling) a drug
smuggler in the criminal world of Bangkok, Thailand who runs a Thai boxing club
on the side. After the death of his
older brother, Billy, Julian’s mother, who happens to be the head of the crime
organization, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) arrives and is intent on seeking
revenge that sets off a mob war in the streets of Bangkok.
On
paper this sounds promising, right?
Sadly,
unlike with Drive, the final product
is not as promising. It borders along the clichéd type of film
people think you watch when you tell them you are/were a film major.
Nicolas
Winding Refn is a talented and promising director/writer, who I have to at
least respect for not being afraid to try something and stick with his vision
as an artist. It will be interesting to
see what his future work will be and if he learns and takes anything away from
this film and the criticism it got. If
anything, it will become a cult hit and will be known as the film that got booed
at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Aesthetically
the film is lovely to look at and extremely detailed. The framing and blocking
of the shots, along with the cinematography and lighting (including a heavy red
motif) can be used as a teaching tool for film production classes. The problem
lies in the script and its storytelling.
There
seemed to be more of a focus on making the film look good and relying on a
talented cast, than fleshing out a proper story. The character of Julian seems almost traumatized
and monotone throughout the film. His facial expressions- or expression are a lesson in what a
proper poker face is. His voice (expect in one scene) is also flat and void of
expression. This is for sure done on purpose and Julian has built a big wall
around him. We are given a little information near the end as to why he is like
this. He keeps to himself and no one,
including the audience really knows much about him. He just seems to go through
the motions. To quote his mother: "I don't understand you, and I never will."
To
add to the confusion, Julian’s reality and sub consciousness blend and at times
it is hard to tell what is real and what is not. There is an odd theme and focus that is only
partly explained on Julian’s hands and his fascination with “entering females”
in a sexual nature, to put it lightly, and this also includes placing his hand
inside his mother’s uterus. We might have a slight idea why there is this
focus, and it has a David Cronenberg look and feel to it, but majority of the time it doesn't have the same critical tone and analysis as Cronenberg and doesn't fully serve in pushing
the plot and story further.
Kristin
Scott Thomas as Crystal shows her versatility and talent as an actress once
again, and is my favourite performance in the film, but at times her character seems
to belong more on Jersey Shore than the head of a drug organization.
I
like films that don’t explain everything and spoonfeed the audience, but the
storytelling is very minimal (and not minimalist in a good way) that the film feels like a flow of scene to
scene just depicting both sides of the war going after each other in violent
fashion. It feels more like a video game at times than a medium for true
storytelling. It seems that Nicolas is trying
too hard to be intellectual and without really giving you anything to think
about.
Beside being technically brilliant and displays Nicolas Winding Refn's talent on that end, the last of story and minimal dialogue is just too frustrating.
