They Shoot Oscar Prognosticators, Don't They?
TIFF Part 2: Room Wins at TIFF, Set for Best Pic Nod
By J. Don Birnam
September 21, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With the win, the movie has a more than decent shot at a Best Picture nomination (all but one of the past eight TIFF winners have gone on to receive at least a nod, and several of them a win), and Larson will find herself squarely at the center of awards chatter. But, if there is any justice, the eight-year old Jacob Tremblay should become the youngest nominee in Academy Awards history. He’s that good. Every step is calculated and poignantly shows the awe of discovery of the greatness of the world. Rounded up by a strong Joan Allen, Room will be one of the must-sees this fall season.
Room, of course, was not the only thing we saw over the jam-packed TIFF weekend. Our first group of solid TIFF viewings included the highly anticipated Matt Damon vehicle, The Martian, as well as the surprisingly surging Spotlight, which was the second runner-up at TIFF. Follow our other updates about the 40th Toronto International Film Festival on Twitter, and see how the reception of movies may affect the upcoming 88th Academy Awards. Check-out our coverage of the first weekend of TIFF here. We will have one more column reviewing TIFF movies after this one, including The Danish Girl, Beasts of No Nation, and Youth.
Please note that reviews necessarily contain thematic spoilers, although I will avoid using explicit plot spoilers if at all possible.
Spotlight: Another Good Bet for a Best Picture Nomination
Todd McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) penned and helmed one of the movies that got the most buzz out of Telluride last week and that did very well with the audience at TIFF this weekend. Spotlight tells the true story of how Boston Globe reporters uncovered the extent of priest abuse scandals in their community in 2002. The movie lives up to the hype and has landed squarely in the awards race.
At times, it was hard to separate rooting for the characters and admiration for the film. But one step removed, it is clear that the film itself is laudable. For starters, it is even-keeled throughout, almost exacting in its business-like approach to storytelling. It avoids common pitfalls in scandal-type stories by resisting the temptation to insert unrealistic setbacks or phony threats to the characters. It also avoids romantic involvement clichés.
All the while, the movie navigates a difficult topic and does it almost to perfection. The story is of the journalists - it is not the story of the victims or of the abusers even - and that story is told meticulously and conscientiously. One begins to feel the different moral judgments and questions that the reporters have to answer about themselves and their beliefs. To be sure, victims and abusers figure in the movie, but they are not the focus. Perhaps that is the one flaw one can ascribe to this otherwise genuinely gripping story (it feels like a 20 minute, not 120 minute movie), that the filmmakers took a facile road by not engaging with the characters that would have been more controversial to audiences.
Also noteworthy are the subtle but energetic performances by the entire cast, but most prominently by Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton, both of whom are now solidly in the lead for Best Supporting Actor nominations. At first, it seems as if their delivery is deadpan and lacking a proper accent. But we had a chance to sit through a Q&A with the reporters these two actors portray in the film, and I have seldom been stunned by such an exact imitation of voice, tone, and mannerisms. Both were that good.
In a day when journalistic integrity appears to be a pipe dream, where print media and investigative stories fade into the ether of the quick, 140 soundbite, Spotlight tells an urgent story, a resonant story about the importance of supporting that medium. The movie has no frills - no explosions, no chase scenes, and few unnecessary emotional outbursts. It is a simple, straightforward narrative, and I cannot run out of good things to say about it.
The Martian: Crowd-Pleaser, but Awards Status Uncertain
Perhaps my expectations were too high going into The Martian, and that is unfair to the movie. Indeed, Ridley Scott did a remarkable job of unpacking a highly complex novel into something digestible by audiences - if you are looking for the highbrow science of the book, look elsewhere - without completely detaching the viewer with incredible plot twists.
As far as it goes, the movie is entertaining, beautifully shot, and actually gripping even to those of us who knew what would happen at every turn. But in trying to simplify the book into the movie the filmmakers may have overreached and not trusted the audiences enough. The book had a general message about the good of the human collaborative spirit that came out of nowhere and sort of fell flat - the story had been mostly about the Martian until that twist strangely inserted itself. The movie, by contrast, had a great buildup into that message (they managed to make it about more than just Damon’s character - not surprisingly, given their bloated cast list), but then essentially failed to deliver on that promise as the movie unfolded. It made some of the characters and plot twists from the novel seem unnecessary and irrelevant in the movie. Nevertheless, it is a well-made and highly entertaining adaptation of difficult source material.
Other prognosticators still think that this movie is bound for a Best Picture nomination. I suppose that, with enough audience support at the box office, it would be too difficult for the Academy to ignore. As it stands, however, I have trouble seeing it get into the top category.
Ixcanul and A Foreign Oscar Race for the Ages
A true revelation for me this TIFF has been the Guatemalan submission to the Best Foreign Language Film race, Ixcanul (which, in Maya, means volcano). Shot almost entirely in the K’iche dialect of the Mayan language, the movie was made on a nickel and shot almost entirely near an active volcano. It tells the story of a Mayan family working on a plantation and the difficulties they face as they try to marry their daughter off. I will not give more of the plot away of this entrancing, beautiful poem to celebrate indigenous heritage while pointing out the myriad injustices they suffer in their society today - from corruption at the hands of police to inability to communicate because of poor education - other than to say that it is subtly emotional and tender, at the same time that it is unforgiving in forcing viewers to interact with the subject matter.
Perhaps even more fascinating was the explanation the director gave after the screening - that his inspiration was in part his mother, who at a young age went to work to help such indigenous communities; that he found the Maya-speaking actors basically on the street (they were a roving band of amateur actors); and that he filmed it almost entirely without electricity near the live volcano.
I do not know if Guatemala will make it to the final five this year - Hungary, Brazil, Taiwan, Norway and France all have strong contenders. But I will be surprised and disappointed if it does not make it into the bakeoff round of nine, and highly recommend it in any event.
The Rest so Far
Another welcome surprise was James White, by the producer of Marcy May Marlene, starring a stunning Cynthia Nixon and the revelation of Christopher Abbott (of Girls fame). The story is billed as the struggle of one young man to deal with his excessive behaviors in the face of deep familial changes. It is more accurately described, by spoiling something that is revealed within the first quarter of the movie, as the story of this man as he deals with having to take care of his terminally ill mother. The story is emotionally profound, devastatingly real, and unforgivingly sentimental. The cinematography is a character too - focused almost exclusively on close-ups of the title character, who frankly gives a riveting performance in what had to have been excruciatingly difficult working conditions. Indeed, in a Q&A after the movie, Abbott described the claustrophobia of such extended close-ups, while Nixon praised the agility with which the camera team pulled it off without truly disturbing the actors.
It shows, because the scenes of close, raw emotions are hard to conceive us as staged in front of a camera. One may quarrel a bit with the disjointed narrative of the film’s two or maybe three acts - it never seems to be both about White’s substance abuse and his mother’s illness (the two intersect at times and obviously live in the same plane, but only tangentially collide and transition from one to the other).
The movie picked up distribution at Sundance in January and will be released in November in the United States. Given its difficult subject matter, I do not expect it to figure in the awards race, but it is a powerful and honest examination of grief, loss, and addiction, and worth the price of admission.
Less interesting was the Chilean The Club, helmed by the Oscar nominated director of the Chilean No. The movie centers on a group of old priests banished to a house of penance in the Chilean coast, for a variety of crimes from the obvious pedophilia, to corruption, and stealing babies. The symbolism and artistry of the movie are profound and admirable at times - the no-frills scenery and shots, together with hyper-real acting and moving performances, make you feel as if you’re truly watching real-life people. The problem is it is not clear why we should care to watch them - some of the scenes are unnecessarily disturbing or uncomfortable, and the narrative arc fails to fall into a coherent point or message.
Finally, it is also a strong year for documentaries at the Oscars, it seems, with many already being thrown around as contenders. One that will not be in the conversation is Women He’s Undressed, by Gillian Armstrong, the acclaimed director of Little Women. Made as a sort of paean to Australia itself, it tells the story of famed but today-less known costume designer Orry-Kelly. The narrative style is clunky and even cartoonish, leaving the movie square out of contention, but the subject matter is fascinating to all film buffs.
Kelly was an openly gay men who was rumored to have had a love affair with Cary Grant. He dressed leading women from Greta Garbo to Bette Davis to Katherine Hepburn all the way through to Natalie Wood and Jane Fonda. He designed costumes as far ranging as Some Like it Hot, Gypsy, and Casablanca. He won three Academy Awards. Through interviews of other costume designers and leading ladies like Angela Lansbury, the film tells of a fascinating life in a time long gone by, but it will go no further than to tickle the fancies of movie dorks like me.