They Shoot Oscar Prognosticators, Don't They?
TIFF Part 3: The Danish Girl Dazzles
By J. Don Birnam
September 22, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Youth and The Danish Girl: Powerful Performances
An emerging theme in this year's Oscar race is that stunning performances abound even if the vehicles themselves are lacking. Having seen over 15 movies at TIFF this weekend, I'm joining my voice to that chorus.
In Paolo Sorrentino's Youth, the follow-up to the 2013 Best Foreign Language Film winner The Great Beauty, the biggest draw is the wide, strong cast. The story centers around two aging friends, Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel (both on point, as usual), who are on vacation in an expensive Swiss hotel and must contemplate the meaning of their lives. The movie is exceedingly crafty - the music, the shots, the costumes are all exaggerated, and the supposedly poetic and symbolic quirky scenes abound. I did not quite connect with the obviously pretentious exuberance and excesses of the narrative - a woman shot playing Just Dance repeatedly is supposed to be some sort of allegory for beauty I gather - but the acting is undeniable.
Joining Caine and Keitel are a gorgeous Rachel Weisz, a scandalous Jane Fonda, and a somewhat muted Paul Dano (who, by the way, is having a great year). I expect this movie to do well with the Academy - it is basically about getting old while rich and famous, and it has nude scene after nude scene of undeniably stunning women. Like The Great Beauty, it should play right into their wheelhouse and many are predicting it to get a Best Picture nomination. It will not be on my top movies of the year list, that's for sure.
The Danish Girl, on the other hand, may very well be. Directed by Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) and starring Eddie Redmayne and a surging Alicia Vikander (who also starred in the indie hit Ex Machina earlier this year), the movie tells of the touching story of an important symbol in the transgender community. I thought Redmayne's Oscar last year was a travesty, particularly since he defeated a much more guttural Michael Keaton, but he proved me wrong with one of the best performances by any actor this year. He could honestly become just the third back-to-back Best Actor winner in Academy history (Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks have done it, too).
His performance is deeply personal, moving, and exquisite. Meanwhile, Vikander is a revelation herself, although her awards-status is uncertain given the crowded field this year. But, unlike Youth, I think this movie is strong all around, and not just for its acting. The artistry and symbolism in The Danish Girl is infinitely more subtle and therefore more moving than the in-your-face style of Youth. Alexander Desplat's score is emotional and romantic, and should find itself in the list of five come Oscar time. But, and I never thought I'd say this about Hooper, the directing is strong, too. With perhaps a choppy third act, Hooper weaves beautifully between the lives of the two main characters.
Although it is easy to assume that the title refers to Redmayne's character, it is at least debatable that it refers to his wife's as well. And although it is easy to assume that the story is just about Redmayne's gender identity issue, it is at least debatable that the story is really about the relationship between him and the ever-present wife. For that reason, complaints that the movie does not delve deep into issues of gender identity are besides the point. The movie is, first and foremost, a love story.
In the end, I would be surprised and somewhat disappointed if The Danish Girl didn't receive a Best Picture nod. Yes, many movies have explored transgender issues before and this movie is much more stylized and less gut-wrenching then those. But as an artistic exploration of the life of the two characters (themselves artists), it transcends that issue by miles and is worthy on its own merit.
It is hard to pick between Spotlight (another movie with strong performances, as we said in the last column) and The Danish Girl for my favorite movie of TIFF, but it is certainly between those two.
The Beasts of No Nation Puzzle
The latest film by the director of HBO's True Detective Cary Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation, got a lot of buzz out of Telluride and also did well at TIFF. It tells the story of a young boy in an unnamed West African country who is forced to join a small militia after his family is killed by the military. The biggest revelation in the movie is the performance of the young Abraham Attah, who plays the lead character - what a year for child actors, I guess. The movie is at times violent and unforgiving, and some have speculated that this will make it inaccessible or unwatchable. That is perhaps the case, although I did not find it any more difficult than one would expect from this type of movie.
The real problem with the movie is that the narrative rambles at times, and the plot almost vanishes entirely in the third act. Upon further reflection, it is perhaps likely that the disjointed, almost senseless narrative is a subtle allegory for the whole point of the movie - that these wars are senseless, empty, meaningless and meandering. But is that a point that really needed to be made? I suppose raising awareness of the issue of child warriors is the point of the film. Overall, there are some beautifully artistic scenes - as the character's reality blends into dreams and hallucinations - and Idris Elba also provides a worthy performance. I'm still not sure what to make of its awards chances - some critics will undoubtedly like it a lot, but I think the movie will prove too divisive and, if the disjoined-narrative really is purposeful, too subtle to be widely appreciated.
The Rest
Oh, I guess is it somewhat burying the lede to mention that we also went to the world premiere of Roland Emmerich's Stonewall, attended by the disaster-movie director himself and the entire cast, including leading man Jeremy Irvine. Kudos to Emmerich for the effort of making a movie about this important landmark in LGBT history, but unfortunately the project simply does not work. The story really isn't even about the Stonewall Riots - it's more about the main character's struggles resulting out of his sexuality and the fact that he comes from a small town. But even the analysis of that story is superficial and unoriginal, and by the time the riots come, you feel like rioting against the movie itself.
On the other hand, the interesting documentary He Named Me Malala has a greater than zero chance of finding awards buzz. It tells of the life of the eponymous humanitarian and her struggles for the education of young girls around the globe. The film is informative and moving, and it really shows a personal, youthful side of the larger-than-life character. The movie also features well-drawn scenes that recount the past, and an interesting exploration of the relationship between Malala and her father. It is not an earth-shattering movie by any means, but the subject matter is somewhat irresistible and may prove so to the Academy.
Our final movie was the Emma Watson and Daniel Bruhl thriller Colonia. Like Stonewall, the movie is a fictionalized drama set against the backdrop of a true story, in this case, the military coup and dictatorship in Chile in 1973. And, like Stonewall, the dichotomy ultimately dooms the movie. As an action film, Colonia is entertaining and tense. But, supposedly set in a real life cult/colony condoned by the Chilean and German governments at that time, the movie feels simply too unbelievable. In some ways, it's a clear attempt to remake Argo - exaggerating events surrounding a real story, and it falls even flatter.
With that, the solid 40th Toronto International Film Festival came to a close. But there is no rest for the weary, as the 53rd New York Film Festival starts on Saturday. So we will do this all over again over the next couple of weeks, as we preview Robert Zemeckis's The Walk, Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, Carol, Brooklyn, and foreign language Oscar entries like Hungary's Son of Saul and Taiwan's The Assassin.
Keep your eye on this space and as usual follow live updates on Twitter.