TIFF 2017 Reviews: The Disaster Artist, Thelma, Brawl in Cell Block 99
Catching up on my reviews from the past few days, I am going to split up the past several days of screenings into a couple of review posts instead of posting individual posts for each review.
Starting off with Midnight Madness #2, "The Disaster Artist":
"The Disaster Artist" is James Franco's hilarious and seemingly very authentic re-telling of the infamous bad movie, "The Room", adapted from actor Greg Sestero. At first, when I had heard of the film, I thought it would be an interesting experiment at best, but I am happy to say Franco has succeeded in telling Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero's story with the right amounts of humour and heart. Whether you are a fan of "The Room" already like myself or a newcomer to the phenomenon, "The Disaster Artist" serves equally well as either a companion piece or a great starting point to gauge further interest in the original source material.
There has been some Oscar talk for James Franco and the film, and to be honest, I can't really see it. I think performances are fine all around and James Franco puts on a mean Tommy Wiseau impersonation, but to me, that's what it always felt like. In some biopics, the lead actor completely disappears into their role, even to the point you forget it's that actor playing a part. In this film, I always saw James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau. As said, he did a very good job and managed to bring empathy to an otherwise mysterious and quirky character, but there was still a level of separation in my engagement watching Franco and the cast re-create their various real life counterparts.
All in all though, I highly recommend "The Disaster Artist" when it comes out. It's a story of two outsiders wanting to make their filmmaking dream come true. As a filmmaker myself, I can relate to many aspects of Wiseau and Sestero's struggles to get their movie made. Given some of the intelligible sentences Franco's Wiseau says and overall eccentricities of his character, no dramatic moment ever has a supreme amount of weight to it. However, there are still moments of authentic emotion and heart on display, showing the hardships of making a movie and the struggle to be liked in a society that won't accept you. Although not quite the awards film some articles are billing it as, it's a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at a filmmaker who just wanted to make it big like the rest of us.
9/10
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Next up, "Thelma":
"Thelma", Joachim Trier's newest outing, serves as a mix-up of coming-of-age story, coming-out story, and supernatural thriller. While the film originally seems to veer away from Trier's past stories of human complexities such as Oslo: August 31st, Reprise or Louder than Bombs, "Thelma" is still very much in line with his past works at it's core.
Starting with an opening scene of a young Thelma and her father hunting in the woods, the film quickly sets an uneasy tone. As the father and daughter look on at a nearby deer, the father slowly turns his gun onto his daughter's head before stopping himself. From here, majority of the film focuses on Thelma in present day, played by Eili Harboe, as she begins having seizures and possibly some telekinetic powers after meeting new friend and love interest, Anja. I don't want to spoil much otherwise in the story department, but Trier unravels the mystery behind Thelma's powers and her family's tragic background with a sustained sense of tension and intrigue.
As the film comes into it's third act, not everything adds up quite as neatly as it could. Some moments are given adequate time to unravel on-screen while others feel rushed. Certain elements involving Thelma's powers are added with less explanation or time to digest than previous elements, sometimes putting into question the consistency of the rules Trier's film world sets for itself. The more surreal, nightmarish flourishes throughout lean more towards metaphor and overall tone than literal meaning, which I had no problem with, but could leave some viewers a little confused as they are never really explained.
Nevertheless, by keeping the film's world in the genre of supernatural thriller, Trier's "Thelma" serves as a mysterious journey of self-discovery that eschews the usual coming-of-age tropes we are accustomed to. Lead performances are strong all-around from the younger key cast members and Thelma's parents. Ola Fløttum's score is haunting and beautiful and likely will be one of my favourite scores of the festival (next to two other incoming films, which I will address in my next round of reviews). After I saw Trier's film, "Oslo August 31st" for the first time, I knew this would be a director to look out for. I am glad that since that time, he has continued to put out equally engaging and thought-provoking content across different genres.
8/10
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Now onto my third Midnight Madness outing, "Brawl in Cell Block 99":
Writer-director S. Craig Zahler is a talent who will be staying on my radar from now on. Initially he caught my attention with the excellent and eerie "Bone Tomahawk" and his new film, "Brawl in Cell Block 99" continues in the same vein of slow-burn build-ups and bursts of extreme violence.
Vince Vaughn stars as Bradley (not Brad), a drug runner who just wants to settle with his wife and kids, only to be swept up into a bad deal and some serious jail time. From there, Bradley is forced to fight his way into increasingly dark and grimy maximum security prison quarters to save the ones he loves.
The film has the look and feel of 70s thrillers with it's use of retro-style soundtrack (partly composed by Zahler as well), a stripped down (and sometimes cheap looking) visual style, and frequently blunt, to-the-point dialogue. Vince Vaughn puts out a well-rounded, physically demanding performance that reminded me the stern and silent demeanors of Charles Bronson or Lee Marvin in John Boorman's "Point Blank". That said, it still feels very much set in modern day and doesn't go for a faux old film look to get it's stylistic influences across.
A brief note that while much of the film's cinematography is suitably gritty and dark given the confines of the prisons Bradley must navigate through, some earlier scenes using a blue and desaturated colour palette reminded me more of ultra low-budget straight-to-video action flicks than of the bleaker film world we are introduced to.
The first hour takes its time to build up the tensions and conflict before unleashing a series of nasty fist fights and bloody beat downs for the remainder of the film's duration. While I liked that Zahler took his time to introduce us to the different characters at play and I appreciated getting to know both Bradley and his wife (played by Jennifer Carpenter) as they try to make their marriage work following a rough patch early in the film, I feel the film could have used some tightening. "Bone Tomahawk" had a similarly lengthy build up before the action starts up, but to me, it felt more natural. Perhaps the character banter and occasional moments of humour from Zahler's previous outing helped smooth out a similar 132-minute runtime.
When the violence does kick in and the stakes are raised dramatically by the always appreciated presence of Udo Kier, the film does pick up and reward its audience's patience with uninterrupted takes of brutal violence. In fact, the punches, bone-breaking and face grinding looked and sounded so disgustingly real that watching John Woo's "Manhunt" later on left me unsatisfied in it's use of stock punching and kicking sound effects.
While the film's pacing and more gruesome thrills may not be for everyone, I can still safely recommend "Brawl in Cell Block 99" for fans of Zahler's previous work, Vince Vaughn's performance, and for some of the best hand-to-hand fight choreography I've seen in some time.
7/10
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More reviews to come soon!
Starting off with Midnight Madness #2, "The Disaster Artist":
"The Disaster Artist" is James Franco's hilarious and seemingly very authentic re-telling of the infamous bad movie, "The Room", adapted from actor Greg Sestero. At first, when I had heard of the film, I thought it would be an interesting experiment at best, but I am happy to say Franco has succeeded in telling Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero's story with the right amounts of humour and heart. Whether you are a fan of "The Room" already like myself or a newcomer to the phenomenon, "The Disaster Artist" serves equally well as either a companion piece or a great starting point to gauge further interest in the original source material.
There has been some Oscar talk for James Franco and the film, and to be honest, I can't really see it. I think performances are fine all around and James Franco puts on a mean Tommy Wiseau impersonation, but to me, that's what it always felt like. In some biopics, the lead actor completely disappears into their role, even to the point you forget it's that actor playing a part. In this film, I always saw James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau. As said, he did a very good job and managed to bring empathy to an otherwise mysterious and quirky character, but there was still a level of separation in my engagement watching Franco and the cast re-create their various real life counterparts.
All in all though, I highly recommend "The Disaster Artist" when it comes out. It's a story of two outsiders wanting to make their filmmaking dream come true. As a filmmaker myself, I can relate to many aspects of Wiseau and Sestero's struggles to get their movie made. Given some of the intelligible sentences Franco's Wiseau says and overall eccentricities of his character, no dramatic moment ever has a supreme amount of weight to it. However, there are still moments of authentic emotion and heart on display, showing the hardships of making a movie and the struggle to be liked in a society that won't accept you. Although not quite the awards film some articles are billing it as, it's a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at a filmmaker who just wanted to make it big like the rest of us.
9/10
-----
Next up, "Thelma":
"Thelma", Joachim Trier's newest outing, serves as a mix-up of coming-of-age story, coming-out story, and supernatural thriller. While the film originally seems to veer away from Trier's past stories of human complexities such as Oslo: August 31st, Reprise or Louder than Bombs, "Thelma" is still very much in line with his past works at it's core.
Starting with an opening scene of a young Thelma and her father hunting in the woods, the film quickly sets an uneasy tone. As the father and daughter look on at a nearby deer, the father slowly turns his gun onto his daughter's head before stopping himself. From here, majority of the film focuses on Thelma in present day, played by Eili Harboe, as she begins having seizures and possibly some telekinetic powers after meeting new friend and love interest, Anja. I don't want to spoil much otherwise in the story department, but Trier unravels the mystery behind Thelma's powers and her family's tragic background with a sustained sense of tension and intrigue.
As the film comes into it's third act, not everything adds up quite as neatly as it could. Some moments are given adequate time to unravel on-screen while others feel rushed. Certain elements involving Thelma's powers are added with less explanation or time to digest than previous elements, sometimes putting into question the consistency of the rules Trier's film world sets for itself. The more surreal, nightmarish flourishes throughout lean more towards metaphor and overall tone than literal meaning, which I had no problem with, but could leave some viewers a little confused as they are never really explained.
Nevertheless, by keeping the film's world in the genre of supernatural thriller, Trier's "Thelma" serves as a mysterious journey of self-discovery that eschews the usual coming-of-age tropes we are accustomed to. Lead performances are strong all-around from the younger key cast members and Thelma's parents. Ola Fløttum's score is haunting and beautiful and likely will be one of my favourite scores of the festival (next to two other incoming films, which I will address in my next round of reviews). After I saw Trier's film, "Oslo August 31st" for the first time, I knew this would be a director to look out for. I am glad that since that time, he has continued to put out equally engaging and thought-provoking content across different genres.
8/10
-----
Now onto my third Midnight Madness outing, "Brawl in Cell Block 99":
Writer-director S. Craig Zahler is a talent who will be staying on my radar from now on. Initially he caught my attention with the excellent and eerie "Bone Tomahawk" and his new film, "Brawl in Cell Block 99" continues in the same vein of slow-burn build-ups and bursts of extreme violence.
Vince Vaughn stars as Bradley (not Brad), a drug runner who just wants to settle with his wife and kids, only to be swept up into a bad deal and some serious jail time. From there, Bradley is forced to fight his way into increasingly dark and grimy maximum security prison quarters to save the ones he loves.
The film has the look and feel of 70s thrillers with it's use of retro-style soundtrack (partly composed by Zahler as well), a stripped down (and sometimes cheap looking) visual style, and frequently blunt, to-the-point dialogue. Vince Vaughn puts out a well-rounded, physically demanding performance that reminded me the stern and silent demeanors of Charles Bronson or Lee Marvin in John Boorman's "Point Blank". That said, it still feels very much set in modern day and doesn't go for a faux old film look to get it's stylistic influences across.
A brief note that while much of the film's cinematography is suitably gritty and dark given the confines of the prisons Bradley must navigate through, some earlier scenes using a blue and desaturated colour palette reminded me more of ultra low-budget straight-to-video action flicks than of the bleaker film world we are introduced to.
The first hour takes its time to build up the tensions and conflict before unleashing a series of nasty fist fights and bloody beat downs for the remainder of the film's duration. While I liked that Zahler took his time to introduce us to the different characters at play and I appreciated getting to know both Bradley and his wife (played by Jennifer Carpenter) as they try to make their marriage work following a rough patch early in the film, I feel the film could have used some tightening. "Bone Tomahawk" had a similarly lengthy build up before the action starts up, but to me, it felt more natural. Perhaps the character banter and occasional moments of humour from Zahler's previous outing helped smooth out a similar 132-minute runtime.
When the violence does kick in and the stakes are raised dramatically by the always appreciated presence of Udo Kier, the film does pick up and reward its audience's patience with uninterrupted takes of brutal violence. In fact, the punches, bone-breaking and face grinding looked and sounded so disgustingly real that watching John Woo's "Manhunt" later on left me unsatisfied in it's use of stock punching and kicking sound effects.
While the film's pacing and more gruesome thrills may not be for everyone, I can still safely recommend "Brawl in Cell Block 99" for fans of Zahler's previous work, Vince Vaughn's performance, and for some of the best hand-to-hand fight choreography I've seen in some time.
7/10
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More reviews to come soon!
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