Spencer Le Fou: A film blog of sorts.

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 Fr...

Despite it's lengthy title (there are a fair number of them this year in the festival),  Mike van Diem's "Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle" is short and sweet and pretty much what I was looking for in a week of my otherwise mostly dark and violent film selections. The story follows Anna, a young Montreal woman with Italian family heritage. Following her mother's final wish to have her ashes scattered in her home town, Anna travels out to Italy to discover the complicated and wacky history regarding her father and mother's relationship. Throw in some murder accusations, loan sharks, and loads of tulips and you have quite the plot. Despite the twists and turns, the film isn't particularly deep and nor is it trying to be. Some sequences veer from lighthearted into ridiculous, but I went along for the ride and tried not to overthink anything. A few heavier dramatic scenes land more successfully than I expected and the performances all around are so...

"Occidental", directed by artist Neïl Beloufa, is a strange, suspenseful and engaging piece of retro-style cinema. Shooting in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a decidedly theatrical approach to the film's setting and look, "Occidental" gives off vibes of early Jean Luc-Godard and other New Wave filmmakers. The plot revolves around two maybe-gay, maybe-Italian lovers who book a room at the Hotel Occidental amidst rioting on the streets outside. The manager of the hotel is instantly suspicious and prejudiced towards the couple, but there is more than meets the eye to the various players in the story. I instantly fell in love with the look of the film, and much of the narrative proceedings kept me engaged throughout, but it was not wrapped out in a fully satisfying fashion. Not all questions needed to be answered and I still enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere the film kept, but I wasn't quite given much in narrative payoff by the time the credits rolled. The fil...

"Youth", Feng Xiaogang's newest drama follows a military arts troupe through the 1970's, in the years leading up and continuing past Chairman Mao's death. The film focuses on the various young members of the troupe, primarily of a newcomer and outcast to the group, He Xiaoping. The troupe essentially serves as a second family to many of the troupe members and we see the different relationships that flourish, transform, and break down over the years. Beautifully composed and staged, my favourite sequences of the film were the moments where no words are spoken, whether they be moments of silence or in the lengthy musical theatre pieces the troupe performs. Xiaogang and cinematographer, Pan Luo, shoot the bulk of the film in sweeping camera movements, leading up to a performance, on stage, and during the later scenes of battle. To be honest, this is one of the most visually mesmerizing films I have seen in some time, which was one of the things that caught my e...

Samba is the follow up from directing duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, whose last film, The Intouchables , was a film that was filled with touching moments, lots of laughs, and had two amazing leads. Nakache and Toledano's are collaborating again with Omar Sy, who plays the title role. Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg both command every scene that they are in, bringing many laughs, and are one of the main strengths of Samba . In this outing, the directors still bring plenty of the same charm, as well as some more dramatic material to play with, although I did not find myself quite as engaged as I was with The Intouchables . The chemistry between Sy and Gainsbourg is strong, but I feel the more dramatic elements present could have played a much bigger part. While the abundant humour and more crowd pleasing elements of the film (mostly) worked, I would have liked to see a bit more weight given to the issues with France's immigration laws instead of the romantic aspects ...

Kill Me Three Times , directed by Kriv Stenders, reminded me of the close-knit noir-ish thrillers of the 90's like Red Rock West , U-Turn , or The Last Seduction , with the exception that Stenders' film is set against a lush Australian backdrop and I enjoyed this film much more than the others mentioned. Along with the aforementioned titles, Kill Me Three Times also feels like the works of Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino, with a bit of Stenders' own polished touch as well. The fact that Stenders' film feels like familiar territory in style, that is one of the film's few detractors. James McFarland's script is filled with twists and turns that push his backstabbing and conniving characters in directions you don't always expect. While the performances are all solid, the two standouts are Simon Pegg playing a clumsy, but cool hitman and Teresa Palmer as an irritable and equally evil housewife. To give much in the way of plot details would spoil the fun, but...

Big Game , Jalmari Helander's follow up to Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale , is a wholly enjoyable sendback to the action-adventure movies that filled my childhood. During the first 10 minutes, I will admit I thought I was going to be in for a straight-to-DVD quality action movie with the initial setup and extremely exposition-heavy dialogue. Luckily, Helander cuts to the action pretty quick after that, and his vision became clear. Instead of attempting anything really serious, Helander knows exactly the movie he is making and throws logic out the window after the twenty minute mark. From there, things only got better. By far the most fun I have had at the festival so far, Samuel Jackson (as the president of the United States) and Onni Tommila have a good bit of chemistry bouncing back at each other throughout the movie. While the sheer lack of plausibility might deter some, I recommend embracing the ludicrousness of the scenario Helander has presented. There is plenty of humour, ...