TIFF Diary #5: Disappointing Oscar bait and a surprise favourite

by Baby Clyde

Hugh Jackman and Florian Zeller on the set of "The Son"

Today I had no mid-film snooze problems. The screenings started at midday with Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own play The Son. I saw the original London production back in 2019: Great performances. Terrible play. Though Zeller has ironed out some of the innate staginess of the source material The Son can’t overcome the fact that this is not a play about the teenage depression epidemic but rather about absurdly inept parenting. The choices made are so ludicrous and the reasoning so shallow I laughed out loud on numerous occasions. They also kept the queasily distasteful, possible twist as a coda which is no less objectionable on film than it was on the stage. Sir Anthony pops up briefly in what is presumably a reprise of his character from The Father. He makes more impact in three minutes than the rest of the cast do in the other two hours of contrived torment. Consider it the first proper clunker of this Oscar season.

Empire of Light was next and has seemingly been genetically engineered in a film lab to garner Oscar noms...

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TIFF: Melissa Barrera and Paul Mescal in the Dazzling ‘Carmen’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There have been many films recently about young women crossing the border from Mexico to the United States and coming across someone whose attitude towards illegal immigrants softens considerably after the chance meeting. But Carmen is something different entirely, an update of much older material, based on a Seville-set novella and opera from the 1800s by Prosper Mérimée. This time the setting is present day in surroundings that will be more familiar to audiences but just as enchanting…

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Tennessee Williams @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

Vivien Leigh accepts her second Oscar in 1952.

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1951 is coming at the end of the month, bringing with it a revisit to the first Tennessee Williams adaptation to catch the Academy's eye. Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire marked the start of a period when Hollywood couldn't get enough of the American playwright, bringing most of his celebrated texts to the screen in big studio productions that attracted the cream of the talent crop of filmmakers and actors. These projects were incredibly captivating for the latter, with their guarantee of juicy roles prone to critical acclaim. Over just fourteen years, 19 performances were Oscar-nominated, and five won. 

Let's explore the list of AMPAS-approved Williams adaptations, find out where one can watch them, and share some Oscar trivia along the way... 

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Jane Austen Done Right

by Cláudio Alves

Recently, Nathaniel reviewed Netflix's Persuasion adaptation, pointing out many of the film's issues. That said, our beloved editor is not an Austenite, so his critique lacks the militant outrage you could expect from the writer's biggest fans. Speaking as one of those demented individuals, I found the latest adaptation to be terrible beyond belief, starting from its basic premise. After all, why would one choose Austen's most melancholic, wistful, and mature novel for this Fleabag-esque treatment full of anachronistic jokes and fourth-wall-breaking jests? Isn't something like Northanger Abbey better suited for such an interpretation? The whole thing is a panoply of bad choices.

Still, while the new movie is terrible, the impulse to modernize Jane Austen's writing isn't necessarily wrong-headed. One just has to understand each text's particularities. The author's work is eminently cinematic and quite malleable when handled well. To prove its endless plasticity, here's a list of Austen-related films that took wildly disparate approaches to the material… 

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1997: The Ensemble of "Female Perversions"

We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Women, amirite? You've got the unique expectations foisted upon them to perform their gender by strangers, coworkers (no matter the field), loved ones, and themselves. There’s the generational traumas, both inherited and inflicted. Not to mention the way their psychosexual hang-ups function as ungainly manifestations of their repressed selves desperately seeking some kind of release. You can try reaching out to others for help, but all you’ve really got is yourself, and who trusts that bitch?

This is the territory Female Perversions resides in...

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