TIFF Quickie: Crazy White Women!

by Nathaniel R

For this last batch of short TIFF reviews, let's look at three films about mysterious and/or psychologically complex female characters. The post title was glib but the films aren't. 

DISCO (Jorunn Mykelbust Syversen, Norway)
This puzzling drama centers on a champion dancer whose mom and step-dad run some kind of evangelical church. Apparently in Scandivania -- as with America -- conservative faith movements are on the rise. Syversen shows empathy for her characters but chills it with a clinically detached rhythym to the cutting. The lost protagonist Mirjam (Josefine Frida Pettersen) has mysterious physical troubles and vacant psychology that can bring flickers of Todd Haynes' Safe (1995) to mind.

Syversen's strongest skill seems to be in observational mode. In one escalating series of scene at a Jesus camp the choices in camera distance are particularly compelling. In medium shot we observe a group of boys being told to breathe quickly in and out of paper bags to drive out the demons inside them. Cut to a long shot as we watch them comically pass out as they hyperventilate. This is a followed by a not at all comical baptism that is shot more like a drowning. Despite Syverson's obvious skill and a tight running time (94 minutes), Disco is far too repetitive and its point of view remains as opaque as Mirjam's psychology. It's not enough, always, to merely observe. C

EMA (Pablo Larraín, Chile)
The first image is a startling one: a still working traffic light engulfed in flames...

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Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 6 - Stats, Genres, and Queer Cinema

by Nathaniel R

"And Suddenly the Dawn" is the longest film hoping for a foreign Oscar nomination this year at 3 hours and 15 minutes

We've been digging into the 87 films that are up for the Academy Award in Foreign Language Film. So far we've watched the trailers, talked about female directors, first time filmmakers, and international hunks. Today a collection of scattered trivia regarding the list as well as the LGBTQ films in the running. 

LONGEST & SHORTEST
Running times are, we admit, a peculiar TFE obsession but it is what it is. The longest submission this year is Chile's And Suddenly the Dawn at 195 minutes. It's a sprawling fictional biography of a writer returning home after a long absence and takes place in three different time periods of his life: childhood in the 1940s, adulthood in the 1960s/70s, and present day old age. Did their win last season embolden Chile the way directors often get more longwinded the more famous they get? Germany's Never Look Away (just reviewed) and Turkey's The Wild Pear Tree are the only other absurdly long films, each over 3 hours (188 minutes each to be exact). The shortest entries are Costa Rica's university student pregnancy drama Medea (70 minutes) and Lithuania's sports documentary Wonderful Losers (71 minutes) but there are actually quite a few entries that are hovering just below the perfect movie length of 90 minute. In other words, a lot of international filmmakers kept it tight.

Thailand's Malila: The Farewell Flower

Queer cinema, double-category contenders, and more after the jump...

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The Oscars were gay and Latino, just like I am

by Jorge Molina

A couple of months ago I wrote a piece for this site about feeling seen, in a way I hadn't before, onscreen. Coco and Call Me by Your Name perfectly captured two different parts of my identity. Fast forward to Sunday’s 90th Academy Awards. Both of those movies deservedly won statues. More surprisingly a never ending parade of queer and Latino moments made me feel, yet again, that someone like myself has a place in the biggest stage in the world...

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I'll link to that 🍸

• YouTube fanmade teaser trailer for Venom with Tom Hardy. Love the use of the Cure lyrics
• My New Plaid Pants a special edition of 'do dump or marry' with Hitchcock classic Rear Window on its 63rd birthday
• Gothamist exciting news for library card holders in LA and NYC -- your public library card actually grants you access to TONS of Criterion Collection streaming titles. Here's how to access them
• Oh My Disney some of the Disney Princess movies are coming back to movie theaters in September and October. YASQUEEN... I mean, YASPRINCESSES. I'm most excited to see Mulan onscreen again because I barely remember it. Seems way too early to revive Moana though.
• EW celebrates the return of Will & Grace with a photoshoot

 

• Observations on Film Art wonderful piece on Dunkirk's emotional core (or whether it has one), color palette, and more
• Remezcla is the new Chilean film Hazlo como hombre (opening Sept 1st) homophobic or just making fun of homophobia?
• New Yorker Richard Brody is watching 80s action movies he's never seen before! Ha. Somehow the classic Die Hard (1988) had eluded him until now
• Self Styled Siren's bad movie double feature: The Legend of Lylah Clare with Kim Novak and Where Love Has Gone with Susan Hayward
• Coming Soon new clip from Marvel's Inhumans features Medusa's prehensile hair. Ugh, I want this to be good but it does not look good
• THR HFPA, the Golden Globe peeps, just gave away nearly $3 million in scholarships and grants to entertainment non-profits. Well done
• Variety interesting report on a working class actor running for the SAF-AFTRA presidency
• i09 12 things to love about The Lost Boys (1987) that have nothing to do with vampires
• Coming Soon several characters from AHS: Cult revealed
• NYT on the casting of indian actors for Taylor Sheridan's Wind River
• MNPP Hugh Jackman and trainer-in-speedo spend soooo much time at the beach. But the photos are inspiring

OffScreen
• Dress The Part if you have lots of extra cash, here are suggestions for how to 'shop the look' of  Atomic Blonde
• Business Insider fascinating study about decision-making and how who you spend time with affects your brainwaves
• Mike's Movie Projector Imelda Staunton never stops. Now she's rehearsing Follies

New Oscar Chart ~ Foreign Hopefuls Part 1

We won't start hearing about "official submissions" for Oscar's Foreign Language Film race until September but until then, it's speculation time! The first chart is up looking at countries from Afghanistan through Ethiopia.

The most high profile film from this batch, other than possibly another Austrian submission from Michael Haneke (Happy End), is Chile's A Fantastic Woman. It's a trans drama that took three prizes at Berlinale. If it's as good as director Sebastian Lelio's previous Oscar submission (Gloria) we'll have to riot if he's passed over again. 

Other intriguing prospects include the well reviewed black and white fairy tale November from Estonia and possibly another submission from Oscar winner Jan Sverak of the Czech Republic. Sverak won the foreign film Oscar for his art house sleeper hit Kolya  (1996) about a stepfather and his little boy and his latest called Barefoot is another childhood tale set in the countryside during World War II.

Check out the chart and report back