TIFF 51: “Hope” delivers a blast of Midnight Madness

by Cláudio Alves

Though the 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (and Market, the organizers would like to remind you) opens officially tomorrow, a special screening kicked off the festivities tonight. Coinciding with its stateside release, the widest for any Korean film since Parasite, Na Hong-jin’s Hope was shown as an honorary part of this year’s Midnight Madness selection. The NEON blockbuster wannabe caused quite the stir at Cannes, the rare genre movie to play in competition. Back at the Croisette, our own Elisa Giudici was impressed by the boldness of Na’s direction despite finding many faults in Hope. That’s something that the jury, presided by Park Chan-wook, might have felt, too, considering the production left Cannes empty-handed - no awards for Na. 

Alas, I am much more enamored of the director’s vision and overall film than our Italian correspondent, and think it's a perfect fit for TIFF’s Midnight Madness crowd. There’s no shortage of madness on display, that’s for sure...

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Cannes: "Hope" is Korea's Biggest Swing Yet Toward the Box Office Canon

by Elisa Giudici

There’s something genuinely startling about seeing the sprawling sci-fi epic Hope in Competition at Cannes. Not because genre films are unwelcome on the Croisette anymore; that battle has largely been wo. The surprise is that Na Hong-jin’s film embraces blockbuster language so wholeheartedly. This is not elevated horror masquerading as arthouse cinema, nor a restrained science-fiction allegory carefully calibrated for festival audiences. Hope is loud, enormous, messy, violent, and frequently exhilarating entertainment. It's a film with giant creatures, extended chase sequences, exploding buildings, machine guns, and a level of visual maximalism that feels almost aggressively unconcerned with prestige filmmaking etiquette...

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Best International Feature: Denmark, Hong Kong, Norway

by Cláudio Alves

With the shortlists announced, we now know which of the 93 Best International Feature submissions still have a chance to contend for Oscar gold. AMPAS has selected 15 finalists, a third of which will be honored with an Academy Award nomination come March 15th. Here at The Film Experience, the team has reviewed most of the shortlisted titles. However, four still haven't been analyzed. To start correcting that, here's another trio of capsule reviews. It's time to explore the pictures submitted by Denmark, Hong Kong, and Norway… 

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EFA Nominees: Denmark's "Another Round" Leads the Pack

by Nathaniel R

Apologies that in this week where we've been doing such a fine job covering international cinema news what will all the Oscar submission daily stuff, that we missed the EFA nominations. "OOPS-HOWD-THAT- HAPPEN?" in all caps. The nominees and commentary are after the jump. If we've written about the film there are links...

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