Queer TIFF: "The Death and Life of John F. Donovan"

by Chris Feil

The party of Xavier Dolan is petering out. Or at least for his crowd of defenders, the noble few who have been willing to see past histrionics for the queer pop opera of his cinema. But for all of the detractive claims of the young director consistently falling down his own rabbit holes, it stands to ask what people want from the cinema if not directors drunk on their own Kool-Aid.

And yet his newest effort, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, is the toughest to defend. Despite some moments when the film really hits its stride, Dolan is mostly merely strident, crafting a trolling work that dares you to not call it as petulant as it is. His films have been called nakedly autobiographical or trite, and this film turns those whiffing dismissals into text. Is one person’s trash the next person’s honesty, in all its cringeworthiness and misguided perceptions? Does what is genuine and true about the thing we deem unworthy still have merit despite our perceptions of its limitations? These are fascinating questions that this film can’t quite elevate or answer, and the results are frequently embarrassing.

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The Love That Dare Not Axe Murder Its Name

by Jason Adams

In the small city of Fall River, Massachusetts in the year of our lord (somebody's lord, anyway) 1892 the father and step-mother of Lizzie Andrew Borden were found hacked about the head and face with a hatchet until dead - the nursery rhyme says they got forty and forty-one whacks respectively but father got eleven while the late Mrs. Borden got a few more, if not quite twenty. The next eleven months after that moment, until the end of Lizzie's trial in June of 1893, were spent speaking of little else - a well-to-do lady murderess! What a lark!

The case of Lizzie has held a dark fascination ever since, inspiring countless plays and rhymes and episodes of Law & Order: SVU, but it's been an especially Borden-full couple of years now what with Christina Ricci's Lifetime-movie-turned- miniseries-turned-movie and now Craig William Macneill's feature film simply called Lizzie. Out this weekend and starring Chloë Sevigny, Lizzie injects a timely dose of patriarchal oppression and same-sex repression to the mix, theorizing that Lizzie was caught up (not to mention just plain caught) in a love affair with the Borden's maid Bridget (played by Kristen Stewart).

If the life not lived between Lizzie and Bridget represents a road not traveled thanks to the impossible time and place that the women found themselves in, the film Lizzie feels like a venture in the right direction...

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TIFF: Nicole Kidman and "Destroyer"

by Nathaniel R

One of the screenwriters of the sun-blasted crime thriller Destroyer, describes the movie as "a detective investigating herself." Allowing a screenwriter rather than the reviewer to pigeonhole their movie may be an abdication of duty, but an appropriate one; Destroyer has long gone rogue, flashing its badge but totally off the clock. Even the LAPD, which we all know has behavioral trouble of its own, wouldn't approve of Detective Erin Bell's (Nicole Kidman) "police work" in the real world.

You can't imagine that she'd still be allowed that badge given her AWOL behavior and frequent intoxication but realism isn't what Destroyer is after. Director Karyn Kusama, introducing the movie at TIFF told us to "enjoy" it, providing her own finger quotes around the word, betraying a welcome sense of humor which is unfortunately little seen within the film. But again, levity is not what this relentless film is after...

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Viola Davis has regrets about 'The Help'

by Murtada Elfadl

Viola Davis has some regrets about her Oscar-nominated performance in The Help (2011). In the film she played Aibileen Clark one of several black maids - along with Oscar winner Octavia Spencer - interviewed by a young white journalist (Emma Stone) who’s writing a book about the racism and prejudice they faced in 1960s Mississippi. At the time the film faced criticism of having a white saviour problem. That is, only dealing with racism from the perspective of the white characters and what they do to combat it.

It’s a story as old as film, with numerous examples. Some set in the US like Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and others elsewhere, Cry Freedom (1990), to name just a couple. Davis agrees with that take, telling the NYTimes in a recent interview...

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Soundtracking: "Adventures in Babysitting"

by Chris Feil

Ah, midcentury girl group bliss. In previous columns like My Best Friend’s Wedding or last week’s 45 Years, I’ve discussed how this upbeat era of soulpop music has been used to embody romantic tunnel-vision optimism and traditional (sometimes quite gendered) expectations of love inside the melodies. This era’s brand plays an obviously great tool to reveal hidden longings and sadnesses, but what of actually reveling in their joy? Enter lipsync queen Elizabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting, truly being all of us when The Crystals’ “And Then He Kissed Me” plays.

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