TIFF: "Himizu," "Lovely Molly," "...Nightmare" and "Union Square."
Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 8:22AM Paolo here, back with yet more TIFF films from the final weekend.
The first film today is Sion Sino's HIMIZU, using the backdrop of the March 11 earthquake to tell the story of fifteen year old Yuichi Sumida's (Shota Sometani) violent dreams and reality. One of his dreams puts him in the Fukushima rubble, where he finds a pistol inside a washing machine and when he wakes up, he checks his own washer to see if it's true. What ensues is school absenteeism, stalking from a lovesick and excitable girl, abuse from his father (who tells him he should drowned him in a river) and beatings from Yakuza loan sharks.
At one point he has convulsions, a reaction to his unbelievably painful life. It's a raw and forceful performance from Sometani that might be ignored by larger audiences because of world cinema ghettoization. Sino's approach in telling Sumida's story meanders after the point when Sumida stands up to get revenge from these adults.
I feel snobby when I miss films from TIFF's Midnight Madness programme but fortunately, they play them again days after their premieres. Yesterday brought us LOVELY MOLLY from BLAIR WITCH director Eduardo Sanchez. It starts with the young titular character (Gretchen Lodge) explaning, teary eyed, that the actions that her body is committing is not really her. Her seemingly perfect marriage and childhood home disintegrate because of an incubus that haunts her. It is a competent horror film with the occassional excellent moment, especially those in which Lodge confronts her inner monster or becomes one. Lodge, in a debut performance, commits to the role with both eloquence and ferocity.
The transitions between regular film and video cam equipment are smooth.The scares aren't cheap but the intervals between them are far too long. While we're waiting for either the invisible ghost or Molly to attack, we're left with watching close-ups of furniture while eerie music plays on the background. The film can't rely only on great sound design to make its house look creepy. And why does the house have a security system but not proper lighting?
New Isabelle Huppert and Mira Sorvino movies after the jump.
Have you ever wished that there was a movie where Isabelle Huppert plays 'horsy,' or dances near a stripper pole with a hairy Belgian guy inside a rural night club before puking it all up curb afterwards?
Anne Fontaine's MY WORST NIGHTMARE seems like it was conceived during a drinking game wherein each contestant thinks of a scenario that the actress doesn't deserve. It plays like a Heigl movie with Huppert playing a high powered art curator when all she needs is love from a scruffy working-class man.
It's incredulous that the eventual lovebirds get too close, living together and taking care of each other's children all because he does construction in her house. Or that he's coarse and talks to her in a demeaning way and he's supposed to be funny and charming. But Fontaine's 'matter of fact' approach to the fashionable French woman is admirable and who doesn't want to see Huppert yell at other people for comic effect. She's often dour in her other 'important' roles, but she can pull off relaxed acting just as gracefully.
We end with UNION SQUARE, set in the titular Manhattan area where high-heeled Lucy Pace (welcome back, Mira Sorvino!) tries to surprise her boyfriend Jay. Sorvino plays Lucy as the kind of crass woman who lets a whole spacious area know the intimate details of her phone conversations. At first she's a grating presence and her personality might have gotten her dumped over the phone. To console herself she crashes the apartment of her uptight sister, Jenny (Tammy Blanchard). After a series of awkward 'I'm scowling at our differences' scenes, Lucy reveals a family emergency that hits both women hard. In these moments we can't help but cry and empathize with these women, no matter how disconnected and hostile they might initially be.
Sorvino and Blachard elevate their characters from the stereotypes they initially seem to be, Lucy becoming a maternal woman and Jenny moving through stages of hostile facades towards becoming Lucy's sister instead of a snob with aspirations. They look like actresses at the top of their game that need to be working with more auteurs.
Reader Comments (6)
Very keen to see Mira Sorvino in movies again. I actually loved her in Mighty Aphrodite and her guest turn in that one episode of Will and Grace was fnatastic. Ditto for Tammy Blanchard, who was so overlooked despite being quietly fantastic in Rabbit Hole.
Indeed. Blanchard's interpretation of Rabbit Hole's Izzy, a coarse but sympathetic character, is more of the latter than the former. And in this movie both Blanchard and Sorvino subvert what we think about characters like Lucy who we see in the media and real life every day. Also, Patti Lupone plays their mother. Best family ever.
Paolo -- wow i love that cast and hadn't even heard of this one. it just moved up my list of "can i have this one now please?"
I would certainly watch all different sorts of movie with Isabelle Huppert, I just think she could pull off anything. It's great to see her in a light hearted movie since she hasn't a lot of those in her filmography - maybe thinking of I <3 Huckabees or Les Sœurs fâchées (but even in those comedies there's always a mad aspect to her characters!) And if the question is "Heigl or Huppert in a Heigl style movie" the answer is clear ;)
Nathaniel: The thing about Sorvino and Blanchard's tete-a-tete is that, unlike other movies I've seen in the fest, the audience never knows who has the advantage.
Eva: I totally just remembered that Huppert channels Danielle Darrieux's elegance and comic timing here. It's a great watch for a completist.
I'm definitely a completist about Huppert :) There are worse things one could be...
I can see her like that. Mr Handyman seems very coarse in the trailer, though at least french.
In the meantime, I wait IMPATIENTLY! for that Tilda-Swinton-bossy-vampiress-film (if that is still on?)