Here, in my order of preference, are the films I saw at the 2005 festival:

 

·          My Favourite: Revolver

Borrowing heavily from Tarantino, Guy Ritchie has created a clever, stylish, thought-provoking twist on the gangster movie. Not only does this work simply as an entertaining mobster tale (not unlike his earlier film Snatch) there are also philosophical and psychological layers to this that truly make it a work of art that I suspect will easily bear multiple viewings.

 

·          Honourable Mention: Twelve and Holding

I'm a sucker for coming-of-age movies that are realistic and honest (as opposed to glossy and stereotypical). Show Me Love is probably the finest such movie I've ever seen, but Twelve and Holding is a thoroughly respectable example as well. Following a group of kids on the cusp of their teens in an American small town, this movie gives an unflinching glimpse of their various tribulations, although ultimately it's more about the parents than it is about the kids, for better or worse.

 

I also recommend:

·          North Country – Niki Caro (Whale Rider) comes back with a studio film that proves that she really is a great humanist director. There's no doubt that this is a Hollywood film, complete with manipulative plot devices and situations, but Caro skillfully handles the exceptional cast (including Oscar winners Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, and Sissy Spacek) to strike nary a false note (with the possible exception of the ending scene). In fact, if it wasn't for the bleak subject matter (sexual harassment in the iron mines of northern Minnesota) this could have rivalled Revolver as my favourite.

·          The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes – I could tell early on that this was going to be along the lines of a Peter Greenaway or Guy Maddin film, where the visual composition and imagery supercede the plot. I struggled for most of this movie to understand what was actually going on, and didn't end up particularly satisfied, but the aesthetics of it are striking, and it does work on some surreal level, to provide a curiously stimulating (if unsettling) experience, somewhat along the lines of Eraserhead.

 

Also worth seeing:

·          Paradise Now – There was a documentary that I wanted to see at the festival called the Smell of Paradise, which purported to give an insight into the minds of fundamentalist terrorists, but unfortunately I couldn't fit into my schedule. Paradise Now seemed to me to be essentially the same subject matter (tracing the story of two Palestinian suicide bombers) but in a fictional narrative instead, so I settled for that. I felt that the writing left something to be desired, because it was quite preachy and transparent (especially toward the end) but it certainly is an interesting and even entertaining movie. I feel that it's well worth seeing, especially for westerners, as it helps put more of a human face on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for the multitudes of us whose only exposure is cold numeric death tolls on the news.

·          Tideland – I really wanted to like this movie, because Terry Gilliam has directed several of my favourite movies of all time (Twelve Monkeys, Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, Monty Python and the Holy Grail) but I came out of the theatre quite disenchanted and perhaps even just a little shell-shocked and disgusted. Afterward, however, I saw the press conference on Rogers, and director Terry Gilliam pointed out (I'm paraphrasing here) that if you view it as an adult with all your personal knowledge and baggage, it's going to be a very heavy film that's going to beat you down, but if you view it from the child's point of view, it can actually be quite delightful (that one's for you Benjy). Certainly I did think the performances were remarkably good, and I think that some of the visuals and the downright creativity of the picture as a whole make it worth seeing, but there was a plot issue that I just never did get past, that kept me from liking it. (I would be happy to discuss it with you if you ever do see it, but I don't want to ruin it for you by revealing major plot points.)

·          Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic – I've been a fan of Sarah Silverman for a long time, so I felt like I'd already seen some of her material here, but this is a fine live standup comedy movie, with her set interspersed with some funny and even poignant songs. As long as you're not easily offended, this is definitely good for a laugh.

·          Battle In Heaven – This Mexican film is tediously slow-paced, but I liked the approach it took to telling the story, indirectly revealing important plot elements, and flipping characters back and forth from sympathetic to unsympathetic and back again. I'm unsure of how representative it truly is, but I also liked the way it provided a commentary on Mexican society, which I would like to think taught me something about what it's like to live as a modern Mexican.

·          Sud Express – A set of interweaving slices of life tied together by the train route running from Paris to Lisbon, this was a decent time filler, but not much more than that. I would have recommended against seeing it except for the ending, which I thought provided a refreshing optimism that balanced the pessimism and cynicism that underlies much of the movie.

 

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