Posts Tagged ‘RVIFF’
Capsule Review Roundup for the 2024 Robin and Valerie International Film Festival
September 17th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
The 3rd Annual Robin and Valerie film festival has come to an end, as all virtual self-customized film festivals must. Here is my full capsule review round-up of all 45 titles we watched from the well-organized comfort of our couch on a variety of streaming platforms. Check your local version of JustWatch to see which of these are available in your region and on what platform. The Open Vault pick, the recent restoration of 1952’s Never Open That Door, is on BluRay from Flicker Alley but not yet on streaming.
Titles appear in order of preference but with most of them receiving a Recommended rating there’s not really much difference between them. I’d probably list them in a different order a month from now.
The Pinnacle
Are You Lonesome Tonight? (China, Shipei Wen, 2021) After running a man over, a redemption-seeking air conditioner repairman (Eddie Peng) contrives to meet his widow (Sylvia Chang), making a startling discovery about the case. Neo-noir thriller with an almost tangible feeling for the characters’ hot, humid environment and a bag full of narrative surprises.
The Promised Land (Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2023) Stubbornly determined veteran 18th century officer (Mads Mikkelsen) vies for a noble title by promising to successfully cultivate the Jutland heath, gathering misfit allies and enraging a sniveling, murderous rival landowner (Simon Bennebjerg.) Thematically a western, but also in its emotional performances, narrative sweep, and depiction of landscape as divine antagonist, a drink from the well of David Lean.
La Chimera (Italy, Alice Rohrwacher, 2023) Washed-out archaeologist with dowsing powers (Josh O’Connor) returns from prison to his old stomping grounds to reunite with his lost love’s mother (Isabella Rossellini) and his merry band of artifact looters. Beguiling, mythically resonant hangout movie.
The Blue Caftan (Morocco, Maryam Touzani, 2023) For the sake of his steely, ill wife (Lubna Azabal), a maker of exquisite handmade garments (Saleh Bakri) suppresses his attraction for his handsome new apprentice (Ayoub Missioui.) Sad, life-affirming drama painstakingly assembled from small, true moments.
Recommended
The Quiet Girl (Ireland, Colm Bairéad, 2022) A young girl, neglected in her own chaotic household, thrives when sent to live for a summer at her mom’s cousin’s dairy farm. Idyllic character drama builds to an intensely poetic conclusion.
Saint Omer (France, Alice Diop, 2022,4) Author (Kayije Kagame) covering the infanticide trial of a Senegalese philosophy student (Guslagie Malanda) finds uncomfortable resonances with her own life. Observational courtroom drama about the mystery of motivation uses its reporter character not as a narrative device but as a source of emotional connection.
Scarlet (France, Pietro Marcello, 2022) Girl grows from infant to young adult (Juliette Jouan) in an interwar French village whose churlish residents treat her talented woodworker father (Raphaël Thiéry) as an outcast. Lyrical, novelistic drama shows the difference between sincerity and sentimentality.
Subtraction (Iran, Mani Haghighi, 2022) Tehran couple (Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh) discovers that they have exact duplicates, also married to one another. Realist tale of the uncanny offers a brilliantly fresh take on the doppelgänger motif, with culture-specific complications enhancing the suspense.
Love Life (Japan, Koji Fukada, 2022) A woman and her new husband’s grief over the death of her six year old son is complicated by the reappearance of her now homeless ex. Surprising turns give breadth to this moving, emotionally complex naturalistic drama.
Monster (Japan, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2023) A fifth grader’s odd behavior leads a determined mom (Sakura Andô) to accuse his teacher (Eita Nagayama) of verbal and physical abuse, but multiple perspectives reveal a different story. Puzzle drama expresses a deep empathy.
Tiger Stripes (Indonesia, Amanda Nell Eu, 2023) Hassled at school for being a little bit high-spirited, a girl who is the first in her cohort to get her period begins to turn into a tjindaku, the local version of the weretiger. Transforms from a naturalistic feminist coming of age drama into witty teen body horror.
Before, Now & Then (Indonesia, Kamila Andini, 2022) Wife (Happy Salma) of a wealthy philanderer (Arswendy Bening Swara) strives to keep up appearances as her previous life, shattered by war, reasserts itself. Sinuous, compellingly acted drama parallels repressed domestic truths with the forgetting of the Suharto regime’s 65-66 mass killings.
Walk Up (South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) Abrupt time jumps between scenes set in the same building reveal the shifting relationships between a successful, neurotic filmmaker, his daughter, a couple of girlfriends, and a neglected admirer. Formally disorienting, satirical character piece unnervingly suggests that people can change, but only to find new ways to disappoint, or be disappointed by, others.
The Souvenir Part II (UK, Joanna Hogg, 2021) Film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) turns her grief over her ex-boyfriend’s suicide into her graduate project. Autobiographical drama captures the uncertainty of young adulthood and gaining one’s footing in a creative career with Hogg’s knack for finding evanescent magic in everyday moments.
The Beast (France, Bertrand Bonello, 2023,4) To qualify for a job in an eerily serene AI future, a woman (Léa Seydoux) is sent back into past lives in 1910 and 2014 to purify her past traumas, both involving her relationships with a man (George MacKay.) Reality-shifting dystopian amour fou movie inspired by a Henry James novella.
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany, İlker Çatak, 2023) Suspecting that a colleague is behind a series of petty thefts, a high school math teacher (Leonie Benesch) sets a trap, plunging the institution into chaos. Edited and scored like a thriller, wicked but played absolutely straight, this nerve-wracking bureaucratic morality tale incisively examines what happens when de-escalation is never an option.
Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 (India, Mani Ratnam, 2022) Flirtatious prince of a defunct kingdom (Vikram) acts as messenger to protect the Chola empire’s royal family from threats both external and internal, including the stratagems of a wily queen (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.) Massively mounted historical adventure epic with swashbuckling, scheming, costumes, battle sequences on land and sea and well-integrated musical numbers.
Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) Hired to lift a curse afflicting a rich family, a team led by a mercenary geomancer (Choi Min-Sik) and a blunt shaman (Kim Go-eun) removes their grandfather’s coffin from his inauspicious grave, digging up more than they expected. Investigative folk horror flick packed with scares, curveballs, and fun character moments.
Never Open That Door (Argentina, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952) Rich family’s dutiful scion tries to protect his sister, a compulsive gambler, from a blackmailer; a blind woman who has longed for the return of her prodigal son discovers that he is a murderous armed robber bent on performing another job. In this diptych of Cornell Woolrich adaptations, the first is a stylish exercise in simple irony and the longer second part is truly brilliant, with a nail-biting extended sequence of suspenseful pure cinema.
Mami Wata (Nigeria, C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023) The adopted daughter (Evelyne Ily Juhen) of an untouched village’s intermediary to the sea goddess struggles to protect it from the encroach of corrupt modernity. Impassioned allegorical drama shot in a striking digital black and white that transforms the actor’s patterned costumes into stark graphic elements.
Holy Spider (Denmark, Ali Abassi, 2022) Risk-taking reporter defies authorities in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad as she tracks a serial killer preying on women in the sex trade. Gritty crime procedural where the social and political context throws additional obstacles into the manhunt and its aftermath.
Peter von Kant (France, François Ozon, 2022) In a typical act of romantic self-destruction, 70s filmmaker Peter von Kant (Denis Ménochet) courts a handsome young man with a tragic past (Khalil Ben Gharbia) by promising to make him a star. Billed as a remake of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, to which it bears the sole resemblance of being set in an apartment, this is actually a rueful and funny highly theatrical chamber biopic of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Isabelle Adjani plays Hanna Schygulla and Hanna Schygulla plays Fassbinder’s mother, who at one point has an impassioned speech defending Isabelle Adjani as Hanna Schygulla.
Amanda (Italy, Carolina Cavalli, 2022) Back in the family manor after an unsuccessful sojourn in Paris, an abrasive slacker (Benedetta Porcaroli) campaigns to reconnect with her alleged childhood bestie (Galatéa Bellugi), now a recluse. Offbeat comedy revives the deadpan stream of 90s indie cinema from a woman’s point of view.
The Beasts (Spain, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022) In rural Galicia, a dispute between an educated French couple (Marina Foïs, Denis Ménochet) who have moved to the area to start second careers as small-scale organic farmers and poor neighbors who want them to sell out to wind farm developers turns increasingly dangerous. Tense social drama of uncompromising people in an uncompromising landscape.
Fallen Leaves (Finland, Aki Kaurismaki, 2023) Alcoholic factory worker and glum grocery cashier encounter grim obstacles on the road to love. Melancholy deadpan (but I said Aki Kaurismaki already) rom com counterpointed by news reports of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Afire (Germany, Christian Petzold, 2023) As doom looms in the background, a writer staying at a summer house to flail at his sophomore novel (Thomas Schubert) lets his insecurities get the better of him, especially around an unexpected fellow guest (Paula Beer.) Rohmeresque dramedy of emotional self-sabotage in the shadow of disaster.
The Sparring Partner (Hong Kong, Ho Cheuk-Tin, 2022) A psychopathic loser (Yeung Wai Leung) and his questionably functionable roommate (Mak Pui Tung) go on trial for his parents, gruesome murders. Told in fragmented chronology and with quasi-surreal visual devices, this true crime docudrama probes the impossibility of reliably knowing the facts of a case or the motivations of its participants.
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Romania, Radu Jude, 2023) Exhausted PA (Ilinca Manolache) fights brutal Bucharest traffic working on a worker safety video for a performatively concerned foreign manufacturer. Satirical portrait of a nation working itself with to death underpinned by such formal interventions as the heroine’s scabrous bro culture parody TikToks, extended drop-ins from an earlier, Ceaușescu-era film, and a run time that feels like an extra overtime shift.
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (Chile, Francisca Alegría, 2023) Controlling doctor (Leonor Varela) takes her kids back to the family dairy farm after her father suffers a health episode triggered by an encounter with her mother (Mia Maestro), whose suicide occurred decades ago. Eco-themed family drama places well-drawn characters in a magic realist situation.
Cliff Walkers (China, Zhang Yimou, 2021) Communist commandos paratroop into occupied Harbin to perform a mission, unaware that they’ve been betrayed to the puppet government’s secret police. Snowy period espionage action-thriller where nearly every character is engaged in at least a double game.
The Sales Girl (Mongolia, Janchivdorj Sengedorj, 2021) When she subs for a classmate as a sex shop clerk, an unassuming physics student (Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg) bonds with the owner (Oidovjamts Enkhtuul), a former ballet star with lessons to impart on lust, life and loss. Straight from Ulaanbaatar, it’s a quirky, embracing indie comedy-drama with touches of Aki Kaurismaki deadpan.
The Breaking Ice (China, Anthony Chen, 2023) Visiting snowy Yanji for a wedding, a depressed finance worker (Liu Haoran) bonds with two other twenty-somethings, a walled-off tour guide (Zhou Dongyu) and the directionless restaurant employee (Qu Chuxiao) who shares his attraction to her. The love triangle becomes a minor chord and opportunities for cheap melodrama are set aside in a lovely, melancholy drama of connection and reawakening.
The Innocent (France, Louis Garrel, 2022) Shut-down aquarium docent (Louis Garrel) keeps his guard up when his actress mother (Anouk Grinberg) marries yet another ex-con. Smartly written, character-driven suspense comedy alludes to Hitchcock and De Palma.
Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (Japan, Yugo Sakamoto, 2023) Adorably flaky teen girl killers (Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa) get suspended from the Assassins Guild and are targeted by wannabes. This upgrade from the original boasts funnier off-kilter comedy, better fights and a more consistent tone.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Canada, Ariane Louis-Seize, 2024) In a world where vampires live secretly among humans in family units and have their own dentists and psychologists, reluctant bloodsucker Sasha (Sara Montpetit) finds a willing victim in depressed, put-upon high schooler Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard.) Droll horror rom com with nods to quintessential touchstones of Quebecois culture.
Dry Ground Burning (Brazil, Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, 2023) In a Ceilândia favela a gasoline trafficker, her half-sister and all-female gang fend off a police crackdown. Epic-length slice of life drama with non-professional uses diagetic music sequences to widen the characters’ emotional expression.
Shin Ultraman (Japan, Shinji Higuchi & Ikki Todoroki, 2022) A specialist team of government kaiju-fighters grapples with geopolitical repercussions when a giant alien humanoid arrives on Earth to battle the terrifying creatures. Applies a satiric edge to the venerable franchise while still delivering the tokusatsu goods.
The Hole in the Fence (Mexico, Joaquin del Paso, 2021) At survival camp, leaders of a religious order teach young adolescent boys the essential quality they’ll need as sons of the ruling elite—cruelty. Brutal allegorical drama argues that things go Lord of the Flies not when adults are absent, but when they’re present and calling the shots.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (UK, William Nunez, 2023) Documentary chronicles the production of the notoriously laughable, Howard Hughes-instigated 1956 Genghis Khan biopic, shot downwind from Nevada a-bomb tests many link to the cancer deaths of stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorhead, Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell. Grounds a real life story with a central metaphor too on-the-nose for fiction by also focusing on the huge number of non-celebrity fallout exposure victims.
Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman (China, Bingjia Yang, 2022) Gruff bounty hunter Blind Cheng steps outside the rules to pursue the well-connected criminal who ordered a wedding massacre. Beautifully photographed, straightahead period martial arts flick.
Mars One (Brazil, Gabriel Martins, 2023) Working class mom (Rejane Faria) and dad (Carlos Francisco) take it hard when their college student daughter (Camilla Damião) announces plans to move in with her girlfriend and their younger son (Cícero Lucas) dreams of setting aside his football talents for a career in space science. Affirming, socially conscious family drama.
Lumberjack the Monster (Japan, Takashi Miike, 2023) Murderous lawyer (Kazuya Kamenashi) tries to figure out why a masked serial killer attacked him, as an obsessive profiler (Nanao) hunts them both. Thriller novel adaptation pays off after getting the complicated plot out of the way, with Miike in his relatively normal mainstream mode.
Good
Cobweb (South Korea, Kim Jee-woon, 2024.5) Convinced they will turn his latest project into a masterpiece and overturn his reputation as a perennial second-rater, an obsessive director (Song Kang-ho) connives his way to an unauthorized reshoot hidden from 70s censors. Broad soundstage satire offers a jaundiced take on creative ambition and is presumably funnier if you really know the Korean film industry.
Okay
Venicephrenia (Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2022) A group of partying Spaniards are targeted by murderous anti-tourism conspiracy in Venice. Topical neo-giallo with script structure issues that prevent de la Iglesia from sustaining his usual momentum.
Unidentified Objects (US, Juan Felipe Zuleta, 2023) Needing cash, an aggrieved gay Little Person agrees to accompany an uninhibited UFO abductee on a road trip to her alien rendezvous point. Attacks its American indie movie stock elements with energy and great seriousness.
RVIFF Day 11: French Suspense-Comedy, a Swashbuckling Indian Epic, and Revisionist Ultraman
September 16th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
For the last day of RVIFF I try to program fun things that could still play a film fest, two criteria that can be hard to nail sight unseen.Ideally with kaiju at the end. Let’s see how I did.
The Innocent (France, Louis Garrel, 2022, 4) Shut-down aquarium docent (Louis Garrel) keeps his guard up when his actress mother (Anouk Grinberg) marries yet another ex-con. Smartly written, character-driven suspense comedy alludes to Hitchcock and De Palma.
Unidentified Objects (US, Juan Felipe Zuleta, 2023, 3) Needing cash, an aggrieved gay Little Person agrees to accompany an uninhibited UFO abductee on a road trip to her alien rendezvous point. Attacks its American indie movie stock elements with energy and great seriousness.
Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 (India, Mani Ratnam, 2022, 4) Flirtatious prince of a defunct kingdom (Vikram) acts as messenger to protect the Chola empire’s royal family from threats both external and internal, including the stratagems of a wily queen (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.) Massively mounted historical adventure epic with swashbuckling, scheming, costumes, battle sequences on land and sea and well-integrated musical numbers.
Shin Ultraman (Japan, Shinji Higuchi & Ikki Todoroki, 2022, 4) A specialist team of government kaiju-fighters grapples with geopolitical repercussions when a giant alien humanoid arrives on Earth to battle the terrifying creatures. Applies a satiric edge to the venerable franchise while still delivering the tokusatsu goods.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 10: Tehran Dopplegangers, Hanging Out With Looters, and a Classroom Mystery
September 15th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
Dry Ground Burning (Brazil, Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, 2023, 4) In a Ceilândia favela a gasoline trafficker, her half-sister and all-female gang fend off a police crackdown. Epic-length slice of life drama with non-professional uses diagetic music sequences to widen the characters’ emotional expression.
Subtraction (Iran, Mani Haghighi, 2022, 4) Tehran couple (Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh) discovers that they have exact duplicates, also married to one another. Realist tale of the uncanny offers a brilliantly fresh take on the doppelgänger motif, with culture-specific complications enhancing the suspense.
Monster (Japan, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2023, 4) A fifth grader’s odd behavior leads a determined mom (Sakura Andô) to accuse his teacher (Eita Nagayama) of verbal and physical abuse, but multiple perspectives reveal a different story. Puzzle drama expresses a deep empathy.
Dedicated to the memory of its composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto.
La Chimera (Italy, Alice Rohrwacher, 2023, 5) Washed-out archaeologist with dowsing powers (Josh O’Connor) returns from prison to his old stomping grounds to reunite with his lost love’s mother (Isabella Rossellini) and his merry band of artifact looters. Beguiling, mythically resonant hangout movie.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 9: Dreams of Mars, Neo-Giallo in Venice, and a Writer Messing Everything Up
September 14th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
Mars One (Brazil, Gabriel Martins, 2023, 4) Working class mom (Rejane Faria) and dad (Carlos Francisco) take it hard when their college student daughter (Camilla Damião) announces plans to move in with her girlfriend and their younger son (Cícero Lucas) dreams of setting aside his football talents for a career in space science. Affirming, socially conscious family drama.
The Quiet Girl (Ireland, Colm Bairéad, 2022, 4) A young girl, neglected in her own chaotic household, thrives when sent to live for a summer at her mom’s cousin’s dairy farm. Idyllic character drama builds to an intensely poetic conclusion.
Subtitled, because it is in the two great Irish acting languages, Gaelic and mumbling.
Afire (Germany, Christian Petzold, 2023) As doom looms in the background, a writer staying at a summer house to flail at his sophomore novel (Thomas Schubert) lets his insecurities get the better of him, especially around an unexpected fellow guest (Paula Beer.) Rohmeresque dramedy of emotional self-sabotage in the shadow of disaster.
Venicephrenia (Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2022, 3) A group of partying Spaniards are targeted by murderous anti-tourism conspiracy in Venice. Topical neo-giallo with script structure issues that prevent de la Iglesia from sustaining his usual momentum.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 8: Moving Moroccan Drama, Galician Neighbor Trouble, and the Tilda Swinton Refraction Zone
September 13th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
The Blue Caftan (Morocco, Maryam Touzani, 2023, 5) For the sake of his steely, ill wife (Lubna Azabal), a maker of exquisite handmade garments (Saleh Bakri) suppresses his attraction for his handsome new apprentice (Ayoub Missioui.) Sad, life-affirming drama painstakingly assembled from small, true moments.
The Beasts (Spain, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022) In rural Galicia, a dispute between an educated French couple (Marina Foïs, Denis Ménochet) who have moved to the area to start second careers as small-scale organic farmers and poor neighbors who want them to sell out to wind farm developers turns increasingly dangerous. Tense social drama of uncompromising people in an uncompromising landscape.
Films with confusingly similar names are a staple of a TIFF slate. I didn’t set out to replicate that by scheduling The Beast yesterday and The Beasts today but I am awarding myself bonus points for it nonetheless.
The Souvenir Part II (UK, Joanna Hogg, 2021) Film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) turns her grief over her ex-boyfriend’s suicide into her graduate project. Autobiographical drama captures the uncertainty of young adulthood and gaining one’s footing in a creative career with Hogg’s knack for finding evanescent magic in everyday moments.
Tilda Swinton again appears as the protagonist’s mother; Lydia Fox plays a character based on Swinton.
Fallen Leaves (Finland, Aki Kaurismaki, 2023) Alcoholic factory worker and glum grocery cashier encounter grim obstacles on the road to love. Melancholy deadpan (but I said Aki Kaurismaki already) rom com counterpointed by news reports of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
When our heroes go on a date to a rep cinema they watch and enjoy The Dead Don’t Die, by kindred spirit Jim Jarmusch.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 7: Reality-Shifting SF Amor Fou, Noir From the Vault, and a Blind Swordsman (Not That Blind Swordsman, This Other One)
September 12th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
Looks like I left these titles off my original announcement list. I blame festival brain. Festival brain that I had a month before I started watching 4-5 movies a day for days on end. Actually that would have been Gen Con brain. The point I’m making is: brain.
I fixed the list for those following along at home.
Never Open That Door (Argentina, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952, 4) Rich family’s dutiful scion tries to protect his sister, a compulsive gambler, from a blackmailer; a blind woman who has longed for the return of her prodigal son discovers that he is a murderous armed robber bent on performing another job. In this diptych of Cornell Woolrich adaptations, the first is a stylish exercise in simple irony and the longer second part is truly brilliant, with a nail-biting extended sequence of suspenseful pure cinema.
In tribute to TIFF back when it was the Festival of Festivals and included a series called Open Vault, I look for one newly restored rarity to program each year. This is also the one where I cheated, having recorded this when it debuted on TCM a few months ago. Though not currently streaming, it is on Blu Ray. Weirdly attentive readers will note that Ken beat me to the capsule reviewing punch on this by seeing it at Noir City Chicago.
Eddie Muller’s Film Noir Foundation, which also runs the Noir City touring festival series, in large part funded this restoration as part of a longstanding project to revive Christensen’s work.
The Hole in the Fence (Mexico, Joaquin del Paso, 2021, 4) At survival camp, leaders of a religious order teach young adolescent boys the essential quality they’ll need as sons of the ruling elite—cruelty. Brutal allegorical drama argues that things go Lord of the Flies not when adults are absent, but when they’re present and calling the shots.
The Beast (France, Bertrand Bonello, 2023,4) To qualify for a job in an eerily serene AI future, a woman (Léa Seydoux) is sent back into past lives in 1910 and 2014 to purify her past traumas, both involving her relationships with a man (George MacKay.) Reality-shifting dystopian SF amour fou movie inspired by a Henry James novella.
I love the subtlety of its surreal touches, which are more like the slightly off-brand version of reality a real life dream presents than the over-the-top strangeness movie mind trips usually deal in.
Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman (China, Bingjia Yang, 2022, 4) Gruff bounty hunter Blind Cheng steps outside the rules to pursue the well-connected criminal who ordered a wedding massacre. Beautifully photographed, straightahead period martial arts flick.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 6: Teachers in Trouble, Deadpan in Italy, and a Vampire at the Depanneur
September 11th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
The Breaking Ice (China, Anthony Chen, 2023, 4) Visiting snowy Yanji for a wedding, a depressed finance worker (Liu Haoran) bonds with two other twenty-somethings, a walled-off tour guide (Zhou Dongyu) and the directionless restaurant employee (Qu Chuxiao) who shares his attraction to her. The love triangle becomes a minor chord and opportunities for cheap melodrama are set aside in a lovely, melancholy drama of connection and reawakening.
Amanda (Italy, Carolina Cavalli, 2022) Back in the family manor after an unsuccessful sojourn in Paris, an abrasive slacker (Benedetta Porcaroli) campaigns to reconnect with her alleged childhood bestie (Galatéa Bellugi), now a recluse. Offbeat comedy revives the deadpan stream of 90s indie cinema from a woman’s point of view.
I am glad to see that this vibe, as first laid down by Hartley, Jarmusch and Kaurismaki, has been absent for long enough to make a second-generation resurgence. I would not have expected it to come from Italy. Or Mongolia, as in the previously reviewed The Sales Girl.
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany, İlker Çatak, 2023, 4) Suspecting that a colleague is behind a series of petty thefts, a high school math teacher (Leonie Benesch) sets a trap, plunging the institution into chaos. Edited and scored like a thriller, wicked but played absolutely straight, this nerve-wracking bureaucratic morality tale incisively examines what happens when de-escalation is never an option.
Love Life (Japan, Koji Fukada, 2022, 4) A woman and her new husband’s grief over the death of her six year old son is complicated by the reappearance of her now homeless ex. Surprising turns give breadth to this moving, emotionally complex naturalistic drama.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Canada, Ariane Louis-Seize, 2024) In a world where vampires live secretly among humans in family units and have their own dentists and psychologists, reluctant bloodsucker Sasha (Sara Montpetit) finds a willing victim in depressed, put-upon high schooler Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard.) Droll horror rom com with nods to quintessential touchstones of Quebecois culture.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 5: An Indonesian Middle School Weretiger, Mom Comes Back From the Dead, and the Hunt for an Iranian Serial Killer
September 10th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (Chile, Francisca Alegría, 2023, 4) Controlling doctor (Leonor Varela) takes her kids back to the family dairy farm after her father suffers a health episode triggered by an encounter with her mother (Mia Maestro), whose suicide occurred decades ago. Eco-themed family drama places well-drawn characters in a magic realist situation.
At least one extremely long title is a must when simulating a film festival. Between this and the previously described Don’t Expect Too Much From the End of the World I feel this has been successfully covered this year.
Tiger Stripes (Indonesia, Amanda Nell Eu, 2023, 4) Hassled at school for being a little bit high-spirited, a girl who is the first in her cohort to get her period begins to turn into a tjindaku, the local version of the weretiger. Transforms from a naturalistic feminist coming of age drama into witty teen body horror.
If this was a conventional horror film there would be a bunch of exposition in which the words tjindaku and weretiger would be mentioned. Instead Tiger Stripes retains its realist observational detachment even after it crosses over into horror mode.
Peter von Kant (France, François Ozon, 2022, 4) In a typical act of romantic self-destruction, 70s filmmaker Peter von Kant (Denis Ménochet) courts a handsome young man with a tragic past (Khalil Ben Gharbia) by promising to make him a star. Billed as a remake of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, to which it bears the sole resemblance of being set in an apartment, this is actually a rueful and funny highly theatrical chamber biopic of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Isabelle Adjani plays Hanna Schygulla and Hanna Schygulla plays Fassbinder’s mother, who at one point has an impassioned speech defending Isabelle Adjani as Hanna Schygulla.
Ozon’s entire career has been in dialogue with Fassbinder and an exploration of cinematic game-playing, making his most directly Fassbinderian film also his most Ozonian.
Holy Spider (Denmark, Ali Abassi, 2022, 4) Risk-taking reporter defies authorities in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad as she tracks a serial killer preying on women in the sex trade. Gritty crime procedural where the social and political context throws additional obstacles into the manhunt and its aftermath.
Shot in Jordan.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 4: Adorable Killers, Soundstage Chaos, and a Courtroom Puzzle
September 9th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
Before, Now & Then (Indonesia, Kamila Andini, 2022) Wife (Happy Salma) of a wealthy philanderer (Arswendy Bening Swara) strives to keep up appearances as her previous life, shattered by war, reasserts itself. Sinuous, compellingly acted drama parallels repressed domestic truths with the forgetting of the Suharto regime’s 65-66 mass killings.
From beautiful, multilayered dramas like this to its horror and action output, Indonesia is really establishing itself as a new fully emerged national cinema.
Saint Omer (France, Alice Diop, 2022,4) Author (Kayije Kagame) covering the infanticide trial of a Senegalese philosophy student (Guslagie Malanda) finds uncomfortable resonances with her own life. Observational courtroom drama about the mystery of motivation uses its reporter character not as a narrative device but as a source of emotional connection.
I wonder how many French courtroom dramas I’m going to watch before I stop being boggled about the differences in their procedure compared to the Anglo-American one.
Cobweb (South Korea, Kim Jee-woon, 2024, 3.5) Convinced they will turn his latest project into a masterpiece and overturn his reputation as a perennial second-rater, an obsessive director (Song Kang-ho) connives his way to an unauthorized reshoot hidden from 70s censors. Broad soundstage satire offers a jaundiced take on creative ambition and is presumably funnier if you really know the Korean film industry.
A line from this film is going to rattle around in my head for a good while to come: “Believing in yourself is a talent.” Granted, it’s spoken by the hallucinated ghost of the protagonist’s mentor. But there is a big chunk of truth in that not necessarily encouraging thought.
Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (Japan, Yugo Sakamoto, 2023, 4) Adorably flaky teen girl killers (Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa) get suspended from the Assassins Guild and are targeted by wannabes. This upgrade from the original boasts funnier off-kilter comedy, better fights and a more consistent tone.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
RVIFF Day 3: Geomancer vs. Evil Grave, Sea Priestesses vs. Corrupt Modernity, and Mads Mikkelsen vs. the Jutland Heath
September 8th, 2024 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
Mami Wata (Nigeria, C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023, 4) The adopted daughter (Evelyne Ily Juhen) of an untouched village’s intermediary to the sea goddess struggles to protect it from the encroach of corrupt modernity. Impassioned allegorical drama shot in a striking digital black and white that transforms the actor’s patterned costumes into stark graphic elements.
The Promised Land (Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2023, 5) Stubbornly determined veteran 18th century officer (Mads Mikkelsen) vies for a noble title by promising to successfully cultivate the Jutland heath, gathering misfit allies and enraging a sniveling, murderous rival landowner (Simon Bennebjerg.) Thematically a western, but also in its emotional performances, narrative sweep, and depiction of landscape as divine antagonist, a drink from the well of David Lean.
As far as actual history is concerned, this turns out to be one of those “don’t look up the real guy” movies.
Scarlet (France, Pietro Marcello, 2022, 4) Girl grows from infant to young adult (Juliette Jouan) in an interwar French village whose churlish residents treat her talented woodworker father (Raphaël Thiéry) as an outcast. Lyrical, novelistic drama shows the difference between sincerity and sentimentality.
Cliff Walkers (China, Zhang Yimou, 2021, 4) Communist commandos paratroop into occupied Harbin to perform a mission, unaware that they’ve been betrayed to the puppet government’s secret police. Snowy period espionage action-thriller where nearly every character is engaged in at least a double game.
Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) Hired to lift a curse afflicting a rich family, a team led by a mercenary geomancer (Choi Min-Sik) and a blunt shaman (Kim Go-eun) removes their grandfather’s coffin from his inauspicious grave, digging up more than they expected. Investigative folk horror flick packed with scares, curveballs, and fun character moments.
Just when I thought the South Korean film industry had already laser-targeted my interests, it puts the star of Old Boy in a movie about a feng shui expert conducting an occult investigation. It even features creepy foxes, which by reality-shattering coincidence also appeared as an emergent recurring motif from my Yellow King playtest series.
However until James Gunn greenlights a Justice Society of America movie where the golden age heroes hang out with a disturbingly friendly blood robot, I assure you nothing weird is going on.
For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.
If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.
