Every day we receive new news about what will happen at the Toronto International Film Festival. One of the first announcements was that Stephen Spielberg will be there with his new movie. That is the first time for him. Lately we heard about a movie about the shooting down of a Ukrainian plane two years ago and a biography of Buffy Sainte Marie and a new film by Mary Harron in which Ben Kingsley will play Salvador Dali and also appear the currently disgraced Ezra Miller. TIFF will be active for 11 days starting on September 8.
The Vancouver festival should name a few titles soon. They are already selling passes. VIFF runs from September 29 to October 9.
Meanwhile, these movies are now being shown.
EMILY THE CRIMINAL: Well, anyone could be attracted if you have a lot of student debt, don’t have a degree, don’t have a food order delivery job for a restaurant, just offer an unpaid internship after an interview and a minor criminal conviction in your background. And what’s worse: there are no signs of anything better in the future for him. That’s the woman Aubrey Plaza portrays to perfection in this concise, well-written little drama. In a sense, she’s an image of many millennials these days, as envisioned by writer-director John Patton Ford.
When Emily is told of an outing, with a chance to earn $200 a day, she takes it. Perhaps, she feels that she has to accept it. It’s a credit card scam, run by a Lebanese immigrant Youcef (Theo Rossi) and a cousin who seems to control things from the bottom line. They produce fake credit cards, send Emily to buy large items at stores in Los Angeles, and then sell them out of the trunk of her car. There is a protocol, which she breaks without realizing it. Then the people behind rob her and she comes up with a plan to rob them. So she is becoming an even bigger criminal and her world is becoming more dangerous. It’s a fascinating story, reflecting a real situation for many and proving again how well Plaza represents her generation with his acting talent. (Cineplex Theaters in select cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Victoria) 4 of 5
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EMERGENCY DECLARATION: The title of this Korean movie doesn’t say much about the emotions to come. It is used in the airline industry when a plane has problems, and in this case, the problem is extreme. A young man has brought a virus aboard a flight from Soeul to Hawaii and 121 passengers are in danger of becoming ill. But where can the plane land? The United States and Japan say no, and Korea may be too far away to turn back. That is the basic plot, but there is much more. There’s also an international corporation, a secret research project, and a backstory that I won’t tell you about. And most importantly, a couple of fears we’ve all lived with for a couple of years: confined spaces and infected people. They add up to 2 and a half hours of tension that increases without rest.
We are warned about turbulence from the start and sure enough, it arrives. At its height, it rolls the plane several times in the air. Passengers who are not tied down end up on the roof. That’s over the top and a little silly, but it shows how far director Jae-rim Han is willing to go to disturb us. There’s another airline trick up ahead that’s just as stressful. The film searches for sensations again and again, big and small. It’s best not to give too much of that, but we get both what happens on the plane, with the pilot, an ex-pilot and the chief flight attendant trying to avoid panic, as well as on the ground. The transport minister (Jeon Do-yeon) has to take charge and a policeman investigates. He is played by Song Kang-ho, who you may remember as the father in the Oscar winner. Parasite. This movie isn’t as winning as that one, but it’s a good ride. (In theaters) 3 ½ of 5
FALL: In a sense, this movie is kind of ridiculous. It is also a thriller in the throat. Imagine: a couple of young women scale a 2000 foot metal tower in a desert somewhere. It is as tall as the Eiffel Tower, it is said to have a television function, but it seems that it only has a night light on the top to alert planes. A sign says no trespassing, could result in death. That’s the story right there. So, of course, Becky and Hunter are going to go upstairs. Why? Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) is a U-tube blogger who records dangerous stunts. “If you’re afraid to die, don’t be afraid to live,” she says.
]Hunter (Virginia Gardner) has a deeper reason. In an earlier scene, she lost her boyfriend who fell while climbing a sheer rock face. She has her ashes and wants to scatter them from above. So they go up. There is a ladder which suggests it won’t be difficult, but half way through the bolts are loose, the ladder sways, parts of it fall off. The vultures come sniffing around because one of the women now has a bleeding wound. Then there’s a gale, they can’t get down and they can’t call for help because there’s no cell phone service. They have a drone but the battery is low. Director Scott Mann keeps throwing impediments and problems like that at them to build up the excitement for us. Oh, and Becky learns some painful information about Hunter. That adds to the test as well. Still, as one of them says: “Life is short. You have to do something that makes you feel alive.” (In theaters) 3 ½ of 5.
ARRANGED MARRIAGE: There have been several movies on this very theme: young women in the South Asian community struggling with their parents’ decision to choose who they should marry. This one, shot in Los Angeles with a Canadian in the lead, is surely one of the most extreme. There are kicks and stomps, a car explosion and two murders. There is a very controlling father, a complacent mother and a violent cousin and his friends who are against Kamali seeing Clive, a white man. As mom says, “His system is different from ours.”
Her family shows how different it is with a surprise party for her that is actually an engagement party. They have chosen a man from a good family for her, a future sanitary engineer who appears to be a boring chump, or as Kamali calls him, a nerd. She is relatively westernized and works at a store called Bikini World. The boss refuses to fire her and suffers the consequences. Her boyfriend says it’s an “accepted method of conflict resolution in her society” that seems too tolerant. Meanwhile, she moans, “I’m done. I am damaged merchandise. No one will want to marry me. That seems too pessimistic. She is a rebel, after all. The whole movie has that problem. Problems are real, bad events happen, but writer-director Anoop Rangi exaggerates them.
Megha Sandhu as Kamali nearly saved the movie. She is from Montreal, a former Miss Teenage Canada and a finalist in other pageants and gives a likeable performance. 2 ½ of 5
AINBO: With the words added “Spirit of the Amazon” is a child-level excursion into ecology and the need to preserve the natural world. It’s better for older people, even teenagers, because the story has twists and metaphors that can be more disconcerting than educating. For example, giant machines are digging in the rain forest, but is it the greed of the white man in charge or an ancient demon that causes the damage? Or are they the same, metaphorically? It is definitely not clear or direct. But keep that in mind and you’re in for a beautiful animated adventure with a brave young woman at the helm.
Ainbo is 13 years old, she calls herself the best hunter in her village, although she is prone to comedic mishaps. With two spirit guides, a tapir and an armadillo, she sets out to save the town from the felling of trees (which is also killing the fish) or, viewed another way, from Yacuruna, an ancient demon. People no longer believe in him and Ainbo has to go to a giant tortoise named Motelo Mama to help her revive the old traditions and legends. And resist the lure of money represented by a villain who is said to study natural medicines but is actually looking for gold. Good themes for sure, but they are confusing in this version. It is a co-production between Peru, Holland and Germany and you will see influences from many other animated adventures. 3 of 5
BODIES, BODIES, BODIES: I have a clue I know what you did last summer out of this, not because of the plot but because of the environment. And the sinister but light tone. It’s like a parlor mystery but with strong contemporary undertones. Pete Davidson plays a guy who throws a hurricane-watching party at his dad’s country mansion. He invites an ex-girlfriend (Amandla Stenberg) who brings his new girlfriend (Maria Bakalova). There’s also a podcast host (Rachel Sennott) and her new boyfriend, an Afghanistan veteran (Lee Pace). As the wind and rain pick up, they play a game with the same name as the movie. It’s based on one played in improv classes, it involves touching someone in the dark, i.e. killing them, and then having everyone try to find the killer. A bit like Clue, I guess.
Well, things get complicated. There are old resentments between some characters. One is an annoying bossy guy. One is shy and disappears into the dark parts of the house. Worse yet, when one is found dead, the night goes on as the game usually does. Instead of the group uniting to survive the weather and a power outage and to find out who killed the dead guy, they argue and call each other names. “No one likes you,” is a zinger thrown at one point. And there is an unexpected ending that some will say they saw coming, but don’t believe them. It’s too clever to be convincing. What the film does have is a deep understanding of how young women turn on each other to argue. Thanks to Sarah DeLappe’s script for that and to Halina Reijn for directing her. (In theaters) 3 of 5