Film Fest 2007, Part 3

Posted By: Shagz
Date:

I think next year I'm going to write my reviews of my Film Fest flicks *immediately* after seeing them and I'm going to make them shorter. I'm finding that I'm going on a little too long in my writing for these reviews, because I'm trying to either remember the details or cover up the fact that I don't remember by writing with really verbose language. :P

Anyways, another trio of reviews, starting with an indie, first time Canadian director tackling fate and chance in India, the Film Fest's sole Kung Fu flick and a very cool docu-fiction about termites...

Amal
World Premiere
4.5 out of 5

A first time director, first time screen writer, first time producers, first time almost everything. Filming in another country far from "home" (though arguably the definition of home is a shifting and flexible animal). Plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong, and in many cases I found out later, they did. But through fate, the grace of God or sheer willpower, this beautiful little Canadian film, set in India, managed to get succeed, and gloriously so.

Based on the short story, written by the director, Amal takes us on a wonderful journey through the colourful main streets and alley ways of New Delhi. The story is simple but sets up complex questions of class, fate and chance, and what it means to be truly happy. Here I am, writing this on a VIA train, heading back to Toronto from my Christmas break, and even now, remembering the movie brings back images and emotions powerful enough to make me sigh. (at least inside my head)

Visually, the movie is beautiful. However, it's the amazing story and the powerful performances by the lead actors that made me feel like the movie was even more beautiful.

Rupinder Nagra, who plays Amal, is a giant of a man, which only serves to accentuate the caring spirit and gentle heart inside the 6'+ frame. Amal is humble and polite to the point of pain, letting his patrons and fellow taxi drivers walk all over him. All the while, Rupinder uses his radiant smile to break our hearts and identify with this happy yet tragic man. Surely such innocence cannot last long in the busy world of New Delhi, especially with the public transit system's completion just around the bend. Amal is the kind of guy you love to root for, you want to see him succeed so badly it hurts. And yet he's so naive. Even when he catches a lucky break, he's completely oblivious.

I don't want to say too much more about the film, as I don't want to ruin your first experience of it. Let if suffice that if you can, catch this amazing movie. It's great to begin with, but made all the more so because it's the director's first major work.

Chance of a wide-release: Very good, but being a Canadian film, you're going to have to watch the rep theatre schedules in order to see it. Right now I think they're still looking for a distributor.

Flashpoint
North American Premiere
4 out of 5

Being the Toronto Film Festivals *sole* kung fu/action film, and being the sophomore effort from the team of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip, Flashpoint had *a lot* riding on it's muscled shoulders. For the most part, Flashpoint delivers in all the right areas, yet still suffers the same weaknesses that troubled SPL which, depending on what you're after, may or may not bother you.

To judge any kung fu film by the yard stick used to judge other contemporary films is of course a mistake. Martial arts movies do not care if you don't like their story, that the acting is wooden, the script melodramatic. Flashpoint has all those problems, so if you care about such things, then stop reading.

For the rest of us, all you guys really want to know is if the action sequences are awesome. I can tell you without a doubt that they are. If you liked SPL's hard hitting, gritty, grimace-inducing style, you'll be wincing even more as Donnie Yen brings the pain in even more rough and tough street-level fighting. For the most part you're going to see a lot of ground-based mixed-martial arts action, with grapples, submission holds, blocks and throws.

The best part about all of this is that it really looks like everything *hurts*! This isn't the speedy, ornate execution of Jackie Chan or the beautiful push-pull-feint technical proficiency of Jet Li. Donnie goes straight for the throat, knocking heads through pillars, breaking arms with his legs, throwing bodies full speed into guard rails. This is a guy who wants to dispatch of his enemies quickly and efficiently, not have a little dance with them.

The fight choreography is not without finesse, as the kinds of holds that Donnie and his stunt men are coming up with made my brain do flip flops. "How the heck did he get that guy's arm into that grip?!" is something you'll be asking yourself a lot. I can't wait for the DVD so I can slow some of it down and figure out how it works!

But, if you remember, I stated earlier that the film suffers from some of the same problems as SPL. The main problem I have is that, while the fight sequences are totally awesome and display a refreshing variety in style and viciousness, there are only a few of them, and while you're sitting there waiting for the next one to be set up, you'll feel like poking your eye out with a screw driver as you suffer through the story.

I didn't *mind* SPL's story. The story was actually pretty good, but it just seemed to drag on for a little too long. Flashpoint's script is...well...ok, it was pretty bad. It had me squirming in my seat at about the hour mark. It wasn't the *worst* I've ever gone though, but I would be reluctant to make my friends sit through the entire movie just to see the final sequence.

That final sequence though...I think everyone left the theatre with whiplash. Maybe that's why the rest of the movie is so sub-par, so that when you finally get to the last 20 mins, you're completely blown away, but even without being set up by inferior material, the final fight scene in Flashpoint will definitely go down as one of the most brilliant in all martial arts movie history. SPL was better on the whole, but Flashpoint just kills it in the end.

So, is it worth it? It's like that old saying that your parents would use on you about chocolate bars: the anticipation makes the experience all the sweeter. I say give the rest of the movie a chance. Don't skip to the end of the film and get to the good parts, sit and watch the rest of it and try to make it through. You'll be richly rewarded in the end.

Chance of a wide-release: Check your local chinatown, they probably have it already, or watch for a release on Dragon Dynasty.

La Citadelle assiégée
North American Premiere
4 out of 5

This is a really awesome documentary. Or is it fiction? The lines between the two are definitely blurred in this "manufactured documentary" from France. The Citadelle referred to in the title is a giant termite hill located in Africa, and through the course of the film, it is besieged by a column of driver ants, intent on destroying and feeding on the termites.

While at its core, the film is really displaying natural events and behaviours - the ants fighting off a much, much larger snake; the massive grotesqueness of the termite queen; the ghost-like beauty of a midnight swarm of termite "princes and princesses" - the film is presented as a epic tale of fantasy.

The "script" was written to tell this tale and narrated as it was a retelling of Beowulf, but it was all based on natural events that happen all the time in the African plains. The film captured the natural conflict between ants and termites but enhanced that battle for the ages with the sounds of swords clashing as mandible struck mandible. Indeed, when asked whether the undulating termite queen's inner sanctum actually looked like it was displayed in the film, the director conceded that they were going more for Aliens than Discovery Channel!

Parts of the movie were shot in the wild, using special cameras on the ends of tubes to get inside the termite hill. But much of it was shot inside a special termite hill that was set up in a studio, allowing them an unprecedented cut away view at their insectoid subjects. Much of the film's major events were staged in order to assist in the telling of the tale.

This really does beg the question: are we watching fact or fiction? To hear the director talk about it, you're watching a story...but it is a story that nature tells all the time. The filmmakers just "helped it along" in order to make a better movie.

And what a tale it is. I have to say that I've never seen a nature documentary so thrilling and so exciting, and I think most of the families in the theatre agreed with me. You could practically hear them wanting to cheer near the end of the film as the termites fight back the hordes.

You may think I've ruined the movie by giving away the "ending", but trust me, I've told you very little. While the story maintains your interest, it's mother nature that provides the show, and you'll see some of the strangest examples of how life adapts and behaves.

Check this out movie if you can, I highly recommend it.

Chance of a wide-release: Not likely.

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