BRENDAN MCDERMID
So what's the buzz about the buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival?
The question arises, naturally, from a festival where publicity, particularly of the Hollywood variety, often threatens to eclipse the real question of how much people enjoyed their selections from the 336 short and long, international, avant-garde, Canadian, American, independent and studio pictures that make up this sprawling event.
But let's focus on one nagging buzz-killer in reports about this year's festival: There's no breakout film, no underdog to root for. In this area, Toronto fans have become badly spoiled. In seven of the past 10 years, the best-picture winner has played at TIFF. But not every year yields a Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, Black Swan or King's Speech, an underdog film that goes from obscurity to Oscar contender in 10 days. Remember, buzz can take months to build: It was almost a year after TIFF before 2009 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker even opened in theatres and then it was to poor box office.
On the flip side, other films should perform exactly according to plan and appear on Oscar's top-10 list of best-picture contenders. The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, was a smoothly made heart-tugging American family drama; The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney, is a competent political drama with good performances; Moneyball is a sharply written sports film with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Even 50/50, the Seth Rogen-Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer comedy, which surpassed expectations, has a chance. Then there are the outliers, provocative, but more difficult films, including David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, about the birth of psychoanalysis, and English director Steve McQueen's bold second film, Shame, which earned high praise for Michael Fassbender's performance as a sexually compulsive man. Another sophomore film, and one of the true world premieres among major films at the fest, was Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, which drew mixed reactions at the festival, but topped Indiewire's survey of critics.
The consensus is that it was a good year for documentaries. Last Call at the Oasis is poised to be this year's most important environmental-message movie. And the festival opened for the first time in its history with a documentary, shown apparently for the purpose of bringing its star subjects to town: Davis Guggenheim's U2 film From the Sky Down, about the Irish band's production of the 1991 album Achtung Baby. But it seemed an odd choice for a celebration of cinema: It is slated to be a CD extra and cable movie within the month. Similarly, the festival's final gala screening, the thriller Page Eight, starring Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz, is going directly to public television. Both highlight the industry's drift from theatrical experiences to home-entertainment content.
Nobody could complain about a shortage of star wattage, with Brad, George, Angelina, Madonna all arriving at the party. Especially George. "Welcome to George Clooney's film festival," quipped Payne. Both Clooney and Brad Pitt were true movie stars in the old-fashioned sense, charming their way through modest films built around their personal appeal.
So, yes, it was a good year for TIFF – especially when it came to films drawn not only from Hollywood's fall schedule, but also the best of Cannes ( Le Havre, The Kid with a Bike, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Artist), the Berlin Film Festival ( A Separation, The Turin Horse, The Forgiveness of Blood) and Sundance ( Take Shelter and Martha Marcy May Marlene).
On Thursday morning, I saw my favourite film of the festival, a mesmerizing, tense, metaphorical drama called Invasion, which won't be on any Oscar lists. This little-known Latin American classic, part of TIFF's City to City program, was made by first-time director Hugo Santiago, a former assistant of Robert Bresson, in Argentina in 1969 and was co-written by Nobel Prize-winner Jorge Luis Borges. The film was subsequently banned by the Argentine dictatorship of the day and disappeared for almost 30 years.
After Toronto, Invasion heads to the New York Film Festival in October. True, that's not Oscar buzz. It's another kind of discovery, one that makes film festivals matter.
Liam Lacey