Top Canadian Picks at TIFF 2010
Posted by Katarina Gligorijevic on August 25, 2010 · Leave a Comment
TIFF’s Canadian film offerings are always plentiful and varied. It only makes sense that the country’s largest festival should focus a significant percentage of its programming on local talent. This year’s crop features a healthy mix of new and veteran filmmakers. Some of the country’s most established directors (Cronenberg, Egoyan, Maddin) don’t have new films to showcase, though Atom Egoyan will be premiering a commissioned work at TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the Essential Cinema exhibits a bit later this fall.
Here are my top five picks from the Canuck crop:
Curling
Denis Côté made one of last year’s most intriguing and bizarre films, the pseudo-documentary Carcasses. This year he’s back with Curling, a portrait of single dad Jean-François in wintry, rural Quebec who has a deep love of, well, curling. Jean-François is well known in the community, while his 12 year old daughter is strangely absent, never leaving their home. Curling is called his ‘most accessible’ feature in the TIFF programme book, and it will be interesting to see what they mean by that.
Daydream Nation
The debut film by director Mike Goldbach follows a young woman (Kat Dennings) in a small town full of stoned teens and an undying industrial fire. Meanwhile, there’s a killer in the community. Goldbach co-wrote Don McKellar’s Childstar, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does as a director. Kat Dennings was great in last year’s Defendor, another terrific recent Canadian film. It’s pretty cool (and rare) to see an American actress spend so much time acting in Canada.
Fubar II
Michael Dowse returns after nearly a decade with lovable hosers Terry and Dean, the stars of 2002′s mock-doc Fubar. Grown-up responsibilities are starting to catch up with the two headbangers, who are lured to Fort McMurray to look for work on the pipelines by their friend Tron. Wacky hijinx will undoubtedly ensue when the pair have to cope with life in ‘the Mac’. The trailers and clips that have surfaced online since this film was announced point to it being one of the funniest films at the festival. Time to “turn up the good, turn down the suck” indeed!
Good Neighbours
Jacob Tierney burst onto the festival scene with The Trotsky last year, a very funny and clever comedy about a teenager who believes himself to be the reincarnation of communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Now he returns with a thriller that’s intriguingly described as having “obvious affinities with Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave“. Three oddball characters are brought together by a string of unsolved murders in what promises to be a sharp, witty take on the thriller genre. The film reunites Tierney with Trotsky star Jay Baruchel, and also stars Emily Hampshire and Scott Speedman.
You Are Here
First time feature director (and talented video artist) Daniel Cockburn crafts a puzzle box of a film. The main character, Alan, is played by dozens of actors throughout. Workers in a call centre track the movements of several colleagues who are inexplicably traversing the city streets. An archivist (the wonderful Tracy Wright) sifts through a strange library. A scientist in a locked room translates Chinese texts without knowing Chinese. A smartly crafted patchwork of interconnected experimental narratives.
With such a wealth of films to choose from, it’s obviously difficult to pick just five. Another five honourable mentions that I’m looking forward to:
- Heartbeats, by Xavier Dolan, who debuted with J’ai Tue Ma Mere at the age of 18 two years ago
- Incendies, the latest from Polytechnique director Denis Villeneuve
- Repeaters, by veteran director Carl Bessai – which sounds like an edgy thriller version of Groundhog Day
- Score: A Hockey Musical, the opening night gala by One Week director Michael McGowan
- Trigger, Bruce McDonald’s veritable who’s who of Canadian talent, including the late, great Tracy Wright in her final role
Check out www.tiff.net for more info.
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