TIFF '24 Day Four

A few words about taking it easy and growing old

Nightbitch

After an absurd Day Three at the festival (seven screenings, including a midnight… my god…), I decided to take it easier on Sunday. That was always partially the plan, as there wasn’t much in the evening I was excited about, and I had the opportunity to dogsit an adorable little creature, which only a fool would pass up. While I’d hoped to get into the midnight screening of the new film Friendship, starring Tim Robinson, I couldn’t snag a ticket, wasn’t about to stand in rush, and wanted to catch some proper sleep, which I did.

Photo: Corey Atad

I took it easier another way, too, by going for some regular Hollywood entertainment for my first two films. Not too extreme, not too intense, not too challenging, just solid easy watches. Of course, I followed those with a couple of screenings from the Wavelangths programme, but we’re all about balance in this house.

The first movie of the day was Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, a film that has garnered mockery from the moment it was announced, and things only got worse when its quite terrible trailer came out. The film is not terrible, as Heller so far seems incapable of making a terrible film, though I haven’t entirely decided whether or not the film is good. The film stars Amy Adams as a mother, regularly left alone to take care of her toddler while her husband is away on work, who is quite miserable about the whole parenting thing. And also she may be turning into a dog. The premise works surprisingly well, including a bit of body horror that’s delightfully nasty, though I wish it had gone a lot further with that. Which is overall how I felt about the movie. There’s a sharp acidity to the first two thirds of the film, an honesty about the hell that can be raising a child you don’t often see expressed in mainstream movies. Unfortunately, the ‘00s Sundance vibe really takes over the movie in its final stretch, not totally ruining what came before, but making it pat, reaching for universalism it doesn’t need, and refusing ambiguity in favour of the simple message that being a mother is hard, but it’s powerful and worth it. A little ambivalence would have been nice at the end, considering what came before. That said, I like this style of movie that Heller makes, and she does it well, with uncommon intelligence. You might be better off seeking out Diary of a Teenage Girl or Can You Ever Forgive Me? instead, though.

Conclave

I had a few options for my second screening of the day, but stuck with my easygoing guns and went off to see Conclave, the new papal thriller from Edward Berger, he of All Quiet on the Western Front (a movie I… did not care for, despite its impressive production), and starring Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal tasked with overseeing the conclave after the pope has died. The film, which also stars Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, operates as a political thriller, with various factions vying for the papacy and the future of the Catholic Church, all while hiding plenty secrets. Berger takes very silly material, but approaches it with seriousness of craft, and a tone that is deliberately too intense, leading to moments of genuine, earned laughs later in the film as its twists unfold. I’m not sure it quite achieves five-star three-star status, but that’s the kind of movie we’re talking about here, so of course I was delighted by it.

Lázaro at Night

Two easy screenings, a good time had, a nice break, and then something to challenge me. Lázaro at Night is the new film from Mexican Canadian filmmaker Nicolás Pereda, who I was unfortunately unfamiliar with until now, and am suddenly feeling the need to correct that. It’s a beguiling film, about a group of friends caught in a love triangle orchestrated by a director casting his new project. Often very funny—Pereda said during the Q&A that he tries to make comedies—the film nonetheless moves at a careful, sometimes hypnotic pace, allowing its characters space to express real humanity, even as the film takes odd turns into flights of fancy that I’ll admit I couldn’t always make heads of tails of. No matter, I don’t expect to actually understand every film I watch. It’s enough to feel a movie, and there’s plenty to feel here. I’m also intrigued by this being part of long-running collaboration between Pareda and these actors, so I’ll be seeking those other films out.

Scénarios

For my last screening of the day, I took in the last of the three Wavelengths shorts programmes, which opened with the new final film from Jean-Luc Godard (I can only assume he’s got several more final films under his belt, prolific even in death), Scénarios. Talk about not understanding a movie and it not mattering at all. I was pretty well taken by Godard’s collage of still images giving way to clips from a lot of wonderful old movies, including some of his own. Seeing a quick clip from Hawks’s Only Angels Have Wings was surprisingly moving, no idea why. I figure there’s something all that about the relationship between violent images on-screen and the way they bleed out into real life, but honestly, I just enjoyed looking at it all. Footage Godard himself at the end was a great, funny capper. Next was Godard’s Exposé du film annonce du film "Scénario", basically just a filmed meeting in which he goes through the lookbook/storyboard for an unfinished feature. It’s a wonderful little look into the deliberate intentions of an artist whose later work is often cryptic in the extreme. I could have watched it for much longer, Wiseman-style. Finally, Godard’s films were paired with a new short by the John Smith called Being John Smith, a very funny biographical documentary about living life with that unfortunately unimaginative and overly common name. Great Q&A with Smith afterward, too, and a great pairing with the Godard shorts, complementing the other as films, each in their way, about growing old.

Rebel Ridge

That was the end of my fourth day at TIFF, but sitting at home with the dog, what else was I going to do but watch another movie? It was Rebel Ridge time! Folks, Jeremy Saulnier did it. He fucking did it. Aaron Pierre stars in the film as an ex-Marine who is essentially robbed by a couple of cops in a small town while riding his bike on the way to post bail for his cousin, who faces real danger if he’s transferred to state prison. Calmly attempting to get his money back from the corrupt, racist cops, things slowly escalate until he’s gotta do that classic movie thing and take matters into his own hands, while getting a little revenge for good measure. Pierre is excellent as the intense, stoic lead. Don Johnson is fantastic as an absolute asshole. Emory Cohen is a standout as one of the shittiest guys you’re ever likely to meet. Even AnnaSophia Robb surprised me in a strong, mature role as Pierre’s one real ally in town. Saulnier directs the hell out of it, and his script is wonderful, with some excellent, crackling aciton-thriller dialogue. The conversations are often just as tense and exciting as the action. Folks, this shit is great, and my only complaint is that because it’s a Netflix movie, we were denied the pleasure of seeing it in theatres. Hell, it should have been at TIFF!