If you’ve been waiting for Ashen Stars to show up for sale at RPGNow or Flames Rising, wait no longer.
Nick Mamatas examines the historical provenance of Fringe’s Walter Bishop(s.) (Link good for one week only.)
The Toronto Sun is just phoning it in now.
If I learned that Bryan Ferry could drink wines with ugly labels, my faith in humanity would have been shattered.
Since June 2010 this blog has hosted the Korad experiment, an exercise in group world-building. The final fact we learned about Korad concerns its nominal future. We selected the three candidates for a future ideology which will one day supersede the empire's dominant worldview. As determined by you, they are: 
As an example of the sorts of characters you’ll play in Hillfolk, the first DramaSystem game, here’s the roster from the in-house playtest. They are stalwarts of the Horsehead clan, highlands-dwelling raiders at the dawn of the Iron Age.
The most important element of any DramaSystem PC are her dramatic poles—the two contradictory emotional impulses she’s torn between.
Redaxe (played by Paul) is the clan’s bad-ass war champion, a confident berserker with axe in hand, but an often confused man in the confusing realms of love and politics. Poles: man of peace vs. man of war
Thickneck (Justin), Redaxe’s brother and the clan’s most accomplished shepherd. His desire for himself and the clan is tranquility; so far, events have given him little of it. For the first season, he served as self-appointed conscience and advisor to the chieftain. Now he is the chieftain. (He’s also for the moment become a GM-run recurring character, as Justin has had to bow out for the fall semester.) Poles: ambition vs. loyalty.
When we first met Twig (played by Lisa) the clan’s willowy young hostler, her lack of confidence led her to seek the approval of others. She started out as Redaxe’s girl, then realized her true feelings were for Thickneck. As last season closed, her confidence issues seemed to disappear, as she sought power for herself and Thickneck. For the first season, her poles were conformity vs. adventure. Now, as she becomes more political and materialistic, she’s shifted to selfishness vs. altruism.
Skull (Christoph) was, for the first season, the brash and maneuvering village headman, who by fits and starts negotiated the Horsehead clan into vassal status with the northern kingdom, only to be set aside by King Goldenthrone. Skull’s search for a new place after losing his authority will doubtless drive much of season two. During the first season, Christoph expressed his poles as assimilator vs. protector. As GM, I would have asked him to adjust these to something more personal and less abstract—were he not in practice playing the more gripping set of poles: arrogance vs. wisdom. In his new renegade state, his poles have shifted to vengeance vs. the people.
Farhawk (Chris) is a young firebrand, and a burr in the saddle of the other main characters. His father, headman of the defunct Lavender clan, was slain by Redaxe, who has sworn to train Farhawk in the art of combat, so they can fairly fight to the death later. Though generally distrusted and disregarded, Farhawk may have the keenest political instincts of any Horsehead. His poles: becoming a Horsehead vs. destroying the Horseheads.
Chris started out playing Roll-the-Bones, the clan’s wise woman. But after she proved dramatically inert—her sole tactic in dramatic scenes was refusal—he was dragooned into playing the powerfully double-edged Farhawk, first introduced as a recurring character (an important NPC.) Roll-the-Bones then became a recurring character, where her obstructionism suits her for the role of nemesis.
History of 'Keep Calm and Carry On', from non-use in WW2 to current trademark fight.
Shoggoth remorse: is it ever justified?
Hear me interviewed by Scott “Fowl Sorcerous” Wachter over at RPGamer. I provide the lowdown on Ashen Stars, spill additional beans regarding DramaSystem, and dole out nuggets of GMing wisdom.
Put it in your ears!
Bike lane reduction prompts Lego protest.
Punisher: War Zone is an unheralded masterwork?!? Why was I not informed?
Thanks to Golden Geek Award nominators, who gave nods to The Armitage Files (best supplement) and Ashen Stars (best art). Bookhounds of London is up against Armitage, prompting me to wonder what the word is for a mixture of pride (that Ken got a nom as well) and vexation (that the two books will split the Trail of Cthulhu vote.) Irrichuffment?
Cancer-stricken researcher devises treatment, extends own life, dies, days later gets Nobel nod.
Laurent Bouzereau documentary covering Stephen King’s take on horror movies, first airing tonight on TCM, looks pretty promising.
As I prepare to lay down my group world-building stick, Chuck Wendig is picking his up.
I am once again looking to augment the ranks of my Thursday night playtest group—hence this open call for one new recruit.
To join the group, you’ll need to be reliably free on Thursday nights and able to get to the Bloor-Bathurst area in downtown Toronto. We meet from 7 pm to 10 pm.
You will also need a saintly tolerance for my playtesting needs. I run games I’m either designing or need to familiarize myself in order to do freelance work for. In the early going a new game may crash and burn, mandating a return to the drawing board. Often I’ll have to suddenly abandon a successful series in midstream to go on to the next thing. We usually play RPGs but there’s always the chance you may be asked to test-drive a card or board game along the way.
At present we have just entered our second season of Hillfolk, the first game using the new DramaSystem engine. It works within the storygame tradition, focusing on narrative and character development, setting traditional butt-kicking and problem-solving by the wayside. This game will continue until at least spring. Next up will be Gaean Reach, a game of interstellar mystery and vengeance using the GUMSHOE system, with touches of Skulduggery thrown in for good measure.
Please put yourself forward only if you can realistically make a long-term commitment to showing up every Thursday night.
If you’re interested, get in touch either by leaving a comment on this blog, or via private message on Facebook or G+, or DM on Twitter.
I’ve talked before about the iconic characters and how they are driven by an ethos. By recapitulating it, they triumph over external obstacles, affirm their selfhood, and restore order.
But what drives dramatic characters?
When we care about a fictional character, we hope for X and fear for Y. X is the positive condition; Y is its opposite. In a procedural, we hope the character will succeed in reaching his procedural goals and fear that he will fail. In a drama, we perceive a positive and a negative potential. We want the character to reach the former and avoid the latter.
Compelling ongoing dramatic characters possess dual natures, or internal oppositions. We want them to overcome one of these and realize the other. Another way to express this is to say that the characters are torn between two internal forces or impulses. These are the poles of a dramatically active character.
Rick Blaine (Casablanca) selfishness or altruism?
Shelley Levene (Glengarry Glen Ross) winner or loser?
Nora (A Doll’s House) subservience or selfhood?
Tony Soprano: family man or Family man?
Nate Fisher: (Six Feet Under) freedom or responsibility?
Frank Gallagher: (Shameless US) dissolution or dignity?
Walter White (Breaking Bad) virtuous weakness or anti-social power?
Our feelings toward the two poles may be clear-cut, or divided. Dramatic characterization deepens, and our reactions to it become more complex, when our reaction to the dual nature becomes ambiguous. Part of us wants Tony to be the good family man, but part of us takes dark vicarious pleasure in his sociopathic side.
Proving it still counts as the September issue if it comes out on the 29th, the latest edition of the Pelgrane Press webzine, See P. XX, has now escaped from the nest. My eponymous column introduces you to the whys and wherefores of DramaSystem and Hillfolk.
The first of several exciting Ashen Stars demos appears, in the form of Kevin Kulp’s “Stowaway.” This had folks coming up to the booth raving (and then buying the book) when he ran it at Gen Con, and it’s great to see it made available for a wider audience.
Also: Jonny Nexus takes aim at red herrings, we get a peek at the Night’s Black Agents layout, Graham Walmsley continues the Cthulhu Apocalypse, and Beth Lewis debuts her Q & A column by soliciting some Qs and laying down one of her own. And as always, head Pelgrane wrangler Simon Rogers updates you on new and forthcoming projects.
After an overly long summer break, my Thursday night playtest group will reconvene, continuing to put the first DramaSystem game, Hillfolk, through its paces. At this point, I’m confident that the main mechanism works well. This is the framing and playing out of dramatic scenes, in which one main character seeks an emotional concession from another. We’re still discovering new things to do with it, which will play into the final manuscript’s explanatory passages. The bit that might or might not now be in place is the less-used procedural system. This comes into play in the surprisingly few cases where you need to determine whether a character succeeds at an external, practical goal—what has always been the bread and butter of traditional roleplaying.
Knowing that we were headed for a hiatus, we tried to steer the previous episode to some climactic moment analogous to the season-ender of a serialized cable show. (The game uses the TV series as a reference point but doesn't try to impose specific television tropes or structures on your evolving narrative.)
That big shift point seemed elusive throughout the session. Then, with the magic gestalt that attends a multi-author improvised narrative, we suddenly got there in the last scene. For much of our first season, the Iron Age raiders of the main cast have been contending with an incursion from the culturally similar but more economically and politically advanced nation from the north. After going back and forth as to whether to ally with or fight the forces of King Goldenthrone, our heroes eventually threw in with him. To make a long story short (and simpler) the chieftain skull (played by Christoph) bowed down to him as a vassal, in hopes of eventually becoming king of the southern badlands, and then challenging him. In a surprise scene at last session’s end, Goldenthrone tired of Skull’s maneuverings and fired him as chieftain. In his place, he elevated Skull’s adviser/frenemy Thickneck (played by Justin.)
Tonight, we’ll add a new player. This will dovetail with the cable series tradition of adding new regulars to series in progress. We’ll start the session by deciding how far we want to jump ahead in the narrative, most likely to a revised status quo with Thickneck in charge and Skull looking for his new place in the clan.
One piece of writing advice I have increasingly come to reject is the one that urges you to exterminate all trace of mannerism. Certain words are too distinctive, so the admonition goes, to use more than once in the course of a novel.
One particularly nutsoid bit of outward-turned insecurity I ran across a while back went so far as to complain about writers who used the simple word “tone” more than one in a book-length work.
Sure, you have to be aware of terms and expressions you overuse reflexively, and to be conscious of how hard you’re leaning on them.
But certain words are so distinctive that they help transport you into a writer’s particular world and vision. Recently, in preparation for an upcoming project, I had the pleasure of reading fourteen of Jack Vance’s Gaean Reach novels in a row. Vance rightly receives praise as one of the finest stylists in genre writing. And you know what? He breaks a bunch of supposed writing rules left and right, without blotting his copybook. Foremost among these is the injunction against re-use of exotic words. I don’t feel I’m truly in a Vancian setting until someone acts with punctilio. Or speaks with candor. An insulting reference to dog barbers becomes not a tired return to the same well, but a welcome moment of gratification—a return visit with an old friend.
Prose greats don’t vanish into the page. They grab hold of written language and make it theirs.
Jack Vance owns punctilio. But maybe we can aspire to our own landmark words, and free ourselves to use them with the ruthless abandon true masters employ.
Gaming-inspired scents—do they warrant a !!! or a ?!?
Studios think streaming customers want to pay more and wait longer.
Tonight, Monday September 26th, at 9 pm Eastern, the various authors of the Pathfinder Tales novel line will be convening at http://chat.dmtools.org/ for a free-for-all chat session. I’ll be there along with Dave Gross, James Sutter, and other stalwarts of the line. Ask me about The Worldwound Gambit, “Plague of Light”, or whatever else happens to be on your mind. I look forward to typing at you.
At one point in the archival, Borges-penned rarity Invasion (see below), the gray-haired spymaster Don Porfirio looks in a mirror and says, “I'm getting too old for this.” This moots the tantalizing possibility that this key film cliché, now better known in the updated “I'm getting too old for this shit,” was first introduced to the movies by Jose Luis Borges.
It also sums up how I'm feeling as I belatedly file this round up of capsule reviews from my twenty-fifth full-tilt run at the Toronto International Film Festival. The addition of a final full Sunday of programming, and more subtle changes to the arrangement of venues and slots, has made an event I used to jokingly refer to as grueling actually so. I really hit the wall this year and, days later, have yet to fully recover my stamina. Apparently my spring chicken status has been revoked. As of next year I'm going to have to find a more civilized and leisurely way of doing this—and that means fewer films.
Had this been a banner year, I might be celebrating the enervation as a badge of honor. And if you average my numerical ratings for each film, the number might be higher than in years past. I saw fewer less-than-okay titles than ever. There are only three films here that I can't recommend. Unfortunately, masterpieces proved scarcer still. Instead, my festival was about high-quality films that accomplished what they set out to do. Absent from the proceedings were works that startled, or broke new ground, or heralded the arrival of fresh directorial voices. Instead, familiar talents delivered in familiar ways.
I wonder if we're not seeing the downside of the ongoing commercialization of world cinema. Craftsmanship is up; vision is in shorter supply.
Or maybe it's just a down year. The gala side of the fest lacked luster as well. Star titles aimed at Oscar glory acquired scant buzz. The Peoples' Choice Award, often a harbinger of hit status and gold statues, passed over the Hollywood fare in favor of a foreign-language title, Nadine Labaki's Lebanese Lysistrata variation Where Do We Go Now?
Of the titles I skipped because they had distribution already in hand, Steve McQueen's Shame and Lars von Trier's Melancholia gave off the most promising buzz.
That said, the list below surely includes many of this or next year's top films. Clip and save for your future Netflixing, renting or art house delectation. Astute watchers of the daily reviews will note that some titles have risen, and others have settled, as immediate experience gives way to what lingers in memory.
Himizu [Japan, Sion Sono] Junior high student with toxic parents who lives in the zone struck by the March tsunami and subsequent Fukushima disaster struggles to find an outlet for his existential fury. Epic, ambitious grapple with despair.
A Simple Life [HK, Ann Hui] Film producer (Andy Lau) sees to the care of the elderly family maid who helped raise him. Beautifully observed drama driven by a conflict so delicate as to be nearly imperceptible.
Into the Abyss [US, Werner Herzog] The imminent execution of a young Texan for a callous triple homicide prompts a discursive documentary portrait of his hometown, and the people touched in various ways by the crime. What seems at first like a standard inquiry into the death penalty unfolds into a surprising meditation on the richness, tragedy and strangeness of human lives.
Michael [Austria, Markus Schleinzer] Unassuming insurance man's affinity for routine detail assists him as he keeps a young boy imprisoned in his basement. Wickedly matter-of-fact take on the banality of evil can safely be called the most restrained horror film in movie history.
Kotoko [Japan, Shinya Tsukomoto] Hallucination-prone woman yearns to regain custody of her son. Alternately super-upsetting and poignant subjective portrait of mental illness.
Trishna [UK, Michael Winterbottom] Beautiful village girl (Freida Pinto) accepts a not entirely altruistic employment offer from an irresponsible Indo-British hotel heir. Modern, India- set Tess of the d'Ubervilles succeeds by fully transposing the premise to a new time and place, without seeking an analogue for every plot point of the original.
The Sword Identity [China, Haofeng Xu] Martial artist battles an outpost full of soldiers for the right to add an innovative sword design to the list of officially approved weapons. Sly exercise in formalist minimalism that, unlike most art takes on the martial arts film, doesn't cheat the fight choreography.
Invasion [Argentina, Hugo Santiago] Agents of a shadowy conspiracy fight to prevent younger, more casually dressed rivals from invading the city of Aquelia. Cryptic, deadpan, action-packed exercise in narrative deconstruction is what you'd get if Jorge Luis Borges wrote a spy thriller--because he did, and this is it. This 1969 archival rarity, once thought lost, screened as part of the fest's spotlight on the cinema of Buenos Aires.
House of Tolerance [France, Bertrand Bonello] In Paris, 1900, women face the vicissitudes of sex work during a legalized, luxury brothel's final months. Juxtaposes romantic visuals with an anti-romantic text.
Extraterrestrial [Spain, Nacho Vigalondo] Man and woman waking up after one-night stand realize they missed the evacuation of Madrid due to hovering UFOs; bedroom farce ensues. Delivers delightfully throughout on its inspired mix of seemingly unrelated genres.
Rebellion [France, Mathieu Kassovitz] Negotiator from the gendarmerie (Kassovitz) sent to defuse a hostage taking by insurgents in New Caledonia, discovers that the real obstacles to peace are the electioneering politicians back in Paris. Gripping examination of the steps that turned a 1988 colonial crisis into an atrocity.
Your Sister’s Sister [US, Lynn Shelton] Woman (Emily Blunt) with unacknowledged feelings for her dead ex's brother (Mark Duplass) sends him on a head-clearing retreat to her family cottage, where he gets unexpectedly close with her sister (Rosemarie Dewitt.) Witty, truthful comedy-drama of romantic manners keeps the stakes high without extreme characters or phony behavior.
Love and Bruises [China/France, Lou Ye] Chinese student in Paris allows herself to become enmeshed in an abusive relationship with a manipulative laborer. Tough journey inside an all-too-common relationship takes on a political dimension.
Beauty [South Africa, Oliver Hermanus] Closeted Afrikaaner businessman's yearning for a old buddy's son sends him spinning out of control. Unflinching drama anchored by a pressure-cooker lead performance.
Generation P [Russia, Victor Ginzburg] Ad man spends the post-Soviet money grab era on a drug fueled rise through the unstable new power structure. Hallucinogenic satire based on a Victor Pelevin novel.
Mr. Tree [China, Han Jie] In a northern mining town, a perennial screw-up haunted by a family murder makes a footless effort to better himself. Finds unexpected depths in its central character as its naturalistic comedy shifts into the dramatic.
Life Without Principle [HK, Johnnie To] As global markets melt down, the robbery of a loan shark ripples through the lives of a disparate but interconnected group. Coolly controlled ensemble drama of fate and finance.
Juan of the Dead [Spain/Cuba, Alejandro Brugues] Band of Havana ne'er-do-wells copes with an epidemic of flesh-eating, undead "dissidents." Hilariously adds zombie action to the national "everything's fucked in Cuba but it's all right" template.
Sons of Norway [Norway, Jens Lien] When his mom is killed and his dad falls to pieces, a boy raised in a hippie household seeks angry solace in the burgeoning punk scene. Funny and moving coming-of-age story clangs to the music of the Sex Pistols.
Headshot [Thailand, Pen-ek Ratanaruang] His vision upended after miraculously surviving a bullet to the head, an ex-cop turned assassin finds his destiny closing in on him. Moody Buddhist noir sees Ratanaruang returning to the style of his early classic Last Life in the Universe.
The Good Son [Finland, Zaida Bergroth] Young man whose actress mother's boundary-less dependence and history of bad boyfriends has turned him into her rage-filled protector overreacts when she lets a new man into her life. Taut, perceptively played drama.
Chicken With Plums [France, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud] In fifties Tehran, a temperamental violinist (Mathieu Almaric) takes to his bed, willing himself to die, after he gets swindled trying to buy a Stradivarius. Sad stories told in a funny way, through (mostly) live action sequences in a comics-influenced style.
Countdown [South Korea, Huh Jong-Ho] Icy collection agent's bad-ass search for a liver donor leads him to a game of cat-and-mouse with a glamorous con artist. Bubbling pursuit thriller gradually gives itself over to tearjerking melodrama.
Caprichosos de San Telmo [Argentina/Canada, Alison Murray] Documentary profiles members of a murga, a traditional costumed drum and dance group from a poor Buenos Aires neighborhood who perform at Carnival time. Testament to the power of collective creativity presents the folklore and politics of murga through the stories of the participants.
Monsters Club [Japan, Toshiaki Toyoda] Young mail-bomber leading a hermit's life in a snowy mountain cabin faces reproachful family ghosts. Contemplative inversion of the spiral into madness movie starts with its protagonist already mad and invites us to hope for his return to sanity.
Rampart [US, Oren Moverman] During the 1991 Rampart scandal, a beating incident triggers a reckoning for a brutal, racist patrolman (Woody Harrelson.) Bad cop character drama convincingly executed by an impressive cast.
Goodbye First Love [France, Mia Hansen-Love] A 15-year-old girl's intense love for her boyfriend casts a shadow over her life that lasts for many years after their break-up.
Play [Sweden, Ruben Östlund] Pre-teen trio gets dragged across Gothenburg by bullying, older immigrant kids. Coolly upsetting crime docudrama takes a despairing look at Swedish race relations.
Smuggler [Japan, Katsuhito Ishii] Loser's involuntary new job as an underworld clean-up man exposes him to a series of reprisals involving the nun-chuk wielding super-assassin Mr. Vertebrae. Manga adaptation pairs kooky comedy with lovingly detailed ultra-violence.
J’aime Regardez les Filles [France, Frederic Louf] Callow florist's son party-crashes his way into an ultra-wealthy social circle. Engaging coming of age comedy drama to which Whit Stillman comparisons are inevitable if not 100% on point.
You’re Next [US, Adam Wingard] Masked killers hunt down members of a well-heeled family's anniversary gathering--unaware that one of the new girlfriends wields a seriously bad-ass skill set. Musters more wit and character detail than you'd expect from a gory neo-exploitation thriller.
Pompeya [Argentina, Tamae Garateguy] Meta-fiction juxtaposes the writing of a bloody gangster pic with scenes from the final movie--or is it? Exploration of the cruel allure of the crime genre finds surprising layers by declining to treat the film- within- the-film as a joke.
God Bless America [US, Bobcat Goldthwait] Middle-aged office worker with nothing to lose bonds with disaffected teen girl as they conduct a nationwide killing spree targeting exemplars of meanness and vulgarization. Gleefully nasty satire is what you might get if Paddy Chayevsky were still around to rewrite Natural Born Killers.
Alps [Greece, Giorgios Lanthimos] Secretive group consisting of two hospital workers, a gymnast, and her abusive coach aid the grieving by acting out scripted scenarios in which they substitute for the deceased. Variation on the director's previous film, Dogtooth, that isn't as resonant or mind-blowing.
Whore’s Glory [Austria, Michael Glawogger] Documentary achieves remarkable access into the workaday lives of prostitutes working in Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico. Presents an impressionist portrait with arresting cinematography and cool music from acts like PJ Harvey and Antony and the Johnsons; could use a less forgiving edit from its 2 hr length.
Tyrannosaur [UK, Paddy Considine] Violent widower (Peter Mullan) learns to see rage from the other side when he connects with a devout charity shop worker whose husband abuses her. Performances and characterizations register despite a script with showing vs telling issues.
My Worst Nightmare [France, Anne Fontaine] Boorish tradesman defrosts demanding gallerist (Isabelle Huppert.) Use the fluffy dessert metaphor of your choice to describe this class-conscious romantic comedy.
Superclasico [Denmark, Ole Christian Madsen] Dejected wine shop owner goes with son to Buenos Aires to get his wife back before she divorces him for a football superstar. Fluffy, episodic comedy leaves too much of the narrative heavy lifting up to the voiceover narration.
Bunohan [Malaysia, Dain Said] Three estranged brothers--a kickboxer, a killer, and a shady businessman--return to their home village and come into conflict over the family land. Languidly paced rural noir punctuated by sudden bursts of brutal violence.
Alois Nebel [Czech Republic, Tomas Lunak] Depressed railway dispatcher stoically suffers setbacks after the fall of the Iron Curtain. B&W computer rotoscoping, in the Waking Life style, lends graphic novelty to your basic post-Communist despond movie.
Nuit #1 [Canada, Anne Emond] Man and woman exchange self-lacerating confessions after a one-night stand. Stylized language and behavior might be easier to buy into on stage, free of a realism that calls its credibility into question.
A Mysterious World [Argentina, Rodrigo Moreno] After his live-in girlfriend dumps him, an affectless nebbish drifts through a series of droll and/or melancholy incidents. Bored art about bored people.
That Summer [France, Philippe Garrel] Feckless bit player recalls the events in a tortured marriage that led to his artist friend's suicide. I watched this listless trainwreck in puzzled fascination, wondering if its near-complete avoidance of well-constructed dramatic scenes comes through incompetence or perverse design.
Well, it's all over save for the sleeping. And the laundry. And grocery shopping and general resurfacing. I'll be taking a couple of recovery days and then return with the annual round-up post, with capsule reviews, ranked in preference order, all in one place, for your clipping and saving needs. Until then, check out my last day flicks.
Monsters Club [Japan, Toshiaki Toyoda, 4] Young mail-bomber leading a hermit's life in a snowy mountain cabin faces reproachful family ghosts. Contemplative inversion of the spiral into madness movie starts with its protagonist already mad and invites us to hope for his return to sanity.
Smuggler [Japan, Katsuhito Ishii, 4] Loser's involuntary new job as an underworld clean-up man exposes him to a series of reprisals involving the nun-chuk wielding super-assassin Mr. Vertebrae. Manga adaptation pairs kooky comedy with lovingly detailed ultra-violence.
Countdown [South Korea, Huh Jong-Ho, 4] Icy collection agent's bad-ass search for a liver donor leads him to a game of cat-and-mouse with a glamourous con artist. Bubbling pursuit thriller gradually gives itself over to tearjerking melodrama.
I wouldn't be surprised to see this get a Hollywood remake (sans tone shift).
Pompeya [Argentina, Tamae Garateguy, 4] Meta-fiction juxtaposes the writing of a bloody gangster pic with scenes from the final movie--or is it? Exploration of the cruel allure of the crime genre finds surprising layers by declining to treat the film-within-the-film as a joke.
Warning: you might have to be a writer or critic to dig this as much as I did.
Kotoko [Japan, Shinya Tsukomoto, 4] Hallucination-prone woman yearns to regain custody of her son. Alternately super-upsetting and poignant subjective portrait of mental illness.
I hit the wall hard on Friday evening, and the wall hit back. Hence this delayed/doubled catch-up post. I shed screenings from the start and end of Saturday in the hope that I'll recover enough to keep my strong final day line-up intact.
Generation P [Russia, Victor Ginzburg, 4] Ad man spends the post-Soviet money grab era on a drug fueled rise through the unstable new power structure. Hallucinogenic satire based on a Victor Pelevin novel.
A Mysterious World [Argentina, Rodrigo Moreno, 1.5] After his live-in girlfriend dumps him, an affectless nebbish drifts through a series of droll and/or melancholy incidents. Bored art about bored people.
As readers who follow this blog with a stalkerish attention to detail will already recall, chairs and my legs have not been getting along lately. TIFF venues, in the order in which their seating is killing me:
Scotiabank 2
Jackman Hall
Scotiabank 11
Scotiabank 1, 2, 4
Ryerson
Elgin
AMC
Isabel Bader
Lightbox
Not reviewed: Roy Thomson, Princess of Wales
Tyrannosaur [UK, Paddy Considine, 3] Violent widower (Peter Mullan) learns to see rage from the other side when he connects with a devout charity shop worker whose husband abuses her. Performances and characterizations register despite a script with showing vs telling issues.
I hit the limit of my physical endurance during Carré Blanc [France, Jean-Baptiste Leonetti] and left the theater. What I saw of this condominium fusion of 1984 and Soylent Green did not engage, consisting nearly exclusively of down beats. But for all I know it turns masterpiecey in the last 10-20 minutes.
Juan of the Dead [Spain/Cuba, Alejandro Brugues, 4] Band of Havana ne'er-do-wells copes with an epidemic of flesh-eating, undead "dissidents." Hilariously adds zombie action to the national "everything's fucked in Cuba but it's all right" template.
If you've been under the impression that there is still a functioning film censorship system in Cuba, this splattery satire will spin your head around. The government is listed as a funding partner!
Headshot [Thailand, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 4] His vision upended after miraculously surviving a bullet to the head, an ex-cop turned assassin finds his destiny closing in on him. Moody Buddhist noir sees Ratanaruang returning to the style of his early classic Last Life in the Universe.
Superclasico [Denmark, Ole Christian Madsen, 3] Dejected wine shop owner goes with son to Buenos Aires to get his wife back before she divorces him for a football superstar. Fluffy, episodic comedy leaves too much of the narrative heavy lifting up to the voiceover narration.
That Summer [France, Philippe Garrel, 1] Feckless bit player recalls the events in a tortured marriage that led to his artist friend's suicide. I watched this listless trainwreck in puzzled fascination, wondering if its near-complete avoidance of well-constructed dramatic scenes comes through incompetence or perverse design.
That Summer so completely embraces the stereotypical traits of Gallic film, and executes them so maladroitly, that it could be used as an argument against French cinema in its entirety. In other words, it is France's GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Love and Bruises [China/France, Lou Ye, 4] Chinese student in Paris allows herself to become enmeshed in an abusive relationship with a manipulative laborer. Tough journey inside an all-too-common relationship takes on a political dimension.
Caprichosos de San Telmo [Argentina/Canada, Alison Murray, 4] Documentary profiles members of a murga, a traditional costumed drum and dance group from a poor Buenos Aires neighborhood who perform at Carnival time. Testament to the power of collective creativity presents the folklore and politics of murga through the stories of the participants.
Michael [Austria, Markus Schleinzer, 4] Unassuming insurance man's affinity for routine detail assists him as he keeps a young boy imprisoned in his basement. Wickedly matter-of-fact take on the banality of evil can safely be called the most restrained horror film in movie history.
