For the first time in four years, I got to return in person to cover a festival that is near and dear to my heart. I will admit that it felt overwhelming from time to time to reacclimate and navigate my time and the city as well as my own social anxiety that has become commonplace after the effects of the pandemic but I managed to take in a good list of the selections at this year’s festival and there are some real gems here.
The Old Oak – It feels so selfish as a film fan to say that I don’t want this to be director Ken Loach’s final film because, after almost sixty years of making powerful and real films, I’d say he’s really earned it. This film is a stirring and emotional story of our current reality, following a poor neighbourhood that becomes the ideal place for the government to place Syrian refugees. Written beautifully by Paul Lafferty, every face you see in this film is a relatable or recognizable one, especially the main, TJ, the owner of the Old Oak bar, who has a truly transformative journey that was just beautiful to watch. It has such a great message at a time when it is really needed, proving once again that Ken Loach has never had his finger away from the world’s pulse.
La Chimera – Look, I can’t lie about this one. I’m not even sure I fully understood this film and that’s before I can even begin to say if I even enjoyed it or not. There are stark truths like Josh O’Connor is really great in it, as is Carol Duarte, who is so adorably endearing in her odd sensibilities but it feels like Alice Rohrwacher is leaning harder into the Lina Wertmüller style but doing it second best to a master. I’m still letting the film simmer but the leaning feels negative.
The Promised Land – When the title card, ” BASTARDEN”, splashed across the screen I knew we were in for something rich and meaty and with Mads Mikkelsen leading the film, well, enough said. When Mads gets to step away from the glossy Hollywood villain roles he always shines and after a VIFF favourite of mine, Another Round, this one was an anticipated one for me and it really came through on the hype. The whole cast delivers in this period piece character drama which should be in the running for Best Foreign awards in the upcoming trophy season.
Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe – Nostalgia and Canadiana were at the heart of my morning as my first stop was this serviceable documentary about a huge part of any child’s upbringing in the great white north who existed between 1967 and 1996. The film encapsulates the magic and spirit that Ernie Coombs embodied as well as those he brought in to fill out the show, like the lovable Casey and Finnigan, puppeteered by the incomparable Judith Lawrence. The film features a melting pot of great Canadian personalities and also managed to teach me a bit as I didn’t know the close connection between Dressup and Mr. Rogers although it all makes so much sense.
Anatomy Of A Fall – This year’s Palme D’or winner at the Cannes Film Festival was a big one on my list and not because I am a big fan of writer and director Justine Triet, as I hadn’t seen her other big film, Sibyl, but for the great Sandra Hüller. The film is an intriguing mix of courtroom procedural, unfolding family drama and the blowing apart of an abusive relationship. The film makes you question motives, and decisions and, yes, I even questioned the intentions of a blind kid, which is absolutely wild.
The Zone Of Interest – It is so massively difficult to make a Nazi Germany drama that doesn’t feel like a retread or something we’ve seen before to some degree but Jonathan Glazer has made something here that sticks to your bones like tar. Opting to leave the atrocities of the Holocaust to your own thoughts, he chooses to give you a look at the day-to-day of the commandant of Auschwitz and his family with the evils committed just on the other side of the wall. This mundane exercise chills you to the core with an ominous score and fade-ins and fade-outs that left my jaw on the floor.
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Seven Veils – Legendary Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan returns after his last VIFF entry Guest Of Honor with a very personal film that ties back to his opera directing background in the mid-nineties. The film also reunites him with the star of his erotic drama, Chloe, Amanda Seyfried who does her best with a script that really feels like it lacks character depth. Against the backdrop of the opera Salome, the film never feels like a great enough sum of its parts and feels lacking when the credits hit. I call it Diet Tar.
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Monster – This here is one of the big films of the festival for me, the latest film from writer and director Hirokazu Koreeda, the man who made my favourite film of last year’s festival, Broker. Knowing nothing going in, this is a fascinating story about different perspectives that evolve the film through many different filters and Quasi genre feels to end with a message that is both poignant and imperative to our current times. Koreeda reminds me a bit of the director who kicked off this year’s VIFF, Ken Loach, as they both have a good hold on the human condition.
I’m Just Here For The Riot – I was really looking forward to this new documentary which is co-directed by Kat Jayme who has given us the fun films Finding Big Country and The Grizzlie Truth in the past. This one was focused on a decidedly more serious subject, the 2011 Stanley Cup riots, which was wild to watch at the Playhouse, just a block away from where it all started. The movie, sadly, raised some ire in me as I felt it was largely a sympathy card for the group of rioters that were made the focus of the film and that story fell on deaf ears in my opinion. You make your bed, you lie in it and I feel like 1994 rioter Trevor Holness framed that conversation really well in his part of the film but it kind of gets disregarded as only his opinion. I was definitely disappointed with the takeaway from this documentary.
Steve Stebbing 