RELIGULOUS, GIGANTIC, STILL WALKING: Toronto Film Festival 2008
Sandy Mandelberger on Larry Charles and Bill Maher’s Religulous at Fest21.com:
"Controversial television comedian Bill Maher must be saying hallelujahs for the equally controversial candidacy of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. In one fell swoop, Palin’s entry into the race has brought up the subject of religion in a presidential campaign (yet again) and made it a topic of concern and, to some, outrage in the American popular imagination. So, the October release of Religulous, a comedic journey by the acerbic comedian into the heart of Christian, Jewish and Muslim organized religion is both prescient in its timing and, possibly, devastating in its impact.
"If one is wondering about the title, it is a made up word combining the words religion and ridiculous. And pretty much sums up the point of view of filmmakers Bill Maher and Larry Charles (the politically incorrect director of Borat). The film, although one sided, is a consistently funny putdown of society’s blind devotion to religious faith."
***
At Cinematical, James Rocchi also discusses Religulous:
"In Religulous, stand-up social commentator Bill Maher doesn’t just assert how he believes in one less god than many of us, and he doesn’t just craft bold, bizarre and hilarious moments of comedy and discussion with the help of director Larry Charles (Borat). More importantly, and more intriguingly, Maher states the film’s thesis in an introduction filmed at Mediggo, the prophesied location of the final battle of Armageddon as written in Revelation; Maher, much like author Sam Harris does in his excellent (if dry) book The End of Faith, proposes that religious belief, in an age of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, actively endangers humanity through encouraging conflict, promising rewards for irrational behavior, justifying artificial divisions and enabling other unfounded and unkind forms of thinking. Or, as Maher succinctly puts it early on, ‘When Revelations was written, only God had the power to destroy the world. …’"
***
Steve Ramos briefly discusses several Toronto screenings, including Matt Aselton’s Gigantic, at indieWIRE:
"A standout cast featuring up-and-comers Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel as the film’s shy lovers and veteran actors John Goodman, Edward Asner and Jane Alexander as their eccentric parents, together with a vibrant New York City backdrop provide Aselton a strong template for a likable youth romance with strong box office potential. The wonderful surprise is that Aselton, helped by co-writer Adam Nagata, does so much more with the audience friendly formula. Gigantic, while pretty to watch, engaging from start to finish and funny in all the right places, offers audiences a surreal twist in the form of a mystery character stalking its romantic lead."
***
A.O. Scott in the New York Times:
"By far the most entertaining movie I’ve seen so far is Jeffrey Levy-Hinte’s Soul Power [above, top photo], which captures James Brown, along with B. B. King, the Spinners, the Fania All-Stars and so many more, at a 1974 music festival in Zaire, now Congo. Originally planned to coincide with the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle, the concert was, as Soul Power makes clear, a logistical nightmare and an artistic triumph."
…
"And there are also wonderful contrasts and startling shifts of tone. There is the transcendent vitality of Soul Power and then, in the screening room next door, the equally transcendent serenity of Still Walking [above, lower photo], Hirokazu Kore-eda’s delicate examination of the emotional dynamics of a middle-class Japanese family. This is exactly the kind of film — quiet, modest, untroubled by ambitions of importance — that risks being lost in the news media shuffle. And yet it is so completely absorbing, so sure of its own scale and scope that while you’re watching it the rest of the world fades into irrelevance."
***
In Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Liam Lacey found 7 movies "you didn’t know you had to see." Two of those, Ian FitzGibbon’s A Film with Me in It (above, top photo) and Lance Daly’s Kisses (above, lower photo), hail from Ireland:
"[A Film with Me in It] had its premiere at last month’s Edinburgh Film Festival and tells the story of a would-be actor whose dog, brother, landlord and girlfriend all die in freak accidents on the same day. It didn’t sound nice, but it was purportedly heart-warming and funny. Scriptwriter Mark Doherty stars and the droll Dylan Moran (Run Fatboy Run) plays his drunken, hyper-verbal, screenwriter friend."
"… Kisses (it made its North American debut at the recent Telluride Film Festival in Colorado) [is] about a boy and a girl who run away from their suburban families to downtown Dublin. Over the course of a night, they have a series of adventures, including a possible meeting with Bob Dylan."
Cinecon 2008 Recap by Allan Ellenberger
Venice Film Festival 2008 – Horizons
Venice Film Festival 2008: Out of Competition Line-Up
GOODBYE SOLO, 35 SHOTS OF RUM, Virna Lisi: Venice Film Festival 2008
THE BURNING PLAIN, INJU, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA: Venice Film Festival 2008
Marco Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini: Venice Film Festival 2008
Venice Film Festival 2008 – Too Little Hollywood
George Clooney, Brad Pitt: 2008 Venice Film Festival
Sarasota Film Society’s GLBT Film Festival 2008
Comments
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
