The Hassle’s Kyle Amato has been on the ground for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival – check out his previous dispatches here, here, and here!
Quiz Lady dir. Jessica Yu
I knew from the above image alone that I’d have fun with this film. Sandra Oh gets to be the crazy one? I’m in. And I was right – Quiz Lady is very fun and very sweet, a breezy comedy with only a couple of weak set pieces (another unwilling drug tripping sequence? enough!!). Anne (Awkwafina) leads a quiet life, working a boring job and watching her favorite quiz show every night with her ancient pug. Unfortunately, her chaotic sister Jenny (Sandra Oh) returns from god knows where when she thinks their gambling-addicted mother has died. Their mother is not dead, but she’s left the girls with a huge gambling debt while she’s run off to Monaco. Boldly, we never see the mother in the film – no generational trauma healing here! Anne’s pug is kidnapped as collateral, and she’s desperate to get him back. Desperate enough to embark on a road trip to compete on Quiz Show with Jenny’s help. I understand being exhausted by Awkwafina’s omnipresence, but she’s not annoying here. She’s a reluctant hero, one that makes room for the rest of the ensemble to shine. Quiz Lady has the makings of the perfect weekend Hulu watch– just a fun time where Sandra Oh really gets to let loose. Plus, there’s a genuinely crazy cameo near the end. Don’t let yourself get spoiled!!
Origin dir. Ava DuVernay
Until last week, I thought this was going to be a documentary, like DuVernay’s very successful and informative 13th. This film, however, is far stranger. I’d say it is a noble attempt, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what that attempt is. How do you make a narrative film out of Isabel Wilkerson’s dense nonfiction exploration of caste systems and racism? Why cast Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor if you’re just going to have her sit and nod through talking head interviews for the majority of the film? Why is the pacing so slow? And why does the ending work so well if everything beforehand is wrought and messy? I feel for Wilkerson’s personal tragedies, but Origin can’t decide if it wants to be a film about racial injustice or a heavier Eat Pray Love. There are too many ideas and too many bad ones. This should have been a miniseries, or simply not exist.
Wildcat dir. Ethan Hawke
It pains me to say it, but Hawke’s latest directorial effort misses the mark. Though he found success in the biopic with Blaze in 2018, he fails to recapture the sad, longing tone that worked so well there. Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke), though sharp of tongue and a compelling personality, does not provide the same narrative bombast. The frequent dives into O’Connor’s stories with actors from Hawke’s wonderful stable of buddies perhaps show an alternate anthology film that nonetheless would still suffer from a dull, oversaturated color palette and languid pacing. I’m sure this was all an interesting process on set, but the effort I know Hawke brings to every project does not appear on screen.
Wicked Little Letters dir. Thea Sharrock
Ridiculous swearing, dry humor, passive-aggression, period setting, character actors in every role: this is the platonic ideal of a British film. Letters is a very fun comedy of manners (quite literally) with Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley at the center, trading barbs and bodily fluids. In a small English village in 1920, someone has been sending Ms. Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) vicious letters filled with vulgar insults. The main suspect is Rose (Jessie Buckley), Edith’s brash Irish neighbor, but this does not sit right with Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan), who decides to take the case into her own hands despite the misogyny around her. Wicked Little Letters doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it features a collection of performers who are clearly having the time of their lives being nasty and wacky, and that’s something we can all enjoy. Sometimes entry-level feminism is more than enough to make a comedy even sillier.
Hit Man dir. Richard Linklater
My most anticipated of the festival besides Miyazaki, Linklater’s new film is a rousing crowd-pleaser that’s a bit darker than expected, even with the title Hit Man. Kind of based on real events, Hit Man is the story of an unassuming man named Gary Johnson (Glen Powell in another movie star performance) who aids the police during sting operations. Though he started as a tech guy, he’s bumped up to performer and takes to the role of pretend hitman a little too well. Gary feels himself changing as he devises killer personas to work each target, including a woman named Madison (Adria Arjona) who is trying to get out of an abusive marriage. Gary, or “Ron” as she knows him, talks her out of hiring her, protecting her from jail. He can’t help but follow up, and a romance blooms, mostly in her bedroom. Of course, this arrangement can’t last, but Gary’s sure going to try to keep it alive. My audience cheered throughout, proving we’re all hungry for a romcom with some bite. Powell and Arjona have thrilling chemistry, ensnaring each other in their respective webs of deceit. The film’s greatest feat is one of the best uses of the Notes App in cinematic history, and people stood and applauded. I hope Hit Man gets the distribution it deserves and Rick gets another big success. He’s too talented a filmmaker to go unappreciated for long.
