The Hassle’s Kyle Amato is on the ground for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival – watch this space for further dispatches!
North Star dir. Kristin Scott Thomas
Three sisters reconnect for their mother’s third wedding, hoping this one doesn’t end up dying on her too. Katherine (ScarJo, sometimes doing a British accent and sometimes not) is a Navy captain, Victoria (Sienna Miller) is a famous actor in America, and youngest sister Georgina (Emily Beecham) is a nurse with a potentially unfaithful husband. Their mother, Diana (Kristin Scott Thomas), just wants everyone to get along for her big day, and she isn’t afraid to knock some sense into the girls. Secrets are revealed, people are knocked into bodies of water, apologies are given– everything you’d expect from a gentle English dramedy. While Scott Thomas seems to be circling the sensibilities of Nancy Meyers, the writing never gets beyond competent. Frieda Pinto (where’s she been?) plays ScarJo’s harried girlfriend, a relationship that just feels like cardboard the entire runtime. Pretty wild that this is based on Scott Thomas’ real life! So many films are just directors doing therapy on themselves, huh.
Woman of the Hour dir. Anna Kendrick
The first movie I’ve seen based on something I learned about on Cracked.com, Kendrick’s directorial debut is a fun and chilling look at the ways men fail women in danger. The true story of Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), a 1970s serial killer who took a break from murders to be a contestant on The Dating Game, Woman of the Hour cuts between this unknowingly disturbing television recording and Alcala’s hunts, culminating in a tense dinner date between Alcala and struggling actress Sheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick) who quickly realizes she needs to escape. Kendrick as always is a charming lead, especially when she turns her Dating Game appearance into an act of rebellion. This is a film that could have easily been too macabre or exploitative, but Kendrick threads a tricky needle. It helps that she’s clearly a huge fan of Zodiac!
The Boy and the Heron dir. Hayao Miyazaki
It’s impossible to comprehend the latest work from Miyazaki while suffering from festival brain. Every sequence is beautifully rendered in hand drawn animation, some imagery familiar and some entirely new and breathtaking. I’m not going to get into the plot, since Ghibli has done limited promotion to keep things a surprise. And it’s not like you’re not going to see what could be Hayao Miyazaki’s final film (again, after saying he’s retiring for the past quarter century). In many ways it is as definitive a statement about the man’s artistry as The Wind Rises, but even more personal. While Wind focuses on Miyakzai’s love of planes and what happens when we use his art for evil purposes (I think… that’s kind of a tough film), Heron delves into Hayao’s very soul, his trauma, and what he thinks will happen after he dies. There’s fun stuff too, of course – a weird heron guy, some bubbly creatures, pelicans, silly old ladies, the list goes on, The Boy and the Heron has not left my mind since the premiere, and I doubt it will anytime soon. Also, I don’t care that Ghibli itself decided on the international title – it should still be called How Do You Live? It’s the whole point!
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed dir. Joanna Arnow
As a sucker for dry microbudget filmmaking, I knew I’d at least enjoy Arnow’s feature debut. The title and bleak first images looked right up my alley. While the workplace satire doesn’t fully work as I don’t believe Arnow has ever worked a real boring office job, she brings a level of hilarity to each interaction without cracking. This is the story of a detached woman who uses being a sub to avoid taking responsibility for changing anything in her life, a real phenomenon, but shies away from having anything real to say about actual kink and how ridiculous it can get. And that’s fine! It’s just funny to watch Arnow flop around these doms, coming close to wanting more for herself but never quite connecting with that desire. It’s like watching a particularly bleak future for Marcy from Peanuts.
Watch this space for Kyle’s further bulletins from the Great White North, and click here to catch up with his previous dispatches!
