Rating: NNNNN
CODE BREAKER
CRITICS’ picks indicates 4- and 5-N reviews
Festival series are abbreviated as follows:
CR — Canadian Retrospective: Jean Pierre Lefebvre, Vidéaste
CWC — Contemporary World Cinema
DIAL — Dialogues
DISC — Discovery
GALA — Gala
MAST — Masters
MM — Midnight Madness
NORD — Nordic Visions
OV — Open Vault
PA — Planet Africa
PC — Perspective Canada
R2R — Real To Reel
SPEC — Special Presentation
SPOT — Spotlight: Ulrich Seidl
WAVE — Wavelengths
Friday, September 14
ICHI THE KILLERMM D: Takashi Miike w/ Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori. Japan. 124 mins. Friday, September 14, midnight UPTOWN 1 Saturday, September 15, 2 pm CUMBERLAND 1. Rating: NN
It was no surprise to learn that Ichi The Killer is based on a series of comics by Hideo Yamamoto. It has the sort of berserk graphic violence that goes so far over the top that it cries out for the anime treatment. The psychotic hero, a shy and emotionally damaged young man, finds himself in the middle of a bloody yakuza war while trying to defend an abused prostitute. Eventually, the film’s violence – graphic rapes, torture, disembowelment, mutilation – deadens the viewer’s sensibilities, but Miike, who makes about four pictures a year, has a tremendously inventive sense of space. The film’s worth seeing just to study the way he cuts. JH
THE BUNKER
MM D: Rob Green w/ Jason Flemyng, Charley Boorman, Jack Davenport. UK. 92 mins. Friday, September 14, 3 pm CUMBERLAND 4 Saturday, September 15, midnight UPTOWN 1. Rating: NNNN
Toward the end of the second world war, a platoon of German soldiers find themselves trapped in a bunker atop a complex of tunnels that may be haunted. Screenwriter Clive Dawson has the attitude of a kid telling a story by a campfire, and Green, a former editor, creates tremendous atmosphere in the dank tunnels. The makers of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin might note that none of the English cast even attempts a German accent, so we’re absorbed by the characters, not the “acting.” A nasty and very efficient little thriller.JH
A DOG’S DAYCWC D: Murali Nair w/ K. Krishna Kaimal. UK/India. 74 mins. Friday, September 14, 9:45 pm UPTOWN 3 Saturday, September 15, 12:30 pm ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM. Rating: NNN
Another social satire from the director of Throne Of Death (1998’s Cannes Camera d’Or winner), this not-so-subtle allegory shows what happens when democracy goes to the dogs – literally. The local ruler of a backwater in the southern Indian state of Kerala bestows democracy on his subjects and presents the royal dog, Apu (shades of Satyajit Ray), to his former obedient servant as a token of his good will. Apu, who is treated royally (to the point of being spoon-fed), likes to bite, first a duck, then a child, and soon life in the village is all chomped up. Fortunately, Nair’s political fairy tale (as he’s called it) is short and sweet, with a minimum of dialogue and much attention paid to the expressive faces of his non-professional cast and their lush environment.PE
REVOLUTION #9CWC D: Tim McCann w/ Michael Risley, Adrienne Shelly, Spalding Gray. U.S. 116 mins. Friday, September 14, 10 pm VARSITY 2 Friday, September 14, 10 pm VARSITY 3 Saturday, September 15, 9:30 am VARSIT Saturday, September 15, 9:30 am VARSITY 6. Rating: NNN
Set against the hip backdrop of downtown New York, this film, named for the Beatles’ apocalyptic cacophony, examines the media-inspired descent into schizophrenia of laid-off dot-com dude Jackson (Risley). While his fiancee (Hal Hartley muse Shelly) deals with the medical and legal ramifications of his illness, Jackson increasingly inhabits a parallel reality infected by the Internet and is obsessed by an avant-garde TV commercial for Rev9 perfume. Director McCann’s (Desolation Angels) use of quick cuts, jittery camera work, exaggerated colour and filtered sound to illustrate Jackson’s electronic anxiety suggests Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Gray pops up in a short scene as the commercial’s pretentious auteur, who thinks he’s being interviewed by Jackson for a culture theory mag. SD
