Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some more Toronto flicks, these a little more off the beaten path. We have LITTLE FISH starring Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neil out of Australia. Stellar fucking cast there. We also have BEE SEASON, a total winner according to the review starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. Enjoy the reviews!
Hey Aintitcool,
I had a chance to check out a couple of the Special Presentations at TIFF yesterday, Little Fish and Bee Season. Here are the reviews...
Little Fish (Rowan Woods)
Cate Blanchett leads an Australian production about Tracy, an ex-heroin addict who is trying to straighten out her life amidst a pile of bad influences, including her surrogate father, Lionel (Hugo Weaving) -- a fallen rugby superstar with a powerful drug dealing boyfriend, Brad (Sam Neill) -- her brother Ray (Martin Henderson), who lost a leg in a drug induced car accident but continues dealing, and her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen), also an ex-addict who has been clean in Vancouver for years, working as a stock trader.
Weaving, Henderson and Nguyen all attended the afternoon screening, which was incredibly dark. Blanchett's Tracy is absolutely tortured by the past she can't escape, as she fails to secure bank loans to invest in a business venture with her boss, has to take deliveries at her store for her small-time dealing brother, and has to watch Lionel start shooting up. To compound it all, Jonny, who she basically spent all her drug years dating, returns, bringing back the feelings she had only previously associated with heroin.
The pacing of the film is slow for the first hour, though the performances are absolutely convincing. Blanchett especially does a fantastic job portraying a woman who is tempted at every turn, internalizing everything while letting her face do the talking. Weaving is also stellar as washed up addict Lionel, whose life is spiralling out of control, despite the fact that he remains a hero to his countrymen.
And though the pacing is slow for the beginning, the last half hour more than makes up for it. The intesity towards the end is great and you'll be left guessing to the very end of the film. It's a solid film, not a great way to spend a Friday or Saturday night, but a pretty good way to spend a rainy Sunday.
Bee Season (Scott McGehee, David Siegel)
This film, based on Maya Goldberg's novel (haven't read it), revolves around a dysfunctional family -- academic father Saul (Richard Gere), obviously depressed mother Miriam (Juliette Binoche), their gifted daughter Eliza (Flora Cross) and religiously confused son Aaron (Max Minghella). At the beginning of the film, Eliza wins a regional spelling bee under only the eyes of her brother. She has left a note for her father about the event, but he never reads it.
When she wins, Saul is overjoyed. He decides to invest himself in her newfound talent, but it turns out that she isn't spelling from training of any sort -- the words come to her in visions when she closes her eyes. Saul's investment in Eliza means he spends less time with Aaron, who rejects his father's idiosyncrasies and decides to explore other religions. Meanwhile, Miriam is beginning to descend into, well, something else. She comes home later and later, her whereabouts unknown. Saul does his best to ignore this turn by focusing even further on Eliza. As his obsession with his daughter's talent deepens, he becomes convinced that she has the power of a Kaballah mystic.
With the four main characters needing plenty of emotional depth, screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal could have done too much with the material, but she manages to keep both the story and the four leads in check throughout the film. In fact, there is so much interaction between the leads that the script allows for the family to seem real in many ways (you know, except for the fact that Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche are the parents of such a family. A side note, Foner Gyllenhaal's kids both attended the screening, Maggie with Peter Sarsgaard and Jake with Kirsten Dunst).
This is one of Gere's best and most understated performances. As Saul, he is obviously concerned with his wife's behaviour, but his perfectionism can't allow him to know what it is that she's doing. But it's first time actress Cross who was most compelling as the hauntingly gifted Eliza. There's a maturity in her face that denies her youth and it's possible that she'll be around for a long time to come.
Fox Searchlight has a real winner on their hands with Bee Season, which is out sometime in November. I highly recommend checking out this completely unusual family drama.
I also saw Jesus Is Magic, which I'm sure y'all can tell from the previous glowing reviews on the site, is the funniest shit ever.
That's all for now,
Peppermint
