The first day of the Toronto International Film Festival was pretty light for me, because I had already seen most of the films screening on the first day. High class problems, I know, but Toronto got to experience Don Jon, The Past, Young and Beautiful and Blue is the Warmest Color. So I got a little extra writing time, and saw a few other movies I’ll recap here, in alphabetical order.
The Art of the Steal
It’s so nice to see a movie begin with the credit “Kurt Russell in.” That’s almost as good as “Kurt Russell is” but we’ll take it. It should be something you brag about when Kurt Rusell is in your movie. The Art of the Steal is a fine vehicle for the humble glory that is Kurt Russell.
Crunch Calhoun (Russell) did time in a Polish prison because his brother Nicky (Matt Dillon) turned him in when their art heist went bad. Now he’s a daredevil motorcycle jumper who makes his money taking dives to crash for the audience. When Nicky returns with another big score, Crunch gets the old gang back together, with some of his new gang.
Maybe you didn’t read between the lines of what I just wrote. Kurt Russell is playing a grizzled old stuntman, and he even plays up some of the Elvisy showmanship of the schlocky monster truck show. This is a grizzled badass resigned to playing the stooge and he’s such a lovable lunk, it plays up both aspects of Russell’s persona.
The heist is interesting, with the classy target of an original Gutenberg pressed book, and the film knows what it is. It has some fun with the conventions of heist movies, and delivers on others authentically. I mean, Nicky is blatantly untrustworthy and Crunch is desperately reluctant to get back in bed with him, but the film does what it does well. There’s some goofy comedy schtick, but the characters perpetrating it get called on their crap and have to deal with it.
The film has a breezy, peppy pace and gets right to it in 90 minutes with fun characters you want to see. I hope this sort of entertaining romp gets significant distribution, but if it pops up on VOD first then it’ll be just as fun.
Bastards
Claire Denis’s latest film was one of my wild card picks in a block where I didn’t have any pressing assignments. Normally when I discover a new filmmaker at a festival, I like to go back and watch all their other films when I get home. I will not be watching the previous works of Claire Denis, although who knows? I’ve heard good things so maybe I have to check out the acclaimed works for comparison.
Sandra (Julie Bataille) is divorced or divorcing and forced to declare bankruptcy. She’s having an affair with her neighbor Laporte (Michel Subor) and it seems her husband abused their daughter. As much as this is the material for juicy drama, Bastards has no momentum to propel this story to a conflict, let alone resolution, for the characters, nor enough exploration to be a character study.
There are some stark portrayals of abuse victims, passionate encounters between Sandra and Laporte, and uncomfortable confrontations between Sandra and her husband, and none of them made me feel disgusted, frightened, sympathetic or anything. Maybe it was lost in translation, and I am travel weary but I really did not follow the course of events. I was more engaged by Sandra’s scene with a bankruptcy lawyer than the reveal of the extent of the child abuse. I mean, bankruptcy is no joke but I think I was supposed to feel something about the abuse. Or not, maybe. It’s art, man, it’s art.
The Last of Robin Hood
I thought it was cool that Kevin Kline was playing Errol Flynn, because he had played Douglas Fairbanks in Chaplin. By the way, watch Chaplin. It has Iron Man in it so you’ll like it. Fairbanks was a supporting, though significant, character in that movie but Flynn is central here.
The Last of Robin Hood tells the story of the last two years of the Hollywood legend’s life in which he had an affair with minor Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning). Beverly was an aspiring actress herself so Flynn was easily able to manipulate and charm her, and even more successful at manipulating Beverly’s mother Flo (Susan Sarandon) into complicity.
Man, wouldn’t it have been great to see Kline play young Flynn in his prime? We won’t hold that against Last of Robin Hood. This film is actually very focused in covering the specific story with no fluff like the usual overlong biopic (not Chaplin though, Chaplin is awesome). It has a playful touch even though it is dealing with statutory rape. That is not taken lightly, but the point is that Flynn himself gave a great performance to sell this relationship on his lover and his lover’s mother. Mr. Aadland saw what was going on and you would have hoped he’d step in, but that wasn’t history.
The film is thorough, well done and compelling, but as there’s no fluff it is perhaps also missing a touch of flourish. There are some odd giveaways to low budget issues. Car shots are fake but not in the fake way ‘50s movies were with projection shots. Perhaps it green screen’s closest approximation to that effect. There is actual stock footage of New York, which is a bit jarring but I like seeing the use of stock footage. Let’s bring it back. Minor technical issues, those, but I wasn’t blown away despite many quality elements. I’m still waiting for that big discovery this TIFF, but not bad so far.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
