To most people, Labor Day weekend conjures up thoughts of the end of summer and the Jerry Lewis telethon. For hardcore movie addicts such as myself, however, it signals the impending 10-day event that separates the casual moviegoer from the fanatic film lover: the Toronto International Film Festival. It's ten solid days of nothing but movies, and running between movies, and trying to fit such superfluous activities as eating, sleeping and bathing in between movies. If you want to see great films from all over the world, and see them before everyone else (or in some cases, see them when no one else will, because they'll never get distributed in the US), this is the place to be every September. There's nothing like it anywhere else, especially for the average non-industry-connected movielover.

Another Toronto International Film Festival has come and gone, the second one I've had the privilege to attend. Both my husband and I managed to outdo our previous first year total of 43; he saw 45 and I saw 44. (The discrepancy comes from when I was just too exhausted to make it to the 9:30am screening of Sweet and Lowdown, the new Woody Allen movie. My husband says it's really quite funny, so I hope it makes it to the DC area sometime soon.)

Out of the 44 movies I managed to sit through (with only one walkout, and I'll get to that later), the following list of new films are some of the ones that I enjoyed enough to recommend to others. Seven of the 44 were previous releases, and are not included in this list. Only two of the films I saw were what I could call truly bad and completely unenjoyable (more on them later).

These new films are listed in alphabetical, followed by a brief note of my impressions. I hate when people give away too much, so I will be attempting to be as non-detailed as possible. If you want further details on plot summary and the like, be sure to visit The Internet Movie Database.

American Beauty

This won the Air Canada People's Choice audience award in Toronto. Believe the hype. The movie is just as well done as all (if not most) of those big-city critics are telling you. Kevin Spacey, my favorite working actor today, gives the performance of anyone's lifetime, and the rest of the cast keep up with him all the way. We saw this at the 9:30am screening the day after its big Hollywood gala premiere, and not only did the director and writer show up, but so did Kevin Spacey, the coolest, most gracious actor on the planet. (But I'm biased here.) I'm going to go see it again now that it's opened here in DC--it's that good. Full Review

The Big Kahuna

Kevin Spacey strikes again, in a movie that, while different from the movie above in both size and theme, is no less enjoyable and thought-provoking. This is a small movie from Kevin Spacey's own production company and is based on a 3 person play ("Hospitality Suite") by the same author. It was shot in the 16 days after Kevin Spacey had wrapped up filming on American Beauty and was in initial rehearsals for his Broadway turn in "The Iceman Cometh." The dialogue is sharp and the characters' relationships, especially that of Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito, make the film work from start to finish. This is reportedly scheduled to be released in Spring 2000; look for it when it arrives, and prepare to be dazzled. (And yes, Kevin Spacey was there for the public screening of this one also; he is just the best there is.)

Boys Don't Cry

Along with Dogma, Romance (and to a certain extent, But I'm A Cheerleader), this is bound to be one of the more controversial films scheduled for impending release in the U.S. It is based on the true story of a teenage girl named Teena Brandon, who changed her name to Brandon Teena, and dressed as a boy before her life came to a sudden and tragic end. The story is compelling, the performances are powerful and the direction is superb. Easily one of the best films of the year; it's not just a story about identity and gender stereotypes, but about ordinary people and falling in love.

But I'm A Cheerleader

A wacky comedy with tongue firmly in cheek, this movie stars Natasha Lyonne (Slums of Beverly Hills, American Pie) as a naive teenager who is sent to a rehab camp when her parents (Mink Stole, Bud Cort) suspect her of being a lesbian. The goofiness of the movie starts from the first frame, with the silly titles and the fun music. I nearly failed to recognize RuPaul as one of the "straightened out" camp counselors, since he was appearing sans wig, gown and outrageous makeup. Cathy Moriarty is a perfect fit as the person in charge of the "True Directions" rehabilitation center, and it was great to see Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures) turn up as one of the camp inmates. We ended up sitting next to one of the actors (he played "Joel") during the film, and so it was a relief that the movie was indeed quite funny. "Joel" turned to us after the credits ended and personally thanked us for enjoying his movie, which was nice.

Dogma

Probably the most controversial unreleased film of the year, Kevin Smith's Dogma tells the story of two angels who were expelled from Heaven by God (for reasons explained in the film) and introduces a cast of characters who are chosen by God to make sure those angels don't worm their way back in via a dogmatic loophole inadvertently created by a US Catholic archbishop. This was easily the hottest Festival ticket in town, and we had various people come up to us in line and offer money for our tickets. This is one that is very "your mileage may vary" and you should trust your own instincts on whether or not you should see it. I will say, however, that the entire tone of the film is one that promotes the concept of faith, albeit with a strong dose of irreverence toward organized religion itself.

Felicia's Journey

A compelling tale of a young Irish girl who travels alone to England to find the young man who loved and left her. Along the way, she meets up with a catering manager Mr Hilditch (Bob Hoskins, in an Oscar-worthy performance) who is, as the actor himself put it, a cross between "Winnie the Pooh and Jack the Ripper". Felicia's journey becomes our own; the delicate twists and turns are reminiscent of a good Hitchcock film, and the director (Atom Egoyan) makes this a unique experience that you won't soon forget. If this gets a U.S. release before year?'s end, expect a Best Actor nomination for Bob Hoskins.

The Five Senses

This won the Festival award for Best Canadian film and is an interesting tale of a group of people, seemingly unconnected, yet related by love and tragedy, who each have lost or are losing touch with one of their senses. This loss is more obvious in some than in others, and the paths they take in order to reconnect with the lost sense bring them closer together by the film's end. The musical score of this film is especially moving, and the performances as a whole were strong.

George Lucas In Love

Yes, this is just as wacky as it sounds. Two enterprising young filmmakers decided to do a parody of last year's Shakespeare in Love with a young George Lucas in the lead role instead of the Bard. The premise is that George Lucas needs to finish his movie script so he can graduate from film school, but he just can't seem to find the inspriration he needs--until he meets a lovely young brunette with big hair buns on the sides of her head! It's nine of the funniest minutes you'll see all year, and you'll stifle your laughter just to hear all the great lines as they zip by. We stood in line for over an hour and waited another 20 minutes inside, all just to watch the premiere of this 9 minute short. All you have to do is download it from www.mediatrip.com.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

My husband is a big Jim Jarmusch fan, so it was a given that we would be seeing this film--Jarmusch's newest, starring Forest Whittaker as a modern-day hit man who has taken the Way of the Samurai as his way of life. At the Q&A after the screening, Jarmusch said that the role had been specifically written for Whittaker, and the collaboration between the two is a joy to behold. After you see this film (scheduled for a January 2000 release), you'll think twice about cars that unlock and start from a keyless remote.

Happy, Texas

This was the other film that was the talk of the Sundance Film Festival this past January (the first one being that videotaped movie about some witch you never actually see) when it was sold to Miramax for a whopping $12 million (it only cost $1.7M to make). Since then, Miramax has paid for some reshoots and re-editing, and the finished product is one I believe is going to do very well at the box office when it's released later this fall. Steve Zahn and William H. Macy make this film a great bit of fun to see, and I recommend it based on their performances alone.

The Limey

Steven Soderbergh's stylish followup to Out of Sight continues his string of provocative action pictures with interesting editing techniques. A bravura performance by the great Terence Stamp is the key to this film, with key supporting roles played by Barry Newman and Peter Fonda (whom some might claim is playing himself!).

Mansfield Park

This is not your typical Jane Austen movie; my husband actually enjoyed it as much as I did. Director Patricia Rozema takes one of Jane Austen's darker novels and sets it (and the audience) on its ear. The characters and plot development are true to the original story, but this is not your average plodding costume drama. As my husband pointed out afterwards: "When Fanny Price started talking directly to the screen, I knew this movie was going to be different." It's not only different, it's quite entertaining.

Me & Isaac Newton

This Michael Apted documentary follows the lives and careers of seven scientists, all told by the people themselves in their own words. Each has an amazing story all their own, such as the theoretical physicist who dreamed of picking up where Einstein left off, the Brooklyn housewife who bought a pet store monkey and went on to become one of the world's leading primatologists and the female chemist who vowed to find a cure for the solid-tumor cancer which had killed her uncle, but instead discovered a treatment for juvenile leukemia with a success rate of over 80 percent. (Her quote: we can succeed even when we fail.) This was a very moving film, and dare I say, quite inspirational.

Me Myself I

This fantasy story, by first time director Pip Karmel (editor of Shine), examines the question of the paths we take in life, with a backward glance at the paths not taken. The winning Rachel Griffiths (Hilary & Jackie, Muriel's Wedding) is the single career woman in her mid-thirties who starts questioning her life choices and wondering what would have happened if she had married her "life's true love" instead of staying single and following a career path in journalism. Not just for women with a mid-life crisis, this movie is entertaining on several levels, and passes the true test: my husband enjoyed it even more than I did.

Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred Leuchter

This is the latest in the ongoing series of documentaries by the quirky director Errol Morris, and is the most thought-provoking one since he made the film that freed an unjustly imprisoned Texas man (The Thin Blue Line). Fred Leuchter is a self-styled engineer who somehow fell into the business of manufacturing and repairing equipment used in prison executions. If that weren't strange enough, Leuchter then allows himself to be used by outspoken revisionist neo-Nazis to "prove" that no one was gassed at Auschwitz--an inflammatory and ludicrous assertion, to be sure. This doesn't necessarily sound like something worth sitting through 96 minutes, and yet it was strangely compelling in its own subtle way. You try to find the basic humanity in this person, and you wonder what makes him tick...and you wonder where in the heck does Errol Morris find these people, anyway?

Princess Mononoke

This film is well done and entertaining, but don't expect the second coming of animation that many of the critics (Roger Ebert among them) have been making this out to be. It was previously released two years ago as Mononoke Hime, with its original Japanese soundtrack, and was the all-time highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic. Now it's been released here in the U.S. with an all American cast of voices, and frankly, I think I would have rather seen it in the original Japanese, subtitles and all. The most jarring of the recasted voices is Billy Bob Thornton, whom I can only think must have been supposed to been from "southern" Japan. This film is definitely not for kids, as there is graphic violence during the battle sequences. A great story well told, albeit one told in--to quote the director Hayao Miyazaki (who was there for the premiere)--"a ridiculous 2 hours and 13 minutes."

Romance

This film would create more of a controversial stir in the U.S, as it already has in Europe, if it wasn't already doomed to end up on a small art-house distribution schedule. It is the story of a woman who, rejected by her narcissistic male model lover, goes on a masochistic journey to find her reason for existence. Very French, very adult, definitely not for everyone--but not just for the raincoat crowd, either. Check out the official web site if you want to know more.

These were some of the good films we saw; there were several films that were merely "okay," and more than a few outright disappointments. But in terms of truly bad cinema, only two fit the bill.

The first was a movie you're highly unlikely to ever actually see--a French documentary called Berlin-Cinema. It presumes to be a detailed examination of the nature of film, as viewed by the German director Wim Wenders and the French director Jean-Luc Godard (present only in voice). The premise sounds interesting, but the film fails completely upon execution. It tries to tell three different stories of film, but because the stories are completely unconnected, and are arranged so oddly, it is impossible to know which story is being told at which time. Adding to the whole confusion is the fact that both Wenders and Godard speak in French voiceovers, which means unless you are intimately familiar with each of their voices, you have absolutely no idea who is speaking at what time, and what relation the voiceovers have to the pictures you are viewing at that time.

The overall pretentiousness of the film is extreme, with one strained voice proclaiming that "I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when I received the call that Rainer Werner Fassbinder was dead." (For those of you playing at home, Fassbinder is considered one of the premier directors of German cinema, and he did die at a relatively young age, but what was the point of mentioning it in this film? More pretentiousness.) I actually had to stifle a laugh when Wim Wenders--a great director whose work I admire--explained in great detail about how he would never film a fictional work in a cemetary ("out of respect for the dead") but it would be okay with him to film a documentary there because that would not be as "trifling."

And yet, this was not the absolutely worst movie we saw at this year's festival. That title is best left to a movie so bad that we actually walked out of it a first for both of us. Usually, our schedule is so tight between films that if we end up at one that we're not completely enjoying, we just make the best of it, and sleep if we're so inclined. But the worst movie of the festival--Breakfast of Champions--was so bad that it couldn't be slept through. Since it was our last movie of the evening, the ability to go directly to the hotel and get some real sleep in a real bed was simply much more attractive than staying for the second hour of the film to find out if it got any better. The first hour that we did see was just one big long unfunny live-action cartoon, and frankly, if the consumer parodies were supposed to be wild satire, then the filmmakers should watch a few late night informercials to get a real flair of how wacky consumer advertisements can really be.

I only wish we had been sitting in front of Alan Rudolph (the director), Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, and the rest of the cast, so they could have had the direct pleasure of seeing us get up and walk out. According to the Toronto Star review the next day, over a third of the audience had gotten up and left before the movie had ended, so it's not like we were the only ones who would rather be elsewhere than at that big Hollywood premiere.

Bruce Willis may have spent $12 M of his own money to make this unfunny piece of dreck, but I spent over an hour in the theater (and another hour waiting for the film to start)--two hours of my life that I'll never get back again. If you've read the book and you simply must see if the movie does it justice, then wait for it to show up on video--my prediction is that it won't take long to get there.

This is just a very small sampling of movies that we managed to see over a 10 day period. There were over 300 films screened at the Toronto festival this year, so if you're interested in knowing more about what was shown and what else went on, check out the official festival web site for all the details.