2006 Toronto Film Festival

The 2006 Toronto International Film Festival may be remembered more for its mediocrity than its star power. Don't get me wrong, I always have a good time at the festivals, but some are just more interesting and exciting than others. Usually a few big films generate enough buzz to keep the wags guessing, the distributors buying, and the festivalgoers hopping. This year, however, many of the big-name films were slapped with a stench that may foretell a dismal cinematic year. Brian DePalma’s The Black Dahlia (now in release) was said to be scattered and bloated; Steven Zaillian’s All the King’s Men, starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet, was also panned.

Not enough duds for you? Okay there’s Emilio Estevez's hyped and star-studded film Bobby, which follows over twenty fictional characters as they wander through the Ambassador Hotel on the day Robert F. Kennedy was killed. At a press conference, Esteves-—flanked by stars like Christian Slater and Sharon Stone, as well as actors like William H. Macy and Demi Moore-- became weepy as he described how he came to write and direct the film following a bad case of writer’s block. His brother (he didn’t specify which one, though probably Charlie Sheen) asked to see a draft and encouraged him to make a film for which he will be remembered. If Bobby is it, ouch. One critic wrote that “Bobby plays like an overlong pilot for a TV series, introducing us to too many people and not giving any of them their due.”

So… if the big pictures were duds, what was worth watching? Well, I caught about a dozen interesting (and not so interesting) films. Among them:

The Art of Crying

A bizarre, mildly disturbing, and fairly entertaining film from Denmark, The Art of Crying tells the story of a precocious boy named Allan who tries desperately to appease his psychotic milkman father. The father is prone to suicidal thoughts and weeping which can only be consoled by Allan’s older sister, in a most un-daughterly fashion. Desperate to bring peace to his home and prevent a rival from stealing his father’s business, Allan is driven to commit horrible acts, including offing his obnoxious, needy aunt. Director Peter Schønau Fog bounces uneasily between unsettling creepiness and deadpan black comedy. As the film shows, it's not easy to pull off a film that has elements of murder, incest, humor, and insanity (though, come to think of it, Spanking the Monkey worked well...)

Outsourced

Outsourced tells the story of Todd, a novelty toy salesman from Seattle who discovers that his job has been outsourced to India. He is to move there to train a telemarketing staff, and when he does, he finds that one of his brightest employees is a beautiful women named Asha. You can probably guess most of the rest. Sure, there’s the East-meets-West scenes, and of course Todd and Asha will have a lot to learn about each other’s cultures and—eventually--come to care for each other. There will be awkward cultural misunderstandings, both amusing and “amusing.” It would have been easy to stick to a simple fish-out-of-water story (and there is some of that), but Outsourced is smarter than that. It has a clever script that allows the characters to develop naturally, and it militantly avoids the saccharine sweetness that can easily sink such a film.

The director, John Jeffcoat, was at the premiere. I asked him how he thought the film would be received in India, where interfaith marriages and relationships have traditionally been frowned upon. Jeffcoat replied by asking if there were any Indians in the audience. One woman in the back said that she was flying to Mumbai the following day, and that she thought it would be quite popular and that audience would not be put off by the (consummated) romance between the two. Outsourced is a well-written crowd pleaser to watch for.

This Filthy World

Director John Waters knows something about filth and bad taste. In This Filthy World, Waters is filmed giving a combination speech and stand-up comedy performance for a live audience. Director Jeff Garlin more or less stays out of the way as Waters reminisces on stage about forty years in Hollywood, including making Hairspray, A Low Down Dirty Shame, and of course the notorious Pink Flamingoes. With his many obscure references to 1950s filmmakers and personalities (as well as his colorful cast), audience members without at least some knowledge of Waters's films will be left in the dark; just as Waters's films are not for the faint of heart, This Filthy World is not for the average filmgoer off the street. Still, those with (even a grudging) appreciation for Waters's films (or merely the intentionally tasteless) will find his anecdotes and observations funny.