TIFF 2024: Day Ten
Until next year!
As always, despite seeing 36 features, my TIFF Top Ten looks a lot different than most. I’ve seen so many lists cross my social media feeds only to discover I didn’t catch most people’s favorite twenty-five titles let alone ten.
But all of those will be out in the next few weeks. Many of the movies below might never make their way to the US at all. It helps that I’m not trying to increase SEO and viewership by choosing the big names, but the fact that coverage is based upon that rubric will never not be what’s wrong with this industry.
Champion the little guys whenever you can … if you can.
MY TOP TEN
THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR, d. Johnny Ma (Canada/Chile)
HORIZONTE, d. César Augusto Acevedo (Colombia)
WE LIVE IN TIME, d. John Crowley (UK/France)
SEVEN DAYS [Haft Rooz], d. Ali Samadi Ahadi (Germany)
SKETCH, d. Seth Worley (USA)
GÜLIZAR, d. Belkis Bayrak (Turkey/Kosovo)
THEY WILL BE DUST [Polvo serán], d. Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain/Italy/Switzerland)
DAUGHTER’S DAUGHTER [女兒的女兒], d. Xi Huang (Taiwan)
UNDER THE VOLCANO [Pod wulkanem], d. Damian Kocur (Poland)
ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY [Cong 21 shiji anquan cheli], d. Yang Li (China)
TIFF AWARDS
The award winners are out now too. Congrats to THE LIFE OF CHUCK for taking home the big prize. Maybe a distributor announcement will follow shortly.
People’s Choice Award presented by Rogers
THE LIFE OF CHUCK, d. Mike Flanagan | USA
EMILIA PÉREZ, d. Jacques Audiard | France/USA/Mexico
ANORA, d. Sean Baker | USA
People’s Choice Documentary Award presented by Rogers
THE TRAGICALLY HIP: NO DRESS REHEARSAL, d. Mike Downie | Canada
WILL & HARPER, d. Josh Greenbaum | USA
YOUR TOMORROW, d. Ali Weinstein | Canada
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award presented by Rogers
THE SUBSTANCE, d. Coralie Fargeat | United Kingdom/USA/France
DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY, d. John Hsu | Taiwan
FRIENDSHIP, d. Andrew DeYoung | USA
Short Cuts Award for Best International Film
DECK 5B, d. Malin Ingrid Johansson | Sweden
QUOTA, d. Job Roggeveen, Joris Oprins, Marieke Blaauw | Netherlands
Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film
ARE YOU SCARED TO BE YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU THINK THAT YOU MIGHT FAIL?, dir. Bec Pecaut | Canada
FIPRESCI Award
MOTHER MOTHER, d. K’naan Warsame | Somalia
NETPAC Award
THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN, d. Sue Kim | USA
Best Canadian Discovery Award
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, d. Matthew Rankin | Canada
YOU ARE NOT ALONE, d. Marie-Hélène Viens, Philippe Lupien | Canada
Best Canadian Feature Film Award
SHEPHERDS, d. Sophie Deraspe | Canada
Platform Award
THEY WILL BE DUST, d. Carlos Marques-Marcet | Spain, Italy, Switzerland
Sylvia Chang’s performance in DAUGHTER’S DAUGHTER, d. Huang Xi | Taiwan
REVIEWS:
ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY
[Cong 21 shiji anquan cheli]
(International Premiere - September 10th - China - Chinese)
The stuff we tell ourselves like, “Things will get better when we grow up.” help us persevere through the rough moments of adolescence. But what if they just end up proving to be empty words? For all any of us know, the future won’t hold anything of merit. Not just because it might not exist the way we’re destroying the world and humanity at-large, but also because we might not become the people we always thought we would. It’s a tough truth to confront, especially when you find yourself chemically altered and able to sneeze your consciousness into a version of your body that’s twenty-years older. Suddenly the question of “What if?” turns into “What went wrong?”
This is how we meet eighteen-year-olds Chengyong (Zhuozhao Li), Wang Zha (Yichen Chen), and Pao Pao (Qixuan Kang) at the start of Yang Li’s ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY. Embroiled in a fight for the honor of Chengyong’s girlfriend Yang Yi (Fanding Ma), a kinetic whirlwind of kicks and punches seen through the strobe of the spaces between a fast-moving train’s cars eventually ends with the three boys swimming in polluted water. Chengyong (Yang Song) witnesses 2019 from his thirty-eight-year-old body first after sneezing upon returning to dry land. Then Wang Zha (Ruoyun Zhang) and finally Pao Pao (Leon Lee). What they see and experience isn’t quite what they imagined.
That’s fine, though. Who cares, right? They’re all alive. Seemingly healthy. And still residing on Planet K (a world similar to our own thousands of light years away). So, they can coordinate their sneezes, meet-up in the future, and help Chengyong find his one true love (Yanmanzi Zhu’s older Yang Yi). Except the differences between “this now” and “that now” are something worth caring about. Especially when one of them is an assassin working for a black market organ trader while another is a photojournalist partnered with the reporter (Elane Zhong’s Liu) hot on his trail. But all of that pales in comparison to the third. Because despite not being Chengyong, he’s living with Yang Yi.
With the pedal pushed so far down that it’s gone through the floor of the car, Yang Li’s film is relentless in its mix of comedy, action, and donghua (Chinese animation) flourishes. This thing is practically a live-action cartoon considering its physics-defying sequences that make reality just as insane as the sci-fi premise of time travel on a distant planet. You have Pao Pao surviving a three-story fall with nothing but an umbrella as a parachute. There’s a wild drug that packs on muscle mass to make its users look like George Michael in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. And the big bad’s main henchman (Xiaoliang Wu’s Han) is a brick wall who walks around with holes in his body after getting impaled.
Everyone is a martial arts master (with Liu’s punches having their impact illustrated for added intensity) and no one is afraid to die because they are living on borrowed time anyway. Heck, Chengyong, Wang Zha, and Pao Pao don’t believe what’s happening to them at first because the news back in 1999 stated the apocalypse was coming before the end of the year. It’s why they enjoy the journey so much despite the questionable lives they’ve built. And regardless of their hope that things would get better proving false, their teenage selves still might be able to wield their middle-aged bodies for good. It’s never too late to change the script (unless it is, considering their meddling doesn’t always work).
Each little detail will play a role in the film later on. For example: Yang Li makes it so the thirty-eight-year-old consciousness no longer exists, rendering whichever body doesn’t contain the eighteen-year-old consciousness into an empty vessel. Yes, that results in some humorous moments considering those unaware of what’s happening think the person has just died, but it also sets up a very specific way for this superpower to be exploited by others. While the first half of the film is all about finding Yang Yi and protecting the friend who lives with her from Chengyong’s wrath, the narrative turns much darker as a plan for worldwide takeover is hatched by Zhengrong Wen’s “Boss” in the background.
That’s when things start moving even faster than before. So, make sure you go to the bathroom before the movie starts because missing just one minute could put you so far behind on context that you might as well start from the beginning. Periphery characters like Chengyong’s dad return as crucial pieces to the puzzle. Even the running joke about who Wang Zha let borrow his copy of Street Fighter II isn’t as much of a throwaway as you think. Overstuffed doesn’t begin to describe the chaos and yet every single random choice proves integral to what’s still to come. Yang Li is operating on an aesthetic level that transcends reason so pure excitement can reign supreme. It’s a blast.
- 7/10