A Highlight of Films Picked up From This Year's Toronto FIlm Festival

By A.J. Bond

For Your Consideration - Christopher Guest eschews the mockumentary form for this, his first "real movie", satirizing the Hollywood Oscar race. When spurious Oscar buzz strikes the set of the ludicrous lesbian period-piece, Home For Purim, the washed up stars of the film, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey and Harry Shearer, suddenly turn into self-promoting, self-important megalomaniacs. Guest actually manages to eek out some pity for these deluded Oscar hopefuls without compromising the non-stop Hollywood-bashing. Ultimately the film is dependent on the mixed performances of the ensemble cast which range from pitch-perfect deadpan humour (Fred Willard's obnoxious Pat O'Brien-esque Entertainment News anchor) to over-the-top caricatures (Eugene Levy's cliched Hollywood every-agent). A ridiculous farce that falls well short of Guest's opus, Waiting for Guffman, but with more than enough laughs to keep one entertained.

Stranger Than Fiction - Chameleon Director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball) takes a stab at the whimsical romantic-comedy with this inconsistent, mid-to-high-concept Will Ferrell picture. Harold Crick (Ferrell) begins hearing the voice of an omniscient narrator dictating the ups and downs of his humdrum life and foreshadowing his imminent death. The film alternates between an intriguing existentialist comedy and a cloying, wannabe hipster romance as Crick tries to find both love and The Narrator before his untimely demise. The chemistry between shlubby IRS auditor Crick and his renegade-baker-auditee turned girlfriend, Maggie Gyllenhaal, is preposterous at best. And though the film shines during The Narrator subplot, it inevitably ends with the annoying circularity found in nearly every film about a writer.

After the Wedding - Born out of the Dogme 95 school of filmmaking, this compelling Danish drama is reminiscent of The Celebration but without all the incest. A Danish expat is forced to return to Copenhagen in order to secure critical funding for his Indian Orphange. What begins under the pretext of a simple business meeting slowly spirals into a complex family drama as director Susanne Bier masterfully peels away layers of secrets and lies. Each subsequent revelation delves deeper into the themes of the film (I won't give anything away), exploring the dilemma of national and familial duty versus altruism and charity. While definitely not of the suspense-thriller genre, After the Wedding still suffers from the pitfalls of any film involving twists and turns: though the ride is fairly engrossing, the final reveal always feels a little too easy.

Shortbus - Ever wanted to see Sook-Yin Lee naked? Me neither, but here's your chance nonetheless! John Cameron Mitchell's highly anticipated (by some) follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch plays like an X-rated version of Rent. The film follows a pansexual group of New Yorkers as they struggle to find love and sexual fulfillment in and around an underground sex club called Shortbus. The first half of the film is surprisingly funny and entertaining, with some show-stopping sex scenes, including a rendition of the American National Anthem via hummer/rimjob. In the end, though, the film trades in it's edginess in favour of that conspicuous, bohemian, New York cheesiness that I could have sworn died in the mid-90's along with unprotected sex and tongue-piercings.

The Art of Crying - This blackly funny Danish film begins like a Scandinavian version of Everybody Loves Raymond but slowly turns into Capturing the Friedmans. Narrated by a disaffected 10 year-old named Allan, the film details his wacky dysfunctional family and the quirky village they inhabit. The laughter gets progressively more nervous when it is revealed off-hand that Allan's father uses threats of suicide to elicit sexual favours from his daughter Sanne. Director Peter Schíƒ ¸nau Fog's feature film debut catches you off guard with its disturbing and serious subject matter, yet never loses sight of its dark comedy sensibilities. The result is a powerful and morally ambiguous film shot through with a fresh, sardonic edge.