WE ARE THE THOUSAND – ★★★★

Documentary about the efforts by residents of a small town in Italy who want to encourage the Foo Fighters to play a show for them. They do so by amassing 1,000 musicians together to play a Foo Fighter song and post it on YouTube to make the request. Well made, a nice short-ish length in time, and plenty of good feelings throughout. Whether you like the Foo Fighters or not, Dave Grohl seems like one of the most decent human beings in rock, and it shows here.

TOPSIDE – ★★★☆

Low-budget drama around a mother who lives with her daughter in the tunnels underneath the NY subway system, and what happens when they are cleared out. Particularly good performances and well filmed, but a difficult, gritty watch of poverty, drug addiction and homelessness.

WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY – ★★★

A long relax-paced film loosely about a couple who meet, agree to go on a date, but are changed into different people overnight. Will they find each other? Over two and a half hours, we see lots of beautifully shot scenes and go on many tangents. Hollywood would never make this film, but it was interesting to see the city, Kutaisi. I was glad to see this streamed via MIFF Play rather than in the cinema, as I started a pleasant afternoon doze halfway through. As it’s sub-titled, normally that would have been the end for me. It’s also the kind of film that makes MIFF what it is for me – a chance to journey and see the world from my home town.

SET! – ★★★☆

Fairly harmless but entertaining documentary about people who compete for best set table (also referred to as ‘tablescaping’) at county fairs. It’s evident that if you can think of a niche there will be people who are intensely into it. Well edited, did a good job of showing the true colours of the participants, many who aren’t pleasant humans. But conversely, competitors like Tim show the opposite and he steals the show.

CODA – ★★★☆

CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) is about the daughter of deaf parents. She can hear and this form explores her struggles between being true to her passion of singing, against the responsibility to her family who need her. There were a few plot points that seemed to be conveniently settled without explanation, but overall it was an enjoyable film with a good message around people with disability. The school recital scene was my favourite part.

FAREWELL AMOR – ★★★★

Great start to the last day of MIFF 2020. This film is about an African immigrant to America who moved to New York, and then after a long (17 year) wait, was finally able to bring his wife and daughter over to be together again. Excellent pacing, and lots of touching moments in this, without being too overly-sentimental or dramatic.

LAST AND FIRST MEN – ★★★★

✅ Jóhann Jóhannsson composing (and directing)
✅ Tilda Swinton narrating
✅ Science Fiction with ‘resonances of 2001: A Space Odyssey’
With the above checklist, this film was one of my (if not my most) highly anticipated films for MIFF 2020. I really enjoyed it. The film and music were meditative and incidental to the story, but it worked well together. Mostly black and white shots of terrain and brutalist style monuments, it was reminiscent to me of Anton Corbijn’s work. Would love to see this on a proper sized cinema screen with good sound one day.

DIGGER – ★★★★

Wonderful Greek drama about an older father living in a forest, and refusing to sell to a mining company interested in his property to build a road. Not just the story between big business vs someone’s lifestyle, but also the relationship between father and son. Beautiful forest scenery, especially during a time of covid-19 lockdown.

BORN TO BE – ★★★★

Excellent documentary about Dr. Jess Ting, a surgeon at Mt Sinai in New York who performs gender reassignment surgery. So many touching stories. I loved that the film showed the full spectrum of emotions, from joy to frustration, on both sides; the doctor’s and the patients. An important film for those looking to better understand why people go through this process, and the hard work that is done to try and assist.

SHE DIES TOMORROW – ★★

A terrible waste of time. Somewhat loosely, it’s about a contagion where someone believes they are going to die tomorrow, and whoever they spend time with catches it. The two stars are solely for the nice visual work in the film. I’m not against a bit of weird, (yay Lost Highway!), but this just didn’t seem to know what it was. I’d like my time back.

TWO OF US – ★★★★

Touching French film about two older women who are secret lovers. One is without a family, and the other is a widow with two adult children. They share next door apartments, and their love is a secret from the kids. When an unfortunate incident occurs it creates unexpected problems for them. I loved the ending, which didn’t feel the need to stitch together every little detail. Wonderful film and a good book-end with Suk Suk at this year’s MIFF. I enjoyed this one much more.

EMA – ★

Nope. Trying to think of something nice to say but can’t find anything. I guess the visual of a burning traffic light in the first scene was good, and earned the one star. The story as far as I could work out was about two self-centred, self-absorbed people who adopted a son, but then there were some loosely referred to issues, and gave him back, so let’s dance to reggaeton and fuck everyone in sight, including the divorce lawyer and her husband too. I guess like Showgirls, it’s worth trying it. I couldn’t make it to the end, because I just didn’t care about any of it.