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Miracle Fortress is a Montreal act that my friend John just turned me onto. Apparently we’re going to see them on Thursday August 6th at the Theatre Centre, here in Toronto. I’ve never ever heard of that venue!

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UPDATE:
Ok so now that I’ve seen Miracle Fortress live, watch the video below to share in my shock/confusion:

How I loved this film! Kisses (2008, written and directed by Lance Daly) is the story about of Kyle and Dylan, a couple of kids who run away from home and have an adventure in nearby Dublin. First-time child actors Kelly O’Neill (Kylie) and Shane Curry (Dylan) are brilliant and were an immense pleasure to watch.

I don’t know what to say about it except that everything about it worked. The setup, the adventure, tragedy, themes of friendship and love, excitement, humour… it was truly an immense pleasure to experience this film. It was at once charming, sad, exciting and horrific to journey with these children into the inner-city depths of Dublin. The kindness of strangers and then the horrible things that some people are capable of never cease to amaze me. But right when I needed him, in an uncredited role as “Bob Dylan”, Stephen Rea shows up on the screen and I could take a minute to breathe.

Coming-of-ages films are among my faves and this one definitely joins The 400 Blows, Y tu mamá también, C.R.A.Z.Y. and Stand By Me on my list (although I don’t have an actual list).

One technique that I have never seen used to this extent was that the film’s top and tail are in black & white while the middle section is in colour. While the children journey to Dublin as they escape their broken homes, colour slowly seeps in until before you know it, everything is different. Then as they return home, the colours fade away and we return to their stark reality of black & white.

This was one of my favourite films of TIFF08 and if you ever get the chance to see it, do it! The director and two kids were present for a Q&A after the film, and they were just as delightful to watch off-screen. Here is a photo and video clip that I took:

For some comments that are completely opposite to mine, read this (second review down).

One of the worst films that I saw in TIFF08 was Dangkou (2008, written by Fernando Bonassi, Fendou Liu [screenplay]; directed by Nelson Yu Lik-wai). It was bizarre and I do not mean that to be a compliment.

Really, I have no idea what this movie was about. There was the Taiwanese mob, and an orphan, some really weird fighting and a tiger, I think?… Somebody lost an arm and there was a woman with weird tattoos. It was shot in Brazil and some of it was in a jungle. This film was all over the place and at one point turned into a skateboarding video. There was some amazing photography and colour grading going on, but then it’s like, wow they are fighting on this big… concrete structure thing in the middle of a field, and I didn’t even know why they were fighting.

I remember that there was an actual reason why I selected this film, but I can’t remember what it was. I do remember that it was really long and I was sleepy. I can say, though, that I do recall many images from it, so it’s got that going for it, at least.

The Narrows (2008, written by Tatiana Blackington based upon Tim McLoughlin’s novel; directed by François Velle) was blehhhh. Typical American “kid-gets-mixed-up-with-the-wrong-crowd” (albeit, the wrong crowd is the mob) coming-of-age story. It stars Kevin Zegers, whose excellent performance in Transamerica led me to expect more than what I got from The Narrows. It looked and felt like a crappy episode of a generic show that I could have watched (rather, changed the channel from) on HDTV.

The kid wants to go to school for photography because he is so artsy and sensitive. There he meets a girl and falls in love; this greatly clashes with his ties to his neighborhood and “the old country”. The rest of the story you can probably guess. This was not the type of film that I expect to see at TIFF.

Venkovský ucitel (2008, written and directed by Bohdan Sláma) is a slow-paced, beautifully shot story of a lonely teacher who leaves his job in Prague to teach out in the Czech countryside. We ask ourselves the obvious questions: Why did he leave the city? Why is he so sad? Why was this so predictable? Did I really just see a calf being pulled out of a cow?

There was one thing that I absolutely loved about this film: almost every scene was composed of one single take. The camera and actors were choreographed with such great precision that it took a couple of scenes for me to notice that there were no cuts. I love that stuff!

I enjoyed it enough, but the story didn’t blow me away and I didn’t feel that there was a major climax. The characters were definitely more than two-dimensional but not really interesting or memorable enough. I felt that some of the story was way too predictable, and I didn’t think that this did any good as far as breaking gay stereotypes goes. Still, the photography techniques and beautiful scenery made this a pleasant enough viewing experience.

Hunger (2008, written by Steve McQueen and Enda Walsh; directed by Steve McQueen) is possibly one of the most intense films I have seen. It depicts the last six weeks of Bobby Sands’ (Michael Fassbender) life, the IRA member who died as a result of the 1981 hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. This is McQueen’s first film.

You can almost feel, smell and taste what you’re seeing onscreen. The main character, Bobby Sands, isn’t introduced until a fair bit into the film – McQueen takes his time in setting things up to the point where he’s ready to show you Bobby.

There is one scene in particular – commonly referred to as “The Scene” – that everybody is talking about: it is a 17-minute single take of a riveting conversation between Sands and a priest. Not only does it stand out because it is so brilliant, but it is a stark contrast to the rest of the film, which is relatively dialogue-free. “The Scene” acts as solid transition point into the final act of the film. (You can find the entire scene on YouTube, split into sections.)

I don’t have much else to say except that this film was entirely gripping and emotionally draining. It was exceptionally made and I highly recommend it. For those who may have trouble with graphic imagery (of the non-sexual kind, I should specify), be prepared.