Toronto Dispatch: Takeshis, Tideland, Shopgirl

Steve Martin introduces Jason Schwartzman and Claire Danes, his costars in Shopgirl.


So by the time I had finished last night’s write-up, it was 3:30am…and you know what that means? Yup, a whole 4 whopping hours of sleep. Hurrah Festival!

So I wake up late, and therefore get downtown late, but still ahead of Screening #3, Takeshis. First thing I notice is that I’m one of the last people to arrive and yet my seat(s) are still free; this also means that the screening was not sold out. Which I find a little odd considering this is Kitano’s follow-up to his People's Choice award winner in 2003, Zatoichi. Anyhow, following a brief introduction by a festival staff member, everything starts on time.

The first thing I notice is how pristine this film looks.
 
I love digital projection and this master is very sharp. It also doesn’t hurt that Kitano shoots very sterile sets/locations while often injecting very bright/vibrant colors via costuming, props and lighting. This whole film is very much Takeshi Kitano, from the wonderful over the top Yakuza shootouts to spontaneous displays of song and dance. Now, as to what the film is about, it could simply be said that it follows the two lives of the director, Kitano, and “Beat”. I say Beat is the blonde Takeshi and Kitano is the black haired one. The TIFF guide indicates the inverse. So I’ll just refer to them as blonde and black. The black haired Takeshi is pretty straight forward in the film, a revered icon in TV and film as he is in real-life. The blonde one is an unsuccessful actor, working a day job as a convienece store clerk. The film mostly focuses on blonde Takeshi as a sort of parallel universe with himself with his real life companions (on and off screen) in alternate careers as well. Now, what the film is really trying to say as the two Takeshi’s universes crisscross one another, I’m not sure, nor is the TIFF guide and judging by the lukewarm applause at the conclusion of the screening, nor is anyone else either.

The following screening didn’t start until 6pm, and my wife was not with me on this one so that put me in the Visa Screening Lounge by myself. That said, I managed to chat up a couple of ladies who were almost embarrassed to admit their whole strategy to the festival this year was, “See every 6pm screening at the Elgin”. And hey, why not? The Elgin often plays host to great films, especially in the evenings. Shortly afterwards we were let into the theatre for Screening #4, Tideland – a world premiere.



Terry Gilliam and virtually anyone who had anything to do with Tideland.

The festival director, Piers Handling, introduces Gilliam to introduce the film, followed by  the producer, screenwriter, author, cinematographer and then the cast. On hand were Brendan Fletcher who turns in a great performance, Jennifer Tilly, Jeff Bridges, and 10-year-old Canadian Jodelle Ferland, whom Terry has to lift off the floor so she can speak into the mic to say “Hi”. Aww, how cute…well, actually it was pretty cute, she seemed very excited.
Gilliam starts off with basically a warning that this film is more “out there” than anything he’s done before, and as he’s introducing the writers he suggests if we don’t like the film we can blame them and finishes saying he hopes we enjoy the screening, which he quickly retracts and edits that he hopes we will get through it. Needless to say, I think he was a little concerned how the film would be received. And there is some just cause for this concern; while I found the film extremely easy to follow, there are definitely some uneasy scenes. But the result is what I believe to be a wonderful film as told through the eyes of a little girl with such an overactive imagination she can get through situations of death, mental handicap, drug abuse and poverty without batting an eye. This young charismatic actress is amazing and carries the whole film. Watch out Dakota Fanning, you’re about to get eaten whole! And then there’s the cinematography… the camera placement? Brilliant, I say.

Which brings us to Screening #5 and the last of the day for us, Shopgirl. Before seeing it I really wanted to like this movie because, I mean, Steve Martin… hello? But I think the whole problem probably starts with the novella, which of course I haven’t read but in theory a novella is a very small book, or very long short story. Something you can probably read quicker than watch the film. That would inherently result in a problem, wouldn’t you think?

The problem here is character development. Sure, we figure we know what these people are about halfway in, but we don’t really care about them. We’re given no reason to. The film feels distant from the first frame and continues all the way to the end. I’m sure part of the problem may have something to do with endless pans over downtown LA at night, or shots of the stars, or the camera zooming out of a bedroom through a skylight into space. And while perhaps that was the goal with these shots, that would then mean it failed to bring characters close via the camera when it mattered.

The result is a film with great acting performances with failures, it would seem, in all the other major departments. I mean, without the Jason Schwartzman character and his hilarious effort, the movie would have been poor and dead boring; that said, my wife was still out cold halfway in.