Backcountry
(Canada, 91 min.)
Written and directed by Adam McDonald
Starring: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Roop
Programme: Discovery (World Premiere)
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Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Backcountry is
essentially Open Water with a bear.
That’s not a bad thing. This debut feature from Adam McDonald is a tense
two-hander that uses the expansive Canadian wilderness to great effect. The
woods are beautiful, especially in the multi-coloured palette of autumn in
which McDonald sets the film, but they’re also threatening and menacing with
their unknown elements and untameable forces. The woods are a lot like
marriage: they’re beautiful to visit, but they devour you.
Backcountry simmers towards the fateful arrival of the bear as Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop) enjoy a romantic camping getaway. McDonald uses the ominous setting effectively, doubling the fear of the threatening bear with the all-consuming chaos of a stifled relationship. Dizzying cinematography and gritty realism make the undefined limits of the woods far more terrifying than the snarling bear, while a great performance by Missy Peregym takes the viewer through a wrenching odyssey of loss and despair. Margaret Atwood, eat your heart out.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Ruth and Alex
(USA, 92 min.)
Dir. Richard Loncraine, Writ. Charlie Peters
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Diane Keaton, Cynthia Nixon
Programme: Galas (World Premiere)
The charming ditty Ruth
and Alex is a warm and refreshing comedy. Spending ninety minutes with
these two elderly lovebirds is a breeze, especially as played by the delightful
duo of Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. The two great actors are a perfect
marriage for this fun and honest tale of a married couple coming to terms with
the life they’ve built together as they spend two hectic days debating whether
to sell the apartment that’s housed their marriage for forty years.
Freeman and Keaton are wonderful together and Ruth and Alex might have been as winning
a golden-age comedy as, say, Hope Springs
if the script by Charlie Peters kept the focus simply on the lovebirds, who
still have the bubbliness of newlyweds. The film features an awkward subplot involving
a bomb threat and a potential terror suspect, and the post-9/11 paranoia takes
away from the beautiful simplicity of Freeman and Keaton’s dance. But they’re a
lovely pair—as captivating and as funny as ever—so the magic of seeing Freeman
and Keaton together makes for an amiable New York-set comedy. It’s probably a
great film to enjoy with your mom.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The New Girlfriend (Une nouvelle amie)
(France, 105 min.)
Written and directed by François Ozon
Starring: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz
Programme: Galas (World Premiere)
The intoxicating sexual escapades of François Ozon continue with
The New Girlfriend. Ozon, the master
behind films like In the House and Young & Beautiful, gives one of his
sharpest films with the saucy black comedy The
New Girlfriend. Ozon lets one key revelation drive a film when Claire (Anaïs
Demoustier) drops in David (Romain Duris), the widower of her recently deceased
best friend, and discovers an unexpected secret: David loves to dress in women’s
clothes. Shock dissolves into pleasure, as it always does in an Ozon film, as
Claire finds comfort in David’s cross-dressing as replaces the girlfriend she
lost.
Ozon runs daringly with the premise and takes Claire’s new
friendship with David, whom she dubs Virginia, into provocative corners of
public attitudes and private desires. His consistently invigorating visual
style is in top form here, as he steps away from the signature voyeurism of his
films and takes this comical study of queer awakening right into the light. The New Girlfriend is as bright and
wicked as a Pedro Almodóvar film, but it has a psychosexual edge that only Ozon
could balance. It’s funny, but also bold in the way it confronts the confusion
with which people approach subjects they’d rather keep in the closet. Brave
performances and nuanced filmmaking make The
New Girlfriend one of the most delicious offerings at TIFF this year.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Update: The New Girlfriend screens in Ottawa at The ByTowne at 6:45 on May 7 presented by Inside Out. And it's back in the house chez ByTowne starting Aug. 28.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Update: The New Girlfriend screens in Ottawa at The ByTowne at 6:45 on May 7 presented by Inside Out. And it's back in the house chez ByTowne starting Aug. 28.