TIFF's last weekend.

There's no competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, but there are a few awards; indieWIRE's got a list and here's a news release with more. Meanwhile, though reviews will probably trickle on over the next few days, another sampling...

Though he saw better films - in his opinion, of course - "standing in line at midnight for The Host in a torrential downpour with lighting crashing around us was an atmospheric high point of the festival" for Doug Cummings. Also, Hamaca Paraguaya is "easily among the most intensely beautiful and moving films I've seen all week," while Still Life "is a profound, multi-layered dramatic examination of the irretrievability of the past."

"My last film of this five-film day is probably the strangest movie I’ll see this festival," writes J Robert Parks. "Opera Jawa is exactly what it's title suggests - an Indonesian opera. But in addition to the music and singing, it's also full of ritual dance, art installations, puppets and mannequins, costumes, and myth."

"Lake of Fire is one of the most important documentary films ever made," declares Tom Hall in a long and thoughtful entry on the film. More from David Poland: "This is a powerful, patient, serious film that should be seen by every high school junior and senior and college student in America, not to mention the adult world. It is not fun. It is not funny. It is going to be hard on you, no matter where your sympathies lie." Turns out, too, it's the festival favorite for the AV Club's Scott Tobias.

The Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein talks with Macky Alston about The Killer Within, "a riveting documentary" about "Bob Bechtel, a mild-mannered University of Arizona psychology professor, now in his 70s," who, in 1955, "as a student at Swarthmore College... armed with a cache of guns, went on a rampage, killing a fellow student and shooting up his dormitory before he turned himself in to police." Also, a talk with Emma Thompson about Stranger Than Fiction.

Martha Fischer at Cinematical: "Apart from its sharp screenplay, [Shane Meadows's] This is England derives its power from a pair of extraordinary performances. As Shaun, [Thomas] Turgoose is all loss, ego and cocky desperation.... Opposite Turgoose is a deeply impressive Stephen Graham."

At Twitch, Todd finds it "a masterful film: vibrant, complex, full of life, remarkably unsentimental and unflinchingly honest." Also, Mathew talks with S&Man director JT Petty, Opus finds The Island "fascinating," and Todd reviews Big Bang Love, Juvenile A: "Once again [Takashi] Miike has crafted a film that utterly rejects conventional narrative and film making conventions to instead try to break new ground while asking big questions about the destructive nature of humanity."

Matt Riviera: "Every year here in Toronto I come out of one screening where I just know the film's going to be a huge crossover success. It happened with Sideways two years ago, with Brokeback Mountain last year and with Penelope this morning." Also, Kim Ki-duk's Time "is a little too neat and clever for its own good, it's a solid addition to this auteur's impressive body of work." More from Todd at Twitch.

The New Crowned Hope program originally played Venice; signandsight translates Katja Nicodemus's piece for Die Zeit on Daratt, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone and Syndromes and a Century.

Jim Emerson on Little Children: "[A]t Toronto people seemed to either love it or hate it. I know I did. It just depended on the scene."

Peter Knegt and Brian Brooks report on an onstage chat between John Waters and John Cameron Mitchell, in town for Shortbus and This Filthy World, respectively, "an event that rivaled the films themselves, at least in entertainment value." Also at indieWIRE, Jonny Leahan surveys the music docs and Anthony Kaufman offers his takes on Sarah Polley's Away From Her, Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and Jia Zhangke's Still Life and Dong.

The latest iW Discovery interviews: Reprise director Joachim Trier, Takva: A Man's Fear of God director Ozer Kiziltan and London to Brighton director Paul Andrew Williams.

Blogging for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, B Ruby Rich describes a few of her favorite moments at the fest.

Anne Thompson and Gregg Goldstein put the finishing touches on the Hollywood Reporter's Toronto coverage. Anne Thompson has more at the Risky Biz Blog, but, "To sum up: Borat killed. Nothing else came close." More on the Sacha Baron Cohen juggernaut from John Hiscock in the Telegraph and Kevin Maher in the London Times.

Posted by dwhudson at September 16, 2006 2:15 PM