Toronto. Mother of Tears.

"An instant cult classic and easily the most entertaining film of the festival to date - or maybe ever? - this orgy of crazed plotting, magnificently bad acting, cheap special effects, and priceless conviction meditates on the second fall of Rome (riots, road rage, mothers chucking babies off bridges), which antiquities restorer Asia Argento precipitates by releasing an ancient evil witch from an urn," enthuses Nathan Lee in the Voice. "Plus unholy monkeys, plus psychic lesbians, plus Japanese goth freakazoids, plus Udo Kier - and that's so not the half it, I can't even tell you."

"As painful as it is to write this, there is nothing on offer in Mother of Tears for folks outside of the cult-of-Argento or gore-hounds looking for a few inventive kills," writes Kurt Halfyard at Twitch. "This may very well be an indication that Argento's brand of horror was of its time and place (the 1970s and 80s), and ill equipped to survive in the 21st Century."

Updated through 9/14.

It's an "Ed Wood-esque send up of 70s horror that would make Michael Lerman at indieWIRE.

"I haven't seen any recent Argento," admits Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "I've been warned that his newer movies don't have the nutball stylishness of earlier pictures like The Bird With the Crystal Plumage or Four Flies on Gray Velvet or, my favorite, Suspiria. But The Mother of Tears is so unapologetically loopy and lush and ridiculous that I found it irresistible."

"I walked away entirely positive that Argento wanted the movie to be half spooky and half ridiculous," writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical. "If I'm right and that was his intention, then I'd offer the opinion that Mother of Tears is the master's best flick since... hell, since at least the mid-80s."

"It is an absolute B-asterpiece," writes David Poland at Movie City News. "So why isn't it pushing my buttons?"

"These days, Argento is all cheese, no style," grumbles Scott Tobias at the AV Club. "Laughing derisively at a director I used to admire just isn't a great feeling."

Online viewing tips. The Midnight Madness Blog has video of the premiere and a longish interview with Argento conducted in 1990.

Update, 9/14: "'What you see does not exist, what you cannot see is true' goes the central prophecy of Mother of Tears, perhaps a meta shout-out to those many horror films that cherish the shadow-world implicative over the balls-out blunt," writes Keith Uhlich at the House Next Door. "But Argento's triumph comes in fusing these two schools of cinema-thought together, cranking the gore and monster quotient up to 11, while simultaneously building up a sneaky and pointed subtext."

Posted by dwhudson at September 12, 2007 6:43 AM