TIFF 2008: Plastic Girl

Deadgirl (Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel)

Teenage boys really are disgusting creatures, so it didn't surprise us in the least that when the main characters of Deadgirl drunkenly stumble upon a seemingly comatose (and completely forgotten) naked girl in the bowels of an abandoned mental hospital, one of them decides to keep her as a literal sex object. Of course, that might strike you as completely unlikely (fair enough) but to us it's not as unlikely as the fact that no one else who finds out ever manages to call the police (a bit of a silly niggle in a horror film, but still!) Deadgirl is shot well and has a tight narrative, but unfortunately, individual scenes can be bloated in an attempt to build tension, so often you're pushed past dread into irritation. Plus, the interesting subtexts of the piece perhaps aren't given as much depth as they deserve. Nearly a little gem, but not quite. 3/5

Deadgirl plays at the AMC 2 at 5 p.m. and September 12th at the AMC 6 at 9 p.m..

Plastic City (Yu Lik-wai)

Word on the street is this is due for a "drastic" re-edit as the director just isn't happy with this current version of the film, which would lead us to urge you to see it before it's fiddled with if we thought it was any good. We don't. Set in one of the Asian communities of Brazil, Plastic City follows the relationship between a father and adopted son as they struggle to maintain their ownership of the fake designer goods racket in town. Probably what director Yu Lik-wai is going to try and fix is how obviously Plastic City follows the gangster movie template for ages—the father wants to settle problems without conflict, the son is hot-headed and rash—and is resolutely boring as a result, before falling headlong into a completely nonsensical ending that includes a gory, hyper colourful gang fight that is so jarring you'll swear it's a dream sequence (it isn't—or is it? God knows). Hopefully he'll manage to tie everything together, because right now Plastic City is a total mess. 1.5/5

Plastic City plays at the AMC 6 at 9:30 p.m., September 11th at the Isabel Bader at 4:45 p.m., and September 13th at the AMC 8 at 7 p.m..