TIFF 2008: Tears for Liverpool

Short Cuts Programme 4

106 (pictured above; Candice Day) – According to this short, being the oldest person in town is a bit like being the number one hitman—everyone is gunning for you. Sadly, this is a formulaic and cutesy take on the (admittedly funny) concept. Candice Day should watch Branded to Kill, we think. 2/5

Pierce, Crush, Escape; Notes on the Boreal (Susan Turcot) – Lines and scribbles dance around the screen, playing the part of trees being chopped down, regrowing, and turning into people, animals, or cityscapes. A sort of meditation on the environment, but honestly, we just found it boring. 2/5

Uniform Material (Chris McCarrol) – A man with almost no money prepares for his new job in an ingenious fashion. The concept is sound but obvious enough that the slow pacing and obsession with the minutiae of his preparation makes this a little hard to stay engaged with. 3/5

Whitmore Park (Brian Stockton) – Brian Stockton is an uncharismatic host and his appearance at the beginning of this film sets it off on bad footing—like it's going to be some "who cares?" reminiscence about his life without wider insight. After a few minutes though, that's replaced with a touching rumination on his cinematic beginnings. It's the combination of the footage of children's celluloid scribbles with the soundtrack from The Supers at the end that makes it, though. 3/5

Also playing as part of Short Cuts Canada Programme 4: A Small Thing (Adam Garnet Jones), Machine with Wishbone (Randall Okita), Mon nom est Victor Gazon (Patrick Gazé), and La Battue (Guy Édoin). Short Cuts Canada Programme 4 plays Jackman Hall September 10 at 7 p.m., and AMC 3 September 11 at 5 p.m..

Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso)

We really, really read far too much into Liverpool. The film is very sparse and nearly dialogue-free, following an alcoholic ship worker, Farrel, as he slowly trudges home to the small town where his mother lives. Finding her incapacitated and having forgotten him, he leaves again, but the film remains in the town, following the lives of the inhabitants, one of whom appears to hold a more special relationship with Farrel than anyone there would expect. Alonso leaves motivations and meaning as vague as in almost any film we've seen, which means we read into the film a very disturbing reason for the intense alienation that followed Farrel even to his home town. It's been shot attractively and Alonso has a fine eye for small details, but it's ultimately far too obscure. 2.5/5

Liverpool plays Jackman Hall tonight at 9:30 p.m. and the Varsity 5 September 12 at 3:30 p.m.

Tears for Sale (Uroš Stojanovic)

Easily the film with the most unique (and well-defined) visual style of any the films we've seen so far at the festival, Serbian film Tears for Sale is unapologetically a fairy tale, and (for good or bad) has decided that therefore its plot or character motivations don't really need to make that much sense. But it's hard to care when you're swept along by the magical story of a pair of "spinster" sisters who have to find a man for their village as every other man was taken in the war effort—only they end up with two, and fall in love to boot. The film comments on the cost of war (if not in an especially subtle way) and quite sweetly argues for the power of love; we feel that with a slightly more satisfying ending we would have forgiven it every plot hole. 3/5

Tears for Sale plays Scotiabank 1 tonight at 9:15 p.m. and the Cumberland 1 on September 13 at 10:30 a.m..