TIFF Report - Bad Education, Palindromes Reviews

Aside from the celluloid melting and causing a 30 minute delay in my viewing of the Machinist at 9:30am (in which I agree with Todd's review, but I think I liked it less than everyone else), I was a happy man at the end of this day of film fest viewing. This is because I was able to view two new films (Bad Education and Palindromes) by two director/writers (Pedro Almodovar and Todd Solondz) who I respect and enjoy above most others. This was also my first day I got to experience the sheer pleasure of the rush line twice in a row, in which I spent more time waiting in line for the films conversing with fellow film enthusiast and plugging my ears with whatever garbage was around on the ground to drown out the inane conversations in front and behind me (it was very much like that scene from “Annie Hall"), then I did actually watching the films. But for these two viewings it was well worth the wait.

Bad Education
**There are spoilers in this description of Bad Education, so you may want to skip one paragraph – don't say I didn't tell you**
Now I've been a Almodovar fan since I saw “All About My Mother" and have been hooked ever since, though there is usually a gap of a few years between each film in which other Spanish directors fill the Almodovar void (very well I might add - there's been a ton of them who are fantastic as everyone knows). Bad Education is what I would nervously call a high art, intellectual soap opera tale with such regular day time plots as brothers taking on their deceased relative's identity, lovers changing and hustling each other throughout the film, and murderous plots for the noble ideas of money and fame. In 1980's Madrid, movie director Enrique (Fele Martinez) is visited by a long lost school friend and now aspiring actor Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who drops off a brand new story of his about their childhood together and the consequences it has on their adult life to be made into a film. Delving into the story Enrique starts to recall the events that brought him and Ignacio together in the first place: the haunting actions of Fr. Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) towards Ignacio and how, as young boys, they fell in love with each other. During the making of the story into a film, Enrique and Ignacio rekindle their love for each other, only to have Fr. Manolo revisit them now as business man Sr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar) and inform Enrique that Ignacio is actually his brother Juan; reveal that he and Juan are lovers; and that Juan and Berenguer together killed the real Ignacio so that Juan could take his identity and begin an acting career. Did you get all that? I guess it was fitting that I did watch it at 2pm in the afternoon considering the films content.

Almodovar's films and stories are not for all, as I would assume the sexual content and subject matter would be frowned upon by some, but prudes aside this is a great movie. I unfortunately went into this film with huge admiration for his previous film - “Talk to Her" - and was hoping that this would surpass it, which I think is more than even Almodovar can do himself. I thus felt a bit let down, but that shoiuldn't take away anything from Bad Education.

The film is spun in flashbacks; movie in the movie episodes; and two or three different perspectives to each plot twist told by the lead characters. I love Almodovar's directing and imagination and just like his past films it's solid and strong here once again. His characters are always so enjoyable and engaging, with Gael Garcia Bernal delivering a strong performance here as Ignacio and Juan, one that I'm sure the women who faint at his passing and the signing of his pen will be both awaiting and fearing to see. Bad Education is more comedic than some of his previous films but that doesn't take away from the excitement that is created here and unfolds as it runs along its course. The cinematography is quite creative and alluring, lending itself well to the odds and quirks of Almodovar's Bad Education making the world the characters live in as eccentric as they are themselves. A continuing fresh mind in film making Pedro Almodovar delivers another strange, exciting, eccentric and strong film that I'm sure fans of his will gladly receive.

Palindromes

I knew this movie was going to be so hard to rush with its rush line of who's who indie movie hipsters. There were as many people in the rush line as the ticket holders line and it was a matter of positive karma - and the fact that I arrived 2 hours early - that I was blessed with the second last rush ticket. After running up the back stairwell, following the lead of a women who said “follow me" from the rush line - what can I say, when a beautiful lady says that, it's my nature to do as told - I arrived in my seat just in time as the opening ads were finishing.

Palindromes is a jumping off from Welcome to the Dollhouse (Solondz' first feature) and is the story of a twelve year old girl, Aviva, who is played by several different girls throughout the entire movie - a young black girl, a Latino, a white redhead and brunette, a large black women, and finally Jennifer Jason Leigh - who gets pregnant and then, under pressure from her parents (her mother so superbly played by Ellen Barkin), she has an abortion. Running away from home she falls in love with a man-child of a truck driver who ditches her the next morning and then is taken in by a foster family of challenged - physically and mentally - children and good God-fearing parents, Bob and Mama Sunshine. Her journeys carry on throughout the film, leading her from situation to situation - abortion doctor murder plots, trying to end up pregnant again - as she takes on characteristics of a women years beyond her age.

Todd Solondz said it best last night after the showing of Palindromes. “My films aren't for everyone, especially those who like them". Not one to shy away from controversy - his previous films Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling were not without their own - he comes back with a new look at humanity, sexuality, love and compassion through the eyes of a 12 year old girl. Solondz is brilliantly comedic and, where I felt Storytelling seemed to be stagnant, Palindromes is as hilarious as it is disturbing. His directing is pretty straight forward, as always, but it is his writing that has always been stunning and gifted. He takes on subject matter from different angles than conventional films would ever attempt, and while not transgressing beyond any lines he's crossed before his characters are still involved in lives and actions no where near “rockwellian". I thoroughly loved how the lead character changed physically, reinforcing his point in the film that a character mentions that no matter what physically changes we can undergo we're all just genetically programmed robots here. Ellen Barkin, as I said, is stunning and absolutely great as the mother – I had kind of given up on her as an actress and now she goes and delivers this performance that I'm sure will be awarded somewhere along the line this year. Palindromes is as strong as Solondz has ever been, and this made me a happy viewer at the end of a thirteen hour film fest day. A must see for sure.