At TIFF. Saw The Shape of Water yesterday and Good Lord, is that movie ever made for Buffistas. It was all that the trailer promised and more, a ravishingly romantic fable about a girl and her fish prince, played completely sincerely and with all the virtuosic cinematic skills del Toro has in his arsenal. Michael Shannon gives that dude who played Vidal in Pan's Labyrinth a run for his money as a terrifying monster in a human-face.

I went to an afternoon showing and was pleasantly surprised by del Toro showing up for a Q&A afterward. He was hilarious and passionate and had an endearingly potty mouth and I could have listened to him talk for hours. My kittens are on this film winning the People's Choice Award (the biggest prize a film can get in TIFF, which is not really award-driven). The only other film I've seen that could give it competition is Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig's marvellous directorial debut.

Other than those two, it's been hit-and-miss at the festival. Quite a few well-intentioned films that made me do a side-eye and go, "O'RLY"? Ones that would be worth seeking out if they ever became available here: BPM, about the AIDS crisis and the lives (and deaths) of its activists in Paris in late 80s and early 90s, which was both angry and tender and made me ugly-cry several times; Under the Tree, an Icelandic film about an escalating neighborhood dispute that went to all kinds of places I wasn't expecting. It had this amazingly deadpan and black sense of humour that struck me as very Scandinavian.

I, Tonya is getting a lot of buzz: [link]

Saw The Shape of Water yesterday and Good Lord, is that movie ever made for Buffistas. It was all that the trailer promised and more, a ravishingly romantic fable about a girl and her fish prince, played completely sincerely and with all the virtuosic cinematic skills del Toro has in his arsenal.

Eeee! Eeeeeee!

Hey, have you, or are you, going to see The Lodgers? It's getting a lot of buzz for being a good, creepy gothic, but I can't find any information on a release date for it.

Oy, I'd forgotten how exhausted TIFF could be. Day #5 and fading fast. Thank goodness I only have two films tomorrow.

Hey, have you, or are you, going to see The Lodgers?

As the luck would have it, I *have* seen The Lodgers! It was my first film of the festival on Saturday. It's a gorgeously atmospheric piece of work but a bit thin on the story, I found. But then, one doesn't really watch Gothic horror for the plot. If it's simmering dread and moody vistas and repressed longing you want, the film's got plenty to offer.

Among the lot I watched today was Alexander Payne's Downsizing. The first half of the film was like a pitch-perfect Charlie Kaufman-esque surreal satire, then the second half... goes to kinda weird places. I found it entertaining throughout but not sure the film holds together entirely. More successful, for me, was A Fantastic Woman, the trailer for which I'd linked to upthread. It's an emotionally devastating drama from Chile about a transgender woman whose much older lover dies suddenly - she then has to suffer the indignities heaped on by her partner's family while trying to process her own grief. It's hard to watch at times but never dreary or depressing. Instead, it is suffused with vibrant emotions which struck me as almost operatic, anchored by an extraordinary performance by its lead actress (Daniela Vega) who is herself trans. I can't recommend it highly enough.

But then, one doesn't really watch Gothic horror for the plot. If it's simmering dread and moody vistas and repressed longing you want, the film's got plenty to offer.

That is exactly what I watch Gothic horror for, so that's perfect! t the cliche tag never closes for me

Guys, I cannot wait to see this: [link]

That movie is gonna make me cry.

That looks good, Steph. In related news, I discovered that Olive Byrne was Ethel Byrne's daughter and Margaret Sanger's (birth control advocate) niece. Byrne's mom was one of the first female victims of institutional force feeding while imprisoned for helping women get access to birth control.

I bet Olive would have had a lot to say about Themiscyra.

I saw that a couple of days ago! It's a solid biopic and marvellous on the representation front. Rebecca Hall, who plays Elizabeth Marston, is particularly wonderful. I kinda wished it had spent more time on the creation of Wonder Woman though.

Drove down from Toronto yesterday after TIFF. I'm not as bone-tired as I had been in 2016 -- I was much better with self-care during the fest, limiting myself to 3 films a day (I had one 4-film day and yep, that was one too many) and remembering to eat and hydrate. Overall, I feel like there weren't quite as many amazing films I saw this year as I did last, but the highs were still very high.

The last film I saw on Sunday was the new Martin McDonagh, who did In Bruges (It's titled Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which is mouthful). I... might have liked it even better than The Shape of Water (!), and lo and behold, it ended up winning the People's Choice Award. It's hilarious and heartbreaking and profane (seriously, the amount of creative cursing in this film is off the chart), and it laughs at human foibles while having a surprising amount of compassion for its *extremely* flawed characters. Frances McDormand plays a grief-stricken mother who is now just fucking pissed and is acting out in a way that is clearly destructive yet enormously cathartic to the viewing audience. She's gonna be a serious contender for that Best Actress Oscar come February. And both Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are ON FIRE in meaty supporting roles.

The trailer: [link]

(Put your headphone on if you're gonna watch it at work, yo. I'm not kidding about wall-to-wall profanity.)