TIFF11: Day 6 Round-Up

TIFF11: Day 6 Round-Up

Hard Core Logo II Q&A

Day 6 marks the beginning of the second half of the Toronto International Film Festival.  It also marks the beginning of my busiest time at the festival, with me seeing no less than three films, including the film I pegged as my top pick for the festival – Hard Core Logo II.

Here is my round-up.

The Oranges
This is wonderful little comedy about two families in New Jersey, who fall apart after the father of one family begins an adulterous relationship with the daughter of the other.

The film has a great ensemble cast that includes Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, Allison Janney, Catherine Keener, and Oliver Platt.  Despite the somewhat serious subject matter, the film is absolutely hilarious and it was a great film to start my day.

8/10

Intruders
With me seeing 25 films over the course of the festival, I suppose that it would only be logical that I wouldn’t connect with all of them.  Sadly, this film, which was one I was actually looking forward to see, was one of them.

The film is a supernatural thriller starring Clive Owen.  I thought the film was watchable and the plot somewhat interesting, but I was completely bored to death by the film.  I don’t if it was the fact that the film was not all that scary or that the narrative moved back-and-forth between two stories (one in Spanish), in which the eventual connection between the two turned out to be a bit lame.

I guess I can’t like them all.

6/10

Hard Core Logo II
In some ways, calling this film Hard Core Logo II is a bit misleading.  While it does reference the previous film and feature some of that film’s supporting characters (including director Bruce McDonald’s exaggerated version of himself), the film can also be viewed on its own with no harm done.

The film features “Bruce” filming a documentary on the band Die Mannequin, in which the lead singer Care Failure is supposedly being possessed by the late Hard Core Logo singer Joe Dick.  Another returning character in this film is Julian Richings as Joe Dick’s mentor Bucky Haight, who is producing Die Mannequin’s new album.

For this “anti-sequel,” McDonald goes for a more tongue-in-cheek surreal feeling, than the more realistic feeling of the original film.  When it’s all said and done, this film does not (and probably could not) match the original Hard Core Logo, but it’s still a pretty good film that should be judged on its own merits.

8/10