海角大神

The 11-day Toronto International Film Festival is many things to many people but, for Hollywood, it鈥檚 the movie equivalent of the Paris fall fashion shows, with films instead of models in designer dresses parading down the runway. Movie stars, more than a few of whom appear in multiple movies here, walk the red carpet, handlers at the ready, while Oscar handicappers work themselves into a froth. This is a star-struck city, and you can easily cause a stampede in the streets by casually mentioning that you just spotted Matthew McConaughey.聽

The Hollywood madness usually dissipates after the festival鈥檚 first weekend, when the moguls and the glitterati clear out, their work done, and the festival settles into a more manageable mode. Cineastes feel freer to seek out that new movie from Luxembourg or Lebanon. There鈥檚 certainly no shortage of options: 397 films are in this year鈥檚 lineup, from 83 countries, 138 of them world premi猫res.

This year all eyes were on Nate Parker鈥檚 鈥淭he Birth of a Nation,鈥� which is about the antebellum slave revolt led by Nat Turner and opens in October. After being purchased in January at Sundance by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million, it came out that Parker had been charged with the rape of a fellow college student in 1999, along with the film鈥檚 co-writer, Jean Celestin. Although Parker was acquitted and Celestin鈥檚 conviction was later overturned, the publicity has heavily tainted what was supposed to be a slam-dunk for multiple Oscars at a time when the Academy is under fire for neglecting black artists in their annual awards derby.

Parker attended the festival and made several appearances. In the one I attended, a public screening of the film, he and his collaborators showed up onstage to lavish praise on each other while only two softball questions were taken from the audience, neither of them about the rape charges. The elephant in the room filled to bursting in the cavernous auditorium.

Things heated up considerably during a one-hour press conference two days later when Parker, flanked by several of his cast members, attempted to step out of the spotlight: 鈥淚 would just encourage everyone to remember, personal life aside, I鈥檓 just one person.鈥�

And what of the movie itself? The dilemma of how one separates the creator from his creation is not a new one 鈥� it arises every time Roman Polanski, for example, comes out with a movie 鈥� and perhaps it is best to keep the two apart. I don鈥檛 think 鈥淭he Birth of a Nation鈥� 鈥� which takes its title from D.W. Griffith鈥檚 1915 pro-Ku Klux Klan Civil War epic 鈥� is a great film, or even a very good one. It has its undeniable moments of power, but its importance, if it has any, is that it keys into a historical moment at a time when race and racial abuse are startlingly in the forefront of public discourse. In a more mundane vein, word is out that Fox Searchlight鈥檚 new marketing strategy is to score as much business as possible for the film in October and play down the Oscar hype.

Racial themes of a less incendiary nature were certainly in evidence in Toronto, too. Mira Nair鈥檚 lively, heart-tuggy 鈥淨ueen of Katwe,鈥� which is based on the true story of a poor Ugandan teenage female chess prodigy, has a standout performance from Lupita Nyongo鈥檕 and another from David Oyelowo, who also appears as the heir to the kingdom of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) in the dutifully conventional 鈥淎 United Kingdom,鈥� which chronicles the prince鈥檚 marriage to a white Englishwoman, played by Rosamund Pike.聽

The interracial couple movie with the most emotional heft in Toronto was indubitably Jeff Nichols鈥檚 鈥淟oving,鈥� about Richard and Mildred Loving (well played by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), the husband and wife who fought for nine years for the right to live as a family in their Virginia hometown and whose marriage led to the 1967 Supreme Court decision affirming the foundation of the right to marry. Nichols tends to understate to a fault the story鈥檚 dramatic high points, which means the film is sometimes more admirable for what it doesn鈥檛 do than for what it does. He may be saving his big guns for his next movie, a remake of the 1988 sci-fi shocker 鈥淎lien Nation,鈥� which looks to be about as far removed from 鈥淟oving鈥� as you can get 鈥� unless of course he鈥檚 planning to feature a fraught alien romance.

Perhaps my two favorite films in Toronto 鈥� of the 30-plus I have seen 鈥� were romances. 鈥淭ramps,鈥� the second feature from the gifted young writer-director Adam Leon 鈥� whose first film was 2012鈥檚 鈥淕imme the Loot鈥� 鈥� is a micro-budget charmer about two teenagers, played with real delicacy by Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten, who are thrown together as accomplices in a scam gone awry. It鈥檚 one of the few movies I鈥檝e seen in a while in which the burgeoning attraction between its characters doesn鈥檛 look as if it emanated from screenwriting software.

But the big romantic movie here, and one that has been praised virtually unanimously 鈥� a rarity at any festival, where spoilsports are always rampant 鈥� is Damien Chazelle鈥檚 鈥淟a La Land,鈥� a swoon of a musical that is comparable, in tone and achievement, to Jacques Demy鈥檚 transcendent 鈥淭he Umbrellas of Cherbourg.鈥� Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone costar in this Cinemascope fantasia about a jazz pianist and a struggling actress who meet cute on the traffic-jammed Los Angeles freeways and move through a relationship that is so airy and spirited that it takes a while to realize the film is more than just fun froth. It captures, by the end, a melancholy that is wrenchingly poignant.聽

I also liked, though not as unequivocally, Kenneth Lonergan鈥檚 鈥淢anchester by the Sea,鈥� starring Casey Affleck as a Boston janitor who, after his brother鈥檚 demise, is unexpectedly appointed sole guardian of his teenage nephew (played by Lucas Hedges). Lonergan writes some of the best dialogue around, and he plays out family entanglements, sometimes too calculatedly, with the full range of emotional highs and lows. The audience was laughing, perhaps out of self-preservation, far more than it was crying. Lonergan is a prime advocate for laughing through tears.聽

As usual, good performances got me through many a middling movie, foremost among them being the work of Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Spall in 鈥淒enial,鈥� about the lawsuit brought against Holocaust-denying British historian David Irving. Also Sally Hawkins as a disabled outsider in 鈥淢audie鈥�; Michael Shannon as an ailing lawman in the arty, scabrous 鈥淣octurnal Animals鈥�; and Dakota Fanning as the Weather Underground-style bomber in Ewan McGregor鈥檚 bland adaptation of Philip Roth鈥檚 鈥淎merican Pastoral.鈥�

Of the socially conscious documentaries, the most high-profile is 鈥淏efore the Flood,鈥� featuring Leonardo DiCaprio trooping around the world bearing the bad news about climate change. He interviews President Obama and even has an audience with Pope Francis, who looks somewhat flummoxed by the encounter. (Did he see 鈥淭itanic?鈥�)

No Toronto festival would be complete without a Terrence Malick movie, now that he鈥檚 making them more regularly. But Malick has gone from being a personal filmmaker to a private one and 鈥淰oyage of Time: Life鈥檚 Journey鈥� would perhaps be best understood by those in an 鈥� how should I put it? 鈥� altered state. It鈥檚 his meditation on time, but all I could see was bursting nebulae, squiggly protoplasms, roiling cloud formations, and the occasional CGI dinosaur, with a deep-think voice-over intoned by Cate Blanchett. (The shorter IMAX version had Brad Pitt doing the honors. Go figure.)

With all the celebrities thronging Toronto, the person I found the most endearing was Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a teenager who is the subject of the fascinating documentary 鈥淭he Eagle Huntress.鈥� The first female in 12 generations of her family to become an eagle hunter, she showed up, all smiles in the heat, in full, heavy folk costume. When I asked her what her biggest thrill in touring with the film was, she answered, through an interpreter, 鈥淢eeting Clint Eastwood!鈥� I guess there鈥檚 no escaping Hollywood 鈥� even in the farthest reaches of Mongolia.