海角大神

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which wraps up its 10-day run Sept. 16, showcases 342 films, including features and shorts. I saw a goodly 20 of them, sometimes four per day. I鈥檓 not boasting. Some of my more intrepid colleagues saw five and six a day. And that includes midnight movies. Good luck with that.

This was the first Toronto festival of the #MeToo era, and its influence was everywhere. All official attendees were handed cards titled 鈥淪afety & Respect at TIFF鈥� in which a 鈥渇air and equitable鈥� code of conduct was laid out, with a phone number and website to confidentially report wrongdoing. The festival also announced it will make public the gender and race of all members of its selection committee, programmers, and consultants. It was reported that about 36 percent of the 342 movies in the festival were directed by women, up 3 percent from last year.

On Sept. 8, hundreds of women and men assembled downtown for the Share Her Journey Rally to protest the low representation of women filmmakers in the entertainment industry. It was noted that 4 percent of directors of the top films from 2007 through 2017 were female. A documentary about gender inequality in Hollywood called "This Changes Everything" was screened. In it, Natalie Portman says, 鈥淚鈥檝e worked with two female directors on features, and one is myself.鈥�

Politically themed movies were also a fixture of the festival, many of them documentaries. Errol Morris鈥檚 "American Dharma" focused, some complained too nonconfrontationally, on political consultant Steve Bannon; Werner Herzog鈥檚 "Meeting Gorbach"ev is a genial sit-down with the former Soviet president; "Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes" is a devastating look at the late Fox News chairman and chief executive officer, all the more so for being, well, fair and balanced. The jokey title of Michael Moore鈥檚 "Fahrenheit 11/9" refers to Nov. 9, 2016, the day after Donald Trump was elected president 鈥� and the film is the usual Moore mashup of screed and scandal.

It鈥檚 best when it deals with the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich., and other predominantly black cities, in which, in 2014, under the aegis of Michigan鈥檚 Republican governor and Trump crony Rick Snyder, Flint鈥檚 water supply was switched from the clean Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River, poisoning thousands of adults and children. But this outrage began under the Obama administration, and Moore flays him as well. (We see Barack Obama arriving in Flint and taking a drink of water as he tells a huge crowd that the water is now safe. A close-up of his glass reveals he barely took a sip).

But Moore has a penchant for undermining his own best intentions: When he shows us newsreels of Hitler speechifying and inserts Trump鈥檚 verbiage, whose cause is he really serving? (Seeing Frederick Wiseman鈥檚 fine documentary "Monrovia, Indiana" right after the Moore film was like a palate cleanser. Wiseman is the least coercive of directors).

I was also witness to a live 鈥減olitical鈥� event: At a post-screening party for the movie about astronaut "Neil Armstrong, First Man," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an accomplished amateur boxer, was asked by an American journalist if he would please 鈥� please 鈥� step into the ring with Trump. Trudeau was quick to answer: 鈥淚鈥檝e retired.鈥�

And what of 鈥淔irst Man鈥�? I saw it on the outskirts of Toronto in a stadium-sized IMAX theater 鈥� the first ever built 鈥� and the experience was, if nothing else, immersive. Damien Chazelle鈥檚 first movie since 鈥淟a La Land鈥� stars Ryan Gosling (he鈥檚 Canadian!) as Armstrong, and the movie is best when it鈥檚 literally flying high. The ground-level domestic drama is less compelling, and Gosling seems so intent on playing down the heroics that at times he comes across as near-catatonic. But Armstrong鈥檚 two sons were in attendance and endorsed the film. Said Mark Armstrong,鈥� I鈥檓 here to tell you they got it right.鈥�
鈥楽tar is Born鈥� impresses 鈥� for awhile

The other big hoo-ha at the festival was "A Star is Born," the fourth filmed iteration of that classic chestnut about a male star hitting bottom as his lady love hits the heights. Bradley Cooper, who also debuts as a director, stars as a down-and-out rocker, and Lady Gaga is his singer paramour. Both are impressive, and the first hour or so, a high-style swirl of romance and performance, is more than that. It should not come as any surprise that Lady Gaga (real name: Stefani Germanotta) is a good actor: Singer-performers often are (Frank Sinatra, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, etc.). But the relentless downward spiral of this old-style story, even in its new-style trappings, becomes wearying.

Speaking at a press conference for the film, Lady Gaga, connecting to her own experience, said, 鈥� I think that fame is very unnatural.... And the truth is, people think that we change, but it鈥檚 not us that changes 鈥� it鈥檚 everyone around us that changes.鈥�

A slew of major directors, as usual, was represented in Toronto, but I was not alone in thinking, as the days wore on, that a towering masterpiece was not in the offing. Lots of movies had terrific passages, but the best movie I鈥檝e seen here, front to back, is Alfonso Cuar贸n鈥檚 semi-autobiographical "Roma," shot entirely in black and white and set in the early 1970s in the middle-class Roma district of Mexico City. The film focuses not only on a well-to-do family but equally on the nanny (played by non-actress Yalitza Aparicio) who lives with them and cares for the children.

It鈥檚 beautifully felt, but because the action is almost always filmed in medium shot, utilizing long, slow pans, I often felt oddly abstracted from the characters. Cuar贸n has had an astonishingly versatile career 鈥� among other films, 鈥淎 Little Princess,鈥� 鈥淵 Tu Mam谩 Tambi茅n,鈥� 鈥淐hildren of Men,鈥� 鈥淗arry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,鈥� 鈥淕ravity鈥� 鈥� but clearly this is his most personal movie and one that at its best draws closely on the plangent, humane neo-realist tradition of the Italian director Vittorio De Sica in such films as 鈥淭he Bicycle Thief鈥� and 鈥淯mberto D.鈥�

鈥淚 wanted to look into the past from the standpoint of the present,鈥� Cuar贸n said in a post-screening interview. 鈥淚 wanted to come to terms with the women, the country that formed me.鈥�

Another semi-autobiographical black-and-white opus was "Cold War," from the Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, whose 鈥淚da鈥� won the Oscar for best foreign language film. It gets my vote here for best first half of a movie, but, in its depiction of a romance gone to pieces in the cold war 1950s, it unravels along with the relationship.

Mike Leigh was represented at the festival by "Peterloo," a sprawling, uneven epic about the Peterloo massacre of Aug. 16, 1819, in which 60,000 people demonstrating peacefully for electoral reform in Manchester, England, were brutally set upon by the king鈥檚 forces. It takes a while to get going but, as is often true with Leigh鈥檚 period films (鈥淭opsy-Turvy,鈥� 鈥淢r. Turner鈥�), you feel as if you鈥檝e been airlifted into the past. It鈥檚 not just the costumes and sets in this film that are in period. It鈥檚 the faces.

"If Beale Street Could Talk," Barry Jenkins鈥檚 highly anticipated follow-up to 鈥淢oonlight,鈥� extends that film鈥檚 almost trancelike stylistics in this adaptation of James Baldwin鈥檚 1974 novel about a young black couple where the man has been falsely charged with rape. Jenkins is essentially a director of moods, and his films, as touching as they often are, have a tendency to drift off into the ozone. He etherealizes experience.

With all this heavy-duty seriousness on the screen, I welcomed the regular clamor of the ever-present fans in the street. Bar none, this city has the friendliest fans of any festival I鈥檝e ever attended.

Aside from some of the movies, of course, my favorite takeaway from Toronto came just before a gala screening of "Outlaw King," a Scottish period piece, heavy on the mud and the chain mail, starring Chris Pine. Two young Asian girls, standing just behind the barricades, held up a sign that read 鈥淧ine Nuts.鈥�

They looked ecstatically happy.