TORONTO ‘08 | “Still Walking,” “Goodbye Solo,” “The Wrestler” Tops With TIFF Critics, Bloggers by Eugene Hernandez (September 15, 2008)
A scene from Hirokazu Kore-Eda's "Still Walking." Image courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Hirokazu Kore-Eda‘s “Still Walking,” from Japan, was selected as the best film at the Toronto International Film Festival in a poll of film critics and bloggers conducted this weekend by indieWIRE. The story of a family coming together on the anniversary of a son’s passing, the film is Kore-Eda’s latest after the acclaimed “Nobody Knows.” “Still Walking” edged out Ramin Bahrani‘s “Goodbye Solo” and Darren Aronofsky‘s “The Wrestler,” two new American films produced and financed independently. More than 30 writers - ranging from AO Scott and Roger Ebert to B Ruby Rich and Karina Longworth, were surveyed. The group singled out “The Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke as the best actor by wide margin, while Agnes Varda‘s “Les Plages d’Agnes” was chosen as the best documentary at the festival. While Kore-Eda’s acclaimed “Still Walking” and Bahrani’s “Goodbye Solo” remained without U.S. distribution as the festival came to a close, Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last week, was acquired by Fox Searchlight hours after buyers got their first look at the film in Toronto. The list of eight films that round out the top ten were not far behind the two leaders. They include Claire Denis’ latest, “35 Rhums,” Olivier Assayas‘s “Summer Hours,” Kathryn Bigelow‘s “The Hurt Locker,” and So Yong Kim‘s “Treeless Mountain.” In comments about the festival and its films, critics and bloggers offered often contradictory assessments. “Great year,” noted blogger and festival programmer Tom Hall, noting, “This festival is best when it gives voice to the smaller films, the quality movies, and there were a TON of really good movies at Toronto. I saw over 30 films - and liked 90% of what I saw.” Continuing, he added, “It’s now clear that the market can no longer be considered an accurate judge if the festival’s quality; there is great work that may not be purchased, but the programming was some of the best I’ve seen at the fest.”
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I beg to differ, re: “The Hurt Locker”... http://blogs.indiewire.com/anthony/archives/018494.html