Hello Most Metro,

Things are winding down at TIFF. I’ve seen 28 films so far, and I have 1.25 days left. Today seemed like a “minor” day. Nothing extraordinary…but lots of tear to start off the day.

DADS, a sweet documentary, was my first film of the day. “Director Bryce Dallas Howard teams up with her father, Ron Howard, to explore contemporary fatherhood through anecdotes and wisdom from famous funnymen such as Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris, and more.” (taken from TIFF catalog) This little film has a fantastic opening sequence – it’s funny, poignant, inclusive, and provokes reflection and introspection and brought me to tears right off the bat. There’s a lot to love about this little film, but it does lose some steam in the third act. (Am I getting old and tired, or do more and more films need recuts?) There is a lot of priceless material here, and the topic is valuable.

COMING HOME AGAIN was my next film. “A Korean American man cares for his ailing mother while trying to master her traditional cooking in the latest from Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club), based on Chang-rae Lee’s New Yorker short story.” (taken from TIFF catalog) This film starts out in a languid manner – lots of lingering shots without much happening (except everything is happening). A young man is caring for his mother who is dying of stomach Cancer, and the days stretch on with little happening – thus the pace. But eventually some old wounds start to surface, and some additional players enter the scene – and the performances are not of the same caliber. In the last 25 minutes, I felt like the film went off its quiet rails and not at all in a good way. I don’t see much box office life for this one.

LYREBIRD, my last film of the day, just got picked up by Sony Classics. “In Dan Friedkin’s directorial debut, a soldier and member of the Dutch resistance (Claes Bang) investigates stolen art in the wake of the Second World War, including a Vermeer sold to the Nazis by a flamboyant painter (Guy Pearce).” (taken from TIFF catalog) Based on a true story, this movie goes big (at least the score and some of the performances do) and the audience seemed to like it. The mystery at the first act’s core was an easy solve, and the movie changes genres a couple times. Though there were aspects of the story I appreciated, my final response was more of a shoulder shrug.