PantsWorthy: TIFF 2019
Sammy Younan
Girth Radio Presents…
One of the more puzzling aspects of a film festival—most film festivals—is that the present project is what gets celebrated. The present is the focus. Kevin Smith got Clerks into Sundance which is a great accomplishment. However the present only creates potential. It is the follow up…that matters: the relationship with the festival and now the relationship with the audience grows out of that potential. In music one hit wonders are fine and fun they do not in any way shape or form suggest a career or a body of work.
And it is ultimately the body of work that remains valuable. The critics and the film festivals, the box office records (positive or worse negative…) all fade away. All that remains…all that will ever remain is The Work. So it’s distressing to see just how vapid entertainment media continues to be…like do red carpet interviews offer any nutritional value?
Welcome to TIFF 2019 Toronto’s annual tradition of road closures, overkill and hype, the pile of celebrities oh and even movies. Movies…oh yeah. TIFF runs from September 5 to September 15, 2019.
And here are some PantsWorthy Movie Recommendations! (It sucks some of em don’t have trailers…I did what I could…)
A Hidden Life
TIFF Screenings
“The conscience of a pious Austrian farmer is severely tested as war blankets Europe and Nazi ideology spreads, in this enveloping, spiritual epic from master Terrence Malick.” Did you see Tree of Life? I feel like I am 1 of 10 people who did…and like 1 out of the 5 of those 10 who super enjoyed it. Trailers don’t do Terrence Malick’s work justice. (In theaters December 13, 2019)
Why Is It Worth Pants? Director Terrence Malick!
Citizen K
TIFF Screenings
“This latest film from Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) considers the strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky — once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia — who rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely martyr for the anti-Putin movement.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? Because the media talks about Putin a lot but doesn’t say anything valuable.
The Vast of Night
TIFF Screenings
“In the twilight of the 1950s, two youths seek the source of a mysterious frequency that has descended upon a town in New Mexico, in Andrew Patterson’s pitch-perfect sci-fi thriller.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? The Vast of the Night is being hailed as a Rod Serling tribute…bit heady but I wanna see this.
Sea Fever
TIFF Screenings
“A bizarre creature hitches a ride on a departing trawler, in this masterful genre film from Irish filmmaker Neasa Hardiman that leverages the mysteries of the sea to amplify the potential horrors of the unknown.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? Dougray Scott was gonna be Wolverine but ended up in Mission Impossible II. What could have been…
Elm el-Wosool
TIFF Screenings
“A new mother struggles with parenthood, adjusting to life with an imprisoned husband, and her own mental health, in Hisham Saqr’s delicate debut feature.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? It’s from Egypt…see something made outside America!
This Is Not a Movie
TIFF Screenings
“The groundbreaking and often game-changing reporting of legendary foreign correspondent and author Robert Fisk is profiled in the latest from acclaimed documentarian Yung Chang.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? Robert Fisk is a GOAT! journalist
David Foster: Off the Record
TIFF Screenings
“A revealing and personal profile of Grammy Award–winning composer and producer David Foster, with interviews from the artists who know the music legend best, including Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, and Michael Bublé.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? We just got a Rick Rubin documentary and a Quincy Jones documentary…here’s the latest superstar producer.
Desert One
TIFF Screenings
Using new archival sources and unprecedented access to key players on both sides, master documentarian Barbara Kopple reveals the true story behind one of the most daring rescues in modern US history: a secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Why Is It Worth Pants? While the documentary subject matter isn’t compelling this is from the filmmaker that gave us Miss Sharon Jones!
Letter to the Editor
TIFF Screenings
Independent filmmaker Alan Berliner considers the power of photography and what may be lost as daily newspapers face extinction, in this documentary exploring his near-lifelong obsession with clipping and indexing photos.
Why Is It Worth Pants? Progress is determining if what we’ve gained is better than what we lost.
The Kingmaker
TIFF Screenings
Acclaimed documentarian Lauren Greenfield aims her lens at Filipino politician and former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who, despite disgrace, remains unbowed and enmeshed in her nation’s politics.
Why Is It Worth Pants? It’s Lauren Greenfield!!
Color Out of Space
TIFF Screenings
“In director Richard Stanley’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic horror short story, a meteor falls to earth and lands on the property of a New England family — its increasingly unhinged patriarch played by the one-and-only Nicolas Cage — with insidious, delirious, and psychedelic results.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? It’s based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft
Guns Akimbo
TIFF Screenings
“A nerdy video game developer (Daniel Radcliffe) becomes the next contestant in an illegal live-streamed death match, in this hilariously dark, viciously violent, and chillingly prescient sci-fi thriller.”
Why Is It Worth Pants? Jason Lei Howden a visual effects artist has contributed visual effects to The Avengers), the Hobbit trilogy and War for the Planet of the Apes so he’s one of us!
