The Tracey Fragments

Today was likely my last of many films I caught at TIFF, The Tracey Fragments starring Ellen Page. The film tells the tale of Tracey Berkowitz, played by Page, a disturbed 15 year-old that goes through hell and back. The way in which it’s presented to audience is the real brilliant part of this film. It’s a technical masterpiece, with each scene shown broken many pieces, showing different perspectives, characters, and moments in time that really has to be seen to be believed (see sample above).

Think 24’s split-screen action/narrative sequences “on acid”, as director McDonald was fond of mentioning before and after the screening during the Q&A. What’s even better? McDonald announced after the film that they’d be releasing the entire film on The Tracey Fragments site as part of a Creative Commons re-mixing initiative to see if you can do a better job of mixing and mashing the movie’s sequences together than its very talented editors.

The filmmakers will be announcing a contest soon to encourage people to start remixing, but in the mean time, you can grab the video yourself in four 4-5GB torrents and get started.

September 14, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

TIFF’ing the Week Away

This being my first year actually attending any films at TIFF, I’m really hyped about some I have seen and am scheduled to see in the coming week. Here’s a synopsis of what I’ve seen so far, and what I have yet to see.

What I’ve seen:

Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge
A very charming story starring Juliette Binoche (was in Caché, Chocolat, and The English Patient) with a very sincere feel to it — a lot of heart. I really enjoyed this one and the Q&A with Binoche was one of the best parts, where she revealed that every scene (each 10 minutes in length, much longer than the traditional movie) was done in only one take, and the actors were given very little direction throughout.

This made the film a really touching experience where, as Binoche said right, the audience is given time to reflect and connect with the characters throughout each scene instead of being led by the hand through them.

The King of the Hill
I had no idea what to expect going into this, which usually results in me being pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I felt that this film dropped the ball big time. It had an interesting concept, but ultimately it didn’t really go anywhere. The Q&A with the director after the film revealed a lot either about how the film was mis-managed, or how it was ill-conceived to begin with.

I loved the way it was shot and produced; It was a beautiful film. I just felt they could have done a lot more with the story and didn’t need to resort to lame media clichés as an excuse for the antagonists’ actions.

Breakfast with Scot
This film has been getting a ton of press in Toronto because of the connection with the Leafs, and I think it’s really well deserved. We managed to get in on the rush line for this, and there was a ton of demand for tickets at the theatre. Granted, the story took some very almost too predictable turns, but it was really nicely done and presented a topic that’s still very taboo in American society - two gay men raising a child, not to mention a (possibly) gay child in a way that appealed to a wide range of audiences.

This was also a problem, since as others noted, the connection between the men seemed almost watered down, kind of scaled back to the point of almost being restrained. I think they could have given audiences a bit more credit than they did. Is it really such a big deal to see two guys kissing in 2007?

In the line-up:

Monday: Une Vielle Maitresse
Tuesday: Blind
Friday: The Tracey Fragments

September 9, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment