TIFF Digest: Part 1
The Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing to check out some of this year's fine films! Without further ado, let's jump right into it.
Babygirl
From the director of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. Halina Reijn, comes her second directorial feature, and her writing feature debut, Babygirl. Starring Nicole Kidman as Romy, the big name tech CEO of a company building autonomous robots for warehousing, Babygirl explores the pleasure gap between men and women along with a litany of other sexually charged themes as Romy begins a fervent affair with an intern (Harris Dickinson) at her company. Starting off with a bang, the film opens with Romy and her husband Daniel (Antonion Banderas) engaging in what appears to be intensely pleasurable sex, resulting in what can only be interpreted as sensational climaxes for both parties. But as Daniel fades off to sleep, Romy scampers half naked to the living room to lay on the floor and finish the job while watching domination porn on her computer. Reijn's snappy, dialogue-less introduction to our central couple offers some fantastic introspection on who we're dealing with in Romy. Not only is she on top of Daniel during sex, signaling she's not just on top in the boardroom but also the bedroom, but she has an unquenched desire to not be in control.
Where Babygirl excels in deconstructing the premise of domination is in Romy's torrid affair with Samuel (Dickinson) after he shows a sheer lack of interest in following the usual company rules. You show up, look professional and act professionally. Instead Samuel draws Romy's wandering eye by being abrupt, chaotic, and displaying a command over her in a way she can't easily explain. Following their rapid introduction, something I would've preferred to be a little more fleshed out to dive deeper into the emotion of it all, their affair skyrockets the tension of the film into the stratosphere. Romy's assistant Esme (Sophie Wilde) is anxiously awaiting a promotion, seeking an opportunity to help the company advance its initiatives for a stronger female workforce, finds herself in an advantageous position once uncovering Romy and Samuel's intimate affair. Instead of seeking to destroy Romy, taking her for all she's worth, Reijn makes a clever adjustment to the tired trope of blackmail in the corporate world to layer in themes of women in power. Esme doesn't want the promotion because she has some hot goss on Romy that could make her lose everything, that's not what she's after. The information she holds is merely a means to an end, an end that she has deserved from before Romy even met Samuel.
Kidman's performance is one of the most electric I've seen from her, and with her filmography that's really saying something. She's intense, vulnerable, powerful, and poised all in one incredibly focused performance that sees her going to places we rarely see. At times when Babygirl's dialogue gets increasingly clunky, forcing its way into sexuality as opposed to the smooth flow one would prefer, Kidman is there to elevate everything on screen. Not to mention, when Banderas is opposite her it is as cinematic a scene as you could want. Their chemistry and rapport is delicious, turning the tumultuous emotion around power dynamics, sex, fetishes, and everything in between into a wonderful war of words that left me in awe. Unfortunately, the conflict is resolved too quickly, and with the aforementioned introduction being much too brief you're left wanting more from this intriguing scenario.
The End
Critically acclaimed, and Oscar nominated documentary director Joshua Oppenheimer doesn't just dip his toes into fiction filmmaking, but dives head first with his fiction feature debut, The End. The golden age themed musical centers on an affluent white family living out the end of humankind in their stylishly gaudy bunker buried deep in salt mines. At the center of the whole story is the son, George MacKay who seems to be pulled into the various worlds, or imaginations of his father (Michael Shannon) and mother (Tilda Swinton). Shannon's character worked in the energy industry and is constantly insinuating his role in some event that started the end of mankind, while Swinton's mother is forgetful, aloof, and downright strange. Oppenheimer's main goal is to evoke the idea of a rich white family that's at the very least partially responsible for the end of the world avoiding any sort of confrontation with responsibility. Shannon's character is going so far as to have his son write his memoir but reshaping the history itself to make him seem innocent if not a hero of sorts. The End does a decent enough job laying the groundwork for this idea, but fails to drill any deeper into the salty Earth to make any lasting comments on it. Not to mention it branches out into so many different themes, it can't possibly reach a satisfying conclusion for any of them. One of the most potent being how survivors view their survival. Are you doing your part to preserve mankind by simply surviving, or did you fail by not saving more people? These dark topics are juxtaposed with cheery orchestral numbers, and admirable singing from MacKay, Shannon and Swinton, but the songs aren't distinguishable from one another, causing them to bleed together into one elongated mess of noise.
In the end, pun intended, it's clear that Oppenheimer has a lot of great ideas, he just might be bursting at the seams, but none of them are explored deep or well enough to be impactful. The End is one of those films that is jammed with themes, ripe for exquisite cinema, but ultimately says nothing.
On Swift Horses
An adaptation of Shannon Pufahl's novel, On Swift Horses boasts a star studded cast (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter) that examines the romantic inclinations of people that play it safe, or risk it all. Newlyweds, Lee (Poulter) and Muriel (Edgar-Jones), live in Kansas on Muriel's family property, but when Lee's brother Julius (Elordi) returns from the Korean war they all decide to take different paths in life. Initially all agreeing to meet in San Diego, Lee and Muriel start their life there while Julius makes a few pit stops including one elongated stay in Las Vegas where his deft poker ability, including some cheating, begins to take hold. Relying on the focal couple, Lee and Muriel, On Swift Horses hinges on the emotional connection to them while Muriel and Julius hide secrets, and gamble in their own ways-- Muriel bets on horses while Julius plays poker but both explore different sexual paths as well. Unfortunately, Poulter and Edgar-Jones have no chemistry, and their clunky, unsatisfying dialogue prevent us from having any real care for them as a couple. Which of course, makes any sort of tension revolving around Muriel and Julius, or Muriel and their neighbor Sandra (Sacha Calle) nonexistent. Muriel and Lee are this picture perfect model American couple that live in a literal model house, while the houses built around them are empty husks of support beams and nothing else, establishing a colorful commentary on LGBTQ rights and representation in the 50's. But the film doesn't expand upon much of that, in fact without the chemistry of the core couple to raise the stakes the same-sex affairs of Muriel and Julius feel just like those hollow structures, empty and inconsequential. That being said, the film somehow turned a complete 180 and ended with one of the most satisfying conclusions given how bland the journey had been up to that point. Muriel's independence and adherence to her family's history along with Julius literally riding off into the sunset like a Western hero are the perfect ending for their characters, I just wish that everything leading up to it was as rewarding.
