TIFF Picks: Thursday, September 14

As seen in Metro -- and let's see if Blogger lets me publish this one before mid-afternoon!

(Stupid Blogger.)

"Sur La Trace d'Igor Rizzi"

Laurent Lucas turns off his charisma entirely to play a washed-up French footballer who spends his days knocking around Montreal, where his dead girlfriend used to live. It’s a lovely, romantic gesture, but the pay is terrible, so he’s just taken a gig as a hitman, despite having absolutely no idea how to kill people. Everyone’s comparing Noël Mitrani’s deadpan debut to the work of Finnish absurdist (and festival favorite) Aki Kaurismäki, and the guy’s certainly an influence, but Mirtani finds his own distinctive style when it matters the most.
10:15 am at the Paramount 3

"In Between Days"

So Yong Kim’s prize-winning Sundance study of a young woman (Jiseon Kim) drifting aimlessly through what should be her college years arrives in Toronto with surprisingly little fanfare, considering it’s set in and around our fair city. (Some of it takes place just a few blocks west of TIFF central, on Bloor Street's Korean strip.) But even without the local connection, But this is the exactly kind of delicate, observational work a festival exists to promote – an intimate, decidedly lo-fi gem that says a lot more through silence than it does through dialogue.
8:30 pm at the Paramount 3; repeats Friday, 9 am at the Royal Ontario Museum

Also worthwhile:

"Thicker Than Water"
2:45 pm at the Cumberland 1; repeats Friday, 2:30 pm at the Varsity 5.

"The Harder They Come"
3 pm at the Al Green Theatre.

"The Session is Open"
4:45 pm at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

"King and the Clown"
6 pm at the Varsity 4.

"Requiem"
9:30 pm at the Varsity 2.

Technorati tags: Movies, Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF