If you haven’t seen Prince Avalanche yet, you should check it out. David Gordon Green has returned to small, weird indie dramas that are funny, or comedies that are a little serious, or however you want to classify them. I’m starting to think more and more that he is for weird comedy what Nicolas Winding Refn is for weird violence. They both seem to just go for things, whatever pops into their heads, and whatever amuses them or disturbs them or makes them feel something, and that can translate into total misses or it can turn into bizarre yet amazing cinematic experiences.
Joe stars Nicolas Cage and the kid from The Tree of Life and Mud. That’s all I know, and all I care to know, because those elements alone make it one of the festival films I absolutely need to see. Oh, it also looks like Cage has just the fiercest of beards.
There’s no shortage of movies to check out at TIFF 2013, to be sure. The programmers have outdone themselves in offering something for everyone—not just something, but many things, too many things for a single person to take in all on their own. Prioritizing and scheduling the films you want to see if you’re going to such a fan-friendly festival like TIFF is key, and almost an impossible pursuit. But that’s part of the fun. If nothing else, anything in the Midnight Madness field will be worth the price of admission. And beyond that, it’s just a fun time to be in Toronto.
