by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

It’s been a frenzied first few days in Toronto as I’ve watched more films in theaters in three days than I have in almost two years. Here are some highlights from the first half of TIFF ‘21. Part two coming soon!

Aloners

Written and directed by Hong Sung-eun
Starring Gong Seung-yeon, Jung Da-eun, Seo Hyun-woo, and Park Jeong-hak
Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes

First-time director Hong Sung-eun’s melancholy Aloners focuses on main character Yu Jina, a quietly sensitive call center representative for a credit card company in Seoul. She lives alone, technically, renting one room in a single-family apartment. We don’t see any of her “roommates” as they live their lives like Jina, silently alone in their rooms, a living arrangement that’s becoming more and more common in the city. She doesn’t appear to have friends and her family is sparse - her mother recently passed away and her relationship with her father is strained. Jina seems virtually all alone.

But at least she has her work. The top performer each month, she manages the highest number of calls, much to the chagrin of her fellow employees who she rarely utters a word to each mind-numbingly similar day. Jina is comfortable with leading a remote existence and as a result, doesn’t feel the need to truly connect with customers on the phone - she’s perfunctory, to the point, and knows just how to get through a call efficiently enough to move on to the next. But then two things converge at once in such a way to snap Jina out of her daily trance: her young next-door neighbor unexpectedly passes away; later, she’s asked to train a new hire at work, something she is loath to do. Jina slowly begins to realize that what she really fears is not being around people, but saying goodbye to people she loves. The film is punctuated by the loneliness surrounding her: her exasperated boss; her grieving father; the new employee, Park Sujin, who she struggles to train; her sad neighbor; the new person who’s taken over his apartment lease who tries to befriend Jina.

Aloners examines how the rise of technology can sometimes divide more than connect, and how one’s intention to live a life of solitude can unintentionally hurt those around them. Actress Gong Seung-yeon fully conveys the underlying sadness that seems to radiate from Jina’s very pores - she is fascinating to watch. Visually stark and quiet, the film helps the viewer experience Jina’s emotional distance from the bustling world of Seoul. We see little of what we might expect from such a congested city outside of a bus here and there, a few people on the street, a high-rise building. It’s all very isolating, and that is exactly the point. By the film’s end, Jina begins to make little changes, opening her eyes to what life could bring. Her awakening is lovely to behold, as is Aloners, and I’m excited for Hong Sung-eun’s filmmaking future.

Last Night in Soho

Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Edgar Wright
Starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg, and Matt Smith
Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes

During the first few excitable moments of Last Night in Soho, we’re introduced to adorable, wide-eyed Eloise (a wondrous and frenzied Thomasin McKenzie), a fashion school hopeful who’s obsessed with all things swinging London in the 1960s. But not Austin Powers - no, like the real stuff! Raised by her gran after her mother’s suicide, she soon gets the acceptance letter she’s hoping for, from a fashion school in London. Within minutes she’s on a train from Cornwall to the Big Smoke, innocently traipsing through King’s Cross to her new school in a cute outfit she made herself, only to find that her dorm roomie and fellow students, ugh, well, supremely suck. The mean girls, led by the insufferable Jocasta, don’t take kindly to Eloise’s quiet demeanor, lack of fortune, and overall “granny shit.” It’s a hard sell for me, really - uni’s (especially art schools) attract all kinds of students, not just snobby rich girls obsessed with crap luxury goods. In the real world, Ellie would eventually fall in with a crowd that accepted her as is. Anyway, it reminds me of the Honey Cutt song “Fashion School:”

Fashion school
You look so cool
And I just can’t, just can’t relate

Okay, Wright...we get that you need Ellie’s school life to become a living hell in order to propel the plot. Out of desperation, she rents a bedsit in a moody rowhome owned by the creaky Miss Collins (Diana Rigg in her final performance). But things go from bad to worse to downright frightful when her new home features some kind of ghostly, otherworldly portal to the ’60s, where each night Ellie follows the magnanimous Sandy (a glorious Anya Taylor-Joy) around Soho hotspots, in all her blonde splendor and cool, period-specific frocks. At first, it’s fun and games as Ellie watches, night after night, as Sandy attempts a singing career with the help of smooth talent manager Jack (Matt Smith, in yet another smarmy role). Jack’s idea of promoting Sandy isn’t exactly on the up and up, and soon Sandy becomes an unfortunate prostitute to Jack’s pimp. It’s a truly sad (yet one would imagine, quite common) situation, and at first, it feels like Wright is using the horror genre to address toxic masculinity and sexual assault. Later, as Ellie’s sanity quickly dissipates, the film veers into a meditation on mental health, or so it seems. Yeah nah, Last Night ends up saying very little.

There’s also the somewhat problematic nature of the sole Black character (played by Michael Ajoe), Ellie’s only friend, who seems to exist only in service of our white heroine, despite being put in some seriously trauma-inducing situations. I don’t think that was Wright’s intention, but it’s there, and it feels like an unfortunate oversight.

By the time we get to the final eye-roll-inducing plot twist, the script makes villains out of victims while sympathizing with the baddies. It’s a bit frustrating to watch and something that had me scratching my head long after the house lights came up. Wright has a well-known talent for creating good times vibes in his movies through lighting, cinematography, editing, and fun, carefully curated music. That’s certainly the case here, but by the end, Last Night spirals in so many different directions, the plot stretched so thin it feels a lot like Head Bitch in Charge Jocasta - pretty to look at but empty AF. I would have loved to see Wright edit himself a bit creatively, perhaps split all of his ideas into two distinct thrillers: one exploring white male dominance via the British 60’s backdrop and another that uses fashion school as a lens to dissect the horrors of mass consumerism. But sadly too much style with very little substance makes Soho a disappointing watch.

The Humans

Written and directed by Stephen Karam (based on his play)
Starring Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, Amy Schumer, Jayne Houdyshell, and June Squibb
Running time 1 hour 48 minutes

At the opening of The Humans, we’re treated to swirling angles of the New York City sky shot from below, buildings trapping the sky into unique shapes - an almost rectangle, an angled square, what appears to be a cross. Nico Muhly’s moody score creates a heightened sense of anticipation, an eerie feeling as we’re introduced to the Blake family, descending upon their younger daughter Brigid’s new Chinatown apartment she’s moved into with her sweet boyfriend, Richard.

The apartment itself isn’t physically new, only new to the couple. It’s Thanksgiving, and Brigid’s dad, Erik (the always solid Richard Jenkins) can’t stop fretting about the immense state of disrepair in their breathtakingly large Manhattan apartment. Walls crack and bubble, pipes rattle and leak, silver duct tape smears the toilet seat, entire tiles go missing in the kitchen. There’s trouble lurking in the enclosed courtyard that Erik can’t tear his worried gaze from, but there’s also trouble in his own home, which the film doesn’t reveal until the end.

Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) is a bit of a live-wire, shuttling around the apartment to help Richard but also to placate her family, of which she appears to feel removed. Sometimes her character comes across as self-centered, like when she pouts to her dad because he won’t pay for her therapy, or when she nervously plays her recent music piece that’s failed to garner any arts grants; other times she’s judgemental and nitpicky about her mother’s email forwards, the Mary statue she’s given as a housewarming gift, the food her mother chooses to eat. It’s the kind of overly-critical mother-daughter relationship that can be highly triggering for some (myself included). Older sister Aimee (a capable Amy Schumer) is a lawyer in Philadelphia (surprise! There are jokes about Philly in this) who’s having a bit of a tough time - she and her long-term girlfriend have recently broken up, she’s developed a chronic illness, and is on the verge of losing her job as a result. Mom Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell, who originated the role both on and off-Broadway) is back on Weight Watchers, but not today, ’cause it’s a holiday. When she’s not working the same job she’s had since she graduated from high school and complaining about her 20-ish-year-old managers, she volunteers her time in the community, a fact that prompts teasing from her two daughters. She also spends a lot of time taking care of Erik’s aging mother with Alzheimer’s, the incoherent Momo (June Squibb). As her daughters push her further and further away, it feels like Deidre is a woman who’s lost all sense of herself or at least lacks any control over her life.

And then there’s Richard (my fave, Steven Yeun), busily preparing the turkey in the kitchen, refilling everyone’s drinks, troubleshooting the (many) issues in their dysfunctional apartment. He’s a bit of an uncomplicated enigma - at 35, he’s finishing his graduate degree to become a social worker though it’s implied his inheritance, coming through in five years, means he may not end up working at all. It’s something that fascinates Erik, who wants to ask more questions much to Brigid’s consternation.

The Humans, on the surface, feels like just another film where not much happens beyond a white family convening over a holiday table to exorcise their collective demons. But with such a biting script and strong ensemble cast, it’s a little different. By the close of the film, the family splintered to various points in the building, Erik is transfixed by the intense activity in the apartment. It’s like the apartment is going to fall to pieces at any moment, or maybe it’s just reflecting Erik’s inner turmoil. However you interpret it, The Humans is a curious case study of struggling post-9/11 white America as the middle-class ideals of yesteryear continue to decay with each passing minute. This one might polarize some audiences but if you give it a chance, it’s a riveting watch.