Thank you for leaving your homes, David Byrne tells the adoring crowd of New Yorkers whove showed up for his Broadway show American Utopia, a line that instantly transforms Spike Lees concert movie into a period piece. In a year when live music and theater-going are on the ropes, Lees film version of Byrnes combination rock-show-slash-performance-art-hootenannyshot in late 2019 and slated for broadcast this fall on HBOvibrates with wistful nostalgia. As the opening night selection of a film festival whose attendees mostly experienced it via their laptops or living-room flatscreens, American Utopia is savvy, but also a bit sad. Its vibrant, winning showmanship cant help but feel bittersweet.
Typically, the Toronto International Film Festival is a hive of industry and film-criticism activity; as a resident of the city whos covered TIFF for the past 20 years, Ive gotten used to late August and everything after as an epicenter of business, pleasure, and everything in between. Last year, I introduced my TIFF Ringer coverage by talking about how, nearly 50 years into its history, the organization was gamblingand mostly winningon trying to be all things to all people: a corporately-backed, public-facing celebration bringing together arthouse, grindhouse, and experimental fare under the sign of pop cultural diversity, all while still showing allegiance to the mainstream. Since the 90s, TIFFs desire to act as a launching pad for the Oscars has affected its in-house programming and media perception in equal measure.
In a normal year, the question in a piece like this would be which Toronto premieres had the look of movies that could go the distance on the awards circuit, or maybe which ones flying under the radar were worth seeking out. In 2020, the more pressing concern, on the ground and online, was whether or not there would even be a TIFF, or whether there should be, and if so, what would it look like, and why.
I havent had to leave my house to cover TIFF this year, although I could if I wanted to: The festival is holding a series of in-person screenings at its downtown headquarters and at drive-ins located around the city. But because the festivals entire programwith a couple of exceptions that Ill get to in a momenthas been available to critics via a smoothly functional digital cinema, it felt best to stay inside. (A note: With the exception of Tenet, the only movie Ive seen in public since February was a local drive-in screening of David Cronenbergs seminal sex-and-car-wrecks thriller Crash, which also happens to be the best depiction ever of Torontos concrete overpasses and automotive culture; imagine watching Jaws in a dinghy in Marthas Vineyard.)
To say that this overall setup has had its share of hiccups is an understatement. In the past few weeks, TIFF has come under fire on Twitter for problems ranging from its policy of geoblocking screenings to newly limited media accreditation to an edictsince reversedthat mask-wearing would be optional inside its theaters. In addition, the reduction in programming from over 200 movies to 50 has led to diminished excitementand expectationsabout the festivals impact and artistic mandate. In 2019, TIFF hosted the coming-out party (complete with Kevin Garnett) for Uncut Gems and facilitated heated debates about Joker; this year, with distributors unsure what to do with their wares (even more so after the seeming catastrophe of Tenets theatrical release) and Netflix withholding potential heavy hitters like David Finchers Mank from the festival circuit altogether, its become that much harder to capture a collective public imagination thatin another understatementhas other things on its mind.
As distraction tools go, American Utopia will do nicely. A spiritual sequel to 1984s epochal concert film Stop Making Sensea masterpiece of collaborative music-and-moviemaking directed by Jonathan Demme when he was truly feeling himselfAmerican Utopia finds ex-Talking Heads frontman Byrne in puckish, playful artiste mode, presiding over a troupe of identically suited singers and musicians whose choreographed moves and harmonies are captured by Lee with more cinematic dynamism than the recent film version of Hamilton. A comparison between the two productions is instructive: Where Lin-Manuel Mirandas Tony Awardwinning musical plays now as a relic of the Obama era, American Utopia, from its slyly ironic title on down, has been devised as a dispatch from Trumpland, with Byrne positioning himself as a figure of gentle, principled resistance. An alternate title could be Start Making Sensewalking onstage alone in the first sequence, Byrne tenderly cradles a replica of a human brain and marvels at the neurological miracle of conscious thought. Here is an area that needs attention, he sings, fingering the ersatz cerebellum. Here is a connection with the other side.
For those on the same side of Byrnes intellectual playfulness and progressive politics, American Utopia will seem like its reaching out; for anybody else, its overt, unapologetic appeals to liberal tolerancemost explicitly on the single Everybodys Coming to My House, with its message of inclusion and acceptancewill be just so much preaching to the choir. The matchup between Byrne and Lee is compelling insofar as theyre both masterful at inviting audiences to contemplate ideological issues. Its telling that Lee forgoes the aggressive alienation effects of a movie like Da 5 Bloods in order to serve his stars more benign vision. If American Utopia is a bit uneven and draggy toward the end, its because Lees direction, for all its skill, cant artificially elevate the source material. Its also telling that most of the best songs here are reprises from Stop Making Sense; write stuff as good as Once in a Lifetime and Burning Down the House and youll never live it down, even if youre a genius.
American Utopias greatest virtue is its open-heartedness, which is also, interestingly enough, its greatest flaw: While Byrne and Co. can be forgiven for not anticipating or integrating the precise psychic torment of COVID-19 into their guided tour of contemporary fears and anxieties, theres a cloying sense that the showand the filmis an attempt to put a happy face on an anguished moment. This is also a sticking point with TIFFs consensus critical hit Nomadland, Chlo Zhaos much-anticipatedand mostly impressivefollow-up to the acclaimed millennial Western The Rider, a mix of verit frontier mythology that marked the emergence of a beguiling new filmmaking talent. In The Rider, Zhao profiled a self-styled, 21st-century cowboy struggling, literally and figuratively, to get back in the saddle after a debilitating accident; the film was a work of fiction cast with real people (including taciturn star Brady Jandreau), serving simultaneously as a snapshot of the modern rodeo circuit and a model of a collaborative artistic process in which the storyteller takes her cues from her subjects.
Nomadland is also filled with non-actorsa charismatic gallery of itinerant Americans crisscrossing the Midwest in mobile homes, picking up seasonal work at resorts and warehouses before moving on to the next outpost. Theres material here for a rich, probing documentary about the relationship between rugged individualism and the comforts of community, as well as a critique of the social and economic conditions that leador forcepeople to get on the road. Zhaos journalistic curiosity and facility for location shooting (the lunar landscapes here are mostly in Nevada) are genuine strengths in this context. But theres another major figure in Nomadland whose presence supersedes Zhaos skillfully self-effacing direction: Frances McDormand, whose 60ish widow Fern gets foregrounded to the point that the movie feels like a star vehicle.
To clarify, this is not a bad thing: McDormand might be the best American actress of her eraand potentially on her way to a third Academy Award for her sterling work here. Shuffling purposefully on a bum knee through Zhaos gorgeous widescreen frames, Fern is a perpetual motion machine whose combination of gregarious friendliness and unorthodox awkwardness registers as real and lived-in; her desire to go it alone after the death of her husband (and the vaporization of their savings) evinces a strong will even while she struggles with the obscure, day-to-day logistics of living out of a van. But as good as McDormand is, shes also too iconic to ever disappear into the role, and while her recognizability doesnt keep Nomadland from hittings its marks as an absorbing realist drama, its hard to fully reconcile her presence with the people she bounces off of in a series of ambling vignettes. That goes double for David Strathairn, an excellent actor whose casting as a potential love interest additionally compromises the believability of the proceedings.
The bigger issue with Nomadland might be how benign it is. In her admirable attempt to rebut Trump-era stereotypes about American life and character, she ends up draining away some of the tension and live-wire emotion that could have made the movie extraordinary. At its heart, Nomadland is a road movie, but too many scenes feel stuck in neutralsubtle and delicate to the point of paralysis. It may not be necessary to compare an ascendant auteur like Zhao to a master like Kelly Reichardt, but even with its contemporary dateline, Nomadland lacks the urgencyand effective, hectoring despairof First Cow, which looks more and more like a fraught years most significant American film.
I would have liked to include thoughts on a few other titles that should join Nomadland on the short list of TIFF entries that could gain traction in whatever ends up comprising 2020s Oscar race, but the festival did not make them available to critics. Whether the exclusion of Francis Lees starry same-sex romance Ammonite (starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan) or Halle Berrys directorial debut Bruised from the digital cinema was done at the behest of distributors or as an extra caution against piracy is hard to say for sure, but the movies absence ends up propagating a feeling of imbalance in which some entriesi.e., ones with big stars and actual box office prospectsare deemed more valuable than the exemplars of national, ethnic, and stylistic diversity being showcased further on down the virtual bill.
With this in mindand noting in passing that neither of the two biggish-ticket movies by actors-turned-directors, Viggo Mortensens semi-autobiographical Falling and Regina Kings fact-based drama One Night in Miami, are strong enough to write about at lengthIll end by praising a movie thats not necessarily coming to a cinema (or streaming site) near you anytime soon, but which represents the sense of discovery thats kept me coming back to TIFF for half of my life. Shot in Budapest by the emerging Hungarian writer-director Lili Horvat, the ominously monikered Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time initially evokes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Arriving for a bridge-side rendezvous with a lover shed met in the United States, Mrta (the mesmerizing Natasa Stork) is bewildered and disturbed to learn that he doesnt remember her. The man doesnt seem to be lying, and as he speaks, Mrtas relationship to reality splinters on impact; as he hurries off to work, she faints dead away.
One way to look at Horvats bizarre and challenging feature is as a story that unfolds in the dazed, semiconscious aftermath of Mrtas swoon. Plenty of movies get described as dreamlike, but Preparations has an uncanny, subconscious logic to ita menacing, immersive sensation of drift from scene to scene and mystery to mystery. The vagaries of the human brain are on display: to Byrnes Hamlet pose in American Utopia, we can add scenes of exposed craniums, gorily clinical operating-room footage that doubles down on the theme of inner worlds being exposed. Mrta and her not-boyfriend Jnos (Viktor Bod) are both doctors specializing in brain surgery, and the characters mutual expertise in the synaptic functions of others is juxtaposed against their uncertainty in each others presence; a scene in which Mrta stalks Jnos down the street (shades of Vertigo) before their physical movements inexplicably sync together transfers their disorientation onto the audience. There are movies that are confusing because their makers dont know what theyre doing, and ones that are confusing because they doPreparations belongs proudly in the second category. Long after my memories of this socially-distanced, WiFi-dependent TIFF have evaporated, Horvats exquisite enigmas will still be on my mind.
Adam Nayman is a film critic, teacher, and author based in Toronto; his book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is available now from Abrams.
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Highlights From a Surreal, Remote Toronto International Film Festival - The Ringer
- Travel & Resources: HONG KONG - Gay Asia and... - Utopia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- DELHI / NEW DELHI: Massage and Spas - Utopia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Utopia (book) - Wikipedia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Who is authorized to bind your family business to contracts? - Lexology (registration) - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Meanwhile in Canada Things Are Just as Bad - New York Times - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Stellaris: Utopia expansion lets you craft megastructural ringworlds - PC Gamer - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- JME Will Play Himself In A New Movie About A Vegan Utopia - The FADER - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'Stellaris' Utopia DLC Gets First Trailer; Will Introduce New Buildings And Perks - iDigitalTimes.com - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Utopia Pipeline project to bring 300 temporary jobs to New Philadelphia - New Philadelphia Times Reporter - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- With violin in hand, Mark Menzies finds hope for the future in the past - Los Angeles Times - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- The village aiming to create a white utopia - BBC News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Brooklyn's A/D/O Co-Working Space Is Building a Utopia for Creatives of All Kinds - Artsy - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Revolution: Russian Art review from utopia to the gulag, via teacups - The Guardian - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- A notable show BAMPFA's 'Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia' - Berkeleyside - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- In praise of utopias, not dystopias: Salutin - Toronto Star - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- British Airways Concorde 'Alpha Foxtrot' Arrives at New Bristol Home - AirlineGeeks.com (blog) - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- The Bannon-Trump Arc of History | The American Spectator - American Spectator - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Plotting 'No-Place' in 'Utopia Neighborhood Club' - Seattle Weekly - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Bruno Ganz on New Film About Last Days of East Germany: 'This Is a Subject That Will Never Let Me Go' - Variety - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Utopia releases its next version of master data governance solution for enterprise asset management - SDTimes.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Drought-crazed utopia flushes away common sense - NewHampshire.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- New Barbarians: Inside Rolling Stones' Wild Seventies Spin-Off - RollingStone.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Katy Perry's New Music Video Might Just Be Her WILDEST Yet - TeenVogue.com - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Lenkom Theater: From Soviet utopia to post-modern dystopia - Russia Beyond the Headlines - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Utopia Opera Presents THE GRAND DUKE, 3/3-3/11 - Broadway World - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Chuck Huckelberry: Pima County sees the world as it is - Arizona Daily Star - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Mardi Gras brings on the fun - Tullahoma News and Guardian - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Anglea Henderson-Bentley: New take on Jack the Ripper an idea whose 'Time' has come - Huntington Herald Dispatch - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Knowledge can fight ignorance: New speakers series will shed light on Yemen - Detroit Metro Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Utopian sci-fi survival horror game, PAMELA, enters Steam Early Access on March 9th New Screenshots - DSOGaming (blog) - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Reese Witherspoon on New Zealand: 'You can't capture it in pictures' - Newshub - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- $168000 headphones to go on display - The New Paper - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- A peek inside the Downtown Project with Aimee Groth - Las Vegas Review-Journal - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Utopia is coming, with a basic income for all - The Times (subscription) - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Government shakeups and political unrest are coming to Stellaris in its Utopia expansion - PCGamesN - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- The board hoard: your guide to the best new board games - The Guardian - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Tempted To Move Out Of The U.S.? New Zealand Wants To Help ... - Forbes - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- New Utopia | Prometheism.net - Part 4 - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Utopia expansion for Stellaris coming in April, new trailer - PC Invasion - PC Invasion (blog) - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- THE SOUND OF MUSIC to Welcome New 'Georg von Trapp' on Tour in Hershey - Broadway World - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- At BAMPFA, 'Hippie Modernism' Proves the Fight for Utopia is Far from Over - KQED - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Watch brutal Xenomorph attack in new 'Alien: Covenant' trailer - CNET - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Stellaris: Utopia Path to Ascension release date trailer - Gameplanet - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Utopia Frozen Yogurt and Coffee House | Ellensburg, WA - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Stellaris Utopia Gameplay Expansion Out In April - Attack of the Fanboy - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Dr. John to headline Utopia Fest in final year at Four Sisters Ranch ... - austin360 (blog) - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- JUSTIN JOHNSON: It's a TRAP! - SCNow - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Want utopia? Start with universal basic income and a 15-hour work week - Wired.co.uk - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Extreme Channel 4 reality challenge Mutiny makes its sailors suffer - iNews - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Rutger Bregman: 'We could cut the working week by a third' - The Guardian - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- March 4, 2017 - EDP Foundation - Utopia/Dystopia / Hctor Zamora: Order and Progress - E-Flux - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Utopia for Realists and How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman ... - The Guardian - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- A taste of 'Utopia' - Otago Daily Times - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Father John Misty references Taylor Swift in new song, 'Total Entertainment Forever' - EW.com - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- 'Time After Time' delivers Jack the Ripper to modern-day New York - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Father John Misty Explained The Taylor Swift Sex Line In 'Total Entertainment Forever' - UPROXX - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Why everyone hates the GOP's new health plan - The Week Magazine - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Hello Cuba, Adios Utopia: Cuban Art in Texas - Observer - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Why Canada will come to regret its embrace of refugees - New York Post - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Utopia in the Time of Trump - lareviewofbooks - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Whole of It: 'Free Cake at the Top' - Scottsbluff Star Herald - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Portugal's MAAT could become the world's most exciting venue for art and architecture - The Architect's Newspaper - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Stellaris Utopia DLC Review - Paradox's spacefaring grand strategy ... - PC Invasion (blog) - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- The post-Brexit fantasy of a utopia of flammable sofas - New Statesman - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Why Open Borders Would Strengthen Our Economy | The Huffington ... - Huffington Post - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Best of the Week: Focal Utopia, Sonos Playbase, Sgt. Pepper reissue, new 4K Xbox and more - What Hi-Fi? - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Stellaris: Utopia review | PC Gamer - PC Gamer - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Utopia lost: Man wants Berrien 'town' on the map - Valdosta Daily Times - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Psych Ward: The Hulk - Marvel (press release) (registration) (blog) - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Men Are from Mars, Wonder Woman is Also from Mars - VICE - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Jordie Bellaire: Vision Visionary - Marvel (press release) (registration) (blog) - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Dark Side of Globalization - American Spectator - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- China's next 'city from scratch' called into question - Financial Times - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Wonder Woman's dueling origin stories, and their effect on the hero's feminism, explained - Vox - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Introduction: Open Utopia | The Open Utopia - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Paperback Row - New York Times - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- NEXUS pipeline revved and waiting - News - Times Reporter - New ... - New Philadelphia Times Reporter - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- MAVI Museum of Visual Arts - E-Flux - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- World-famous author has found his writing utopia outdoors, under a tarp, in Davis - Sacramento Bee - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Let's break down the incredible Black Panther trailer - The Verge - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]