Review: MIFF reviews: Detroit Wild City, Tomboy, The Future
Detroit Wild City — dir. Florent Tillon
“What would the apocalypse look like?” asks Florent Tillon’s documentary, Detroit Wild City. Once home to the US auto industry, Detroit is the largest city in the state of Michigan, but much of it now lies abandoned. Tillon’s camera initially introduces us to an empty shell of a once great city. Like a post-apocalyptic science-fiction film, we see vacant buildings, smashed windows and empty streets. The silence here is both haunting and fascinating, as if we are looking at an image of the end of civilisation itself. It is impossible to look away.
Moving through the decaying landscape, we begin to see a different image of the city, one that is slowly being reclaimed by wildlife and vegetation. Tillon’s Detroit is a city that has died and has dragged the American dream down with it. But it is also a city that he intends to capture being reborn or rising from the ashes. Through this, he charts the birth of the new American dream, lead by ‘urban pioneers’ seeking the new Detroit in the crumbling ruins of the old. However, I am not sure whether Tillon is correct in representing the city as dead; I don’t think that it ever really died. Every now and again, in a vacant building or factory, the camera lingers on things that pique my interest; things left behind, ironic markers, signs of life. A noose hanging from a beam in an empty factory, bearing a sign that reads “in case of emergency” or a crumbling wall tagged by graffiti: “WE BUILT THIS CITY”. Towards the end of the film, the owner of a popular speakeasy tells of an influx of white, university-educated young people who willingly flock to Detroit, away from the safety of their wealthy families. With this I am certain, at the end of the world, there will be hipsters. — Whitney Monaghan
Tomboy — dir. Céline Sciamma
Celine Sciamma’s latest film Tomboy is beautiful in its exploration of both childhood and gender expression. An androgynous ten-year-old girl, Laure (Zoé Héran), moves with her family to a new neighbourhood and introduces herself to the local children as a boy. With short hair, a bedroom painted blue and boy’s clothing, we read the androgynous protagonist as a boy despite the fact that they are not given a name or an explicitly stated biological sex until quite a way into the film. However, once the relationship between Laure’s biological sex and gender expression are established, it becomes fascinating to watch the way she observes and then imitates the markers or gestures of childhood masculinity — the ‘boyish’ walk, playing sport without a shirt, spitting, competitiveness.
This coming of age film is a little about gender identity and a little about testing the boundaries to see how far they go. That is, about being a child and seeing how much you can get away with. It is also about the potential of those last weeks of summer and the inevitable awkwardness in the transition from childhood to adolescence. As Brad has noted in day 3 of his MIFF diary, this film is so good because the director Celine Sciamma is able to capture the rhythms of children — their interactions, their excitement, their boredom — in a remarkable way. She is definitely a director to keep an eye on. — Whitney Monaghan
The Future — dir. Miranda July
Miranda July’s latest feature, The Future, tells the story of thirty days in the life of a hipster couple awaiting the adoption of an abandoned, sickly cat named Paw Paw. Faced with the prospect of such responsibility, but having to wait for the cat to recover from illness, the couple quit their tedious jobs to seek out fresh life experiences. In the thirty days that follow the couple encounter a handful of characters that fulfil their desire for inspiration, all while Paw Paw (voiced by July) muses over his feelings as he waits to be adopted.
July’s quirky existentialism saturates The Future. Her eccentric sensitivity to the banal and the mysterious aspects of life – time, relationships, technology, sex, death – are, as expected, delightful. The Future charmingly condenses every facet that tends to characterise the lives of the under-40 middle-class. As always July is the star of the film, but her self-idolatry seems deliberate. Her character’s narcissism, obsession with love, anxiousness to please and odd encounters with strangers invoke the economy of Facebook. In this way July provides a playful, thoughtful examination of contemporary young adults.
At times, The Future is so soaked in weirdness it is embarrassing. July’s excessively cutesy voice-over for Paw Paw is particularly grinding. July sometimes needs reminding that she has had her sixth birthday and is now a grown woman; but then childishness is what characterizes her aesthetic. Viewers will need to remove any staid affectations to really enjoy this film: take your fixie, wear your best Cosby sweater and turn off your iPhone before entering the cinema. – Lauren Bliss
