I am not from Toronto but I frequent there regularly. In fact, Toronto is my getaway. I love that city!! I fell in love with it many years ago when I spent a lot of time there. So I was eager to see this movie that focused on the city I love so much. I expected it to be an "artsy" style film and in some respects it is. The tough part about the movie is that there are individual stories, with one common link and all directed by four different directors. This is tough because some of the stories range from exceptionally good to really, really awful. It actually makes for an average film as a whole but in order to be fair to it I have to review each instalment as its own entity.
The first part is average at best. Two youngsters experience a single coming of age type day and it tries to cram an achingly predictable coming of age movie all into one 15 minute-ish short. It is truly average in every sense of the word although Samantha Weinstein is very good as the young girl and Ricardo Hoyos is decent if not a little bland as the main character of the story. Their chemistry doesn't particularly impress but it's a sub-par script with okay direction. So the film gets off to an okay start. First part 6/10
Then we take a complete crash and burn with the story of two lovers in very different spots in their personal lives and their opinions on their relationship. This is just awful with blatant and unnecessary nudity, attempts at raunchy humour that comes across as awkward and dumb and just horrendous performances from Sook-Yin Lee and Tygh Runyan. You want to talk about a total lack of chemistry. Watching these two is like torture. Lee's character is so incredibly irritating that I would have ditched her too. This story is pointless, torturous to watch and ruins the movie completely. I understand the hatred for this film based on that story alone. 2/10
It's the middle point of the film where things take a substantial and wonderful turn. The last two instalments of the film are really, really good. The third story in the movie really has very little to do with Toronto but its well acted, well written and very well directed. KC Collins leads the threesome of actors and is top notch. You actually care about his character, they establish a little bit of a background and he is very good. Carly Pope was the one aspect of this instalment I didn't care for. She comes across like a New Jersey housewife but she serves her purpose decently enough. Joris Jarsky is somewhere in between the two of them. He's good but a little manic and overacts just a little bit but it works and the three of them together make it a very interesting story. 8/10
I was pleased to have the film take a turn for the better. And then I was even more pleased to have the film end with a story that was the best of all of them and was actually everything I expected from this movie. Gil Bellows gives one of the best performances I've ever seen from him as a post-trauma homeless man who becomes obsessed with stopping a potential kidnapping. Bellows is riveting and I have never said that about him ever. It features scenes in Union Station and the darker sides of Toronto. It is gritty, edge of your seat and brilliantly written. An absolute 8.5/10
So as you can see this film is all over the place which makes it sort of a mess. I've never seen a film I don't think that goes from being a 2 to an 8.5 Just from the laws of average the entire film I would give a 7 which isn't bad but that 7 belongs squarely in the final two stories. The story that links everything together of the young immigrant boy roaming Toronto is decent enough but mostly comes into play in the last story. The young boy played by Toka Murphy, his only credit whatsoever, does a great job without hardly ever saying a word.
Toronto Stories is a mixed bag. I think I expected to see more of Toronto and that the various directors would use the city more and make it come to life and despite a few familiar locations, it let me down in that respect. Still I didn't find it a total waste like some did but definitely hang in for the whole movie because the best is nearly the last. 7/10
The first part is average at best. Two youngsters experience a single coming of age type day and it tries to cram an achingly predictable coming of age movie all into one 15 minute-ish short. It is truly average in every sense of the word although Samantha Weinstein is very good as the young girl and Ricardo Hoyos is decent if not a little bland as the main character of the story. Their chemistry doesn't particularly impress but it's a sub-par script with okay direction. So the film gets off to an okay start. First part 6/10
Then we take a complete crash and burn with the story of two lovers in very different spots in their personal lives and their opinions on their relationship. This is just awful with blatant and unnecessary nudity, attempts at raunchy humour that comes across as awkward and dumb and just horrendous performances from Sook-Yin Lee and Tygh Runyan. You want to talk about a total lack of chemistry. Watching these two is like torture. Lee's character is so incredibly irritating that I would have ditched her too. This story is pointless, torturous to watch and ruins the movie completely. I understand the hatred for this film based on that story alone. 2/10
It's the middle point of the film where things take a substantial and wonderful turn. The last two instalments of the film are really, really good. The third story in the movie really has very little to do with Toronto but its well acted, well written and very well directed. KC Collins leads the threesome of actors and is top notch. You actually care about his character, they establish a little bit of a background and he is very good. Carly Pope was the one aspect of this instalment I didn't care for. She comes across like a New Jersey housewife but she serves her purpose decently enough. Joris Jarsky is somewhere in between the two of them. He's good but a little manic and overacts just a little bit but it works and the three of them together make it a very interesting story. 8/10
I was pleased to have the film take a turn for the better. And then I was even more pleased to have the film end with a story that was the best of all of them and was actually everything I expected from this movie. Gil Bellows gives one of the best performances I've ever seen from him as a post-trauma homeless man who becomes obsessed with stopping a potential kidnapping. Bellows is riveting and I have never said that about him ever. It features scenes in Union Station and the darker sides of Toronto. It is gritty, edge of your seat and brilliantly written. An absolute 8.5/10
So as you can see this film is all over the place which makes it sort of a mess. I've never seen a film I don't think that goes from being a 2 to an 8.5 Just from the laws of average the entire film I would give a 7 which isn't bad but that 7 belongs squarely in the final two stories. The story that links everything together of the young immigrant boy roaming Toronto is decent enough but mostly comes into play in the last story. The young boy played by Toka Murphy, his only credit whatsoever, does a great job without hardly ever saying a word.
Toronto Stories is a mixed bag. I think I expected to see more of Toronto and that the various directors would use the city more and make it come to life and despite a few familiar locations, it let me down in that respect. Still I didn't find it a total waste like some did but definitely hang in for the whole movie because the best is nearly the last. 7/10