DASHCAM - TIFF Review

Title: DASHCAM
Year: 2021
Director: Rob Savage

Midnight Madness is the film programme at Toronto International Film Festival that I absolutely adore. I love watching the weird, batshit insane films curator Peter Kuplowsky has cooked up for the years' festivities. Last year I-Fan Wang's Get the Hell Out & Roseanne Liang's Shadow in the Cloud left me in awe. This year it was DASHCAM's turn to surprise me.

DASHCAM  is framed through am influencer's live stream. The influencer, named Annie,  is an annoying MAGA hat wearing, anti-mask millennial who is destined for a comeuppance. During her stream she picks up a sickly elderly woman, which results in some high octane horror show. 

A pandemic denier is the perfect horror movie victim in 2021. DASHCAM proved to be a fun ride because of the torment Annie is put through. She is intolerably annoying, like a lot of friends/family have turned out to be during this time. Do you sometimes feel like punching one of those anti-vax people in the hospital? Let this be your release.

The faux-live presentation, complete with comments that can be quite funny (I enjoyed the Smooth Criminal reference), combined with smart use of VFX and stunt work, make DASHCAM quite a well made film. There's not much in the way of story, but if you're down for manic hour of film then this is certainly your jam. 

DASHCAM is a fun film that is a great stress reliever, especially if you're dealing with an alt-right person in your life. It may not be the most moving film at the festival, but this is pandemic fantasy fulfillment at its most chaotic. I'm glad I watched it.  

TIFF 2021 #1: Attica

Title: Attica

Year: 2021

Director: Stanley Nelson
Country: US

Language: English

I have been "going' to TIFF since 2019 ("going" in quotes because the last two years have been online) and each year I find myself excited for the films being presented. 2021 will be the first year I watch a documentary "at" the festival; Attica is the first of 3. The other two being Becoming Cousteau & Flee. Attica was the first film I watched at TIFF 2021.

Stanley Nelson's Attica is about the largest prison uprising in US history. Between Sept 9th & Sept 13th, 1975 more than 1,200 Attica inmates took control of the D-Yard at the prison and held 42 officers and prison employees hostage. Over four days, they engaged with New York politicians in attempts to negotiate for their freedom.

I decided to watch this movie solely on a movie quote that I vaguely remember. A character (turns out it's Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon) shouts "Attica! Attica! Attica!". What IS Attica!?  The documentary by Nelson gives us the typical talking head narrative we expect from documentaries, interspersed with archival news footage, to give a somewhat comprehensible, somewhat chaotic interpretation of events surrounding a highly volatile situation. Nelson's storytelling has many gaps and a few inconsistencies, albeit considering the event was 50 years ago it's somewhat understandable.

It is remarkable that Nelson was able to attain so many figures that were critical to the event. A few of the former prisoners must be in their seventies! I appreciate that he gave the loudest voice to the underrepresented prisoners. Attica, for its inconsistencies, does highlight corruption in the US Prison system, as well analyze racial disparity in the country. It is an important film that ought to get at least one viewing.