FRIDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O A
‘H
ello,” said Bruce Spring-
steen, addressing a
small group of media
and people from the film and
music industry on Thursday
morning. “Thanks for showing
up.” The Toronto International
Film Festival occasion was a pri-
vate pre-premiere screening of
Western Stars, a concert-doc ver-
sion of his 2019 album of the
same name. Forty-six years after
Springsteen’s first album,Greet-
ings from Asbury Park, N.J., the
rock troubadour now greets us in
cowboy boots, turquoise jewel-
lery and a slow drawl as deep as
the tan on his 69-year-old hide.
“I don’t know how familiar
many of you were familiar with
the record at all,” said Spring-
steen, who took part in a post-
screening Q&A at a downtown
multiplex. The new record, for
those unfamiliar with Spring-
steen’s 19th studio album, is a
sweeping homage to heartbreak,
the open road and the early sev-
enties Southern California pop of
the Jimmy Webb andWichita Li-
nemankind. Taking part in the
on-stage chat with Springsteen
were the film’s co-director Thom
Zimny and TIFF documentary
programmer Thom Powers. (It’s
quite possible the two gentlemen
had never come in contact with a
fellow “Thom” in the wild before- imagine a tiger suspiciously siz-
ing up a lion for the first time.)
Springsteen and Zimny, who
are long-time collaborators,
mostly spoke about the structure
of a film that consists of an in-
timate concert in the Boss’s barn
in California, threaded with evo-
cative, Springsteen-narrated vi-
gnettes full of horse metaphors,
pick-up trucks, home movies,
jacket collars turned up against
the California desert wind and ar-
chival footage from Eisenhower-
era Americana.
“Those pieces in between the
music really traced the emotion-
al arc of album, and brought the
album and what it was about
much more to the fore,” ex-
plained Springsteen, who de-
scribed the film as a tone poem.
“Those pieces were meant to lead
you into what the songs were
sort of containing.”
The songs – string-laden, softly
majestic and allegorically rich –
address themes of loneliness,
open roads and the battle be-
tween our transitory nature anda need for community. “The film
is about making that journey,
making your peace with having a
life, actually allowing yourself to
have a life,” theBadlandssinger
told the room. “And being able to
enjoy that life, along with all of
the pain and the happiness that
it brings, you know, and a lot of
the pain that it takes to get
there.”
And so on. InWestern Starsthe
album, the meditation on love,
pain and regret is done through
place and character – a broken-
up stuntman, a faded cowboy-
movie star, a sundown songwrit-
er – and with lovely melodies. In
Western Starsthe film, the lyrical
themes are belaboured and over-
explained. Sometimes it’s
enough to simply say, “Everybo-
dy’s got a hungry heart,” as
Springsteen did in 1980.
Visually, the film is altogether
beautiful, whether exterior shots
of big skies, sunrises and miles of
cactus plants, or filmed inside a
lofty barn dressed up with whis-
ky-bar decorations as a Saturday
night saloon.
Western Starsis somewhere be-
tween breathtaking and the long-
est banquet-beer commercial ev-
er made.
Springsteen is backed up by an
orchestra, small choir and a band
that includes his wife Patti Scial-
fa, a singer who first strapped her
hands across Springsteen’s en-
gine in the late 1980s. The whole
album is performed with Scialfaand husband strumming their
way through pensive songs such
asHitch Hikin’,Tucson Train,The
WayfarerandThere Goes My Mira-
cle, a song with epic-pop ambi-
tions. With all the close-ups of
guitar headstocks, the executives
at Gibson Brands, Inc. will be
pleased.
In 2016, Springsteen released
his memoir,Born to Run(named
after his classic 1975 album and
song). In late 2017, he began per-
forming his memoir-inspired
Springsteen on Broadwaysong-
and-words show at the Walter
Kerr Theatre in New York. The
sold-out residency lasted into De-
cember, 2018, and spawned a
Netflix documentary directed by
Zimny. The documentaryWest-
ern Stars,in which Springsteen
talks about his struggle to love
and to let go of his “destructive
qualities,” is the third part of his
autobiographical journey.
The concert aspect ofWestern
Starscloses with a cover ofRhine-
stone Cowboy. As Springsteen
sings “I’m gonna be where the
lights are shinin’ on me,” he
looks directly into the camera, a
New Jersey Shore boy done good.
Once the next Bob Dylan, he’s
now the last Glen Campbell.Western Starsscreens during
the Toronto International Film
Festival on Sept. 13, 11 a.m.,
Winter Garden Theatre and
Sept. 14, 9:45 p.m.,
Scotiabank (tiff.net).WesternStarsmeditatesonthehumantouch
BruceSpringsteen’s
intimatenewconcert
docexploresloneliness,
hisstruggletolove
andtheopenroad
BRADWHEELER
BruceSpringsteensayshisnewfilmWesternStars‘isaboutmaking
thatjourney,makingyourpeacewithhavingalife,actuallyallowing
yourselftohavealife.’COURTESY OF TIFFMarriage Story offers a tricky proposition. Come for
the charms of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson
and stay for a thorough evisceration of both. At the
start of Noah Baumbach’s latest, and best film, Driv-
er’s Brooklyn theatre director Charlie and Johans-
son’s actress Nicole are essentially separated – Ni-
cole wanting to pursue her screen acting career in
Los Angeles, and Charlie wanting nothing of the
sort. By the time the film cycles through their di-
vorce proceedings – including what ends up being a
furious custody battle for their eight-year-old son –
Baumbach’s film will have you cycling through all
manner of convulsions. This is hilarious, heart-
breaking cinema – a work that will make you burst
out laughing one moment, and leave you tearing
your hair out the next. (Sometimes, thanks to Ran-
dy Newman’s cue-happy score, but that’s a minor
annoyance.) Audiences and armchair psychiatrists
can spend all manner of time analyzing how Baum-
bach’s own split from his actress wife (Jennifer Ja-
son Leigh) spilled intoMarriage Story. Everyone’s
time will be better spent, though, marvelling at
what a completely absorbing and devastating por-
trait of modern desire and responsibility the film-
maker has wrought.
ElevatorPitch:Kramervs.KramermeetsTheSquidand
theWhale
BARRY HERTZ
Sept. 13, 6 p.m., Princess of Wales; Sept. 14, 2:45 p.m.,
Princess of Wales
MarriageStory
Directed by Noah Baumbach
United States
★★★★
Jojo Rabbitoffers the fall movie season’s trickiest
tightrope. Just teetering on the edge of precious,
and very occasionally tipping over into genius, Tai-
ka Waititi’s dramedy focuses on a young German
boy enthralled by the Nazi Party in the final days
of the Second World War. Oh, and Jojo (Roman
Griffin Davis) has frequent conversations with his
imaginary best friend, named Adolf Hitler (Wait-
iti). Billed as an “anti-hate” satire, the knives were
out forJojo Rabbitthe minute its TIFF world pre-
miere was announced – partly because such a
proposition seemed feckless, but also because
there’s a strong critical contingent that views Wait-
iti (What We Do in the Shadows,Thor: Ragnarok)as
a New Zealand Wes Anderson, valuing style over
substance, arch comedy over emotional connec-
tion. Neither argument works, asJojo Rabbitexcels
with at least a sincerely attempted – if not exactly
precise – balance of humour and horror, absurdity
and tragedy. If the film’s rapturous TIFF audience
reception is anything to go by, we’ll be fighting
aboutJojo Rabbitfor the rest of 2019. For now,
though, Waititi has won the war.Elevator Pitch:The ProducersmeetsHunt for the Wil-
derpeoplemeetsLife is Beautiful
BARRY HERTZSept. 13, 9:30 p.m., Elgin Theatre; Sept. 15, 12 p.m.,
Ryerson TheatreJojoRabbit
Directed by Taika Waititi
United States
★★★Seconda (Barbara Giordano) is not having a good
run at life. Her mother just dropped dead at the
kitchen table. Shortly afterward, her father ran off,
leaving a trail of debts. And Seconda is also highly
agoraphobic, unable to leave the cramped confines
of her family’s apartment. With her support net-
work suddenly extinguished, Seconda is faced with
a choice: wither away at home or venture out into
the world, one step at a time. For her second directo-
rial effort, Klaudia Reynicke could have adopted a
staid narrative structure – hero ventures out, learns
to love life, roll credits – but instead selects a more
idiosyncratic, surrealistic path. The off-the-wall
tone is welcome, and is well-matched by Giordano’s
commitment, given she’s occupying the screen ap-
proximately 99 per cent of the time.ElevatorPitch:AméliemeetsSafe
BARRY HERTZSept. 13, 9:30 a.m., LightboxLoveMeTender
Directed by Klaudia Reynicke
Switzerland
★★★Threefilmspremieringthisweek
Selectedreviewsoffilmsscreeningatthe2019TorontoInternationalFilmFestival.Formoreinformation,seetiff.net/tiff
TIFF.
[SCREENSHOTS]JessicaBardenposesduringtheJungleland
photocalloutsidethePrincessofWalesTheatre
onThursday.SONIA RECCHIA/GETTY IMAGESKerryWashingtonwavestofansduringthepremiereofAmericanSonat
theWinterGardenTheatreonThursday.JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGESTorontonianSarahGadonwalkstheredcarpet
beforethepremiereofAmericanWoman
atRoyThomsonHallonThursday.
ERNESTO DISTEFANO/GETTY IMAGESFromleft:ProducerPilarSavone,actorsJeremyJordanandWashington,
anddirectorKennyLeongatherfortheAmericanSonpremiere.
JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES