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A Useful Life (2010)
1/10
The most boring film I have ever seen at TIFF
16 September 2010
I see about 5-8 movies a year at the Toronto film festival, and I always see a few unknowns just to take a chance. Sometimes they are great, and sometimes they are incomprehensibly boring. This film represents the latter.

It really felt to me like "artsy for the sake of being artsy." Shot in black and white, and slowly paced (which I have no problem with), the film mostly follow a day in the life of a man whose theatre has closed down. The director attempts to be amusing by shooting the film in ways similar to that of classic cinema. This was not amusing to me.

Drawn-out, incredibly dull scenes follow. Lengthy scene of main character getting his haircut? Check. Lame references to 8 1/2? Check. The message is that the main character, once his theatre closes down, turns his own life into a movie. Unfortunately, it is not really a movie that anyone would want to watch--and definitely does not nearly approach the quality of any of the movies playing at his own cinema.

You may see fans of this film giddy with the fact that the director references classic movies. I guess if you want awkward classic film references presented at an achingly dull pace which makes 70 minutes seem like 2 hours, this is the film for you.
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