Dallas Videofest 2009 - The Toe Tactic
November 6
, 2009
86 min. | USA
A light-hearted and perceptive exploration of memory, regret and the nature of reality itself, The Toe Tactic follows Mona Peek (Lily Rabe) on an impulsive visit to her abandoned suburban childhood home. There, her lonely life is shaken by a flood of grief for her dead father and nostalgia for the world the two shared in decades gone by. A lost wallet and a buried bone become the keys to a playfully fractured reality of talking dogs, a single mom, her son, his piano teacher, an amorous elevator man, an eccentric dowager, and the intricate web of secrets, longings and intersections that connects them.
Information from the festival's website
Places to eat:
Drink Specials:
- Rockfish Seafood Grill: 4 pm - 7 pm: $3 domestic schooners, $3 house wines, $3 wells
- WoodFire Kirby's: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm: $1 off beer, $2 off cocktails
- The Green Elephant: 8 pm - 11 pm: $2.50 you call its
- J. Pepe's: 11 am - 2 am: $2.50 well drinks.
- Margarita Ranch: 4 pm - 7 pm: $2 off margaritas and domestics
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»Movie review and filmmaker interview: Tenure
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»Dallas VideoFest 22 names award-winning films
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an event
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a restaurant
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a garage sale
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a drink special
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a movie showtime
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local music
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a job
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a house
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a deal
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a pet
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John Meyer, says:
<p>Emily Hubley's <em>The Toe Tactic</em> made its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival in the Spring of 2008. I was there, but -- like dozens of other films I would like to have seen during those ten hectic days -- it escaped me. Thus, I was pleased to see it would be appearing in the lineup for the VideoFest.</p>
<p>Lily Rabe stars as Mona Peek, a young woman who finds herself immersed in a world of whimsical and often mischevious fantasy following the death of her beloved father. Through a bizarre progression of seemingly insignificant events, Mona meets and interacts with a panoply of unconventional characters, including a young boy named Wilson (Sean J. Moran) who finds her wallet after it's been purloined by the embodiment of a cartoon character. (Yeah, I know, pretty weird.)</p>
<p>The boy's mother Lacticia (Sakina Jaffrey) finds herself strangely attracted to a piano teacher (Kevin Corrigan) who lives in an apartment nearby. Wilson takes piano lessons to bring them together.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mona goes to work for an eccentric rich lady named Victoria (Novella Nelson) who collects what appear to be snippets of prose on scraps of paper. The elevator operator in Victoria's building is a purportedly good looking fellow named -- well, we only know him as Elevator Man (Daniel London). Elevator Man writes songs, using for lyrics the things that people who ride in his elevator say to him. This can make for some very short songs, as we soon discover.</p>
<p>The film brims with animated magic and symbolic power items, such as the piece of bone Mona cherishes from the incomplete cremation of her father's remains. (Again, pretty weird.) It includes an original score by Yo La Tengo.</p>
<p>Definitely not your standard narrative feature fare. Check it out, perhaps while in an altered state.</p>
Staff
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