TIFF 08: Kisses

Among the films I was curious to catch was the Dublin-set escapist drama of Kylie and Dylan. Kisses might sound like something cute and fuzzy, but Lance Daly is quick to remind his characters that the outside world may be just as unforgiving as everything that takes place on home turf. Daly has been traveling around quite a lot with his third feature film, after an preem at Locarno, he had a stint at Telluride before hitting TIFF. He brought along the film’s two actors — Kelly O’Neill and Shane Curry who bears some resemblance to a young version of the main character in Sweet Sixteen. The three spared on stage, showing that Daly’s casting process didn’t care too much for dramatic art school types, hard to find at the age. Personally, I’d never seen Daly’s other work but was still curious about a project that places child protagonists in a life or school of hard knocks. I was also imagining something perhaps along the lines of Lynn Ramsay The Ratcatcher. Stay tuned for my interview with Lance and a full length review in the weeks ahead.