TIFF: Final Day - Out with a Bang...and a Whimper

I don't think it adequately expresses how much I loved this morning's film to say that it was my favourite of the festival. Every Little Step is a documentary that follows the casting process for the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line on broadway. From the opening casting call of over 3000 people to the final casting about 8 months later we meet many of the auditionees and can't help but develop favourites among the bunch. Throughout the process, through interviews with people involved in the original cast and snippets of the audio recordings made by Michael Bennett which inspired the original production, we also get a bit of the history of the show. It was entertaining, and touching, and the filmmakers managed to catch some incredible moments on film. Now, I'm a musical nut so this movie was clearly going to be right up my alley but I feel pretty safe in saying that it will appeal to a much broader audience than just my fellow theater lovers. One of the directors attended and held a lively Q&A which was amazing in itself for a 9:00am screening on the final day of the festival. He said that they were close to being able to announce a distribution deal so chances are you may get a chance to see it in the spring.

I mentioned to my friends as we walked out of the screening that I felt like maybe I should skip my next one so that I could end the festival on a high note but I didn't and headed to the Ryerson for my last film of the festival. I probably should have followed my initial instinct.

Genova is the latest film from Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart) and stars Colin Firth as Joe, a father who moves his two daughters to Italy for a year after the sudden death of his wife in a tragic car accident. It wasn't the worst thing I saw at the festival (I'm looking at you Uncertainty) but it wasn't one I'd recommend anyone paying for. There were a bunch of scenes where the daughters seemed to be in danger in some way or another, with ominous music playing while they wandered through the narrow streets and alleys making their way home, that seemed really out of place. Catherine Keener was woefully underused as a university friend (who seemed to want more from Joe) who was helping the family getting settled. The youngest daughter sees the ghost of her mother and wanders off regularly and the oldest is sneaking off and sleeping with an older boy. And then it just ends.

Kind of like TIFF for another year.

TIFF: Uncertainty

Uncertainty was not a good movie. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who is reminding me more and more of Heath Ledger) and Lynn Collins (who kept reminding me of Evangeline Lilly) as a couple who decide based on a flip of a coin whether to spend the July 4th holiday in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Like an inferior version of Sliding Doors, we then watch both possible outcomes.

The first scene, as they stand on the bridge and talk about how they're all so 'uncertain' of their decision was mind blowingly bad. After that, thankfully, it got a little better and was mindlessly entertaining (mostly because I find Levitt so charming) but it's one of those movies I'll pretty much forget. And though they announced that the directors would be on hand for a Q&A afterwards, when one of the programmers got up to say they were running late and would be another five minutes I decided I really didn't need to hear what they had to say about it and Denise and I took off to get home early and crawl into bed.

TIFF: Synecdoche, New York

Tuesday's TIFF screening was the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. Given his track record of films - Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I went in expecting something a bit surreal and twisted...and oh my did I ever get it.

I sit here still unsure about how I felt about the movie, though I can say that there were great scenes and fantastic performances which are definitely sticking with me. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden, a theater director who's body seems to be slowly shutting down, who has a wife (Catherine Keener) and daughter who seemingly disappear to Germany, another wife (Michelle Williams) and daughter who disappear to a better life somewhere (one supposes) and a mistress (Samantha Morton) who sticks around through most of his life. The story seems to twist in on itself over and over again as he directs a massive production of a 'real' performance including casting people as his wife and mistress. If that makes no sense to you reading it then I'm sorry but I can't really offer more in the way of explanation.

And Kaufman wasn't offering any of his own either. One of the first questions asked was one of those generic "can you talk about what x meant" things and he basically said no...he wouldn't talk about it what it meant to him writing it because he wanted the audience to take from it what they would. Keener and Hoffman showed up to be introduced before the film but didn't take the stage for the Q&A, which also seemed to be by design because they did stick around for the screening. Kaufman did take a lot of questions and was happy to talk about the process of making the film, writing the score and the performances. Just not to enlighten us on the film itself.

If anyone else sees it, I'd love to hear if you walked out as confused as I did.

TIFF: Triple play Monday

Monday was my annual full day of films when I take the day off of work and hit three movies in one day.

The first was The Other Man, a film directed by Richard Eyre who most recently did Notes on a Scandal. The director kindly showed up to do a Q&A for this 9am on a Monday showing and was eloquent and entertaining discussing the film and his actors. The film stars Liam Neeson as a husband who finds evidence of his wife's (Laura Linney) infidelity on her computer and searches out the titular "other man" Ralph (Antonio Banderas). The film was in what has become familiar 'good but not great' territory so far this festival.

Then it was off to meet Denise for brunch before we got into line for the next screening of the day. The movie was Religulous, which had premiered at the festival Saturday night and I had noticed the "protesters" of the film as I left the screening immediately preceeding. The documentary, directed by Larry Charles and starring Bill Maher, takes a satirical look at the idea of organized religion and has Maher interviewing subjects from a variety of backgrounds. The film seems to work a bit too hard to be deliberately provocative and push peoples' buttons but it still works. It's worth seeing if only to be a starting point for discussion. Larry Charles showed up after the film to answer some questions and he was fine but to me seemed to be bored to be there. I'm sure he's getting a lot of the same questions about the film but I got a bit of a "I'm the smartest guy in the room" vibe from him that was a bit offputting.


My final film of the day wasn't until 9:45 so I had a fantastic afternoon nap and watched the premieres of Entourage and True Blood at home (I could get used to the not working thing).

I picked up Kate and we headed down in the rain for the premiere screening of Gigantic. Thankfully the rain slowed to a near sprinkle while we waited in line outside the Bader. Gigantic is a movie from first time filmaker Matt Aselton which stars Paul Dano (who also has an executive producer credit on the film) as a mattress salesman who stumbles into a relationship with the daughter of a customer played by Zooey Deschanel. He's also in the process of trying to adopt a baby from China, dealing with his own family and has his own personal stuff going on. Dano and Deschanel have fantastic chemistry (she's really great with everyone isn't she?) and the respective fathers (played by Ed Asner and John Goodman) are larger than life and entertaining. The film would definitely fall under the 'quirky' description. I won't say too much more so as not to spoil it, but there is definitely a polarizing plot within the movie, and Aselton knows it based on his delivery of "I've never had that question" to the first question asked during the Q&A. He and Dano attended and took a number of questions after the screening, which lead to me getting home after midnight and not looking forward to getting to the office in the morning :-).

TIFF: Zack and Miri make a Porno

I figured I should show up extra early for the world premiere and only 'non-gala priced ticket' showing at TIFF of Kevin Smith's latest - Zack and Miri make a Porno. I was right. The line up started early and got long very quickly and I ended up sitting beside a guy who had been in the rush line since 1:00 for a 9:15 movie.



As the title would suggest, the film stars Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) as best friends and roomates who decide to make a porno (to solve their serious money issues). Of course, through the process they realize that they may have deeper feelings for each other than they had thought. The movie was very funny, a bit raunchy and truly kind of a sweet romance.

Kevin Smith, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes, Katie Morgan and Ricky Mabe took the stage after the film to field questions. Smith is a pro at entertaining an audience, as you would expect if you've seen any of the 'An Evening With' films, and the Q&A was highly entertaining. Here's a little snippet of it for ya...and it should go without saying but obviously the language is NSFW.

TIFF: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

First things first. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is not this year's Juno. As much as the filmakers seem to be asking for the comparison...from their leading man to the credit sequence of the film to the killer soundtrack. It's just not quite that good.



It is, however, a charming movie with good performances from pretty much the entire young cast. Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) meet at a bar where she approaches him to play her 'boyfriend for five minutes' to avoid the scorn of her school's resident mean girl Tris (Alexis Dziena). Unbeknownst to her, Nick is also Tris' ex boyfriend. The rest of the action takes place over a night in New York while they chase after a secret concert, try to keep track of her drunken best friend and run into their respective exes.

The director and the entire cast showed up for the movie. I actually had never seen a larger reserved section of seats at the Ryerson. The moderator did a pretty good job on the post film Q&A, kicking it off by announcing that she didn't want any questions that began with "I love you Michael", which I thought was funny. The cast has great chemistry and seem to truly like one another, with a bunch of chatter and a big group hug on stage before they settled down to take questions.

I was excited to see Jonathan Wright in his first movie role after absolutely loving him in the broadway musical Spring Awakening when I saw it last year. And, in the flurry of exits of the cast, I took the opportunity to tell him so afterwards :-)

TIFF: Me and Orson Welles

First screening of the festival last night at the Ryerson for the world premiere of Me and Orson Welles. The film was directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunset and School of Rock) and stars Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin and the fantastic newcomer Christian McKay as Orson Welles.

The story takes place over a week in 1937 and centers around a young actor (Efron) who gets a shot at a small role in the broadway production of Ceasar and gets pulled into the politics and backstage antics of the theatre troupe. It's based on the historical fiction novel written by Robert Kaplow and I was surprised to learn in the discussion afterwards how much of the story was factual. It was a solid movie and I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't put it on my 'must see' list. I was surprised by how charming and engaging Efron was, both in the film and during the Q&A afterwards, where he deftly managed breathless questions like "Zac, what's it like seeing yourself on the big screen?" (I mean, seriously??). Which was only topped in ridiculousness by the first question asked to Claire Danes being about My So Called Life.

Afterwards we joined my friend Lara outside the exit door to play paparazzi and caught the exit of Efron, Danes, Linklater and McKay. As you'd expect, the highest decibel of screaming and flashbulbs hit Efron as he exited the building.

Claire Danes looked lovely and brought the cute Hugh Dancy as her date.










McKay seemed overwhelmed by the whole experience and charmingly told the two teenagers who asked him for a picture "See, I played Orson in the movie".

All credit to my friend Lara for the pictures. Her camera and timing are so much better than mine.

TIFF time

Ah TIFF...the week or so of entertainment that bridges me from the melancholy of the end of summer to the new fall television season.

As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to get tickets for 9 of the 10 films I had selected on my pre-order form. I was in box 30 of 78 for the annual lottery mess and they started filling orders with box 9 so I guess I did ok by being in the first third.

My screenings this year are heavily weighted to the 'Special Presentations' programme which seems to have experienced a growth spurt since last year. And other than a couple more 'indie' productions and one documentary, most of them are set to open before the end of the year. For anyone who's interested...here's how I ended up with my film list:

I picked up the giant program book (with all the rest of the folks in line) on Tuesday August 26th. Then I sat at my desk and flipped through the pages pretty quickly and marked all the movies that hit one of two criteria:

1. Was the director or one of the stars someone who I particularly liked
2. Did the title and/or quick perusal of the description grab my attention

Then - as the spreadsheet queen I am - I take all those those movies and throw all the data into excel along with the venues, dates and showtimes for each film. One pivot table later and I have a summary by day, venue and block of time (morning, afternoon or evening) of all the movies I'd be interested in seeing. After that it's all about picking one movie within each block, which is done by asking myself:

1. Is there anything in that block that falls under my 'absolutely must see' list?
2. Is it playing at the Ryerson (my fav venue)?
3. What is the likelihood of anyone associated with the film showing up for a Q&A (one of my fav parts of the festival)?
4. Is there something I wouldn't get a chance to see anywere else?
5. If I haven't picked one by now...maybe 'eeny, meeny, miney moe'? I've never faced the problem :-)

Then I fill out the advance order book. I only put in the request for my first choices and don't provide second alternatives (as you are able to do). I figure I'm only looking for 10 tickets (unlike some festival goers who see 30+ films) and it's easy enough to try to rearrange afterwards.

And after all that, I end up with my package of tickets which for the most part I stick with, though I've exchanged a ticket, picked up extras and missed a screening in the past. Here's where I'm going to be over the next 10 days...maybe I'll see you in line.

TIFF'08 Screenings

1. Me and Orson Welles (Ryerson)
2. Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist (Ryerson)
3. Zack & Miri make a Porno (Ryerson)
4. Other Man (Ryerson)
5. Religulous (Winter Garden)
6. Gigantic (Isabel Bader)
7. Synecdoche (Winter Garden)
8. Uncertainty (AMC)
9. Every Little Step (AMC)
10. Genova (Ryerson)

Signs of the end of Summer

• I was floating on the lake this weekend, enjoying the weather that we should have had in July, and looked up at the trees to see the edges of the leaves turning orange and red.
• Seeing the back to school ads that always make me feel like it's time for a new year to start.
• Setting my PVR for the start of the new television season. 90210 tomorrow baby!!
• Standing in lines waiting to drop off my order form and then pick up my tickets for TIFF. I was lucky enough to get 9 out of the 10 films I selected :-)
• Enjoying the last long weekend we have until Thanksgiving.

The Final Summer Tally

Weekends at the Cottage: 7

Concerts: 4

Musicals: 2

Weddings: 1

Non-cottage vacations: 1

Pedicures: 4

Margaritas: too many to count