The day started with August: Osage County which was a great way to start off the day. The movie is based on the pulitzer prize winning play by Tracy Letts (who also did the screenplay) and stars a plethora of big names including Meryl Streep as matriarch Violet Weston and Julia Roberts as one of her daughters. It's basically a dysfunctional family drama/dark comedy about a pill popping, abrasive mother dealing with her three daughters and all of the family skeletons after the family returns home for their father's funeral.
I had seen the play when it passed through Toronto with Estelle Parsons as Violet and I was blown away by the production. When I heard that Streep had been cast in the movie version I was excited to see what she would do with the role because, of course, we always expect Meryl to be great. And seriously, every time I start to think that maybe she might be a bit overrated I see one of her performances, and this one is no exception. She is tears into the character of Violet and was absolutely riveting and most of the cast holds their own as well, including fantastic performances in particular by Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper.
The director John Wells showed up to introduce the film though didn't return for a Q&A afterwards...I think he may have been busy at the press conference for the movie.
Movie Grade: A
Then it was back to the Ryerson for the second screening of Third Person, the latest from director Paul Haggis. It's a story about love and the love lives of three men in three different cities. In Paris, Michael (Liam Neeson) is a writer trying to finish his latest novel while dealing with his relationship with the damaged and prickly Anna (Olivia Wilde). In Rome, Sean (Adrian Brody) is finishing up a business trip when he runs into Monika (Moran Atias), the damsel in distress of his dreams (or so she seems). Finally in New York, Rick (James Franco) is an artist with a romantic past with Julia (Mila Kunis) who is possibly the most troubled and screwed up of all the women. Without spoiling the movie, these three stories are all interconnected in some way and as Haggis put it himself in his introduction, you will benefit from watching carefully to spot details that may help you figure it out.
Haggis, producer Michael Nozik, producer/star Moran Atias and star Adrian Brody turned up for a Q&A following the movie. Haggis was a bit testy about not wanting to answer questions about the movie, saying that he wanted to make the type of film that people would debate about afterwards and that the puzzle pieces are scattered throughout. He also talked about how the movie got made and gave a lot of credit to Atias for being persistent. Atias and Brody talked about their storyline and got into some of the details about filming (including some misfortune with her awful fake teeth).
Movie Grade: B+
Finally, I ended the day at the premiere of the Canadian documentary When Jews Were Funny by Alan Zweig. Zweig interviews dozens of comedians, from the Borscht belt original Shecky Greene through Howie Mandel and Gilbert Gottfried to the more currently relevant Marc Maron and Andy Kindler to discuss comedy in general, Jewish comedy in particular and the influence of being Jewish on their particular brand of comedy. Some of the segments were more entertaining than others, most notably with Bob (Super Dave Osborne) Einstein and Judy Gold for me. The movie goes off on more than one tangent and I came away not really sure what point of view Zweig was trying to get across. Is it a commentary on assimilation? A discussion on how hardship breeds comedy? A projection of the future of comedy? A study of what it means to be Jewish? I really wasn't sure.
Zweig and a few people included in the film where there to take questions after the screening and he didn't do much more to enlighten me about his intentions. Interesting was the discussion of some of the people he had asked to be part of the film who declined (which came up when someone asked about the lack of women in the movie...where he thankfully cut off any "women aren't funny" suppositions).
It was my last documentary of this year and I came away feeling a bit disappointed that I didn't love either of them.
Movie Grade: C+
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