TIFF 2011: The Oranges and Undefeated

Day off work today and I had two movies to see.

First on the schedule was The Oranges, from director Julian Farino, who's best known work to date has been as a director on TV series such as Entourage, The Office and Big Love. The movie takes place in a friendly New Jersey suburb (known as The Oranges) and centers around the relationships and entanglements between members of two families, the Wallings and the Ostroffs.

David and Paige Walling (Hugh Laurie and Catherine Keener) have a beautiful home, long marriage, two grown children in Toby (Adam Brody) and Vanessa (Alia Skawkat) and very little happiness in their lives. Terry and Carol Ostroff (Oliver Platt and Allison Janney) live across the street and have a grown daughter of their own, Nina (Leighton Meester), who hasn't been home to visit in years. Nina's return for the holiday season throws just about everything into turmoil. There's the friendship that she and Vanessa used to share when they were pre-teens that disintegrated in high school, her pushy mother hoping that she and Toby would get together and then most disastrously, the relationship that springs up between her and her father's best friend.

I really liked the movie. Now, I'm admittedly a pretty big Hugh Laurie fan (and frankly could totally see why a 24 year old would hop into bed with him) so I didn't have as much of an issue with the central relationship as people might. And really, while the David/Nina relationship is the pivot point of the movie, there is also so much else going on with the people around them. Alia Shawkat stole every scene as the daughter dealing with her former friend's betrayal, her anger and disillusionment with her father and her ambivalence as to her own future as she continues to live at home and put off starting her own life. Allison Janney and Catherine Keener were similarly wonderful as women dealing with disappointments and anger in their own ways.

Director Farino showed up to introduce the film and to do a Q&A following the screening. He talked quite a bit about the delicate balance he felt he had to maintain in the movie so as not to make the relationship seem predatory. He was asked if Meester was cast because she had previously played a somewhat similar role with Laurie on an arc of House and he said that while that wasn't why she was cast he thought it helped them with establishing the necessary chemistry between the actors. He was also very complimentary about the city of Toronto and the festival and how film-literate people seem to be (he's not the first or last filmmaker to pander to us...but we still appreciate it). The film doesn't have a distribution deal at this point but I'd imagine you'll see it in theatres some time next year.



Up this evening was the documentary Undefeated, which follows the 2009 season of the inner city Memphis Manassas Tigers who are attempting to have a winning season after years of losses with the goal of winning the first ever playoff game in the school's 100+ year history.

I had selected this movie because in reading the description I basically felt like it sounded like the real life version of a season of Friday Night Lights (and that show rocks). And really, it kind of was...with a little bit of The Blind Side thrown in for good measure.

The film follows the team's season highlighting the leadership of Coach Bill Courtney and the stories of three of the team members, O.C. Brown, the big, fast, talented player who is struggling academically and hoping to get to play football in college, Montrail "Money" Brown, the studious team leader, too small to play football beyond high school and hoping academics are the way out and Chavis Daniels who is fresh out of a 15 month stint in a junior penitentiary and is struggling with anger issues and how to be a member of a team.

The film is very well done and you find yourself getting swept along in the story as if it were a scripted sports film. The stories of the players and the town and the Coach and his family are all very moving. Are they successful and do they win their playoff game in the end? I'm not going to tell you and you shouldn't check before you see it because it's a much better experience to go in without knowing. The movie premiered at the South by Southwest festival earlier this year and was picked up by The Weinstein Company so I'm sure you'll get an opportunity to see it in a theatre or on the movie network at some point in the next year.

Filmmakers Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin along with Coach Bill Courtney himself were there and held a Q&A after the screening. Coach was given a standing ovation from the crowd as he was introduced. The season shown here was the last year he coached the team at Manassas (he was there as a volunteer coach for 6 years and worked with many of these players all the way through) and he's now coaching at the high school where his two oldest daughters are students and his sons will be attending and playing in the next couple of years. We got updated on where the players are today and how they are doing. Lindsay and Martin talked about how they decided to make this film and how they dealt with some unexpected events during the process.

TIFF 2011: Ten Year

Last night's movie was the world premiere of Ten Year, the directorial debut of Jamie Linden (previous credits include the screenplays for We Are Marshall and Dear John) and tells the story of a group of former classmates coming together for their 10 year high school reunion.

It's a really large ensemble cast, including Channing Tatum and wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum as a couple (it's his reunion, she's along for the ride), his high school love played by Rosario Dawson who shows up with husband Ron Livingston in tow, married couples Chris Pratt & Ari Graynor and Brian Geraghty & Aubrey Plaza, Oscar Isaac as the guy who went away and got famous and spends the night catching up with Kate Mara, Scott Porter (Jason Street!) back from Japan along with his girlfriend and Anthony Mackie, Lynn Collins, Justin Long and Max Mingella as fellow classmates who's lives aren't quite where they wanted them to be 10 years after high school.

The movie was fine, probably about a 6 out of 10 if I had to rate it. The stories are interweaved nicely and while I wasn't surprised by any of the plot elements they were all well executed. It was fun to see Ari Graynor play the straight, sober counterpoint to Chris Pratt (who was hilarious as the drunken former high school douche) after her wonderful turn on the other side of that equation in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. The song written and performed by Oscar Isaac was great and Aubrey Plaza was very fun to watch every time she showed up on screen. The chemistry among the cast was completely believable as people who had known each other for a long time.

A vast chunk of the cast were there, and I'm sure a bunch of other people involved with the film based on the rowdiness of the crowd at the Ryerson last night. Notable absenses were Chris Pratt who had been in town all weekend to support Moneyball and left Linden a message to read to the crowd (because he'd promised on his mother's life to do so), Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie and Ron Livingston. After the screening Linden brought them all up on stage for a Q&A session. They talked about the inspiration for the movie, the challenges of filming with such a large cast with so many stories to tell, how well some of them had known each other before filming the movie and how much better (or worse) this portrayal was compared to their own high school reunion experiences.

All in all, just another good night at TIFF.

TIFF 2011: Drive, First Position and Sarah Palin

Sunday was my first three day movie of TIFF this year and I saw three pretty different films.

First up was Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan (making this my third year in a row of seeing one of her films at TIFF). The movie premiered earlier this year at Cannes and won a Best Director award there for Nicolas Winding Refn. Gosling plays the Driver (no other name given), a man who works at a garage and drives stunt cars on movie sets by day and criminals fleeing the scene of the crime by night. He lives alone, doesn't say much and has no personal life to speak of. He meets his new neighbour Irene and her adorable son in the hallway of their building and finds himself getting pulled into her life at the same time he's also getting pulled into a new business venture by his boss and mentor Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Other people involved in these entanglements include mobsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman), thieves (Christina Hendricks) and ex-cons (Oscar Isaac).

It is a very well done, very stylistic, and very violent movie. I was a bit unprepared for the level of violence and must confess that I watched several scenes through finger covered eyes. Even so, I really liked the movie. Gosling is fantastic and I don't know whether this or Ides of March is more likely to get him an Oscar nomination this year, though it's unfortunate that the two great performances may end up working against him and splitting the vote. I renew my girlcrush on Carey Mulligan every time I see her on screen and though she didn't have all that much to do here, there were a few moments where she and Gosling had entire conversations without saying a word that were pretty magical.

More impressively for a 9:00am screening the morning after the premiere (and considerable partying I'm sure) Winding Refn, Gosling, Cranston and Brooks showed up to do a Q&A after the film. I fully believe that a couple of them had not yet been to bed. Winding Refn is clearly a bit insane (in the best possible way of course). He talked about how the movie got made (which somehow started with a story about how he wanted to kill Harrison Ford in a movie but didn't get to), how he and Ryan are 'telekenetic' and interjected some other bizarre comments as the discussion went along. Not counting being able to stare at Gosling, Cranston was easily the best part of the discussion, quick witted, very funny and entertaining.

Next up was First Position, a documentary by first time filmmaker Bess Kargman. The movie follows 6 different children from around the world between the ages of 10 and 17 who are competing in the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition, which every year awards scholarships and even job contracts to those trying to make ballet a career.

It was a lovely, entertaining and heartfelt movie. You can't help but fall a little in love with these kids as you see how hard they work and hear about some of the hardships they've had to deal with in their young lives. The film was described as a labour of love by Kargman, herself a former dancer in her childhood, who has done a really good job with her first film. She seemed very excited to be presenting the movie at TIFF and was very grateful for the enthusiastic response of the crowd. I really hope she manages to sell the movie cause it would be nice to find it on the Movie Network or HBO Canada sometime and watch it again. She also brought along a few of the subjects of the film to answer a few questions and they were all very cute and pretty well spoken.

I finished up the day with the world premiere of Sarah Palin: You Betcha!, the newest documentary from Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill which strives to tell us something new about the former mayor of Wasilla.

Broomfield and Churchill spent about three months in Wasilla, interviewing family members, friends and former friends, and enemies of Palin and also travelled to various locations in the states to pop up at Palin book signings to try to get an interview with the woman herself.

It's not a flattering picture of Palin, though I can't imagine anyone would expect one. She comes across as someone who could be dangerous with enough power. I thought the movie was good, but not great, and didn't really tell me much that I didn't know or already think about the woman. The one area that was somewhat new to me was the extent of the evangelical background and faith which seems to inform most of her decisions. I still can't believe that this woman is taken so seriously by so many people. The filmmakers were asked about fears for their safety (they're being optimistic and not worried), their thoughts on the political outlook (they think she might run) and their filmmaking style. They've already sold the movie and I'm pretty sure you should be able to find it in theatres in most major cities by the end of the year.

TIFF 2011: Ides of March and Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney, and starring Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood is a great political drama. It is based on the play Farragut North, which itself was loosely based on the campaign of Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primary.

Gosling stars as Stephen Myers, a brilliant young political mind who is on the campaign staff of Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) in the democratic primary race, which is all coming down to the results in Ohio. The whole film basically comes down to Stephen being forced to make several decisions about what he is willing to do to win, how much he's willing to compromise his own values, and who he is going to be able to deal with hurting to achieve his goals. Hoffman and Giamatti are great as the dueling campaign managers, both examples of the people that Stephen doesn't want to become. Marisa Tomei shines in a small role as a political reporter who dashes some of his illusions on friendship. There were a couple of moments in the movie that just grabbed at my throat, particularly where the camera panned back and soundtrack came up where we'd normally be hearing dialogue. My friend probably said it best when she said she spent most of the film on the edge of her seat.

It was a Saturday morning screening, the day after the premiere...yeah there's no way Clooney is showing up to intro or do a Q&A for the film. The movie hits theatres on October 7th and is definitely worth seeing.

My second movie of the day was the world premiere of Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, the latest documentary from Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock follows the journey of a bunch of different folks on their way to and throughout the four day convention held every year in San Diego, interspersed with interviews with folks who have built careers helped along by the Comic-Con crowd including Kevin Smith, Seth Green, Joss Whedon, Eli Roth and many many others.

If you are a lover of pop culture at all you have to be aware of what Comic-Con is, and the fact that it seems to continue to grow in scale and importance in terms of its influence on what pop culture is going to be focused on in the year to come (Kevin Smith described it in one of his interview segments as 'Geek New Year').

The movie was really, really good and entertaining. It definitely gave you a feel for what it would be like to be in the middle of it and the people he chose to follow and their stories were for the most part very moving and satisfying. For the first time in one of his documentaries, Spurlock doesn't appear on camera at all (which, to quote him means that "people who hate my movies could perhaps like this one"). All of the filming took place at or before the 2010 event and the stories followed included two aspiring comic book artists trying to break into the industry by showing their portfolios, a collector of action figures on a mission to pick up a specific item, the owner/operator of an online comic store who has been attending the con for more than 30 years and is trying to keep his business alive, an amateur costume designer hoping to turn pro with a team entry into the masquerade and a young couple who met at Comic-Con and who could possibly be getting engaged at this one.

Almost more fun than the movie itself was the action surrounding it last night. We were greeted by costumed characters on our long ride up the escalator at the Scotiabank theatre. Spurlock brought about 50 of them to the front of the room as he introduced the film, everyone from stormtroopers to Spiderman to a bunch that I was not familiar with (I am a nerd, but apparently not enough of one to catch all the references). After the screening Spurlock again took to the stage and brought up a whole crew of people for the Q&A including some of the folks in the documentary, a bunch of members of his crew and Mr. Stan Lee himself, whose highest bit of praise for the director was that he stayed awake for the entire movie. I don't think the moderator had to say one word as Spurlock managed the Q&A, doing a great job of getting some stories told, interracting with the crowd and bringing us up to speed on what's happened to the documentary subjects in the past year. This is the first time that Comic-Con has allowed a filmmaker this kind of access to the event and I think they definitely made a good choice in Spurlock. He shows us a funny and entertaining look at the phenomenon without resorting to making fun of those who are involved, and clearly has a lot of love for the crowd.

Getting to Comic-Con has been on my 'to do' list for a long time. One of these years I'm going to do it :-)

TIFF 2011: Friends with Kids

I loved this movie.

You should probably take that endorsement with a small grain of salt since I'm sure I'm pretty much in the sweet spot for the film target market wise. Also because proximity to Jon Hamm likely makes every experience better. But I loved this movie.

Friday night at Ryerson was the world premiere of Friends with Kids, a comedy written, directed and starring Jennifer Westfeldt and produced with her long time boyfriend Jon Hamm. It also stars about 50% of the cast of Bridesmaids (Hamm, Kirsten Wiig, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph), Adam Scott, Megan Fox and Edward Burns.

Westfeldt and Scott play Julie and Jason, long time best friends who witness the relationships and friendships of the friends around them change (mostly for the worse) as they have children. Eventually they make a decision to have a child together as friends in an attempt to avoid some of those pitfalls. This arrangement makes other romantic entanglements complicated (Ed Burns and Megan Fox play the love interests), friendships with the other couples in their lives awkward at times (O'Dowd/Rudolph and Wiig/Hamm play the other sets of couples) and, of course, their own relationship has to go through some changes as well.

It was funny. Laugh out loud funny. The whole cast was great, the script was pitch-perfect (I could so recognize moments from my own 'friends with kids' lives) and Westfeldt has done a great job with her directorial debut.

Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Adam Scott and Megan Fox attended and held a Q&A after the screening. Unlike last night's mess, no one rushed the stage and the questions were all pretty good (especially from the adorable 10 year old). Westfeldt talked about how the project started years ago when she wrote the first 70 pages of the script and then it sat in the drawer for years. She finished it last year and had a reading of it at their home and they filmed it over 25 days last winter. There were some funny stories about working with the children and simulated explosive diarrhea diaper changes. Westfeldt was charmingly nervous about the unveiling of her baby but by my account she had absolutely no need for nerves. The movie doesn't yet have distribution but I can't imagine her leaving TIFF without a deal. It should definitely be added to your list to see when it hits theatres.

TIFF 2011: Restless

TIFF kicked off yesterday and while most of the crowds were at Roy Thompson Hall trying to get a look at Bono and the Edge I was in line for my first film of the festival.

Restless stars Mia Wasikowska (my, she's been busy hasn't she?) and Henry Hopper (son of the late Dennis Hopper in his first role) as Annabel and Enoch, who 'meet cute' at a memorial service that she is attending as a friend of the deceased and he is crashing, what appears to be somewhat of a habit/hobby of his. She's a terminally ill cancer patient and he's a boy obsessed with death who hangs out with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. Of course they are perfect for each other. The movie was directed by Gus Van Sant (Milk, Good Will Hunting), with a quiet pace, well integrated sountrack and many lingering shots of both Wasikowsa and Hopper. And while Wasikowska is clearly the better actor of the pair I was pretty impressed by Hopper's first performance on screen. It was a good film. Not likely to be one I recommend seeing over others but by no means a waste of 90 minutes.

Van Sant, Wasikowsa, producer Bryce Dallas Howard (looking lovely and very pregnant) and first time screenwriter Jason Lew attended the screening and hosted a Q&A after the film. I was somewhat surprised to see Howard on the stage as I would have assumed upon seeing her name as a producer on the film that it was more of a token credit, but she seemed to have been quite an active participant. Apparently she and Lew went to school together and she was one of the first people to read the script and was involved with the film through the entire process including being on set through filming. Most of the questions were standard fare with answers about what it was like to work with Van Sant, the casting and filming process and the motivation for the script until the poor moderator had to deal with the man from the audience who, when given the last question of the evening, asked Wasikowska if he could have a hug. I really don't understand people who do something like this at a film festival. In the confusion the guy actually thought she had said yes and was in the process of rushing the stage when the moderator managed to stop him from ascending the stairs, all the while poor Mia looked terrified. Kind of a silly ending to an evening spent thinking about death.

TIFF 2011: The Film List

Subject: Your Festival Order has been Processed

Just like that, I'm like a kid on Christmas morning hoping to unwrap a gift to reveal the must have toy du jour. I open my receipt with my breath held (just a little) and slowly read down the list of tickets and showtimes until I get to the bottom to see the magical absense of the word 'VOUCHER'...got em all baby. No waiting in line to try to redeem vouchers or shuffling of the schedule needed...woo hoo!

Here's what I'll be seeing over the next 10 days of TIFF:

Restless
Friends with Kids
Ides of March
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (yes, I am a nerd, thank you for asking)
Drive
First Position
Sarah Palin - You Betcha!
Ten Year
The Oranges
Undefeated
Damsels in Distress
Butter
Sleeping Beauty
Union Square
Violet & Daisy
The Descendents
Hysteria
Page Eight

See you in line!