TIFF: Bright Star and Whip It

Day 4 of the festival and two films on the schedule.

The first film of the day (and my first and only early morning film of the festival) was Bright Star, the newest film from Jane Campion (The Piano) about the life of doomed poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his romance with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). The movie was great. Moving and well acted and beautiful to look at and I was a bit of a blubbering mess at the end of it (and trust me, that doesn't happen often).

I'm always appreciative when filmakers show up for early morning screenings so it was a pleasant surprise to have Campion there to introduce the film and talk a little bit about it beforehand. She and her producing partner discussed their inspiration behind it and spent some time talking about the difficulty they had in getting it made due to a combination of the subject matter (she assured us that she felt the same as likely most of us sitting in the theatre about poetry before this project) and the fact that they didn't have any marquee names for the poster.

By my thinking, her casting was perfect across the board. Cornish and Whishaw are great as the leads and have you completely invested in the story even though you know it ends with Keats' untimely death (I'll quote Jane Campion herself here and say I hope I didn't ruin that for anyone). I was mildly distracted throughout the film trying to place the actor playing the part of Charles Brown, Keats' friend and seemingly biggest source of financial support. 'Where did I know him from?' I kept asking myself. A quick IMDB check revealed him as Paul Schneider...most recently of Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler's NBC sitcom. That was definitely not a connection that my brain would have made while watching this period piece so good on him :-).

The movie is out in limited release later this month and it's definitely worth adding to your list.

My second film was the premiere of Whip It, the directorial debut from Drew Barrymore and boy did she have crowd out to support her. It officially eclipses last year's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist as the film with both the largest "Reserved" section and biggest group of cast member attendees I've seen at the Ryerson. Here were the cast member attendees: Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig (love!), Alia Shawkat, Zoe Bell, Andrew Wilson, Daniel Stern, Eve, Landon Pigg and Carlo Alban. Along with Shauna Cross, the writer of both the novel the film is based on and the screenplay and Michael Cera and Justin Long just hanging out.

Unfortunately the entertainment of the star power in the room may have eclipsed the actual film. I had read 'Derby Girl', the novel that provided the source material, last year, loved it, and was very much looking forward to the movie. Maybe my expectations were too high. I definitely enjoyed it, and I hope it ends up being successful because there is always room in the world for a movie about young women doing things that they are passionate about. And I loved that, while there was a love interest for Bliss (Page), the story wasn't all about the boy which was nice for a change. A perfect slumber party movie...remember those??

The movie started 30 minutes late after a lengthy introduction from Drew including effusive praise of each cast member individually, which is likely why there wasn't a Q&A afterwards. Though Drew stayed in her seat in the theatre until after the lights came up and yelled out her thanks to the crowd.

And now I'm home and off to bed...three movies on deck tomorrow!

TIFF: George Clooney is pretty

I didn't have any films on the docket for today and after sleeping in, eating lunch and catching up on the premieres of Melrose Place and America's Next Top Model (don't judge) I decided to swing by the Ryerson for the premiere of 'Up in the Air', the latest film from Jason Reitman that's on the schedule for next Saturday as my last film of the festival. Honestly, because I figured I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to see George Clooney while he's in town :-).

Other than grabbing pictures of people at screenings I'm attending, I don't really do much star searching at the festival. And I've never stood with the crowds at one of the red carpets so this was my first experience watching the action for more than the few seconds it usually takes me to walk by on my way into the theatre. I don't know that I'd make a habit of it, but it was a fun way to spend an hour on a lovely Saturday afternoon.

The carpet was busy and the crowds were huge. It's the first time I've seen the entire street blocked off in front of the Ryerson for a premiere. And among the group around me shouting at various stars as they talked to entertainment reporters across the way from us were definitely those that took the process of autograph hunting seriously.

Stars passing by included Vera Farmiga (that's her in the white dress above), Anna Kendrick and Jason Bateman (love him) who are all in the film but also a bunch of people who aren't including Amanda Seyfried who must have had nothing better to do today.

And George, oh George. Lainey has always talked about how professional he is and how he goes above and beyond to work the publicity for all of his films and I'm going to have to agree from my brief perspective. He showed up early and worked the line. And not the line of reporters waiting to interview him (though he did a very quick pass by and shook all of their hands) but the line of fans out on the street and all around the red carpet area signing what must have been hundreds of autographs even with a broken hand.

Jason was pretty obliging as well.



The ladies never made their way to our side of the carpet, but I can tell you they all looked lovely from behind :-)



I'm very much looking forward to seeing the movie next week. Here's hoping Jason Reitman goes three for three. Now I've got to get ready for dinner out and two movies and a baby shower tomorrow.

I'll leave you with the biggest red carpet disaster I saw all afternoon...

No, I can't leave you with that. How bout this one?

TIFF: Passenger Side

Friday night's film was Passenger Side, an indie Canadian film about two brothers driving around Los Angeles seemingly aimlessly and the cast of characters they run into en route. Elder brother Michael (Adam Scott) is a writer of no success who spends a day playing chauffeur for Tobey (Joel Bissonnette), a recovering drug addict who's 'errands' for the day end up being a meandering quest in search of something...someone.

Matt Bissonnette wrote and directed the film and as he discussed in the Q&A following the screening, casting his brother and good friend as the leads made the brotherly relationship completely believable and their rambling discussions were full of conversational shorthand that only comes with years of history. The soundtrack of the film was also great, a character onto itself. The film's producer, Bissonnette(s), Kimberly Huie (who played a drunken right-winger in one of the brother's encounters) and Scott attended for the post-film Q&A to discuss the film, the music and road trips in general. I'll pause to note that Adam Scott has one of those voices you could listen to forever and I was always happy when a question was posed in his direction (and as an aside, you should really check out the hilarious first season of Party Down if you want to see more of him).

All and all a solid film, and one that I'm sure will show up on the Movie Network at some point in the future for your viewing pleasure.

The film was preceeded by the short 'On a lonely drive' which was really pretty to look at but didn't seem to say much...so I really won't say anything about it either.

TIFF: An Education

TIFF kicked off today and I really hope my first film is indicative of the quality of films I've got on the slate for the next 9 days.

An Education takes place in the early 1960's and stars newcomer Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a smart, pretty, curious girl who's a straight A student with parents pressuring her to gain acceptance to Oxford. But she strays from that path when she meets a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard) who tempts her with a life of fancy clothes, night life and even manages to somehow charm her parents into letting her spend a weekend in Paris.

The movie is based on a memoir by Lynn Barber and was adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby and boasts great performances all around. Mulligan is amazing in this film, and definitely worthy of the quiet Oscar buzz she's garnering. Alfred Molina's turn as her father is funny and charming. Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper are entertaining as the couple who, along with Sarsgaard, lure Jenny to the world of adventure. And Olivia Williams and Emma Thompson as her teacher and headmaster respectively are pitch perfect. Incidentally, watching a Sarsgaard love scene while watching the man himself react to the scene (he was sitting in the row ahead of my directly in my peripheral vision) is quite entertaining.

The post film Q&A wasn't the best I've seen at the festival, but I'm going to put that to the quality of the questions from the crowd (not that I had a better one to offer) as opposed to the actors as they were all quite charming.

After the film we played paparazzi at the exit door while the TIFF volunteers did their 'lock and load' for the stars' exits.

Here's Carey stopping to sign a few autographs as she was rushed through

Peter ran the gauntlet pretty quickly as well.

Alfred Molina and Dominic Cooper spent a little more time with the crowd

And Cooper's girlfriend Amanda Seyfried, who also has a film premiering at the same venue tonight at midnight (Jennifer's Body) came out to support him.

The poor girl may have been the most mobbed one there at her exit. And she somehow managed to miss the car and spent a few minutes in the middle of the street getting inundated for autographs and pictures before they swung back around to get her. Also incidentally, she and Cooper seem like a very sweet couple. They were sitting right in front of us for the film and at one point he removed his jacket and threw it around her shoulders as she was clearly getting a bit of a chill in the theatre. All together now....aaaawww :-).

TIFF 2009

So the rest of the summer has disappeared and it's once again time for TIFF! Year after year, it saves me from the end of summer doldrums and bridges the gap to the new TV season :-).

First of all, I have to say that the festival has recovered from the epic fail that was the Toronto Life main building box office location and management and my experiences at the box office this year have been great. I've visited the big white tent in Nathan Phillips Square three times and even the double lineup this morning to first pick up my tickets and then exchange vouchers for the choices I didn't get went very smoothly. And I was once again fairy lucky with my ordering, receiving 7 of the 10 films I selected and was able to pick up an 8th of my original requests this morning. I felt very sorry for a few people in the line around me who were in a few of the last boxes who had received about 40-50% of their requested tickets.

Following my usual process I narrowed down the film list last week and here's what I ended up with after having to do a bit of reorganizing this morning.

1. An Education


2. Passenger Side


3. Bright Star


4. Whip it!


5. Precious


6. An Afternoon with Chris Rock


7. Leaves of Grass


8. Youth in Revolt


9. Life During Wartime


10. Up in the Air

Random ramblings

Summer is here and mother nature finally decided to catch up with the calendar bringing a heat wave this week.

It would have been nice if my air conditioning at home was fixed before that happened.

I went so see No Doubt and Paramore at the ACC last week and it was awesome. I bow down to Ms. Stefani's abs and stamina. And was impressed that she actually sang live for the entire show (I'm looking at you Madonna). Paramore became one of my favourite bands last year and got a visibility boost by being included in the Twilight sountrack (as with everything involved in that franchise) and were great live, especially when you consider what babies they still all are.

Lainey's annual Smut Soiree was this week and while still enjoyable, the lack of air conditioning, lousy sound set up and continued talking of other folks over the panel's discussion led to a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully the swag bag delivered. And warm gooey cookies with shot glasses of milk are a fantastic idea.

Alan Sepinwall (great TV reviews/recaps) started doing a rewind a few weeks ago and recapping episodes of my beloved Sports Night which lead to me rewatching the entire first season in a flurry. So it's entirely his fault that I've now found myself sucked in to a Sorkinthon and have begun watching The West Wing from the beginning. I forgot how much I adored that show and couldn't wait until Wednesday evenings when it aired. And it's filling the gap as the summer show pickings are slim.

Though True Blood is back and I'm thoroughly enjoying the second season, even as I can't help comparing little details to what happened in the books. Speaking of which, the latest is on it's way to my library for me to pick up according to the Toronto Public Library website...yay.

It's my birthday on Monday and I'm having a bit of a hard time believing I'm turning 33. I moved to the city 10 freaking years ago...where the heck did the time go? On the plus side, I got asked for my ID when buying beer a few weeks ago so at least there's that.

I had one of those sort of perfect quiet moments this weekend when I was at the cottage. Nothing major, just standing on the deck at dusk looking out at the water. My parents and grandparents were inside having cocktails and getting ready for dinner and my dad was about to light the BBQ. And I'm generally not one for a lot of introspection but in that instant as I just stood there I realized how genuinely lucky I am. So thank you to all the people in my life who make me feel that way.

Season finale thoughts

It's been a rather lazy long weekend and I've felt somewhat justified lounging on the couch with my PVR since the weather hasn't been 'seasonal' and I've completely caught up on my television viewing. Here's what I've been thinking about the season finales of some of my favourite shows (it goes without saying, but stop reading here if your PVR is backed up and you haven't seen em yet).

Chuck. Hallelujah!! The various 'Save Chuck' campaigns have apparently been successful and this wonderful show that was sitting on the bubble of cancellation has received a 13 episode renewal for next year. I'm choosing to just be excited about that and not worry about what the apparently required budget cutbacks will do to season 3. I caught an episode of this show mid way through the first season and then had to spend a few hours catching up courtesy of the folks at Television without Pity before adding it to my repetoire. It's fantastic and I can't quite understand why more people aren't watching. The last few episodes of this season closed out the arc on the creation of the intersect (featuring missing dad Scott Bakula!), had a pretty sexy (there but for the grace of a condom) hookup between Chuck and Sarah, a wedding for Awesome and Ellie featuring the musical sylings of Jeffster and most importantly (especially where next season is concerned) a Chuck who has actually been able to make the decision to be a hero instead of having it foisted upon him...a decision which came with a super upgraded Intersect and what looks to be a whole new set of skills.

Lost. OMFG Lost. How could you leave us with a flash to a white screen not knowing whether the quest to detonate the bomb had the desired effect?!? Well, of course you could, leaving us dangling is what Messrs Abrams, Cuse & Lindelof seem to do best. This season was as entertaining and frustrating as you would expect from one of the best shows on television. And sets us up perfectly for the final 16 episodes set to air in 2010. What are we do do in the mean time? If you're looking for a Lost fix, I'd highly recommend checking out Doc Jenson's colums for Entertainment Weekly or watching the interview with Lindelof and Cuse here.

House. Ok. In retrospect I knew the Huddy hookup was unrealistic. There's no way he was detoxing overnight and also no way (as much as she likely wanted to) Cuddy would have jumped into bed with him immediately afterwards. The final episode built slowly to the final 10 minutes, where House slowly realized the fact that he had been hallucinating the entire event. It will be interesting to see where they go from here, and I'm hoping we don't spend too long hanging out at the mental hospital at the beginning of next season because I want to see the series get back to dealing with weekly medical mysteries and a protaganist that is on his game. It was nice to see the Cameron and Chase wedding, and I'm also hoping that the producers find a way to get them more screen time in the future because their talents were wasted this year.

The Office. After the first UK copycat season, which I could never watch, every season of the office has ended with a big Pam & Jim moment and this one was no exception. Krasinski's moment on the phone in the hallway was awesome (though a friend recently pointed out that Jenna Fischer was a bit shortchanged by the fact that the moment of revelation of Pam's pregnancy was all about him). Moments in the last few episodes of this season were pretty classic...the inappropriate casual day attire, Kelly & Andy's dance off at the disco, the reappearance of Holly and the negotiation for the sale of the Michael Scott Paper Company were all either laugh out loud funny or completely cringeworthy, which is just how we like it.

Castle. Ok, first of all, I just need to put in a plug for this show. Start watching it, seriously. For the most part, it's a procedural so you're not going to be missing much by jumping in at the beginning of season 2 and everything else you can completely catch up on. Here's the recap so far: Richard Castle is a famous crime novelist who has just killed off his main character (think Patterson's Alex Cross) and gets pulled into a murder investigation because the killer is copying murders from his books. That initial investigation leads him to decide that detective Kate Beckett should form the basis for his new character and through connections to the mayor (among others) he gets himself permission to shadow her for material. It's a fairly basic premise and the cases that they investigate each week aren't all that original but that's not why you should be watching it anyway. First of all, Nathan Fillion is quite possibly the most charming lead ever. Now I'm probably biased since I've loved Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Waitress and pretty much anything else on his resume, but even friends who are not as enamoured with Mr. Fillion have said that this show has become one of their favourites. The chemistry between Castle and Beckett is wonderful and playful and entertaining as hell. But even better is the relationship between Castle and his daughter. The moment in the finale after he waited up for her to get home from her first dance was just so sweet and endearing. The season ended with Castle about to share some information with Beckett regarding the long ago murder of her mother...and I can't wait to see what it was and where they'll go from here.

Grey's Anatomy. I missed watching the episode live as I was out for the evening and unfortunately couldn't help being a little bit spoiled the next day with my inability to avoid various pop culture commentary websites. So by the time I watched the show I was fully aware that John Doe was actually George and even though the plot was done on ER first I felt like the folks at Grey's did it better. It was a really well done finale and ending with both George & Izzie's fates in the balance was an appropriate cliff to hang on. The moment when Arizona was telling Callie why it was so 'awesome' that George had enlisted managed to activate my tear ducts. It was nice to see Mer and Der seemingly in a healthy adult relationship. I love what Kevin McKidd has brought to the show in the character of Owen Hunt and his relationship with Cristina. I hope that we've seen the last of Denny, as much as I enjoy Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And oh, that last moment when the elevator doors opened and George stood there on the other side was killer.

Fringe. Oh J.J. you got me again. Of course you did. You've got a series with a smart, kick ass female lead, a completely charming partner in crime for her in Joshua Jackson and a brilliant, strange mystery to unravel that goes back to experimental childhood treatments (shades of Alias). Alternate realities crop up in sci fi all the time and the idea of deja vu as an indication of such isn't new, but Fringe did it well, as with everything else on this first season. The character of William Bell was omnipresent all season, as the founder of the mysterious Massive Dynamic and former partner of Walter Bishop (the incredibly entertaining John Noble) his name came up in conjunction with many of their investigations. His appearing in the finale (in the shape of Leonard Nimoy no less) was perfectly done, and the final scene with Olivia coming face to face with the man responsible for not only the experiments done on her as a child but seemingly all of the events that she had been investigating was a strong ending. Until the camera panned out to show us that the meeting was taking place in one of the twin towers, which told us more in a single image than they could have told us in minutes of exposition and it got even better.

And that about wraps up another season of television. There are a few finales to come (24, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty) but the season is pretty much wrapped up. There are a few summer series that I'm looking forward to (True Blood, Entourage) but for the most part my PVR is going to get a break. Which begs the question, should I finally start watching The Bachelorette so that I have something on my TV schedule??