TIFF 2013

Oh tis the season to TIFF! Today was the first official day of the TIFF season (in my opinion). Today the single tickets went onsale to the general public. Usually I wait until this day to get my tickets but this year I got a premium 6 ticket package. I was able to pick these tickets last Friday. I split the package with two friends so we ended up getting Labor Day and Don Jon both of which are mainstream hollywood films that will likely get wide releases in the future.

The pros of the package tickets:
- no virtual waiting room
- stress free
- quick process

The cons of the package tickets:
- almost 3 times more expensive per ticket than the under 25 price (which I am currently still getting)
- even with an advanced window August: Osage County (my top pick) was still off sale

I'm going to have to think about whether or not the package was a good investment. I had little stress this morning getting tickets and, in fact, both Don Jon and Labor Day were available when I went in this morning. But who can predict that. Anyway, here is a rundown of my movies this year.

Jason Reitman Reading of Boogie Nights: Last year Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) brought a star
studded cast to the Ryerson theatre to do a live reading of American Beauty. This year he will be bringing Boogie Nights, which should be an interesting live reading! Rumous are that Joseph Gordon Levitt could take up the role of Dirk Diggler. How great would that be?



Labor Day: Another Reitman flick! This movie stars Kate Winslet as an agoraphobic single mom  and Josh Brolin as a strange man looking for a place to stay. The film just screened at Telluride and the buzz seems to be good about this one. I really enjoyed Reitman's last film Young Adult and I think it was really underrated.



Devil's Knot: Last year I saw West of Memphis, a documentary about the events of the West Memphis
three. This year we have the first hollywood portrayal about the events. Adding to this, Johnny Depp has purchased the rights to create a film version of one of the three's accounts of his time in prison. Devil's Knot stars Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. It is directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan.

Philomena: Judi Dench! Steve Coogan! Two of the greats teaming up for a movie together? Can't go wrong with this one I don't think. It's a film about a journalist who travels with a woman looking for her long lost son. Should be a good one that likely won't get the same wide release treatment as the two above.






Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her: The concept of this movie is really interesting. It's actually two films - one told from the perspective of the girl and one by the guy. I wish there was a similar companion piece to 500 Days of Summer. The film stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and the hilarious Bill Hader. This should be a really cool exploration of storytelling if nothing else.

Don Jon: The trailer of this move completely sold me. This movie is written, directed and stars Joseph Gordon Levitt. It is about a Jersey boy who meets a Jersey girl. Scarlet Johanason plays his love interest. The movie looks like a perfect light film that will wrap up my festival viewing perfectly.

If you haven't watched the trailer yet do yourself a favour and click play NOW:




What movies are you seeing? What are you excited for?

Movie Review: Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler is the latest film by the director who brought us Monster Ball and Precious. The film was thrust into the public sphere with controversy already surrounding it. The title, previously OK'd, was forced to be retitled because of a legal battle between Harvey Weinstein and Warner Bros (you can read all about the battle here).

The film chronicles the life of Cecil Gaines, a butler who served in the white house from the Eisenhower administration until the Reagan years. Forrest Whitaker plays the role of the butler and attacks it with a real delicateness that frames the tone of the film. The film is packed with actors that play a series of rotating presidents that Cecil waits on through the course of the film. Robin Williams plays Eisenhower, James Marsdens plays JFK, Liev Shrive plays LBJ, John Cusack plays Nixon and an Americanized Alan Rickman plays Ronald Reagan (with Jane Fonda playing his Nancy). The film is dotted with familiar faces including Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer, Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding Jr. to name a few. At one point, it almost becomes more entertaining to try and guess who will come on screen next than watching the actual film. Oh, and Oprah is in it too.

However, Daniels provides a good film. It certainly doesn't pack the same punch that Precious did but it is a much more widely appealing film. The film deals with very heavy subject matter and it's hard to explore Cecil's micro story while giving the same priority to the macro story of the civil rights movement. Daniels does try and shift between these two frames throughout the film and it does work to some extent but does not nearly do justice to the overall story of the civil rights struggle. Daniels has gotten some flack about the fictionalization of these events. He works certain historical situations to allow them to flow with Cecil's journey. Furthermore, the actual figure "Cecil" did not exist but a similar figure did but the events of his life don't match up with those displayed in the film. But does this really matter? At the end of the day we want to watch a good film and filmmakers' jobs are to manipulate stories to make them engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking. I think Daniels accomplished this while stumbling a few times along the way with an ambitious scope.

Whitaker clearly carries this film and his performance is commendable. I wouldn't be surprised if he is acknowledged by an Oscar nod but I'd be surprised if the film is.

Film Review #5: Les Miserables

Les Mis was probably one of my most anticipated movies in a long time (well that and every other movie that has come out in the last 2 weeks). I mean come on, this trailer is pure gold:







This trailer gave me chills for months. Coupled with all the hype about the live singing and I was sold.

However, the real thing did not live up to all the hype. Let me be clear - I realize that this is a highly regarded music and my criticism does not transfer over because I have seen the musical on stage in London, England and loved it. The story did not transfer over to film. I am the first to admit that I generally don't like overly lengthy movies. I think the perfect run time is about 105 minutes. An hour and 45 minutes is PERFECT. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule and some movies do a great job of capturing an audience for longer (i.e. another recent release Django Unchained). I think that most movies these days fail to edit well enough to simultaneously do justice to the story AND keep an audience engaged. Is this because I am a product of the MTV generation and respond to rapidly moving images? Maybe, but that's just a part of life we need to accept and move on.

Let's talk about the performances. I thought that Anne Hathaway was beyond brilliant. She was delicate and vulnerable and pure perfection. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast. I thought Eddie Redmayne was totally miscast as Marius and the rest simply underwhelmed. There was a lot of talk about how all of the actors sang live during the scenes. This is quite an achievement on its own but, for the most part, the singing wasn't very good so does this still make it such a great achievement? I'll let you be the judge.