Bill Murray recently offered the following skepticism at a press junket, “I saw a guy talking about the end of the world a couple of years ago, and I haven’t seen that either.” Many notable critics feel that the new documentary entitled Collapse, from the well-regarded director behind American Movie and The Yes Men, more or less informs the world, Murray included, that the end in the form of total economic collapse is once again near. “No, this time it is. Really.” Based on surface impressions, Collapse’s message sounds not unlike Michael Moore’s recent Capitalism: A Love Story, which is a turn off, considering that it’s rather obvious things are currently effed in America (the job market, health care, pundit-hungry media, two aimless “wars,” startling deficit, for starters). One need not prescribe to “doomist” theorizing in order to wave a frightened fist online, though multi-thousands do on a daily basis. But what separates Collapse from Capitalism is the man professing the nation’s and world’s anxiety-addled, certain doom: Michael Ruppert.
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Drawing early comparisons to the films of Michel Gondry is Bunny and The Bull, the debut feature from writer/director Paul King, best known for his work on the BBC’s wonderfully disoriented comedy series The Mighty Boosh. The movie co-stars the Boosh’s Noel Felding and Julian Barratt, the latter of which can be seen in the below clip…as a bum who savors a creature’s teat. Peta is likely nonplussed, but it’s pretty funny, to Tom Green included.
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For the first time, a film has won both the audience award at Sundance and Toronto. Precious, by Lee Daniels, took home TIFF’s audience award this weekend. Unlike other festivals, at Toronto the audience award is the top honor, and has previously been won by Hotel Rwanda, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Slumdog Millionaire. Meanwhile, in the new audience award set up specifically for the genre-based Midnight Madness program at Toronto, Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones was the winner. Read More »
The Toronto Film Festival came to a close on Saturday, and I’m currently in Austin Texas awaiting Fantastic Fest. That said, we still have a bunch of TIFF coverage left to post. I thought I’d begin with this video blog recorded a few days ago with Alex from FirstShowing and myself, reviewing the superhero dramedy Defendor (starring Woody Harrelson and Kat Dennings) and the anticipated new Michael Moore documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. Watch the video blog after the jump.
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Last week I had the opportunity to interview screenwriter Diablo Cody and producer Jason Reitman about the new teen horror comedy Jennifer’s Body.
During the interview we talked about the 1980’s horror influences of the film, the magic of old horror movie cover art, Diablo’s cameo and the full burn that never happened, the prospects of a Cody/Reitman comedy tour, the warm thoughts from /Film commenters, Cody’s writing process, the troubles of keeping pop culture jokes relevant through the lengthy development process, Jason’s thoughts on directing horror films, the first time Jason watched Nightmare on Elm Street, Diablo on writing strong female protagonists, and finally… Reitman and Cody address the Juno backlash.
And since Diablo and Jaosn are both very active on Twitter, I also decided to ask some quick questions from Twitter users: Will Reitman direct Tara? Does Diablo feel pressure to change her writing style? Will Diablo direct? Will Jason and Diablo work together again? What does Diablo think of the “unfair criticism”? Does Jason feel pressure to be more like his father? How are the characters in Juno and Jennifer’s Body connected? Which John Hughes teen movie would be better with Demons?
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When I first found out that a documentary about Cleanflix was playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, I immediately added it to my must-see list. I’ve always been interested and outraged at the concept of Cleanflix.
For those of you who don’t know, Mormons are advised not to watch R-rated movies because the language, sex and violence will contaminate and pervert your brain. The modern day prophets say the best solution is to avoid these things at all costs. A video rental store was opened in Utah to cater to to the sanitized beliefs. Cleanflix would take Hollywood movies and professionally edit them in final cut, removing most of the “bad parts.”
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Steve (from Collider) and I usually record our video blogs in separate locations through the magic of the internet, but since we’re both attending this year’s Toronto Film Festival, we’ve decided to record some video blogs talking about some of the movies we’ve seen at the festival. We’ve tried to keep the video blogs short and to the point, but as always, it sometimes goes longer than planned. But if you know us, that’s to be expected.
After the jump you can watch Steve and I talk about my two favorite films of this year’s Toronto Film Festival: the new Coen Brothers movie A Serious Man and the new Jason Reitman movie Up in the Air. We both loved these films and the buzz you’re hearing is totally accurate. I know we’ve talked more than enough about Up in the Air on this site already, but Steve really wanted to talk about it, so we included the film in this double feature. Listen to what we thought after the jump.
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Steve (from Collider) and I usually record our video blog’s in separate locations through the magic of the internet, but since we’re both attending this year’s Toronto Film Festival, we’ve decided to record some video blogs talking about some of the movies we’ve seen at the festival. We’ve tried to keep the video blogs short and to the point, but, as always, it sometimes goes longer than planned. But if you know us, that’s to be expected.
Anyway, after the jump you can watch Peter and I talk about the new Michael Cera movie Youth in Revolt and The Spierig Brothers vampire film Daybreakers. We liked both of the films, and you can find out why in the video blogs below. Also, while some movies at the festival won’t hit theaters for another year, Youth in Revolt arrives in late October and Daybreakers hits theaters this January.
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Peter Stebbings feature directing debut Defendor is not your typical superhero movie. Actually, it features no super powers, and the vigilantism is more Home Alone than Death Wish. It’s a character piece with both dramatic and comic elements. Defendor successfully attempts to both subvert and inhabit the superhero genre in a much MUCH different way than Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming adaptation of Kick-Ass.
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Reporting on an event like TIFF from the comfort of my own home is frustrating. There’s the drive to learn as much about all the new films as possible, without learning too much and unavoidably pre-judging the films before actually seeing them. But some reviews just have to be read. I’d been curious about the Greek film Dogtooth since it debuted at Cannes, where it went on to win in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. And Get Low, which unites Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black, just sounded like a great little flick.
Now both movies are earning great notes out of Toronto. Dogtooth has a distribution deal and Robert Duvall’s performance in Get Low is the one everybody seems to be talking about. Read More »
