DP/30 Sneak iPhone Peek – Kat Dennings & Josh Lucas, Daydream Nation

A very roughly shot, very iPhone exchange between the co-stars of one of TIFF’s hippest.

Up On Review – Passion Play

DP/30 Sneak iPhone Peek – The King’s Speech: Firth & Rush

Sneak Peeks of DP/30 conversations (here via iPhone/coming in hi-def) with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush of The King’s Speech.

TIFF Review: The Illusionist

The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet‘s animated adaptation of an unproduced script by French comedic legend Jacques Tati, is a sad, soulful, touching tale about a vaudeville magician past his prime and his friendship with a young girl. Chomet, who previously made the excellent The Triplets of Bellville (which referenced Tati’s Jour de Fête), uses his uniquely…

TIFF Review: Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, revisits an iconic character originally played by Bruce Lee (in Fists of Fury) and Jet Li (in Fist of Legend). Here, Donnie Yen reprises the role of Chen Yen from a 20-episode 1995 television series version of Fists of Fury. This time around, Chen Zhen returns…

Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie

Toronto has also evolved along these lines. It runs arguably the best programmed cinematheque in North America, touring film programs and underwrites scholarly research and publications that otherwise would be marginalized. The Lightbox marketing employs the catch phrase: The House That Film Built and, considering past good works, it should be a home base that’s both state of the art and sturdy.

TIFF Review: Biutiful

When a great director has teamed repeatedly with a brilliant writer over the course of a career, one has to ponder how much the unique chemistry of two artistic minds working on a common canvas shapes the quality of the end result. Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s films Amores Perres, 21 Grams, and multiple-Oscar nominee Babel (which…

TIFF Dispatch Day One: Ups and Downs

I’m starting to feel settled and in the groove now that I’m getting acclimated to being back in Toronto. It was just about a year ago that I attended my first day of the fest going full force and then wound up being taken by ambulance to the hospital on Day Two, where I spent…

TIFF Review: Behind Blue Skies

Swedish film Behind Blue Skies very strongly reminded me of Holy Rollers, Kevin Asch‘s Jesse Eisenberg-starrer about a young, fresh-faced Hasidic Jew whose greed lures him into a scheme to transport ecstasy from Amsterdam into the US using other young Hasidics as mules. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, as I actually…

Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie

Try as I may, I’ve yet to conquer the feeling of apprehension that floods through me as the countdown to the Toronto International Film Festival enters the single digit phase. It is a wholly irrational emotion but it nonetheless persists.

I Just Flew Into Toronto, and Boy, Are My Arms Tired

After a full day of travel, I finally landed in Toronto around 10PM tonight. I spent part of the flight watching screeners — I’ll have a review of Swedish film Behind Blue Skies up soonish, but in brief: it’s kind of a Swedish Holy Rollers (the Jesse Eisenberg, Hasidic Jews smuggling ecstasy flick), set in…

Never Let Me Go actors Carey Mulligan & Andrew Garfield

DP/30: Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield chat with David Poland about their new film (some spoilers)

Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

Gurus o’ Gold – A Pre-Toronto Look At The 2010/11 Field

Update: The last 3 Gurus have chimed in. Not a lot changes at the top.

TIFF starts in 2 days and by its end, only 8 of the 42 charted films will still be unseen.

26 Weeks To Oscar: The Year Of… Patience

The awards season has gotten off to a rousing “uh, okay.”

Yeah, the festival season is upon us and there is a lot of drool dripping over some of these films – including my own happy salivations – but festival excitement is not, in and of itself, an answer.

Tamara Drewe, dir Stephen Frears

At 69, Stephen Frears is one of the oldest working directors and one of the most prolific of any age. This year, he decided to take on the adult graphic novel, Tamara Drewe. He’s making the fest circuit with the film, but took 30 minutes to chat with David Poland about the film and a life in cinema.

TIFF Preview, Part Two

Previously, I wrote about what you might consider the more “indie” sections of the Toronto International film fest: Contemporary World Cinema, Discovery, and docs, plus Canada First!, which is always interesting. Now let’s take a peek at the Galas and Special Presentations, plus everyone’s favorite late night, wild ‘n’ crazy section, Midnight Madness.

Review – Never Let Me Go

Sometimes an artist’s instrument is so sharp that many of the viewers will not feel the incision, either on the surface nor in its unusual depth. Such is what you’ll find in Mark Romanek’s new film, Never Let Me Go.

TIFF 2010 Preview, Part One

The Toronto International Film Festival is looming ever closer, and as always, one of the greatest challenges faced by film journalists attending the fest is determining which films on the fest’s packed slate they’ll see. With roughly a week to cover the fest and only so many hours in the day to see (and write…