Posts Tagged ‘50/50’

Box Office Hell — September 30

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com
Dolphin Tale|13.0|13.4|13.5|13.0|13.7
The Lion King 3-D |12.5|13.5|12.0|14.5|12.5
Moneyball|12.0|11.7|13.0|11.7|12.7
50/50|10.7|12.0|10.0|10.0|10.5
What’s Your Number?|9.3|7.0|9.0|n/a|7.0
Dream House|8.4|8.0|11.0|9.5|10.0
Courageous|5.9|10.0|8.0|11.0|8.5

Critics Roundup — September 30

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

50/50 |Yellow|Green|Green||Yellow
What’s Your Number? |||Yellow|| Red
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (limited)|||Green|Green|
Take Shelter |Green|Green|Green||
My Joy (NY) |||Green||
Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (NY, LA) ||Green|||
Bunraku (limited) |Yellow||||
Margaret (limited) |Red||||

50/50’s Big C Gets Standing O In T. O.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

50/50‘s Big C Gets Standing O In T. O.

TIFF ’11 Preview: Special Presentations

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

There are a lot of films to choose from at TIFF, and with only 20-30 I’ll have time to see and write about, I have to be a little choosy. Here are some of the films from the Special Presentations section of the Festival that are on my “want to see these” list.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS


50/50
Jonathan Levine, USA

Inspired by personal experiences, 50/50 is an original story about friendship, love, survival and finding humor in unlikely places. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen star as best friends whose lives are changed by a cancer diagnosis. Rogen also serves as producer, along with Evan Goldberg and Ben Karlin. Jonathan Levine directs from a script by Will Reiser.

Pedigree: TIFF debutante

Comments: Levine’s dark comedy has has been mixed, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a very solid history of choosing scripts. I’m holding out for this one to be worth catching.

Chicken with Plums
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud, France

Based on the graphic novel by Iranian-born author Marjane Satrapi, Chicken with Plums marks the second instalment of a trilogy that began with Persepolis. Like that Academy Award®–nominated film, Chicken with Plums is co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Satrapi herself, whose transition from comics to movies is accompanied by a refreshing and imaginative approach to visual storytelling. The work draws upon innovations that span the entire history of cinema, from the striking shadows of German Expressionism to the punchy colour palette of early Technicolor films. Unlike its predecessor, Chicken with Plums is more live-action than animated, but it too is blazingly alive with visual flair.

Pedigree: Debuting at Venice before heading to TIFF.

Comments: Persepolis was one of the strongest, most engaging films of 2008; this time around, graphic novelist/filmmaker Sarjane and co-director Paronnaud take a live-action route with a film that promises to be as visually powerful as their first effort. Mark this one a must-see.

Dark Horse
Todd Solondz, USA

On the heels of 2009’s perversely comic and formally inventive Life During Wartime, Todd Solondz crafts yet another searing portrayal of middle-class malaise with Dark Horse — the title of which befits its creator.

Pedigree: TIFF North American Premiere

Comments: Solondz tends toward darkly fascinating examinations of social mores and relationships. The program description for Dark Horse promises that it “hearkens back” to Welcome to the Dollhouse; if it is indeed as advertised, that would make Dark Horse a very welcome entry.

Intruders
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Intruders is a disturbing film in which reality and imagination mingle and overlap. Juan (Izan Corchero) and Mia (Ella Purnell), two children living in different countries, are visited each night by a faceless intruder, a terrifying being who wants to take possession of them.The presences become more powerful and begin to dominate theirs and their families’ lives. The anxiety and tension increase when their parents also witness those apparitions.

Pedigree:
World premiere at TIFF
Comments: A psychological thriller starring Clive Owen? I’ll take two to go, please.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, USA


Fraternal filmmaking duo Jay and Mark Duplass inhabit an enviable niche. They transitioned from micro-budget indies like The Puffy Chair to the studio-backed Cyrus with their resourcefulness and integrity intact. With Jeff, Who Lives at Home, the brothers deliver another fresh spin on fam­ily, inertia and relatable weirdness. Jeff (Jason Segel) and Pat (Ed Helms) are brothers. Jeff still lives with his mother (Susan Sarandon), and spends his days wear­ing track pants, smoking weed and waiting for his destiny. Pat, meanwhile, has forged a proper adult life for himself, complete with a job and a wife named Linda (Judy Greer). However, he habitually ignores Linda, turn­ing his attention to finer things, like the new Porsche they can’t afford.

One day Jeff sees both a television com­mercial and a wrong number that feature the name Kevin: a sure sign from the uni­verse. Following this cryptic message, he is led to a crisis-stricken Pat, who suspects Linda is having an affair. Pat convinces Jeff to help him spy on Linda, and their pursuit results in all manner of unintended conse­quences and revelations.

Pedigree:
World premiere at TIFF
Comments: My favorite Duplass Brothers film is still their first feature, The Puffy Chair, which had a sweetness and honesty about it that connected emotionally, in spite of it being a micro-budget road trip movie. I’m hoping this film has the light, effortless, humorous touch that made their first feature shine.


Keyhole
Guy Maddin, Canada

Idiosyncratic, cheeky and uncategorizable, the films of Guy Maddin are testaments to the singular vision of a great contemporary cinema artist, and Keyhole may be his boldest film yet. A surreal indoor odyssey of one man, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) struggling to reach his wife (Isabella Rosellini) in her bedroom upstairs, this hypnotic dreamlike journey bewilders and captivates.

Pedigree:
World premiere at TIFF
Comments: How much do I love Guy Maddin? So much that this may just be the film I’m most looking forward to seeing at TIFF this year, that’s how much. Also, I noted that Ben Kasulke, who shot Maddin’s 2006 Brand Upon the Brain!, is back on DP duty for this one. Excellent. Can’t wait.

Melancholia
Lars Von Trier, Denmark


Though it’s utterly plausible and justifiable to see Melancholia as an apocalyptic fantasy writ small, it’s probably more fruitful to see it in allegorical terms. The first section outlines the pressures faced by outsiders, specifically those who are less stable emotionally and psychologically, as well as the pressure placed on artists to perform. The approaching planet, named Melancholia, suggests both the catastrophic power of Justine’s collapses and Claire’s fear of them.

Brilliantly shot and acted (especially by Dunst and Gainsbourg), Melancholia weds the foreboding power of Tarkovsky and early Duras with the majestic surrealism of Matthew Barney, though one instantly recognizes it as a film by von Trier. It may be his most emotionally immediate film since Breaking the Waves.

Pedigree: Cannes debutante
Comments: Love him or hate him, but you can’t be a serious critic at TIFF and NOT see the latest Lars Von Trier. The only excuse is having already seen it. Or a note from your mother.

The Moth Diaries
Mary Harron, Canada/Ireland


Acclaimed director Mary Harron returns to the Festival with this chilling and evocative vampire tale set at an all-girl boarding school. Based on the popular novel by Rachel Klein, The Moth Diaries is a sinister and sensually modern film about dark pasts, the circulation of desire and the fragile line between the real and imagined.

Pedigree: Playing Venice before heading to TIFF.

Comments: Mary Harron gets the same “have to see this” pass as Lars Von Trier. Her movies aren’t for everyone … but then art rarely is.

The Skin I Live In
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain


Pedro Almodóvar’s oeuvre is furnished with textured dramas that push the limits of perversity and credibility. His latest feature, based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Tarantula, is quite possibly his most deranged, yet its beauty lies in its capacity to make even the most disconcerting and bizarre manifes­tations weirdly palatable. Contorting the genres of thriller, horror and melodrama, The Skin I Live In eloquently contemplates identity, desire and sexuality.

Pedigree:
Cannes debutante.
Comments: Love Almodóvar, love Antonio Banderas, and I’ve been waiting to see this one since Cannes. Not to miss.

Sleeping Beauty
Julia Leigh, Australia

A college student (Emily Browning) turns to niche sex work in Julia Leigh’s bold take on the Sleeping Beauty fable. Cool and exacting, it’s a powerful debut from a woman better known as one of Australia’s most acclaimed authors. Leigh challenges conventions of heterosexuality just as she challenges the eroticized pursuit of young women that marks so many art films by older men.

Pedigree:
Cannes debutante
Comments: Mixed reviews out of Cannes made this film all the more intriguing to me; is it a smart, gorgeously shot feminist skewering of the sexualization of younger women by older men? Or pretentious, boring twaddle? Can’t wait to see for myself.

Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols, USA

Construction worker Curtis (Academy Award® nominee Michael Shannon) leads a good and decent life in his small Midwestern town. He has a beautiful young wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and a happy daughter who is hearing-impaired. He gets along with his fellow employees and works hard to provide for his family. Curtis has everything a modest man could wish for. So when he starts having nightmares about ominous storm clouds lingering above his town, threatening disaster for his family, he tries to push these thoughts far from his mind.

Pedigree: Debuted at Sundance, screened at Cannes’ Critics Week.

Comments: Nichols made a powerful, assured debut with 2007’s Shotgun Stories, and after missing Take Shelter at Sundance, it’s on my absolutely-must-catch list for TIFF.

The Woman in the Fifth
Pawel Pawlikowski, France/Poland/UK

American writer Tom Ricks flees to Paris desperate to put his life back together and win back the love of his estranged wife and daughter after a scandal costs him his job. When things don’t go according to plan, he ends up at a seedy hotel in the suburbs, having to work as a night guard to make ends meet. Then Margit, a beautiful, mysterious stranger walks into his life and things start looking up. Their passionate and intense relationship triggers a string of inexplicable events… as if an obscure power was taking control of his life.

Pedigree: TIFF debutante

Comments: I was quite enamored of Pawlikowski’s last film, My Summer of Love (2004), and I’m looking forward to checking out his latest. With a cast including Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas, this looks to be one of the more promising films at this year’s Festival.

*(All film descriptions are from the TIFF catalog.)