5.
The Ides of March
A political thriller co-written, directed by and starring George Clooney? I’m there.
This will be the film I walk right into after seeing Moneyball on the first day of the festival and just the kind of film it is has me wanting to see it and when you tell me it stars George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella and Jeffrey Wright it’s hard not to get too excited. Sure, early reviews were middling, but I don’t care about those. I want to see it for myself and the day is nearing.
4.
The Descendants
Sure, I don’t care about reviews, but when they’re good it gets me excited and The Descendants has already earned solid advanced buzz out of Telluride where it premiered only a few days ago. The film is Alexander Payne‘s first feature since directing Sideways and along with George Clooney the film is said to have a standout performance from co-star, 19-year-old Shailene Woodley. It’s always exciting to come across new talent and this year has already brought us Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Jessica Chastain has blown up with several features. Will Woodley be added to the list?
The film sounds like it’s equal parts comedy and drama as it centers on Matt King (Clooney), an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
3.
ALPS
A teaser trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos‘ follow-up to Dogtooth recently arrived online and the weird and ambiguous nature of it sucked me in, primarily because Dogtooth taught me this is a filmmaker I should never underestimate or attempt to figure out.
ALPS centers on a mysterious underground outfit, going by the name of ALPS, which offers bereaved individuals a very unusual service: they stand in for their dearly departed. To go along with that description there are also 15 rules ALPS members must follow, which I have included below the teaser. Give it a watch and see what you think.
I’ve added the teaser here for you to check out if you missed it when I posted it last week. Also, if you haven’t seen Dogtooth, it is streaming on Netflix Instant Play and I strongly suggest you give it a watch. Here, click here and watch it now if you have a Netflix account.
2.
Damsels in Distress
I already told you how excited I was for Whit Stillman‘s first film in 13 years when I debuted Damsels in Distress.
The film centers on Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore) as they set out to revolutionize life at a grungy American university. They welcome transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) into their group, which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men – including smooth Charlie (Adam Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker), the mad frat pack of Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen) – who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.
1.
A Dangerous Method
The reviews out of Venice weren’t glowing, but there was enough positivity to remain optimistic about Cronenberg‘s latest film, which sounds like it’s going to be all about your personal film taste and certainly not a film that appeals to the masses. All three stars, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen were praised even in the most negative of reviews.
The film tells the story of Dr. Carl Jung (Fassbender) as he’s seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, taking on the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) as his patient. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), but the story takes a turn as both men fall under Sabina’s spell.
There are, of course, several other films I’m excited to see, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt, Luc Besson’s The Lady, 360, The Oranges, Butter, The Moth Diaries and Anonymous.
As I mentioned before I may not be able to see Albert Nobbs at the fest, which is really disappointing since I want to see how good Glenn Close is and word is Janet McTeer knocks it out of the park. I am working on shuffling a few things around and the fingers are crossed, but I will be keeping a close eye on schedule changes, hoping the fest adds additional press screenings.
I hope that gives you a good idea of what you can expect from me over the next eight days as I will be posting reviews of everything I see and trying to keep up with everything else along the way. Stay tuned and I hope you enjoy my coverage.
You can stay up to date with all of my Toronto Film Festival coverage right here.
