TIFF is just over a week away, decided to make a post for anyone that's attending and wants to talk.

I've got tickets to the following:

Galas (World/North American premieres):
American Dreams in China
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
Parkland
The Love Punch
The Lunchbox
The Railway Man
A Random Desi Romance

(was trying to attend the world premiere of August: Osage County (new Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts flick, but that sold out super fast)

Screenings:
Omar
The Past
Blue Is The Warmest Color
All Is By My Side
Labour Day


Anyone else attending and what films are you seeing or hoping to see?

You wanted to see? I'll try to give a spoiler-free opinion on them in this thread!

I mean, there are way more too.

I'll be posting advance reviews a lot in here.

>I mean, there are way more too.
>
>I'll be posting advance reviews a lot in here.

I heard Labor Day didn't get the usual enthusiastic reception Reitman got for his other films that premiered there in the past.

Plus, despite outstanding performances from Winslet, Brolin and the rest of the cast, people werent universally in love with the movie. So this may land with a thud Christmas day...a thud I still want to see because the book is really good, and it's Winslet. And Brolin. And Reitman (though he comes off slightly douchebaggey at times)

It's telling that reitman seemed more jazzed about the NEXT film he's going to direct instead of promoting Labor Day...

I still want to see it...Winslet and Brolin in anything is a damn win. The two of them in the *SAME* movie?

its playing this Sat for their blockbuster throwback series

hell yeah im watching that. one of my fav movies.

but yes im jealous of the tickets u picked up

Decided I had too much on my plate already.

Are you going to any of the TIFF-related events at all?

all the movies this year...i really wish i made time to do that..any recommendations?

Hoping to see...


Blue is the Warmest Color
Finding Vivian Maier
Devil's Knot
Night Moves
Dallas Buyers Club

those were 3 of the tops on my list so im really excited.

and had Enough Said on my long list.

Will definitely catch it when it's released.

The trailer is so different in tone than the play. Interested to see if it's trailer deception or if they fucked up the play to try to make it more palatable to the masses.

so i'll be able to give my opinion on the film version only on Monday night

so I just got back from watching Le Passé (The Past), by Asghar Farhadi..

it was brilliant

the script was so well-written and the actors delivered amazing performances all around

even Elyes Aguis in his first acting role as 5 year old Fouad was excellent

during the Q&A, Farhadi was asked about how he cast Fouad, and he said that he auditioned over 130 children, and Aguis stood out because he refused to do anything Farhadi asked of him (when you watch the movie, you'll understand), while the other children were giving it their all trying to convey the emotions he wanted.

while it's not as good as A Separation, I felt this film was great

Farhadi also answered a great question about his use of silence during some of the key scenes, and his answer centred around how in the evolution of human speech, the vocabulary has grown tremendously, but as we develop more and more words, a lot of our communication is still lost.

(possible mild spoilers ahead, I don't think so, but tread carefully)

He felt that the film had so many moments of so much dialogue (which is true), but that often the characters were miscommunicating with each other, or not listening to each other, or talking over each other. the true communication only occurred during moments that were depicted with silence. he mentioned that 100s of years ago, even in times when vocabulary wasn't as dense, people still understood each other. and he wanted to convey that so many emotions are expressed without speech. I definitely enjoyed that answer.

anyways, this was a great start to TIFF 2013.

I really, really liked this movie, and I particularly thought the way information was revealed over the film was engaging. It often felt like more of a thriller, in that you're trying to figure out what the next piece of information could be, minus all the schlocky stuff that comes with the average thriller. It was very unique to me in that way.

Thoroughly engrossing storytelling, and the idea that ran throughout of 'some truths being better left unsaid' was enjoyable. Add in the morality of all the various decisions made throughout the film, and it leaves you with plenty of stuff to think about. I've seen about five films so far, likely with another five or so to come, but I can't see anything topping this.

themacguffinmen.com

@themacguffinmen

I've seen about five films so far,
>likely with another five or so to come, but I can't see
>anything topping this.
>

I saw Visitors tonight and it was fucking incredible. It was like an 87 minute long Godspeed You Black Emperor song, minus guitars, plus gorgeous visuals. I don't know a better way to describe it.

Saw this yesterday. It was the 2nd premiere of the film at 11am. Yet, we were still treated to a panel after the movie featuring the director, producer, writer, Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Tanroh Ishida. Patti Lomax, the real life wife of Eric Lomax was also in attendance and was carefully escorted by Firth.

The movie was really wonderfull acted/shot/directed. It was absolutely thrilling from about halfway into the film. At about 100mins, the movie feels too short. It takes a very dramatic leap in the film very early. I think it may have really benefited from an extra 15 mins of setup before the movie takes its leap.

That said, what *is* shown in 100mins is fascinating. Firth is, as expected by now, just captivating. Kidman is capable and well cast but her character is given somewhat limited screentime in my opinion. The real treat here is the younger WWII versions of Lomax (Firth) and Japanese captor Nagase (Sanada). The young cast led by Jeremy Irvine and Tanroh Ishida are really a treat I wasn't expecting. The matching up of Firth and Irvine, and Sanada and Ishida as versions of each other is somewhat remarkable. Irvine joked during the Q&A that while the actors did collaborate off screen to work on dialogue and mannerisms together, Irvine said he really worked on his "Colin Firth impression" which got a huge laugh from the crowd.

My gf and I both agreed that the acting here definitely warrants some award-season attention, but overall the film was a little bit choppy in how quickly things evolved and that it may have really benefited from some extra development.


Up next, Parkland. It too is in its 2nd premiere, so I'm sure there will be some crew/cast that's stuck around. I'll check in here after.

Saw Parkland yesterday. It's very good. It tackles the JFK assassination from a very behind the scenes standpoint. It takes the perspective of the people behind the president, and also the people behind Lee Harvey.

Landesman has a voice in the film. He really enjoys showing the difference between tragedy documentation 50 years ago vs. today. The cat and mouse game for simply finding a processing office that could develop the film from the camera that Giamatti's character used to document the assassination. Stark difference from the instant Vine's that popped up in the Boston Marathon days.

Efron is fine in his role as a young doc at Parkland Hospital. He's the only character in the film I felt may have been miscast. Perhaps being surrounded by such a laundry list of brilliant actors was the problem. He just came off as too...modern. I didn't see him as a doc in 1963 like I saw Colin Hanks as his superior or as Marcia Gay Harden's nurse. He looked like Zac Efron with the 5 o'clock shadow.

The real star of this movie in my opinion James Badge Dale. He continues his decade of brilliant character roles in Parkland. I won't say anything about his role, because after the movie when talking to my gf, she didn't realize something about Dale's role that I did realize having seen the trailer. She did not see the trailer.

Anyway, its a solid flick. Landesman mentioned in his Q&A after the flick that he has no qualms about telling conspiracy theorists to essentially fuck off and that there is no conspiracy. Some of the conspiracy theorist questionnaires in the audience seemed a little offended by how lax he was about telling them they're respectfully full of shit. He also said he loves Oliver Stone and loves his JFK, but frankly, he was wrong. It was a very refreshing Q&A and I'd love to see more from Landsman in the future.