The good news for the media attending today's packed TIFF screening of Jane Campion's Oscar-hopeful Bright Star? The first 100 minutes were terrific! The bad news: The final 19 were upside down. A plattering snafu flipped the films final reel into a fuzzy, hazy, hallucinogenic blur featuring ailing poet John Keats and his lover Fanny Brawne sharing their last moments -- backwards. If you thought Keats's language was beautiful in English, there's an even more singular pleasure in hearing it run in the clipped dialect perhaps best known as Lynchian. Tough break; it happens to even the best of festivals, but more than 300 people filed out without knowing how the couple's tragic romance ends. Or at least the part up until Keats dies at the tender age of 25. Spoiler alert?
While our man in Cannes had a look at Lars von Trier's incendiary, extraordinary Antichrist, I couldn't help but chase it down for my own look this afternoon as my first film in Toronto. It's all downhill from here, I think; von Trier's tale of anonymous He (TIFF's busiest man Willem Dafoe), She (a fearless, unforgettable Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the bloody dead-end of their love lives up to the gross-out hype promised since spring. And though it's probably a film to which no single review can possibly do justice, those first impressions are a good start. Nine of mine (and some spoilers, sorry) after the jump.
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"Hell is a teenage girl," viewers are warned in their introduction to Jennifer's Body, a funny, brainy, mildly flawed effort that should at least temporarily put to rest the debate over whether Megan Fox is more than just a pretty face. Her performance is indeed high among the reasons to see the film, as are those of Amanda Seyfried and Johnny Simmons and the bleaker-than-ever genre conflations of sex, youth and death. To wit: If hell is in fact a teenage girl -- a notion both screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama purvey with a bracing lack of irony -- then where does that situate the men who chase her? And are all hells alike?
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Whether you believe it's the best of times or the worst of times for independent film (and the studios' boutique variations thereof), dollars will exchange hands over the next 10 days at the Toronto International Film Festival. But whose dollars, and whose hands? It's pretty much folly to go cherry-picking the few higher-profile buys out of the fest's scores of titles available for acquisition -- but hey, follies are fun! Have a glance at Movieline's crystal ball after the jump.
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The Telluride Film Festival, now 36 years young, has always had a flare for the dramatic, choosing as they do to unveil their lineup at the last possible minute. That turns tomorrow into something of a Christmas Morning for its cineaste attendees, knee-deep in goodies like the superb, Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon (which will feature one of Michael Haneke's only North American appearances in support of the film), Jacques Audiard's Grand Prix-winning A Prophet, fashion icon origin myth Coco Before Chanel, and sweet Sundance surprise An Education. Among the other curios in contention, Jane Campion's Keats romance Bright Star, post-apocalyptic travelogue The Road, and, last but not least, Werner Herzog's head-f**king Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. (The first review is in and it's a rave! As in, ravingly weird.) Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime also makes its debut, just squeezing out Toronto International Film Festival for the honors; but they can salve their wounds knowing they still have dibs on Jason Reitman's Up in the Air.
The full announcement is after the jump.
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The line-up for the 47th New York Film Festival was announced this afternoon, offering its usual blend of Cannes alumni, international auteur heavyweights, momentous upstarts, repertory curios and a couple of the usual X-factor head-scratchers. As with past years, some of those criteria can overlap -- such as with Wild Grass, Precious, and Broken Embraces, this year's opening-night, centerpiece and closing-night films respectively (joining Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon -- and some stand wholly alone. Among the latter noteworthy: A 70th-anniversary studio restoration of The Wizard of Oz, as well as the oldest-known Korean film (1934's Crossroads of Youth), and the U.S. premieres of new provocations by Lars von Trier (Antichrist) and Todd Solondz (Life After Wartime).
This year's festival runs Sept. 25 - Oct. 11, finally returning to its refurbished home at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The full program follows the jump.
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Has it only been two days since we were lost inside the geek fantasia that was Comic-Con 2009? The calendar says as much, but that strange, leotard-friendly universe already seems light years away. With some breathing room from its 24-hour hype machine, we take a look back at the hits, misses and too-soon-to-tells from a watershed year in San Diego's nerd-overrun Gaslamp District.
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The year's most anticipated directorial debut, documentary and remake (or whatever they're calling it) were all announced this morning as invitees to the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Of all of them, I think the one featuring Nicolas Cage as a crackhead cop might have the longest line outside the theater, but maybe I'm underestimating the appeal of Ellen Page roller derby epics. Help sort it out after the jump.
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In some ways, women won the gender battle at Comic-Con by proving that if their fandom involves the bare, glistening abs of a 17-year-old, they can outdo mere Avatar fans in line-waiting prowess any day. Still, though, women have their limits, and a panel toplined by Patricia Heaton was clearly it. Says THR's James Hibberd:
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A Nightmare on Elm Street is the latest remake from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes shingle, a specialty horror label whose modus operandi is to take a low-budget cult-classic from the '80s, then have it "re-envisioned" by directors with good eyes for slick editing and camera work, but tin ears for tone, performance, and all those other harder-to-nail elements that masters like Sam Raimi and Wes Craven would bring to the proceedings. The result is a steady stream of forgettable shit: Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th reboots both needed to be dragged to a basement and cleaved, while the only scary thing about 2005's The Amityville Horror was the number of times it found an excuse to have Ryan Reynolds battle a home demon-infestation with his shirt off.
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As noted earlier, Robert Downey Jr. will be starring opposite Zach Galifianakis in Todd Phillips's Due Date, and I had the chance to ask Downey Jr about it briefly at Comic-Con. "Yep, I'm doing it," he confirmed, though when I brought up reports that he'd essentially be playing straight man to Galifianakis, he recoiled in mock-horror. "What? Why would I want to do that?" he said. "I think Zach and I will have a nice time seeing who's the straight man to who."
There's been all sorts of unconventional promotion at Comic-Con -- just ask poor, neglected Fandango -- but the most imaginative was surely Flynn's Arcade, which Disney built to tout Tron Legacy. The carefully scheduled, surprise-filled warehouse was one of the most talked-about places at the Con, so let me give you a tour!
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I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, but as yesterday's panel began, the monitors showed an image based on the season one key art of our nearly-silhouetted survivors on the island. The only difference? There had to have been twenty or more characters there, lending additional heft to rumors that numerous killed-off stars are returning. Also hefty: Boone's coming back. Those Ian Somerhalder fangirls are sooo excited right now! [EW]
OK, yes, I came to the defense of the costumed masses at Comic-Con yesterday, but that was before I was faced with the curious case of Pedobear. The jailbait-lovin' internet meme was one of the biggest sensations I saw roaming the halls, and men, women, and their children flocked to get their pictures taken with him. Perhaps they thought he was Gooby?
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