Confessions
of a Festival Junkie
by Leonard Klady

More than past Toronto experiences I found my anxiety level heightened throughout. It might have been an anomaly but the pressure of seeing the 35 to 40 movies in the roughly 300 screened this year seemed more challenging.

TIFFed
by David Poland

In the end, it was an unexpectedly good festival, albeit more about tiny, wonderous tapas and never ever the great grand meal journalists and others have come to expect.

Toronto From New York
by Noah Forrest

Alas, I didn't get a chance to see Che, Burn After Reading, Apaloosa, Me and Orson Welles, The Wrestler, Blindness, The Brothers Bloom, Un Conte de Noel and countless other films. But I was fortunate enough to see some of the films that unspooled up North ...

Confessions
of a Festival Junkie
by Leonard Klady

The other great question mark hovering over the film is just how it will be screened to the public. The filmmaker has stated a preference for a single screening (with intermission) in its present form though he hasn't ruled out the prospect of staggered releases of the separate parts that focus on both the Cuban and Bolivian episodes of his revolutionary life. He's even suggested a willingness to create an abridged version that combines footage from the two films that presumably more shave an hour off of its current four hour plus running time.

Confessions Day One | Two | Weekend

Hurt Locker
by David Poland

The best Iraq movie so far (closely nipping Nick Broomfield’s Battle For Haditha) and the best new American film at TIFF that I have seen this year is Kathryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker, which really isn’t so much an Iraq War film as it is a war film that happens to be in Iraq. Mark Boal’s screenplay does what so many screenplays dealing with big subjects do not… it narrows the field down to a subject that can be contained by two hours, offering full, rich, human emotion on the playing field, which in this case is the Iraq War.

Tears for Sale
by David Poland

Mike Leigh's advice was well taken, as Uros Stovanovic has the kind of visual muscle to make him one of the next hot candidates for a Hollywood slot. The film is, essentially, a fairy tale filled with dark jokes, estrogen, sex, and explosions. Simplifying the story is probably a mistake, but I will offer the broadest strokes...

Confessions
of a Festival Junkie
by Leonard Klady

There's something a bit daunting about the fact that two of the most acclaimed films coming into the Toronto International Film Festival are titled Hunger and Blindness.
Confessions Day One | Two

Lovely, Still
by David Poland

There have been some good films so far, but with the talent involved, good shouldn't be a surprise. But the first "wow, didn't see that coming" for me is Nik Fackler's Lovely, Still... a tiny movie about age and love and family, small in scope, but movie stylized, with two home run performances by Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn.

I don't have much time to write about it now, but all of those Boynton Beach Club movies that get distribution... this is going to be the king of them. Maybe it's just $10 million in theatrical, but given the Academy composition and the very real love of these two actors, don't be shocked to hear award buzz around this one all season.

Confessions
of a Festival Junkie
by Leonard Klady

It's virtually impossible to avoid the feeling that one is going about it all wrong. Obviously with so much to choose from it's inevitable that one will be sitting in a screening wondering whether the option not taken was an error of judgmen

Toronto Preview: Part II
by David Poland

The 35 other titles I am quite interested in seeing... which makes a total of 59... and a lot of stuff that I will be looking for advice on. The titles...

Happy-Go-Lucky – Mike Leigh in one of his happier efforts. You know it will be compelling and very, very human.

Toronto Preview: Part I
by David Poland

I am now working my way through the TIFF list... here is the first part of what I am finding that I think might be particularly interesting...

Appaloosa – Ed Harris takes on the western… fingers crossed.

Blindness – Fernando Meirelles took a beating in Cannes… but I trust him more than I trust “them.”

The Brothers Bloom – Rian Johnson’s first, Brick, was a cult phenom… and little seen by mainstream movie lovers. Here, he has indie beloved Ruffalo and Brody as brothers/con artists, working Rachel Weisz. Fingers crossed.