Easier to admire than to love, David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis is an amplified, feverish vision of the one percent as scarcely human — not because of any innate maliciousness, but because they’re so removed from the lives of the masses. They’re like children who’ve already won a video game and now play carelessly, without any need to observe the rules. The lead role of 28-year-old billionaire Eric Packer is played by Robert Pattinson, although the star of the film is just as much Packer Capital’s high-tech stretch limousine, which serves as his mobile office as he inches across Manhattan in search of a haircut and, perhaps, his own destruction. That limo, equipped with glowing console panels, a slide-out urinal and what’s essentially a throne in the back, is the primary setting of Cosmopolis. It’s a hermetically sealed bubble in which Eric can glide through the roiling urban landscape, jumping off or taking on passengers at whim. He is in the city, but not a part of it. The vehicle is armored and, he explains to his aloof wife Elise (Sarah Gadon), “Prousted” — lined with cork soundproofing — though the latter gesture is, he admits, largely symbolic, as the New York noise manages to bleed through. Despite this, the barrier between him and the world is considerable, bolstered by watchful presence of his security chief Torval (Kevin Durand), who informs him tersely of any credible threats to his life. Cosmopolis is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo, but Cronenberg adapted the tale to the screen and it feels very much like a Cronenberg work. It’s the chilly sibling to eXistenZ , without the comfort of slipping realities. If the universe of Cosmopolis were to come loose, it would only reveal a void underneath. Pattinson does a quietly marvelous thing in finding vulnerability in Eric without making it seem like softness. The film depicts Eric’s financial kingdom (and with it his sense of self) crumbling over a day, but his breakdown is a gradual one. His panic rises in barely perceptible increments. Despite Torval’s warnings, Eric has set out to get a haircut, though he doesn’t seem to need one. (Pattinson begins the film looking like a character from The Matrix , pale and immaculate in his dark suit and sunglasses.) The city is in a state of intense gridlock thanks to a presidential visit, the funeral procession of a famous Sufi rapper and by anti-corporate protests that strikingly recall Occupy Wall Street, though instead of a tent the crowd’s chosen symbol is a giant rat. As the limo crawls along, Eric takes meetings with coworkers and employees who appear in his car as if beamed in: his partner Shiner (Jay Baruchel), his art consultant and lover Didi (Juliette Binoche), his finance chief Jane (Emily Hampshire) and his adviser Vija (Samantha Morton), with whom he sips vodka while calmly discussing the rioters outside rocking his limo and spray-painting anarchist symbols on it. “This is a protest against the future,” she says. Packer Capital is attempting to short the yuan, a gambit that is not going well and bleeding the company of vast amounts of money as the hours roll by. Eric is a big fat symbol — the film treats this fact with a wink — never more so than in scenes with his wife Elise (Sarah Gadon), who’s as much an enigma to him as he initially is to us. A poet from a massive wealthy family, she’s indifferent to the wealth he’s built and the position he’s achieved. She’s also apathetic to his more animal needs: Elise solemnly refuses to have sex with Eric because, she tells him, she needs to conserve her energy for work. Their connection is so tenuous and they know so little about each other that their marriage might as well be an arranged one between two royals. Cosmopolis is a film about the demeaning and dehumanizing effects of money, and Eric’s wealth has left him untethered. He can buy things or simply have them at will — security, sex, an appropriate spouse, maybe even the Rothko Chapel, which he wants to keep whole in his apartment — but few of these acquisitions seem to resonate with him. As a portrait of the far end of wealth, Cosmopolis is hauntingly hollow, its world deliberately crammed with things but empty of meaning. It’s possible that Eric courts death — by intentionally putting himself in the way of a “credible threat” — because he’s losing his fortune, or maybe he set out to lose that fortune first as part of plan for complete self-destruction. Either way, Cosmopolis presents a world of vivid and sometimes nightmarish imagery outside those tinted windows, and finds something elegiac and terrible in the detached way its characters process what they see. As Morton’s character says as she gazes at a protester who’s set himself on fire outside the limo: “It’s not original — it’s an appropriation.” Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Finally, a Wookiee-centric Star Wars vehicle that could get some actual laughs. Anyone who’s actually sat through The Star Wars Holiday Special should welcome a report by The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog that Fanboys director Kyle Newman is developing Chewie , a spec script by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux that is reportedly a tongue-in-cheek look at the making of Star Wars through the eyes of Peter Mayhew, the seven-foot-three-inch hospital worker who donned a fur suit and became one of the most memorable sci-fi/fantasy sidekicks of all time. In December, Deadline reported that Chewie was near the top of film executive Franklin Leonard’s 2011 Black List of hot unproduced screenplays. The script follows Mayhew as he tries to balance a career as a hospital worker while chasing his Hollywood dreams. Mayhew recently tweeted that he’s working with Newman on Chewie and Heat Vision reports that the Fanboys filmmaker acquired the gentle giant’s life rights to advance the project. Newman’s involvement bodes well for the project given that Star Wars creator George Lucas put his stamp of approval on Fanboys , which enabled the director to use the official sound effects. Let’s hope Lucas gives Chewie the thumbs up, too, since, a movie about Chewbacca that would not be permitted to use his official yowl — an amalgamation of bear growls “with a dash of walrus, dog, and lion thrown in,” according to Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt — would be sad indeed. A scene or two involving Mayhew’s involvement in the much-ridiculed Star Wars Holiday Special , which centered around the Wookiee Christmas equivalent, Life Day, would be an added bonus, but, if Lucas does become involved, we won’t be surprised if the subject is avoided. Lucas once deemed the 1978 CBS Television special a “travesty. [ Heat Vision ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Thursday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Lynn Cohen joins the cast of the next Hunger Games , while Lucas Till takes on an action-thriller. Doc NYC releases some highlights for its November documentary festival. Drew Barrymore has a new directing gig. And Octavia Spencer joins a new Fox Searchlight comedy. Lynn Cohen Joins The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Cohen will play Mags in the next installment of the popular franchise. A former mentor to Finnick Odair, Mags is an eighty year old Hunger Games victor from District 4. The second round of the series begins as “Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.” Lionsgate will release Catching Fire November 22nd. Doc NYC to Close with The Central Park Five New York’s documentary festival Doc NYC will close out its third annual event with Den Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon’s The Central Park Five . The film, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May, follows the story of five innocent teenagers wrongfully imprisoned for the infamous “Central Park jogger” rape case. The festival also announced an ambitious, expanded line-up of panel discussions called “Doc-a-thon,” covering the art and business of documentary filmmaking. Spanning five days, the program features some twenty seminars and panels with acclaimed filmmakers and experts devoted to different stages in the filmmaking process. Doc NYC takes place November 8 – 15. Lucas Till Boards Wolves Till ( X-Men: First Class ) will play the lead in the directorial debut of David Hayter’s Wolves who wrote X-Men . The action-thriller centers on Caleb Richards (Till) – a young, handsome eighteen year-old with an edge. Forced to hit the road after the death of his parents, Caleb finds his way to an isolated town to hunt down the truths of his ancestry. Around the ‘net… Bill Murray Won’t Haunt Ghostbusters 3 Dan Aykroyd said, “”It’s sad but we’re passing it on to a new generation. Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill.” Aykroyd also offered up that the sequel will begin shooting next year and also without its original star, Vulture reports . Matthew McConaughey Joins The Wolf Of Wall Street McConaughey will play Mark Hanna in the Martin Scorsese-directed feature, an early boss and mentor of Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Deadline reports . Drew Barrymore to Direct The End The end of the world drama will be produced by Warner Bros. The story will apparently focus on several people as they face the apocalypse and will take an “uplifting and humanistic” approach. Aron Eli Coleite (writer-producer on TV’s Heroes ) wrote the script, THR reports . Octavia Spencer Joins Baggage Claim The Oscar-winner boards the cast of the Fox Searchlight comedy that stars Paula Patton as a flight attendant who is the oldest unmarried woman in her family and decides to find a mate before her sister’s upcoming wedding, Deadline reports .
At one point, Kate Beckinsale remembers, director Len Wiseman thought of tapping her for a cameo as a three-breasted hooker in his Total Recall remake. Luckily for the actress, Wiseman (who directed the British beauty in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution — and happens to be her husband in real life) instead cast Beckinsale in the much juicier role of Lori, the adoring wife of factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) whom Quaid discovers is actually an undercover agent hellbent on killing him. Consider that a divorce, indeed . Expanded considerably by scribes Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback as an amalgam of Sharon Stone’s duplicitous Lori and Michael Ironside’s ruthless Richter from Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 version , Beckinsale’s Lori — her first onscreen villain — is baddie Cohaagen’s (Bryan Cranston) loyal right-hand woman, embittered by the humiliating role she’s been assigned, but relishing in her dogged pursuit of Farrell’s Quaid with glee. (She also boasts unfailingly fantastic hair, in keeping with Beckinsale’s action cinema filmography.) Beckinsale sat for a chat with Movieline about Total Recall , Lori’s inner psyche, how marriage lends insight to her working relationship with Wiseman, and how she resolves her “Kate Beckinsale” public image/action heroine reputation with her literary roots and lesser-seen work. This version of Total Recall is quite different from the Verhoeven original in many ways, including its emphasis on a more geopolitical commentary. But the Lori character in particular, which is vastly expanded here, is a sharp, strong woman who literally rejects this domestic role that she’s been given, playing wife to Douglas Quaid at the behest of her employer. I think she’s an extremely highly trained, highly intelligent, and very much at the top of her field operative, and the detail that she’s been given is actually quite degrading, if you think about it. For a police officer at that level to have to basically sleep in a bed, have sex with, make dinner for this person who appears to be a factory worker of no real note indefinitely, must be incredibly frustrating – and I think must feel like, “I have this because I’m a woman.” And there’s nothing more maddening than to feel like you’re being passed over or degraded or humiliated because of your gender. Were these elements that were in the script originally, or did those shades come in as you worked on the character? It was a little more sketched, and I know that Len wanted to feel like that about her, so it was quite early on when we were talking about the character. Because otherwise I think it’s peculiar; first of all, it’s a strange situation for someone to be undercover pretending to be somebody’s wife. What would that feel like, if you were that highly trained? And equally, there’s nothing more boring than a bad guy who’s just being a bad guy for no reason. Mainstream audiences know you best from the Underworld movies and as this lithe, lethal action heroine, but your career began with very different kinds of roles; ironically, the character of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing was one of your first breakthrough parts. And even before that, some of your first awards came as a writer, for your poetry. Does it feel strange to you that so many moviegoers know you primarily for your action roles in the Underworld movies and the like? I think that dwelling on other people’s perception of you is the road to complete madness, unfortunately. I try and resist that. You can’t help it a bit, because it is quite odd when other people are responsible for conveying your image or your words. That is quite a strange spot to be in, especially if things do come off unfamiliar. You can feel a bit gypped. But I suppose a part of you has to go, there is a kind of penalty for being so lucky to have this kind of a job that those things are going to happen. I do feel very fulfilled by the work that I’ve done, and often by the work that I’ve done that many people haven’t seen. So the bottom line is, I have actually done the work and I’ve had that experience, and it has been amazing. And yes, it would be nice if more people were aware of those, but at the end of the day it’s more important that I’ve actually had the experience. Even on Google, the first items that pop up about you involve your “Sexiest Woman Alive” type honors, or quote you talking about nude scenes… It’s maddening! And the thing is, a lot of the time you’ll do a whole long interview with somebody and then they’ll say, “By the way, have you thought about doing a nude scene?” and that’s the thing… so it’s quite skewed in terms of the balance of the interview where you’re talking about all sorts of things, but people tend to pull out the one that fits the image they have for you. And that can be a little bit annoying if it’s always about, you know, not having knickers on or being sexy or what beauty products are you using? I have no idea who that person is. It’s just odd when you kind of go, I’m coming off a bit as the sort of person who walks into a room and tries to tell everyone what I’m eating all day. Len [Wiseman] said he wanted to cast you in the role of Lori because he saw aspects in the character that he thought you hadn’t had the chance to play onscreen before very much – even Lori’s guile, her complexity. She’s not a comedic character, but the film has a sense of humor about her. What’s your take on Lori as a role? I think this is a really good part, and really great parts don’t come along every ten seconds. But I think the thing that’s great about her is she’s really intelligent – she’s obviously a bit unhinged, but she’s a very, very smart person, and people who are crazy and smart at the same time are usually the most dangerous people. I think he really wanted to get a sense of that, and I may have been in some rather not-very-intelligent looking photo shoots and/or movies, but my husband observes me in my natural habitat and knows that I’m quite a smart girl. It’s nice that your offscreen relationship could help lend that sort of insight into your working relationship. And it means he’s not just receiving the kind of Kate Beckinsale that’s out there. The quote-unquote “Kate Beckinsale.” Yes! There’s a dichotomy and gender reversal as Lori reveals herself and attempts to kill Quaid: As she chases him through the city, it’s clear that she’s highly lethal and the disoriented Quaid is rather clumsy and scared. Later you two have the most brutal hand-to-hand fight, but it remains on equal footing. I really like the movie, for all of that. It’s a very fun ride, but it’s actually very thoughtful. What deeper meaning could we draw from Len casting his own wife as the ultimate evil wife? And all the film’s many nods to their sham marriage, were those written in to begin with? Some of them were, some of them we came up with. But we obviously don’t have that sort of relationship. Len is still walking around! [Laughs] Total Recall is in theaters Friday. Read Movieline’s review here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Films like Celeste and Jesse Forever and The Five-Year Engagement feel like the start of some new subgenre — these unromantic semi-comedies about the microdramas of nice, emotionally inarticulate people struggling their way through relationships. Both feature comedic actors working with material that’s not intended to be all that funny, and both take angles on relationships that don’t usually make it to screen — a prolonged breakup leading up to a divorce and a prolonged, unhappy stretch leading up to a wedding. And both cruise on the charms of their lead actors, in this case Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg , holding together just enough to be satisfying while also leaving you wishing they had a little more to them. Jones doesn’t just star in Celeste and Jesse Forever , she co-wrote the screenplay with Will McCormack (who also appears onscreen) — The Vicious Kind ‘s Lee Toland Krieger directs. It’s an interesting role for an actress to sculpt for herself, and the fact that Jones worked to make it happen speaks to the dearth of complicated, flawed female characters that are out there. Celeste, the character Jones plays, has definite hangups, realistic ones that the film explores with almost too much enthusiasm — she can be hard to spend time with as she strikes out at her friends and herself in the process of actually getting in touch with her emotions. Despite the title, the film’s far more hers than Jesse’s (Samberg) — this isn’t so much a rom-com or even a break-up movie as it is a portrait of a woman getting her unearned certainly about life shaken up a bit, and coming to terms with her own imperfections. Celeste and Jesse have been best friends since high school, and when the film starts we see them together in a car, sharing old jokes and the conversational shorthand of people who’ve known each other for a very long time. They go to dinner with their friends Beth (Ari Graynor) and Tucker (Eric Christian Olsen), who are prepping for their own wedding, and we learn that all this adorable couple behavior isn’t cute, it’s actually a little weird, because Celeste and Jesse have been broken up for six months — and while they’re ending their marriage, they still spend all their time together. Celeste is a trend forecaster (she’s written a book called Shitegeist ) and Jesse is a mostly unemployed artist, and the two are gleefully co-dependent (he’s moved out — to the guest house in the back yard). Not having gotten to see them as they were breaking up, we’re left to extrapolate their problems from the fallout as their precarious set-up crumbles under the weight of denial and miscommunication, as Jesse obviously thinks Celeste is working up to taking him back while she’s enjoying having him around but not having him too close. When he finally realizes they’re done, she comes to terms with the fact that maybe she’s not, but by then he’s gotten inextricably involved with someone new. Celeste and Jesse Forever has an affectionate, grounded take on Los Angeles, which comes across like a tangibly pleasant, lived-in place on screen (still a relative rarity for the city in movies), one in which you can run into friends at furniture stores and miss your dinner reservation at the Chateau Marmont. The film blends in bits of the showbiz industry in a matter-of-fact way — Celeste gets set up on a date with a 22-year-old male Gap model, and reluctantly takes for a client a teenybopper pop star (Emma Roberts) whose music she can’t stand. There’s a specificity to its cultural references and the locations its characters frequent that’s pleasing, and that’s more natural than the sometimes strained bits of quirkiness that mark relationships like the one between Celeste and her business partner Scott (Elijah Wood), who tries to be her self-awarely sassy gay bestie. Jesse, placed in a situation where he has to man up, proves himself capable of turning into the responsible adult Celeste claims she always wanted him to be, while she crumbles, claims she’s okay, tries to date when she’s not ready (the omnipresent Chris Messina is her best self-deprecating suitor) and smokes a lot of non-medicinal marijuana. Jones proves wonderfully willing to put herself in humiliating situations, whether overindulging at an engagement party or going on a wince-worthy dinner with a guy (Rich Sommer) whose name she can’t get straight. But her toughest scenes are the ones in which she undercuts people again and again, telling one he isn’t ready for fatherhood, another that he obviously isn’t the right match for her, and assuming (and needing) Jesse’s new girlfriend to be dumb. The way the film and its lead actress are willing to let the character fall on her face repeatedly and realistically is impressive, though the general formlessness of Celeste’s crisis makes the process, well, a lot like witnessing someone you’re fond of insist on making terrible mistakes over and over again. Celeste and Jesse Forever creates a handful of likable and very human characters, so much so that halfway through you want the film to stop putting them through the emotional wringer so that you can just spend time with them. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
After rolling out its Galas and other spotlights last week, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a swarm of new films added to its lineup, including documentaries by Ken Burns, Alex Gibney and Julien Temple. TIFF also added its genre-heavy Midnight Madness section including new work from Oscar-winners Martin McDonagh and Barry Levinson as well as Don Coscarelli and Rob Zombie. The festival’s Vanguard section includes international work that “defies convention” and includes work from North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Also joining the 2012 roster is TIFF’s City to City lineup which this year will spotlight Mumbai; the TIFF Kids lineup including the new Finding Nemo 3-D animation and a collection of restored work. In all, the festival announced over 70 films Tuesday. “There is great satisfaction in discovering films from new voices in non-fiction filmmaking,” said Thom Powers, lead Festival programmer for documentaries. “Some of the most powerful stories being told are from these bold and original emerging filmmakers whose work stands strongly side by side documentary filmmaking greats Alex Gibney and Ken Burns.” The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival takes place September 6 – 16. Descriptions are provided by TIFF. TIFF Docs: 9.79* by Daniel Gordon, United Kingdom World Premiere Daniel Gordon’s 9.79* looks at the legacy of the 100-metre men’s final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when gold medalist Ben Johnson tested positive for anabolic steroids and scandal reigned. For the first time ever, the eight athletes who ran that infamous race tell their story. Artifact by Bartholomew Cubbins, USA World Premiere The band Thirty Seconds to Mars and lead singer Jared Leto fight an excruciating lawsuit with EMI while writing songs for their album This is War. A World Not Ours by Mahdi Fleifel, United Kingdom/Lebanon/Denmark World Premiere A World Not Ours is an intimate, often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings and historical footage, it is a sensitive and illuminating study of belonging, friendship and family. The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/United Kingdom World Premiere In a place where killers are celebrated as heroes, these filmmakers challenge unrepentant death-squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a surreal, cinematic journey, not only into the memories and imaginations of mass murderers, but also into a frighteningly banal regime of corruption and impunity. Executive produced by Errol Morris. As if We Were Catching a Cobra by Hala Alabdalla, Syria/France World Premiere Initially intended as a documentary foray into the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria, when the insurgencies break out in both countries, Syrian director Hala Alabdalla ends up drawing an electrifying, intimate, passionate film on the fearless tenacity of Arab artists fighting for freedom and justice. Camp 14 — Total Control Zone by Marc Wiese, Germany North American Premiere This is the story of a man who was born and grew up in a Gulag-style North-Korean camp. After his escape at the age of 23, he discovers the “outside world” for the first time. The film relays his incredible story, as well as those of his fellow inmates and prison guards. Featuring Shin Dong-Huyk, Hyuk Kwon and Oh Yangnam. The Central Park Five by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, USA North American Premiere The Central Park Five tells the story of how five black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of raping the Central Park Jogger and how a rush to judgment by the police, media clamoring for sensational stories, and an outraged public contributed to that miscarriage of justice. Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story by Brad Bernstein, USA North American Premiere Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story depicts one man’s wild, life-long adventure of testing societal boundaries through his use of subversive art. This film combines traditional documentary storytelling with original animation from over 70 years worth of art from the renegade children’s book author and illustrator. Featuring Tomi Ungerer, Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer, Steven Heller and Michael Patrick Hearn. Fidaï by Damien Ounouri, France/Algeria/Qatar/China/Kuwait World Premiere An exceedingly timely tribute of unsung everyday heroes of revolutions draws the intimate portrait of El Hadi, a seventy-year-old veteran of the Algerian War of Independence, filming the unrecorded memory of years in combat, with its glories, traumas and legacy of violence. First Comes Love by Nina Davenport, USA World Premiere With the bracingly honest, occasionally hilarious and ultimately moving First Comes Love, Davenport examines husband-free parenthood. From hormone injections to post-natal chaos, Davenport chronicles her own pregnancy — including her conventional family’s reaction to it. She reflects upon a rapidly changing world, providing a wry and insightful play-by-play that keeps the viewer tuned in and transfixed by the topsy-turvy state of modern reproduction. The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh, Israel/France/Germany/Belgium International Premiere Charged with overseeing Israel’s war on terror, the head of the Shin Bet — Israel’s secret service agency — is present at the crossroad of every decision made. For the first time ever, six former heads of the agency agree to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions — offering an exclusive account of their experiences and attitudes during, and after, their service. The Girl from the South by José Luis García, Argentina International Premiere Filmmaker José Luis García was fascinated by a young Korean student activist he met in 1989 in North Korea. The director begins his quest to ask her how she crossed the most fortified frontier in the world and what happened to her dreams after the fall of communism. How to Make Money Selling Drugs by Matthew Cooke, USA World Premiere How To Make Money Selling Drugs offers a provocative glimpse into the lives of those on both sides of the “war on drugs,” delivering a diverse and unique perspective on the subject through interviews with 50 Cent, Eminem, The Wire producer David Simon, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Eminem, Susan Sarandon and infamous drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp by Jorge Hinojosa, USA World Premiere Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp examines the tumultuous life of Iceberg Slim (1918-1992) and how he reinvented himself from pimp to author of seven groundbreaking books. These books were the birth of Street Lit and explored the world of the ghetto in gritty and poetic detail and have made him a cultural icon. Interviews with Iceberg Slim, Chris Rock, Henry Rollins, Ice-T, Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg. London – The Modern Babylon by Julien Temple, United Kingdom International Premiere London – The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple’s epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and — above all — ordinary people, this is the story of London’s immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Lunarcy! by Simon Ennis, Canada World Premiere With wry humour and affection, Simon Ennis’ Lunarcy! follows a disparate group of dreamers and schemers who share one thing in common: they’ve all devoted their lives to the Moon. From the former ventriloquist who’s made millions selling Moon lots to the young man who’s resolved to depart for Luna (permanently), Lunarcy! is a touching and comic portrait of passion, creativity and quixotic dreams. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God by Alex Gibney, USA World Premiere Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney exposes the abuse of power in the Catholic Church and a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland’s churches all the way to the highest office of the Vatican. Men At Lunch by Seán Ó Cualáin, Ireland International Premiere Narrated by Fionnula Flanagan, Men at Lunch reveals the remarkable untold story behind one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, Lunch atop a Skyscraper, taken on the 69th floor of the Rockefeller Building in the autumn of 1932. Part homage, part investigation, Men at Lunch is the revealing tale of an American icon, an unprecedented race to the sky and the immigrant workers who built New York. More Than Honey by Markus Imhoof, Germany/Austria/Switzerland North American Premiere Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” In the past five years, billions of honeybees simply vanished for reasons still obscure. If the bees keep dying, there will be drastic effects for humans as well: more than one third of our food production depends on pollination by honeybees and their lives and deaths are linked to ours. No Place on Earth by Janet Tobias, USA/United Kingdom/Germany World Premiere While mapping out the largest cave system in Ukraine, explorer and investigator Chris Nicola discovers evidence that five Jewish families spent nearly a year and a half in the pitch-black caves to escape the Nazis. This is the story of the longest uninterrupted underground survival in recorded human history. Reincarnated by Andrew Capper, USA World Premiere Legendary hiphop star Snoop Dogg travels to Jamaica to record a new album and immerse himself in the island’s music and culture. After decades as America’s ultimate gangsta, Snoop seeks a more spiritual path. Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out by Marina Zenovich, USA World Premiere In 2009, celebrated director Roman Polanski was arrested at the Zurich Film Festival. His weekend jaunt turned into a 10-month imprisonment. Zenovich’s follow up to Wanted and Desired — which some say was one of the reasons for Polanski’s arrest — explores the bizarre clash of politics, celebrity justice and the media. The Secret Disco Revolution by Jamie Kastner, Canada World Premiere A cheeky, sexy documentary-hybrid, The Secret Disco Revolution wraps revealing celebrity interviews — The Village People, Gloria Gaynor, Kool and the Gang — classic glitter-era footage and music in a hilarious new package that never lets you stop dancing long enough to decide what’s real and what’s satire. Shepard & Dark by Treva Wurmfeld, USA World Premiere Remember when close friends corresponded by letters? When intimate thoughts about life, family and mortality were hand-written or typed on the page, with full thought given to every word? This is the kind of friendship that Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark had. Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky by Barry Avrich, Canada World Premiere One of the most infamous moguls, Garth Drabinsky’s incredible story is the most dramatic and unprecedented rise to and fall from power in show business history. Show Stopper features interviews with artists who loved him, industry players who battled him and the media who spilled gallons of ink chronicling his prodigious career. State 194 by Dan Setton, Israel/Palestine/USA World Premiere In 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched a plan to demonstrate that his people were deserving of statehood, inspiring them to change their destiny and seek U.N. membership. Since then, they’ve made remarkable progress, but the political quagmire threatens to destroy the most promising opportunity for peace in years. From Participant Media, the company behind Waiting for Superman and An Inconvenient Truth. Storm Surfers 3D by Christopher Nelius and Justin McMillan, Australia World Premiere Storm Surfers 3D is an epic, character-driven adventure documentary following two best friends on their quest to hunt down and ride the biggest and most dangerous waves in the world. Aussie tow-surfing legend Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time world champion Tom Carroll enlist the help of surf forecaster Ben Matson, and together they track and chase giant storms across the Great Southern Ocean. The Walls of Dakar by Abdoul Aziz Cissé, Senegal International Premiere A rare documentary that chronicles Dakar’s unplanned, spontaneous mural frescos, produced by marginal painters, rappers and taggers, that functioned, until the city’s insurgency, as one of its rare sites for free, uncensored expression and the crucible for articulating citizenship. Visually captivating, an elegy of Dakar’s unrepentant insurgent spirit of its everyday artists. Documentaries screening in other Festival programs include: Wavelengths: Bestiaire by Denis Côté, Canada/France Toronto Premiere Animals/People: Along the rhythm of the changing seasons they watch one another. Award-winning director Denis Côté’s sixth feature film, Bestiaire, unfolds like a filmic picture book about mutual observation and about peculiar perception. A contemplation of a stable imbalance, and of loose, quiet and indefinable elements. Masters : The End of Time by Peter Mettler, Canada/Switzerland International Premiere The End of Time is a cinematic experience from visionary filmmaker Peter Mettler which explores our perception of time. The Toronto International Film Festival will continue to announce documentary film selections in coming weeks. Previously announced documentaries include the world premieres of Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Gala), Liz Garbus’ Love, Marilyn (Gala) and Maiken Baird and Michelle Major’s Venus & Serena (Special Presentation). Midnight Madness: The ABCs of Death World Premiere Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Adrián García Bogliano, Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Xavier Gens, Jorge Michel Grau, Lee Hardcastle, Noboru Iguchi, Thomas Cappelen Malling, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, and Yûdai Yamaguchi Twenty-six directors… 26 ways to die! The ABCs Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived, featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. With each director assigned a letter of the alphabet, they were then given free rein in choosing a word to create a story involving a tale of mortality. It’s an alphabetical arsenal of destruction orchestrated by some of the most exciting names in global horror including Ben Wheatley ( Kill List ), Ti West ( House of the Devil ), Jason Eisener ( Hobo With A Shotgun ), Adam Wingard ( You’re Next ), Xavier Gens ( Frontieres ), and Nacho Vigalondo ( Time Crimes ). Aftershock by Nicolás López, USA/Chile World Premiere In Chile, an American tourist’s vacation goes from good to great when he meets some beautiful women travellers. But when an earthquake ravages the underground nightclub they’re in, a fun night quickly turns to terror. Escaping to the surface is just the beginning as they face nightmarish chaos above ground. Starring Eli Roth and Selena Gomez. The Bay by Barry Levinson, USA World Premiere A brutal and harrowing film about a deadly parasite, The Bay chronicles the descent of a small Maryland town into absolute terror.
Jessica Chastain can hold her own with British royalty when it comes to fashion. The Tree of Life actresss and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, each adorn a cover of Vanity Fair magazine’s September Style issue, which includes the magazine’s annual International Best Dressed List. The red-headed beauty — whose cover will go to subsribers — made the list for the first time, but joins other actors who are no strangers to the honor. Inglourious Basterds actress Diane Kruger made the list for the second time as did Best-Dressed Couple, The King’s Speech star Colin Firth and his producer wife Livia. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing ( Shaolin), France’s Léa Seydoux ( Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ) and model, actress, filmmaker and Schiaparelli muse Farida Khelfa. How to Get Ahead in Advertising actor and Wah-Wah director Richard E. Grant returns to the list for the first time since 2007, and My Week with Marilyn heartthrob Eddie Redmayne makes his debut in the Best-Dressed Men category. Jay-Z is named to the list for the first time, along with fellow musician Alicia Keys, who is back on the list for the first time since her inaugural appearance, in 2009. Actor Richard E. Grant makes a fashion comeback as well, named to the list for the first time since 2007. Colin Firth is on the list for the second year in a row, along with stylish wife Livia, in the Best-Dressed Couples category, and newcomer Eddie Redmayne is one of the Best-Dressed Men. You can see more photos of the Best-Dressed at Vanity Fair.com . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Danish comedy duo Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam would like you to know they are not pedophiles. Not that accusations of creative indecency would stop them from toying with the line of good taste, as they do to hilarious effect in the R-rated Danish sex comedy Klown . The Curb Your Enthusiasm -style road trip comedy, which they wrote and co-star in, happens to be the funniest, most outrageous film of the year, and it has already been acquired for American remake by Todd Phillips and Danny McBride. Klown debuted in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin over the weekend, stirring up a decent opening as it looks to expand to 13 additional markets in the coming weeks. Back home in Denmark, it’s already made $12.3 million; nearly 20 percent of the population reportedly watched it upon release in 2010. That’s a fantastic start for a buddy comedy chock full of explicit sexual gags, nudity, child endangerment and wanton irresponsibility galore — a NSFW comedy of discomfort. After floating down the the Guadalupe River outside of Austin, Texas last month for The Alamo Drafthouse’s wonderfully meta Rolling Roadshow screening series, Christensen and Hvam spoke with Movieline about the planned American remake, their scripting process, and their tricks for pushing the envelope. For instance, why you can’t pop a joke too early (“What would top ejaculating in a child’s face? It’s impossible”), and the gag from their Klown series that rivals the worst transgressions of Klown the Movie. Also: What is cinematic infant terrible Lars Von Trier (whose Zentropa outfit co-produced Klown , and whose Nazi-referencing Cannes controversy the duo dismiss as “a stand-up comedian at an open mic”) really like? You two had a successful run with Klown the TV show, but at what point did you crack the right way to make it into a film? Casper Christensen: We did six seasons, and Frank and I wrote all the episodes. It’s a lot of work. It’s a joyride, it’s a lot of fun, but sometimes in life you’ve got to just come up for fresh air. So after six seasons we just took a break from each other — Frank went on a stand-up comedy tour, I did television, and it felt good just to let go of the Klown universe for a while. But we always had ambitions to write a movie. We got together and said, ‘Let’s write this movie.’ I wanted to get back into Klown because the character was so much fun to act, and we knew the characters so well, that we thought it might be a good idea for the first movie that we wrote, to know something. It would be easier for us. So I convinced Frank that it could be a good idea to write Klown . Frank Hvam: It was a good idea. I have no regrets about that movie. CC: But we started out bouncing around ideas for a completely different movie before we did this one. How different was that concept? FH: It’s always based on some buddy stuff, because that’s our relationship — we are friends in real life. We have this comic dynamic that we know, and we use that. CC: We talked about setting it during the second World War. FH: Because we would probably fail totally in a war situation. CC: We talked a lot about war. FH: On which side would we be? [Laughs] CC: How would we be if we were soldiers? Would we still be friends? Who would really be the hero between the two of us? FH: Every time we see a war movie in Denmark it’s about Danish heroes, and we would like to tell a story about Danish assholes. CC: During the second World War. Maybe you can use that in a Klown follow-up. Do you already have an idea in mind for your next movie? CC: Oh, we have a plan! We’re going to start writing in January. It might be a Klown movie, but it might be something completely different. One of things Klown the film does well is give freshness to a concept that isn’t necessarily unique – the road trip set-up, for example. If you were to give comedy writing tips based on your experience writing Klown, where would you start? CC: You’ve got to have a good story, a story that means something to yourself. Fatherhood is interesting for Frank and I — we’re both fathers, spent a lot of time talking about it, and living not the everyday life, we live a different life than most people in Denmark so of course we talk about things like, what kind of father figure are we? That was most important for us — we had a good story, and we had something we wanted to talk about. CC: Once a story is in place, you’ve got to do good comedy on top of it. You’ve just got to refresh your thoughts — I’ve never seen this, this might be fun — and just believe in it. We weren’t trying to please anybody when we made the movie. We’re not going to go, ‘People might like canoeing.’ Frank and I liked the concept of canoeing, that’s why we did it. FH: Write for yourself. That’s a very important thing, otherwise you get confused. CC: Six seasons on television – there were a lot of characters that people liked and loved from the series that aren’t in the movie. We might disappoint people, but then what? We don’t care. It’s about what we think is important. So there are a lot of good characters that aren’t in the movie. Nudity, especially in R-rated comedy these days and especially involving male genitalia, is used often for shock value. How strategic do you have to be in using it at just the right moment, and for maximum effect? CC: When we wrote it we wanted to make sure one of the biggest laughs was going to be at the end of the movie, because it seemed downhill from there. FH: We also had to make sure it didn’t ruin the story. If we have something explosive and we can’t get on the horse again – our story horse – then it wasn’t worth it. CC: That’s why we don’t show the picture right after we take the picture. We put it late in the movie but early enough that you kind of have forgotten we took the picture. That’s when people go, ‘Oh!’ when Frank goes, “I’ve got Casper’s phone right here.” They’re suddenly reminded. FH: We were discussing having Bo in the bed having a pearl necklace instead of Frank’s mother in law. That would have been fun, but it would have destroyed the story because it would have been impossible for Frank and Bo to get on that canoe trip after that. CC: And what would top it? What would top ejaculating in a child’s face? It’s impossible. FH: Then it’s a skit. CC: No, then it’s illegal! Do you think American audiences will be more shocked by how far Klown goes in the pursuit of humor than audiences back home were? FH: It was a shocking movie at home, too. CC: Let’s not kid ourselves – it’s way too much, even in Denmark. Denmark doesn’t just have the coolest audience in the world, then? CC: Oh, no – that’s why you laugh, because it’s too much. FH: It’s ok that people are a little bit shocked. Otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie! CC: Some scenes get more laughs over here, though; the homosexual themes are much more taboo. FH: The home robbery scene is also a little more [taboo] because running away from a child during a robbery here in the U.S. is a death scene — in Denmark it’s bad, but it’s not that bad because the robbers are probably not armed. Thieves are nicer back home? CC: They’re still thieves! Don’t kid yourself. It’s dangerous, but not that many people have guns so it’s not that dangerous. There’s also a point when Frank is teaching Bo to swim and there’s a beautiful shot of the two characters, the lake is in front of them and the sun is going down, they’re both drying themselves off, and Frank goes, “Let me see that penis… it’s not that small.” It’s funny but it’s a beautiful scene, it’s a loving scene – it’s got feelings in it! In Denmark people laughed, they giggled, but over here it’s like [guffaws] they LAUGH. A grown man looking at a boy’s penis! But in Denmark it’s a beautiful thing. Why bring Klown to Zentropa? Was Lars Von Trier’s involvement part of the appeal? FH: He wasn’t that much involved, but we came to Zentropa because of Lars von Trier. We wanted to get some of the best film workers on our project and we wanted to get close to Lars because he’s a super cool guy. He involved himself in a little bit of the editing at the start. He wrote an episode, he acted in an episode, and he is good at forcing us to push the envelope. He really wants things to go wild, and if you’re close to Lars you just want to impress him. He’s cultivated quite the reputation for himself, and not just through films. CC: Once you get to know him he’s a good guy! He’s got a good sense of humor, he’s a little bit crazy – but in a good way. I’ve been to his house having dinner with his children and my children and it’s all normal… but then suddenly Lars picks up a rifle at the dinner party, stuff like that. Sometimes taking his shirt off during dinner. He wants to see what happens now – what if I did this? And that’s interesting to be around. FH: Basically, he’s just a nice guy. Do you think his detractors took his Cannes comments a little too seriously? FH: We were surprised. We couldn’t see that he’d made any mistake at that press conference. He was just a comedian in an open mic situation – CC: And somebody misunderstood his joke. Lars von Trier as stand-up comedian – sounds about right. CC: That’s what he is! He’s trying out material. FH: We have tried that too. People sometimes are not offended in their heart, but they can use a matter to promote their own cause, and then they start a war just to show who they are. Contined on next page…
Searching For Sugar Man , which tells the improbable story of how a singer-songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez rose, fell, and found superstardom in what amounts to a parallel universe, is an elegy in several keys. One is clear and familiar: Upon his excited discovery by a noted producer, the music business circa 1969 ate Rodriguez for breakfast, and a talent still acknowledged by his peers went to waste. The second is more personal, and although Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul leaves a distinct and ultimately frustrating berth around the man at the center of his documentary, it becomes poignantly clear that an abbreviated resume and a family to feed didn’t keep Rodriguez from living an artist’s life. And then, perhaps most resonant and abstract, there is the film’s charting of the confluence of circumstances that can create a legend and shape lives – a confluence whose particularities are less and less possible in an information-glutted age. Sugar Man opens with much but fleeting stylistic fanfare. Over a blend of vivid landscapes, a steady-cam tour of bleak and snowy Detroit, moody recreations of key scenes and a neat effect that moves from image to illustration and back, various players (beginning with a Cape Town record-store owner called “Sugar”) recount the film’s heavily fragmented story of a mysterious musician out of Detroit who, South African legend has it, staged “probably the most grotesque suicide in rock history.” Why “South African legend,” you might ask, and the answer is what takes Sugar Man ’s story from sad but common to extraordinary. In many ways that story belongs to the men who stand in for what was apparently a solid chunk of the South African populace in the 1970s, when apartheid was in full swing and the country was under totalitarian rule. A hilarious origin story has an American girl bringing a single Rodriguez album into the country, patient zero-style, with bootlegs and label requests proliferating from there. With sizable cuts from Rodriguez’s two studio albums of Dylan-esque folk rock accompanying them, those men (musicians and music fans) describe how songs like “I Wonder” and “Anti-establishment Blues” sparked something – a glimmer of rebellion, the comfort of fellow feeling – in them. Elsewhere referred to as an “inner city poet,” if Rodriguez’s lyrics lack a certain prosody they are written squarely and straightforwardly in the protest tradition of the time. A grassroots process that had to sidestep censors and a heavily restricted media helped foment a folk hero in the public’s imagination. Rodriguez, we are told, is bigger than Elvis in South Africa, and certainly bigger than the Rolling Stones. His sonorous tenor is sweet but strong and pleasingly clear – somewhere between Cat Stevens and Neil Diamond. Even so, the truth is that, though skilled and even singular, of the songs we hear nothing astonishes or even comes close; a couple sound too dated to be great. But then we’re not supposed to be evaluating his music for signs of greatness, not really. Perhaps under different circumstances, like the ones in South Africa, he might sound different; he would be different. Much discussed is the lack of personal details that fueled the Rodriguez enigma; his mystery was part of what made him great. Bendjelloul upholds that idea, whether he likes it or not, after a rambling exposition of how a couple of amateur Cape Town sleuths finally tracked the very much alive Rodriguez down. Mexican by birth and extremely reticent by nature, Rodriguez is an uneasy interview; we learn more about him just watching his delicate form move down a snow-laden sidewalk like an exotic but flightless, black-coated bird trapped in a crummily ordinary world. Interviews with his three daughters are sweet but a little unsatisfying, and in its final third – which details his triumphant arrival in South Africa and introduction to an adoring audience of twenty thousand – Sugar Man falters. Various threads of the story (including the rather major question of how an estimated half a million records sold resulted in zero royalties) are left to fray. It isn’t clear that the director recognized the most prominent among them: Bendjelloul is enamored not with the deeply organic nature but the novelty of this “instant” success story. And yet Sugar Man is most interesting when it touches on the conditions that combined to draw a cult hero out of some decent music and a generously enabled, imagination-firing mystique. I imagine even the wise and thoughtful Rodriguez himself would insist that more than one man’s third act justice, this is a story about time and a swiftly vanishing context. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Walking out of The Watch , Saturday Night Live writer Akiva Schaffer’s garrulous but indistinctive directing debut, a young woman in front of me complained to her friend. “What do you even say about that?” he’d asked. “I have no idea,” she said. She only had to write up a list of the movie’s pros and cons, and even then she could think of but one item for the former column. It’s not that The Watch is terrible – it’s not not terrible, but there are sufficient diversions and more punitive ways to spend your evening – but that it’s one of those smoke bomb comedies that seems to disappear even while you’re watching, leaving no trace of itself behind. A studio gumbo of proven quantities – here’s Vince Vaughn doing his flirty, towel-snapping thing, Ben Stiller playing a tightly wound Citizen Costco, um, rabid aliens, beer- and pot-sealed enshrinement of male bonding – The Watch leaves very little to say because, despite the near-constant jabber, it says, and aspires to, so very little. There is a concept, of course, and it’s high enough to track with those non-native Apatowians (Seth Rogen co-wrote the script with Jared Stern and his longtime writing partner Evan Goldberg) sadly unable to keep up with the movie’s urban thesaurus worth of masturbation references. Home team-loving Evan (Stiller) is what Max Fischer might be like if he grew up to manage a Costco and moved to Middle America. Trying to prop up his flagging self-image with extra credit community work, Evan is also trying (and failing) to have a child with his adorable wife (Rosemarie DeWitt). When his overnight security guard is found in a pile of viscera and green goo, Evan responds the only way he knows how: By deputizing himself as the leader of yet another organization, a neighborhood watch. I saw the trailer for The Watch back when it was still called Neighborhood Watch , just as the February murder of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by a patrolling neighborhood watch volunteer was coming to national attention. No doubt a couple of 20 th Century Fox executives had a couple of sleepless nights, wondering if their lewd little genre mash-up would be found guilty by association. They did what studios do in these dismally self-interested situations – a shell game currently being played by Warner Bros. with their Gangster Squad , whose release has been postponed until next year in the wake of the Aurora shootings: They changed the title. It’s all about optics and the bottom line, and between those two imperatives less and less to do with (moral and other kinds of) substance in storytelling and image making seems to survive. With the exception of the character of Franklin (Jonah Hill), one of Evan’s three compatriots (including Vaughn’s bored dad and Richard Ayoade as a deceptively well-bred Brit looking to blend in), and a funny scene in which Stiller and Vaughn vie to get the last bullet into an alien corpse, The Watch is too clearly about cartoon battles and puerile riffing to inspire queasiness. Police Academy reject Franklin is keen to whip some neighborhood ass; he slings a blade around, refers to their club as a “militia,” and has an arsenal of automatic weapons hidden under his childhood bed. He’s really a pussycat, of course, and when it falls on the quartet to save their town from alien invasion (Will Forte is brilliant as usual playing one of the town’s handful of ineffectual cops; a creepy Billy Crudup is also welcome in a small part) and a divide forms between the two alpha males, Stiller and Vaughn vie for his loyalty. The Watch received an R-rating, which mostly means that the usual complement of dick jokes have room to flower into a full-blown penile fixation – to grow taller, bloom fatter, scatter more potent seeds, etc, etc. Some of it’s funny; most of it’s a flat-out grind. (Least clever is the movie’s nod to its own preoccupation with everything phallic and fluid; like I tell my landlord, acknowledging the problem is not the same as fixing it.) Back in March, the Watch trailer preceded a showing of 21 Jump Street , a movie that should not have worked if ever a movie were doomed from the start (or by its title), and yet it restored my faith in the studio comedy; side by side the two movies are a study in the difference between inspired silliness and what is merely and persistently slight. The Watch is in wide release Friday. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
