Friday November 20th, 2009
The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Team Jacob, get ready to swoon. The biggest love triangle to hit teendom since Dawson, Joey and Pacey, is about to hit big screens everywhere. Which side are you on? Planet 51 – The voice artist formally known as The Rock lends his pipes to an astronaut that finds himself off-course and thinking he’s the first human to land on another planet. But this time, the human is the alien.
The Blind Side – Sandra Bullock portrays a Tennessee matriarch that takes an impoverished black teenager under her wing. This teen grows up to be Michael Oher, an offensive lineman for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. This season’s based on a true story football film.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (limited) – Werner Herzog gets Nicolas Cage to do crazy right as a New Orleans cop who’s slowly losing grip on his corrupt life. Read our review from TIFF here.
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (limited) – The Toronto International Film Festival’s audience choice award-winner about an impoverished and illiterate girl trying to improve her lot in life comes to screens everywhere. Will it follow the same path as last year’s audience choice Slumdog Millionaire? It will if the one known as Oprah has anything to say about it.
Wednesday November 25th, 2009
Old Dogs – Robin Williams and John Travolta play businessmen/BFFs that get their lives’ flipped turned upside down when Williams’ character learns he has 7-year-old twins after a chance meeting with his ex. Another tale of middle-aged immaturity from the director of Wild Hogs.
Ninja Assassin – South Korean pop singer, and former Stephen Colbert nemesis, Rain plays a RUTHLESS assassin who’s raised from birth to kill, betrayed by his clan and driven to revenge. This film comes from director James McTeigue and producers Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers, the same team behind V for Vendetta.
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Life Aquatic) gets his chance to indulge his love of stop-motion animation with this adaptation of
the classic Roald Dahl book of the same name. Friday November 27th, 2009
The Road – Cormac McCarthy’s dreary, though life-affirming, post-apocalyptic father-son road trip finally makes it to screens everywhere.
New York, I Love You (limited) – From the makers of Paris, je t’aime, comes several short films about love and life in New York City. Filmmakers as diverse as Shekhar Kapur, Allen Hughes, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman and Brett Ratner are among the contributors.
Big Fan (limited) – Robert Siegel, the screenwriter behind last year’s The Wrestler, writes and directs this story of fandom gone awry. Patton Oswalt plays a New York Giants fan beaten within an inch of his life by his quarterback hero. Madness results when he can’t reconcile his hero worship with the crime committed against him.
Cooper's Camera (limited) – A Canadian film about a dysfunctional family at Christmas in 1985. It stars well-known Canadian comedic actors like Mike Beaver, Dave Foley, Peter Keleghan, Jayne Eastwood and The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, and Samantha Bee.
Friday December 4th, 2009
Armored – An armoured truck guard played by Columbus Short is having trouble paying the bills, but his conscience runs interference when a plan to steal $42 million with his fellow guards falls off the tracks.
Brothers – In the parts they were seemingly born to play (looking so much a like as they do), Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal play brothers: Tobey’s Army Captain Sam seemingly dies in combat, and Jake’s drifter Tommy looks after his brother’s family in the aftermath. Complications ensue when Tommy falls for his brother’s widow Grace (Natalie Portman) and Sam is found alive.
Everybody's Fine – Robert De Niro plays a widower that takes a road trip to reconnect with his three adult children.
Up in the Air (limited) – In what’s sure to be Jason Reitman’s third out of three homers as a filmmaker, we meet corporate hitman George Clooney who has to deal with an extended stay in one place for the first time in a long time.
Friday December 11th, 2009
The Lovely Bones – Peter Jackson returns to his roots with this non-epic story about murder victim Susie Salmon who watches her family grieve her loss from the afterlife. The film comes from the book by Alice Sebold. The Princess and the Frog – Disney returns to cel (or traditional) animation for the first time since 2003’s Home on the Range. Supervised by Pixar head honcho John Lasseter, this new take on the Frog Prince also features Disney’s first African-American “princess.”
Invictus – After the heavy subject matter of Flags of Our Fathers, Changeling and Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood lightens up for this story about Nelson Mandela during the 1995 rugby World Cup in South Africa. Morgan Freeman stars as Mandela and Matt Damon is Francois Pienaar, the South African team captain.
Me and Orson Welles – Zac Efron leaves High School behind to play the part of a young actor that gets caught in the whirlwind of Welle’s famous production of Julius Caesar in 1937 New York. British newcomer Christian McKay plays an eerily excellent Welles.
A Single Man (limited) – Colin Firth is an English professor mourning the loss of his partner while trying to go about a normal day in Los Angeles and encountering various odd ball characters.
Friday December 18th, 2009
Avatar – Concerns that James Cameron’s first film in 12 years looks like a cross between Myst and FernGully: The Last Rain Forest are giving away to genuine excitement about what the King of the World has up his sleeve. Did You Hear About the Morgans? – Hugh Grant is charmingly befuddled as a man that is put into witness protection along with his estranged wife, Sarah Jessica Parker. Do you think they get back together by the end credits?
The Young Victoria (limited) – The title pretty much says it all. Events from the Queen’s life pre- and post-coronation are dramatized, including her romance with Prince Albert. C.R.A.Z.Y. filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée directs from a script by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park).
Friday December 25th, 2009
Sherlock Holmes – Guy Ritchie goes all Lock, Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels on the famous detective. With Robert Downey Jr. in the lead, look for the most brazen take on Holmes since David Shore used him as inspiration for Dr. Gregory House. It's Complicated – Master of the mature rom-com, Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give), brings us the love triangle of Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin and the bizarre interpersonal connections it reveals for the characters.
Nine – This film version of the musical based on Federico Fellini's autobiographical film 8½ features more Oscar winners and nominees per capita than any other film this season: Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren and Kate Hudson. Oh, and the Black Eyed Pea’s Fergie is in it, too.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel – Featuring the Chipettes to make things extra-unbearable for the adults in the audience. Broken Embraces (limited) - Pedro Almodóvar’s latest collaboration with Penélope Cruz is “a four-way tale of dangerous love” told in a neo-noir style.
