Precious Victories

Precious has become the first movie in history to win the Audience Award at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. My excitement for this movie just keeps building and building, and Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay are now all but guaranteed. Congratulations to everyone involved. We'll see you all at the Kodak Theater soon enough!

Ten Toronto Tidbits

The Toronto International Film Festival - where the Oscar season unofficially starts - has come to a close. This year wasn't really revolutionary. Most of the big hits already had a substantial amount of buzz going in. There were a few great bits to come out of the fest, though. Here are the ten headlines that I'm most excited about.

10. An Education still getting great reviews. Carey Mulligan is the one I'm most excited to see make the rounds this awards season.
9. Drew Barrymore can direct! Whip It debuts to positive reviews and is a commercial success. Not an awards contender, but it proves Barrymore is a fun new talent to watch behind the camera, and Ellen Page is one phenomenal young actress.
8. Chloe is greeted favorably. Amanda Seyfried is touted as an up-and-coming actress who is pleasantly surprising as a call girl hired to tempt a woman's philandering husband.
7. Mother & Child star Annette Bening is getting great reviews for her role as a woman who gave a child up for adoption when she was 14. Ten years after her acclaimed performance in American Beauty lost to Hilary Swank, and five years after her turn as Julia Lambert lost to Swank again, Bening could be up against her if she gets a nomination for Mother & Child and Swank scores a nod for Mira Nair's Amelia. If I were her I'd be packing heat at the Kodak, just in case.
6. Ricky Gervais's The Invention of Lying does well. I will always root for whatever Gervais does. Can someone please book this man to host the Oscars?
5. Up in the Air continues to bowl people over. I've got a good feeling about this one and director Jason Reitman. For some reason they're striking me as the film and director to beat, so far.
4. The Coens' A Serious Man was really the only featival takeoff. Lots of talk of the film being their most personal and best film to date.
3. Tom Ford's A Single Man, which recently won Colin Firth Best Actor in Venice, gets picked up by The Weinstein Company. Currently looking at a December 4th release date, it's looking to be the actor's first big awards vehicle.
2. Precious is not showing any signs of slowing down. It doesn't seem like anyone has a negative thing to say about it. While Mo'Nique drew most of the praise earlier this year at Sundance, it was Gabourey Sidibe stunning Toronto audiences. Both actresses now seem on track for Academy Award nominations next March.
1. Robert Duvall delivers another stunning performance in Get Low. His turn as a Tennessee hermit who throws his own funeral was the talk of the festival. The film hasn't found a distributor yet, but if it does we'll be looking at a Best Actor campaign for Duvall, which I'd love to see.

What were you most excited about in Toronto? What Toronto films are you most excited to catch this year? Any major disappointments?

TIFF: Whip It

Whip It is the directorial debut of actress Drew Barrymore, and the first major project for Ellen Page since the smash hit Juno, which earned her a Best Actress nomination back in 2007. I've stated before that I think this project was perfect for both of these women at this stage in their careers.

The film debuted at Toronto this week, and it seems to be doing quite well. Awards caliber? Maybe not. But it's impressing critics and audiences nonetheless. Roger Ebert says:

"The film confirms what's been clear to me since "Hard Candy" (2005) and probably to others for much longer: Page is not only a great actress, but a daring one. Barrymore begins with a story whose broad outlines are potentially conventional and uses quirky personal details to bring it to life."

The Hollywood Reporter's Peter Brunette had nice things to say as well:

“‘Whip It’ clicks on so many levels—heartwarming family story, rough-and-tumble display of grrrl power and a secondary but tender and convincing romance.”

I'll definitely be in line to see this one when it hits theaters October 2.

TIFF: Precious

It seems Lee Daniels' Precious is not going to call it quits after conquering Sundance. This one looks like it'll be snatching up awards left and right all the way through the season.

Roger Ebert was among the first to weigh in on the film (out of Toronto, at least), and it seems he was as taken as everyone else:

"Precious, one of the best films of the autumn, is Lee Daniels' the story of a physically and mentally abused poor black girl from the ghetto, who summons the inner strength to fight back for her future. It contains two great performances, by Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, in the title role, and Mo'Nique as her pathetic mother. Sidibe is the life force personified. Mo'Nique has a closing monologue that reduced some of us to tears."

John Foote, who's covering TIFF for InContention again this year, did him one better:

"This is daring filmmaking because it is real, because we all know things like this happen everyday. Let’s hope the Academy is daring enough to nominate the effort and honor the artists involved. “Precious” is the year’s best film."

Strong words from both. Precious hits theaters stateside on November 6th, and as of right now I think both Sidibe and Mo'Nique are safe bets in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. A Best Picture nod isn't a long shot either.

TIFF: Up in the Air

Just as it wowed Telluride last week, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is now bowling over critics and audiences alike at Toronto. Try as you might, you will not find a single person with a negative opinion of the film.

The latest to fall for the film is Roger Ebert, saying on his blog:

"It stars George Clooney in one of his best performances, as a frequent flyer. During the course of the movie he passes the 10 million-mile mark in the American Airlines Aadvantage Program, becoming the seventh such person in history. Asked on an airplane where he lives, he replies, "Here." He's a Termination Facilitator. He fires people for a living. When corporations need to downsize quickly, he flies in and breaks the news to the new former employees. In a lousy economy, his business is great.

You can be 32 and already have three good films under your belt. Look at Spielberg. You need to find the financing, of course, but that's not the hard part. The hard part, as wise men have said for generations, is story, story, story. Reitman's films are not in the business of following formulas. All three have pointedly ended in ways we probably didn't expect. All three have insights deserving consideration. All three require actors who can deliver complex and fascinating dialogue. All three make us care. That with Reitman we also usually laugh a good deal is so much the better."

With not a bad bit of buzz to be found, I have to wonder if this is a title that will be a major player come next March. There are certainly plenty of others yet to be seen (Nine, The Lovely Bones, Invictus, to name a few), but for the moment, Up in the Air is seeming the one to beat.

TIFF: A Serious Man

Hey, remember those kooky Coen brothers? Well, try to hide your shock as I tell you that the buzz from Toronto is that their latest, A Serious Man, is miraculous.

First is Kris Tapley at In Contention, who thinks it is their best film since Fargo, possibly since Barton Fink:

"The film is beautifully abstract, making the impact of its thought-provoking ideas all the more profound. It features a central performance that could seem merely capbale at first notice, but has a certain refined quality the more one considers it. And there is a remarkable rhythm to the film, a reminder of the Coens’ brilliance at orchestration and craft."

IndieWIRE's Anne Thompson chimes in with raves as well:

"This movie is utterly assured, personal, serious, sad and very funny. The Coens are in top form."

The Coens are a sure thing lately. A Serious Man opens October 2, and it's looking to be one you won't want to miss. Surprise, surprise.

TIFF: Jennifer's Body

Last night was the Midnight Madness debut of Jennifer's Body, screenwriter Diablo Cody's follow-up to the massive success that was Juno. There are quite a few reactions hitting the web today, and the response seems to be mixed to bad.

Anne Thompson of indieWIRE reports that the movie is scary-fun, saying:

"Jennifer’s Body is great fun. It’s exactly what it sets out to be: an unpretentious send-up of coming-of-age horror movies with a delicious lesbian edge. Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried strike just the right tone as two best buds, one hot and popular, the other nerdy and cute."

Todd Gilchrist from Cinematical feels differently:

"Jennifer's Body substitutes hipster credibility for emotional currency, confuses pop-psychology insight with substantive social commentary, and measures terror on a scale that ranges from the word boo to a dead spider; in short, Jennifer's Body just does not work."

Lots of varying takes, but for me it's looking like a miss for Cody and company here, certainly not helped by Megan Fox's complete lack of talent, though I think people should keep in mind this was probably not a film that anyone, including its makers, were taking too seriously.

What do you think? Are you planning to catch Jennifer's Body?