Synopsis: A middle-aged couple’s career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.
Noah Baumbach’s new film that appears to be a worthy successor to Frances Ha. Oh, and Adam Driver is in it, too. Watch the trailer here.
A talented young musician on the brink of super stardom struggles with the pressure of her new-found success.
The more I watch this, the more I really into it. It has a certain magic to it, a certain delicate loveliness. Much of that I attribute to Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who I have come to love as an actress after her very beautiful, very dignified performance in Belle. Beyond the Lights is from Gina Prince-Bythewood, the writer/director of Love & Basketball, a film that pretty much defined the 90s black romance movie genre. Those were some great times for black films. Maybe this film can start a re-emergence.
Beyond the Lights is currently playing at the Toronto International Film Festival and will hit US theaters on November 14.
The good people over at Partnershub are giving away a $15 Fandango gift card in honor of the theatrical release of the film Life of Crime starring Jennifer Aniston, Mos Def, Tim Robbins, Isla Fisher, Will Forte and John Hawkes and as a reader/follower of my blog, it could be yours. The movie is based on the work of Elmore Leonard, author of a number of crime books which eventually became the movies Out of Sight, Get Shorty, Jackie Brown…. and now Life of Crime.
A story of differing perspectives of Connor Ludlow and Eleanor Rigby, a young married couple living in New York. Him looks at their relationship from Connor’s angle, while Her follows Eleanor’s. During the course of their daily lives, the couple encounters a life changing event that threatens the stability of their marriage.
This weekend comes the exciting trailer for one of my favorite films to come out of 2014, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby starring the ever great James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain as a married couple on the verge of a failed marriage. I have read a number of media outlets comparing this story to that of the Ryan Gosling-Michelle Williams-headed Blue Valentine. Yes, we have here a film that splices the more loving and playful begin stages of a long term relationship with the devastating and pain end stages, but for this film we have an extra element for which to hang your emotions.
Medical school dropout Wallace has been repeatedly burned by bad relationships. He meets Chantry, an animator who lives with her longtime boyfriend Ben, and they form an instant connection, striking up a close friendship. Still, there is no denying the chemistry between them, leading the pair to wonder, what if the love of your life is actually your best friend?
What If joins the long line of movies that should have really kept their more interesting and unique first title; What If premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival as The F World (get it? as in being in the “friend zone”). It should be really called Daniel Radcliffe does a Rom-Com because I never expected to see him delve deeply into this genre. On the other hand, for Zoe Kazan it is familiar territory (Ruby Sparks, In Your Eyes, The Pretty One). I’ve heard good things so it’s a must see. My money is on it being scene-stealing, too-tall-to-fit-in-the-shot, “I just had sex and I’m about to eat nachos!! It’s the greatest moment of my life!!” Adam Driver.
A college professor who becomes obsessed with tracking down the minor actor he spots in a movie that looks remarkably like him.
Take note. This is how you put together a trailer for a (great) psychological thriller without giving the story away. Enemy, based on the novel ”The Double” by José Saramago, represents another team up between actor Jake Gyllenhaal and French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve after Prisoners (technically their first collaboration as this one was filmed before Prisoners). As Gyllenhaal is asked her to pull double duty as two characters at extreme ends of the spectrum in regards to personality and temperaments and does it quite convincingly, I think this will stand the film that adequately protrays Gyllenhaal’s acting talents.
I hit the road in 2013 and hung out in some great cities as I attended film festivals around North America. Here are some pictures from my travels this year. Expect more to come in 2014!
1-3. The beautiful wintery scenery of Park City, Utah in January for the Sundance Film Festival, including activity of Main Street and the view outside my resort window. 4, 5. In April, I hoped over to one of my favorite cities in the world - New York City - for the Tribeca Film Festival and took pictures as I walked the streets of Tribeca/Soho and the West Village. 6, 7. I couldn’t pass up going to the Toronto International Film Festival again in September after I fell in love with the festival in 2012. 8, 9. It was back to New York in October to attend the New York Film Festival for the first time (with press credentials!) and this time I hit up Times Square and a food festival in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).
–> follow me on instagram for more memorable moments.
Based on the true life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed–race daughter of a British Naval officer and an African woman. the story tracks Dido as she is raised by her father’s aristocratic uncle. Though she is raised in privilege alongside her cousin Elizabeth, she must contend with classism and a society that still views her as inferior.
Wow. I briefly heard of this film when it set to premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, but I glossed over it in favor of the high profile 12 Years a Slave since it dealt with similar themes of black freedom/privilege of a real historical character in society amidst the dark cloud of slavery. However, seeing the trailer, I think this one has its own distinct message. While 12 Years a Slave is very much an American story, Belle affords a look into both the perspective of slavery in England and the perspective of a female caught between two extreme social standings. As I think alot of people missed out on hearing about this movie, I wanted to share the trailer. The trailer gives us an indication of just how great the lead actress, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, must be in this. Belle will be released in US theaters May 2nd.
All I can say is that… Toronto, you always treat me so well. In case you missed some of my posts on film reviews and pictures associated with my time at the 2013 Toronto Independent Film Festival, here is alittle recap:
THE FILMS
This year I screened nine films, the most I’ve seen at one festival to date (yay, I can’t touch those people that do 30+ but I think its not too shabby). Here’s the recap:
The Past (Le Passe)** (Bérénice Bejo, Ali Mosaffa, Tahar Rahim)
“[Director] Farhadi doesn’t really construct beginning or ending to the story but really has a way of pulling back the curtain and exposing the audience to a short, intense moment. The story continues on after we leave them, not only for us to choose what we think happens from there but also to alert us to that fact that their is no easy resolution in life, there are much to people’s stories left to carry on.” A-
Hateship Loveship (Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Nick Nolte, Haille Steinfeld)
“…there are some laughs (a certain make-out sesh with a bathroom mirror comes to mind) and cries (you just can’t help but feel sorry for Johanna at times) that sometimes make this unbelievable story worthwhile.” B-
Prisoners (Hugh Jackson, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terrance Howard, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo)
“For much of the two-and-a-half run time, the movie brims with unbearable tension, cringing suspense, and plenty of gasp-out-loud moments to carry along the unraveling mystery." B
..and this is my last day…
As one of the most anticipated films of the year, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her is at its core an ambitious film project constructed to convey the deterioration of a marriage through the complete perspectives of both the husband Conor (James McAvoy, Him) and the wife Eleanor (Jessica Chastain, Her) following a personal, family tragedy.
Eleanor doesn’t disappear in a foul-play sense, but disappears into herself, emotionally and subsequently physically withdrawing from her husband. When Eleanor vanishes from his life without an explanation, Conor begins to work through his anger and confusion, trying to determine how he missed the signs of it going so wrong in his marriage as he searches for her, while also trying to find his identity professionally separate from his father. Eleanor, on the other hand, reinvents herself and finishes things in her life she felt were undone as a way to work through her pain with the help of mentor (a brilliant funny Viola Davis who captures alot of attention in Herwith some of the best lines in the film). For us to completely understand what these two have lost and offer a stark comparison to where they are now, the film flashes back to the moments when Conor and Eleanor were young and carefree and at their most romantic.
Currently, at a three-hour run time, this film experience is essentially two separate films with their own identities via unique color palettes and associated tones (a more somber and surrendering Him, a more bright and hopeful Her). However, they are two films that are connected in little overlapping moments when they weave in and out of each other’s lives. The chapters also serve to compliment each other by spotlighting subtle differences in the way the lead character perceive the same events, especially their interactions with each other (what is said, how it is said, what they wear, the proximity to each other, their gestures… telling signs of what each put emphasis on and what things hold importance to their characters). That is what makes the film stand out, its capturing of so much thoughtfulness in those small details. The total film does run longer than it should for what is presented but not to the determent of the experience.
Let’s get to more of my thoughts and experiences from TIFF:
“The Dallas Buyers Club”The Dallas Buyers Club is a film that reminds us just what life at the intersection between rural 1980s Texas, the AIDS epidemic, and the developing LGBT community of its time. Here we seen McConaughey take on the real person Ron Woodroof, a man whose plight to survive the death sentence of AIDS led him to create a community united by their need of medical action to sustain their lives, further defining the differences between illegal and unapproved drugs. He does it well, with peaks of brilliance used to shade attitudes of the time, the wide eyes bolster from the touch of a gay man or even the implication of him ever being homosexual, the indulgent wonder of the fast life and faster women, and the Southern camaraderie and rivalry elicited through money exchanging hands. Woodroof, through McConaughey’s performance, is unapolegetic about his past after his diagnosis but constantly evolving into a man worthy of a film dedicated to his memory.
In what has been touted as a serious effort by McConaughey to grab an Oscar nom, I ended up drawing my attention more to the living, breathing performance by Jared Leto as the transgendered prostitute Rayan who sustains the film as a heart . His journey is one that is much like Ron Woodroof but even more profound, opening up by the minute in his persistent quest to prove he is worthy of love and positive attention to everyone around him; a battle, I contend, is a constant struggle for those like him everyday. It took much for me to not reach out and want to hug him. My Grade: B
–> Watch the trailer for The Dallas Buyers Club here.
