It’s the first Friday after TIFF, and you can feel the industry not quite knowing what to do. There’s the awards bait of Prisoners, the light comedy of Austenland, and a whole lot of clearing-house activity from various smaller distributors. Shall we go through the list?
The Art of the Steal: Look, I’ve interviewed Jonathan Sobol and he’s very personable, but he makes terrible, half-assed movies and someone needs to make him stop. Jay Baruchel gets some solid laughs, though, and Terence Stamp and Jason Jones are pretty great in it. But still.
Austenland: Keri Russell does the rom-com thing as a woman whose obsession with Pride and Prejudice leads her, quite understandably, to a Jane Austen theme park. Kiva eviscerates it most tastefully.
Cutie and the Boxer: Glenn is delighted by this Japanese documentary about aging avant-garde artist Ushio Shinohara, his wife Noriko and their complicated relationship — one of several Hot Docs titles opening today, as you’ll see.
Good Ol’ Freda: Ryan White’s documentary about Freda Kelly, the young woman who ran the Beatles’ fan club, was the one movie I wanted most to catch at Hot Docs earlier this year — but I couldn’t make the timing work, so Susan reviewed it. Now it’s back at the Bloor for a limited run; let’s all catch up to it, shall we?
My Lucky Star: Dennie Gordon, director of such timeless American classics as Joe Dirt and the Olsen Twins comedy New York Minute, goes to Hong Kong to make a spy comedy with Zhang Ziyi. Rad goes to see it, is left in obvious pain.
Nothing Left to Fear: Slash produces a horror movie, but if he can’t even win John over, what’s the point?
Our Man in Tehran: Clearly produced in response to Argo, this Canadian documentary about the same historical events garnered exactly no buzz at TIFF — though Andy says it’s perfectly cromulent. So I guess that’s good.
Prisoners: Denis Villeneuve’s major-studio debut is basically a very long and increasingly ridiculous television procedural, but Hugh Jackman’s terrific as a father who goes way, way over the edge in an attempt to find his missing daughter.
Salinger: Glenn was spitting nails over Shane Salerno’s heavily promoted (and, it seems, heavily self-promotional) look at the life of the reclusive author when it was squeezed into TIFF at the last minute. He’s no happier about it now.
A Single Shot: Sam Rockwell’s fantastic performance is reason enough to see this otherwise derivative backwoods thriller. But only if you like Sam Rockwell, I guess.
The Short Game: A documentary on the high-pressure world of children’s golf. Yes, really. John has issues with it, quite understandably.
Unclaimed: After its ecstatic reception at Hot Docs, it gives me no pleasure to call bullshit on Michael Jorgensen’s feel-good tale of a Vietnam vet trying to prove a doddering Vietnamese man is a former American POW … but yeah, it’s bullshit.
Also, there’s a new IMAX 3D version of The Wizard of Oz opening for a limited run today. It is a stupid idea and I’m not interested.
Also also, I talked to Mireille Enos about her work on World War Z for MSN Movies last week. Perhaps you’d be interested in reading that.
Always bet on the animated feature. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opened at number one with $35 million this weekend, which is about four and a half million dollars more than the first one pulled in when it debuted four years ago. Hooray for building a following through ancillary markets!
