Anne Brodie at TIFF: It’s A Wrap
The festival ends on a bright note for Anne Brodie.
September 14, 2013
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TIFF is about to go dark until September 2014. It leaves us satisfied
and frankly delighted. Our Mrs. R’s demographic was beautifully
represented in thought provoking films throughout the ten day film
extravaganza. Some of the world’s greatest actresses came and conquered and
took their rightful place as storytellers and artists. My final interview
was with the drop dead at 64 French beauty Fanny Ardant. What a pleasure.
In Toronto to promote the May December romance Bright Days Ahead she was as
stunning as a bright day. That perfect face, full lipped with exotic smoky eyes
and a tres chic herringbone dress accented by warm caramel and gold hair took
my breath away. Ardant has a wicked wit and lively intelligence and has no
patience for Hollywood’s narrow conservatism. She plays the older lover
of an instructor at a senior’s home and I’ll tell you, their scenes are hot.
Hot. Hats off to TIFF for bringing us such brave stories.
Review: Bright Days Ahead
Fanny Ardant plays a happily married French woman who is bored in retirement. Her daughters suggest she join a local senior’s arts centre but it’s a place full of “gagas” (stupid people). Just as she is about to leave, she meets a man in his thirties and they begin a torrid affair making love in cars, utility closets and well, wherever. It challenges both of them as well as her husband and shows May-December affairs in a bold and natural new light. Ardant’s beauty and innate intelligence makes Bright Days Ahead shine.
Fanny Ardant plays a happily married French woman who is bored in retirement. Her daughters suggest she join a local senior’s arts centre but it’s a place full of “gagas” (stupid people). Just as she is about to leave, she meets a man in his thirties and they begin a torrid affair making love in cars, utility closets and well, wherever. It challenges both of them as well as her husband and shows May-December affairs in a bold and natural new light. Ardant’s beauty and innate intelligence makes Bright Days Ahead shine.
The Men of TIFF, and Jennifer Aniston busts a worthwhile career move.
September 12, 2013
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Today was all about the men. Pierce Brosnan, John Hawkes, Mos Def, Keanu
Reeves, Brosnan charming as ever in The Love Punch with Emma
Thompson, Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston’s unexpected love interest in Life of Crime, Mos
Def, now known as Yasiin Bey as the loveable criminal mastermind. Reeves stars
in and directs the martial arts fightclub drama Man of Tai Chi. Men of
a certain age have always won the woman’s heart in Hollywood and we are
reminded why. That appealingly maturity and life experience, those looks that
have settled into their truest expression and that oh-so-attractive quality,
self-confidence. They know what they’re doing and have a sense of humour about
things. And in these films, that means loving women who are their peers.
Life of Crime
TIFF Closing Night Gala
Jennifer Aniston is kidnapped by a couple of greenhorn petty criminals (John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey) who hope to extract $1M from her husband (Tim Robbins). Not only does her husband not want her back, he’s serving her divorce papers and has moved on to a new, younger gal pal (Isla Fisher). Based on Elmore Leonard’s book The Switch, there is plenty to entertain and provoke conversation, like a third criminal obsessed with Nazi culture who spends most of his time eating boiled cabbage and beef and the balance of power in the criminal realm. Aniston does herself a big favour, showing range way out of what we expect, as the unwanted woman.
TIFF Closing Night Gala
Jennifer Aniston is kidnapped by a couple of greenhorn petty criminals (John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey) who hope to extract $1M from her husband (Tim Robbins). Not only does her husband not want her back, he’s serving her divorce papers and has moved on to a new, younger gal pal (Isla Fisher). Based on Elmore Leonard’s book The Switch, there is plenty to entertain and provoke conversation, like a third criminal obsessed with Nazi culture who spends most of his time eating boiled cabbage and beef and the balance of power in the criminal realm. Aniston does herself a big favour, showing range way out of what we expect, as the unwanted woman.
Anne Brodie at TIFF
Looks like 45 is the new 25 in Hollywood, and Anne's hidden gem from the
Festival.
Mrs. Robinson entertainment
Anne Brodie
September 11, 2013
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Actresses who dare to pass the 45 year mark are reaping big rewards at
TIFF this year. Julia Roberts, festival darling, is here for August: Osage County in which
she goes head to head with Meryl Streep who plays one of those pushy broads
who’s always right.
In the same age category: Sandra Bullock’s winning raves for her
heart stopping performance as an astronaut untethered and lost in space in Gravity,
opposite George Clooney. Annette Bening falls in love Ed Harris’ character who
looks like her late husband in The Face of Love. Nicole Kidman stars in The Railway Man opposite
Colin Firth as a WWII soldier haunted by the brutal treatment he received at
the hands of his Japanese captors. And Emma Thompson is divorced from Pierce
Brosnan in The Love Punch but that
doesn’t stop them from planning a heist.
See ladies, we get the roles and we get the man. Looks like 45 is the
new 25, Hollywood style.
Empire of Dirt Capsule Review
Three generations of women are the hearts of Empire of Dirt, a powerful
family drama produced by and starring Jennifer Podemski. Shot in Keswick,
Innisfil and Sunderland, it follows a young Toronto mother in a vulnerable
place whose daughter is starting to ride off the rails. They head to the
lakeside home of her estranged mother, played by Podemski without a trace of
makeup, in hopes of stitching their lives back together. It’s not so simple.
The film is heartfelt, and haunting and rings true thanks to wonderful
performances. Podemski spent eight years making Empire of Dirt – time well
spent.
Anne Brodie at TIFF: Rush
It's just another day elbowing stars for space on the elevator...Mrs. Robinson entertainment
September 9, 2013
At the Festival:
Newly super-slim Colin Firth worked with his old friend Atom Egoyan on Devil’s Knot, a
dramatization of the infamous West Memphis murders case. After our
interview, Firth, dressed to kill in a beautifully cut suit and crisp white
shirt, looking totally dapper, strode off elegantly to the elevator where he
caught three grown women making googly eyes over him. He laughed.
A block over a drop-dead beautiful Julia Louis-Dreyfus admits that she
attained “monstrous” fame through Seinfeld and her other TV series, and that
making only ten episodes of VEEP allows her to make movies again.
Further west in another hotel, Oscar nominated director Agnieszka
Holland told me that making the four hour Burning Bush, a dramatization of the student
protests against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 was
especially poignant. As leader of the student protesters, she was arrested and
served six weeks in prison. Holland works in Europe and Hollywood, directing
episodes of The Wire and Corner Boys and teaching film at City University in
New York.
Rush: Capsule Review
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl and Olivia Wilde
Rush is extremely loud, aggressive and male, but director Ron Howard
masterfully opens it up to females (and I don’t mean by showing uber hunky
Chris Hemsworth in the buff, but okay, that works) by creating two richly
layered characters and setting them against the exotic, dangerous world of
elite racing. Formula I champions playboy James Hunt and the rigid
Niki Lauda battled for supremacy until Lauda sustained massive head injuries in
a 1976 crash. He was so committed to winning that he got back on the
track almost immediately in mythic style. They were international heroes and
heartthrobs and it’s easy to see why. Howard’s thrilling biopic is
exhilarating, intelligent and at some level, primal.
**** of 5. You’ll love it and your husband will thank you for taking
him.
Rush
opens September 20.
Anne Brodie at TIFF
A halfway there update from the Toronto International Film Festival.
September 10, 2013
You can’t walk down the hotel hallway and not trip
over Lars from Metallica (Metallica: Through the Never), Idris Elba (Mandela:
Long Walk to Freedom), Gordon Pinsent (The Grand Seduction), Colin Firth (Devil's Knot, Railway Man) or James Franco
(Child of God). TIFF 13 is in halfway mark full swing. Reporters
are interviewing stars in every room on several floors. In the
Presidential suite of the main hotel, Lindt chocolatiers are making personalized
bars and folks are relaxing in the sky high balcony gazing down at ant-like
TIFFers dashing from event to event.
Conscientious TIFFers wear buttons that read
#FREETAREKANDJOHN referring to Toronto filmmaker John Greyson and Tarek Loubani
who remain in an Egyptian jail without charges since August 15th. Atom Egoyan and Sarah Polley held a news conference this morning at TIFF Bell
Lightbox to remind us how dire their situation is.
Meanwhile, hundreds and hundreds of people continue
to stream into theatres to watch films around the clock jamming sidewalks and
loving every minute of it. This is Toronto at its most engaged and
vibrant, bursting at the seams with film lovers from home and around the
world.
This is where it’s all happening and the world is
watching.
Anne Brodie at TIFF: Enough Said
James Gandolfini's last film and a little TIFF gossip...Mrs. Robinson entertainment
September 8, 2013
Let’s start with a little
TIFF Gossip
It’s a rush find stars “in
the wild”. I interview stars for a living under extremely controlled
conditions, so I was thrilled to meet an actor on whom I have a long standing
crush just sitting in a hotel lobby today. Corey Stoll (House of Cards) happened to sit
near me and we discussed what kind of tea he should order. Yowzer. Left before
I could blurt out something foolish. Josh Brolin’s escaped convict character in Labor Day knows how to cook and bake. Brolin says he got hooked on baking pies in his preparations to play the part and made a peach pie onset every day of the shoot. He looks so tough but he loves a nice peach pie with a flaky crust.
Hugh Jackman goes against type in the intense Prisoners, playing a man who will stop at nothing to find his missing child, who will toss away his moral centre and do depraved things. You want to know who one of the nicest guys in Hollywood? Hugh Jackman. He admits he’s a happy and optimistic and that’s why he had so much fun getting his evil on.
Enough
Said
Starring Julia
Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and
James Gandolfini might seem like an odd couple but boy, do they have chemistry
in this romantic drama about a newly single middle-aged man and woman taking
their first steps towards a relationship. How wonderful to see Gandolfini
as an ordinary guy with a sweet soul and how sad we saw so little of him in
that framework. Gandolfini was usually cast as a Tony Soprano or someone
like him. This wonderfully immersive romance revels in his gentleness and
romantic sensibilities and Louis-Dreyfus is a treat as an older, gentler
Elaine. Enough Said’s bittersweet nature is heightened as we mourn
Gandolfini’s passing.In theatres September 20
Anne Brodie at TIFF: Prisoners
Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal thrill in Prisoners.
September 7, 2013
Saw the really intense
drama Prisoners last
night. It was so frightening my hands shook. I ran into one of the stars
Terrence Howard – who is so raw and powerful in the film – in the lobby and
told him how impressive it was. He smiled that gorgeous smile and then came
over to me later and thanked me again. My God he’s great looking in person too.
I’m meeting him later this week for a chat, so stay tuned.
Prisoners finds
two middle aged couples and their children celebrating Thanksgiving dinner
together. The two youngest kids go outside to play and don’t come back. Jake
Gyllenhaal plays the detective who follows the case. Layer upon layer of
darkness emerges in a mind bending, riveting 2 hour plus thriller that found me
in a corner recuperating afterwards. Oscar caliber performances from Hugh
Jackman, Gyllenhaal, Howard, Viola Davis and Maria Bello.
Prisoners opens
September 20.
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