50/50

Written by Will Reiser

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, 

Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston

Adam: I can’t remember being so calm in a long time.

Katie: Would you describe it as numbness?

Adam: No, I would describe it as fine.

Up and coming director, Jonathan Levine’s latest film, 50/50, is being billed as a cancer comedy, only I cried about five times so I’m not sure the descriptor really fits. 50/50 is writer, Will Reiser’s first hand account of what it was like to get cancer in his 20’s. Clearly, as he is still here to tell the tale, he lives through the ordeal, but knowing this does not take away from the personal journey he shares with us. And fortunately for all involved, that journey is being taken on screen by the always impressive, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who easily makes 50/50 a sure bet.

Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, whom we first meet jogging down the streets of Seattle at dawn. Instantly, while we watch him wait at a red light to cross an intersection despite any trace of traffic approaching, we know that Adam is cautious and self-aware. Even when he is told that he has cancer, he protests on the basis that he doesn’t smoke or drink and that he recycles. Adam follows the rules and yet is being inexplicably punished. Adam is not particularly original, as far as characters go, but his emotional path leaves the character so exposed and vulnerable that we are deeply endeared to him. Commendably, Reiser does not make us pity him but instead it feels like a rare and  honest account of his experience. For Gordon-Levitt to be able to open himself up to this kind of candidness only further proves that he is one of the most relatable young actors working today.

I felt I could know Adam, that he could be one of my friends. That one of my friends could go through this is foreign to me and fortunately, not something I’ve ever had to go through. As much as 50/50 is about Adam’s plight, the other half of it is about how the people around him learn to support him. From his best friend (Seth Rogen, playing a role based on himself, as he is also Reiser’s best friend in real life) to his mother (Anjelica Huston, making the most of her little screen time) to love interests both potential (Anna Kendrick) and exiting (Bryce Dallas Howard), everyone in his life stumbles through supporting him as if they were blindly walking into walls. Everyone is trying though, reminding us just how important intention really is, and 50/50 surely has the best of them.

Black Sheep interviews Gus Van Sant

Meeting celebrated auteur, Gus Van Sant, to discuss his fourteenth feature film, RESTLESS, at the Toronto International Film Festival, certainly had my nerves on edge, given that I’m a bit of an admirer of his. It didn’t help matters much when he would pause and stare at me blankly for five or ten seconds after almost every question I asked. Fortunately, I realized very quickly that I was not the problem.

“You can definitely become overworked talking to the press,” Van Sant admits to me of the whirlwind that is the contemporary festival experience. “When I hit the five-hour mark, I start to get pretty spaced out.” Our interview was his last before lunch so that explained a lot.

The 59-year-old director returns to cinemas this fall with his first film since his 2008 masterpiece, MILK, which earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture as well as a second Best Director nod for Van Sant. (His first was for 1997’s GOOD WILL HUNTING.) And while RESTLESS is nowhere near as politically charged as MILK was, it does allow Van Sant to continue giving voices to the marginalized and the misunderstood. In his own words, “It’s a really interesting story about these two kids that are forced outside of their society. They bond together and become very close. It reminded me of a French love story.”

By French, he must mean tragic because what forces these two outside of their circles is death. Everyone’s favorite indie darling, Mia Wasikowska and endearing newcomer, Henry Hopper, play the two particular kids in question. Hopper is Enoch, a high school dropout who lost his parents in a car accident and now keeps the company of what is either the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase) or a very creative imaginary friend. Wasikowska plays Annabel, a free-spirited naturalist, who has just learned that she is going to die of cancer in a few short months. Their relationship and its youthful naiveté give Restless its unexpected whimsy.

The relief Enoch and Annabel find in each other is what drew Van Sant to the Jason Lew screenplay to begin with. “It’s common with younger cancer patients that they often make new friends with strange people,” he explains of their attraction. “Their regular support group is too devastated to keep their normal relationship going, because of the sadness.” Subsequently, the charming couple provide the audience with some much needed relief from their reality as well.

Coming of age in the face of death is a dichotomy that is not often explored on film and the wide spectrum of emotion that is inherent to the scenario makes RESTLESS a unique film experience. Still, Van Sant himself has a hard time differentiating it from his past work to some extent. “They pretty much all stand apart but at the same time, they’re all related,” he says of how RESTLESS figures amongst his oeuvres. When hard pressed though, Van Sant is able to give a tiny distinction to RESTLESS. “It’s the first time I’ve done something mirthful and yet tragic at the same time.”

Hopefully, it will not be his last.

This interview originally appeared in Hour Community.

MODERN FAMILY: Season 2

At the end of the first season of the breakout hit, MODERN FAMILY, the Dunphy family finally fixed that stair they were always tripping over every time they ran up and down between floors. It had been a running gag throughout the whole season and it isn't long into the second season, now available on DVD and blu-ray, that the stair comes loose again, allowing for the same running gag to run right through the second season. Yet, instead of coming across as a lack of creativity, it only continues to be absolutely hilarious.

The broken stair example is fairly apt when it comes to describing the rest of the season as well. First of all, it wasn't really broke so there was no need to fix it to begin with. And so, MODERN FAMILY follows much of the same trajectory it did last year. The series avoids anything remotely serialized and allows the same family interactions we're already accustomed to, to continue happening naturally. Claire (Julie Bowen) is still a control freak, which drives her kids nuts. Phil still mucks everything up while Jay (Ed O'Neill) still mocks him constantly. Mitchell and Cameron (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) continue to fuss over their daughter, Lily, and each other. And of course, Gloria (Sofia Vergara) is still shouting and misusing the English language every chance she gets. Safe for some last minute adjustments come the end of the season, nothing really changes for this family and yet somehow, the family has gotten stronger and continues to prove why they are one of the most celebrated casts in television history. MODERN FAMILY: Season 2 is is just stellar.

Review copy provided by 20th Century Fox.

Black Sheep interviews Jean-Marc Vallée

On September 1, 2011, at 11:00 A.M., Quebecois director, Jean-Marc Vallée, the man behind the Canadian classic, C.R.A.Z.Y., completed his latest film, CAFE DE FLORE. By 5:00 P.M. that same day, he was on a flight to Venice for the world premiere. “I don’t think I have the distance yet to talk well about it,” Vallée explains when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film’s second festival stop before it’s theatrical release. “In my humble experience, it usually takes a while before I know what words to use.”

Vallee left, with Cafe de Flore lead, Kevin Parent

To be fair, CAFE DE FLORE can be difficult to describe even after you’ve seen it a couple of times. There are two stories told simultaneously that take place far apart from each other in both time and space. In 1960’s Paris, Vanessa Paradis, looking dowdy and plain, plays a mother to a child with Down's syndrome (Marin Gerrier) and in contemporary Montreal, a DJ (Kevin Parent, in a surprisingly solid acting debut) leaves his childhood sweetheart (Helene Florent) for another woman (Evelyne Brochu). “I wanted to make a love story but I wanted the film to have something else too,” Vallée attempts to explain. “I just wasn’t sure what that something else was. It’s not easy to describe but I think the ride is great.”

Vallee shooting with Vanessa Paradis

While I flat out refuse to divulge what exactly the connection is between these vastly different plots, I will say that a simple song connects them on screen and that song also served as the filmmaker’s inspiration for the entire film. The name of that song? Why, “Café de flore”, of course. When he first heard the Doctor Rockit song, Vallée thought, “It’s so epic. I’m going to make a film with this track.” And so the movie is built around this song as well as a general appreciation for music itself. This aspect of the film is the director’s most autobiographical. “Music makes me feel so good, makes me feel alive, makes me dream, makes me want to make movies,” Vallée asserts right before he starts humming the catchy accordion hook from the film’s title track to me.

Vallee taking a coffee break at the Cafe de Flore

Whether you can place your finger on it or not, there is no denying that Vallée’s CAFE DE FLORE most certainly has a pulse. All you need to do is sink into that beat and Vallée will be sure to move you.

This article was originally published in Hour Community.
Click here for the CAFE DE FLORE Black Sheep review.

MONEYBALL

Written by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin

Directed by Bennett Miller

Starring Brad Pitt, Johan Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Billy Beane: There are rich teams; there are poor teams; then there’s fifty feet of crap; and then there’s us.

These days, it seems that when it comes to conversations about the American economy, the focus is on the increasing divide between the rich and the poor. In MONEYBALL, that same gap is affecting America’s favourite pass time, baseball. How can a team that only has $40 million to pay its players possibly compete with teams that have three times that amount at their disposal? The answer is simple. Input everything you know about the players into a computer and let it do all the thinking for you. And once you have all your algorithms in place, you can apply them to the sport and rob it of all spontaneity and excitement.

Unfortunately, some of the fun and excitement that usually spills over from the sport itself into the baseball movie genre, has also disappeared from MONEYBALL. Bennett Miller’s second film after his incredible debut, CAPOTE, is a succinct account of how former Oakland Athletics general manager, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), changed the way major league baseball teams were formed in 2002. Inspired by a concept that was brought to him by his new assistant (Jonah Hill), Beane began adding players to his roster who were notorious for getting on base. The logic was that these players cost way less and produced more consistent, if not necessarily showy, results. MONEYBALL then becomes a waiting game to see if his theory pays off and less about the actual success of the players themselves.

Pitt gives a fine performance as the frustrated Beane, choosing to play most of his struggle internally while presenting with great confidence to all who doubt him. As strong as his performance is, it is not as impressively nuanced as the turn given by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the unfortunate coach who has to play with Beane’s team of mismatched baseball rejects. Even Hill shines as a young actor who is showing more and more promise in dramatic parts. No, the trouble with MONEYBALL is not the acting but rather the thin subtext of the script. Having gone through three hands before going into production, it comes across as self-important but doesn’t have the gravitas to back it up. As a result, MONEYBALL is solid entertainment, but it never manages to crack it out of the park.

GLEE: Season 2

Dear Glee,

I mean everything I am about to say to you with love. Your third season begins this evening and I have high hopes for the changes you've made. You've branched out your writing staff and have sworn to focus more on longer story arcs instead of one-off theme episodes. You've also decided to reduce the number of songs per episode, so as not to come across like an iTunes jukebox each week. It's not that I don't like to hear all the talented members of New Directions belt them out so often but storytelling has been taking a seat in the back of the choir room for quite some time now.

I've just finished watching your second season on blu-ray. I have to admit, it wasn't as uneven as I remember but if you don't fix some of your problems soon, you will start to lose your audience. That said, there were some fantastic additions to the GLEE lexicon in the second season. Highlights for me include Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday. I wish Paltrow wasn't such a big movie star because she would make a perfect regular on your program. Not only is she hilarious but she can also hold a note or two. Next up, the introduction of Blaine (Darren Criss) and the Warblers. It was about time the New Directions got some real competition. And of course, having Blaine around allowed for the best gay kiss I've ever witnessed on television. There was no hype for it; it simply just happened. My mouth fell to the floor when I saw it because I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to see such a romantic and honest moment between two male television characters. I'm not going to lie; I wished I was Kurt (Chris Colfer) in that moment.

You are often criticized for being too gay, whatever that means. I don't think that's true; I just think you spend more time developing Kurt's troubles than anyone else's. In the entire season, only Kurt's bullying storyline felt true to me. It is an important subject and one that I think you tackled sensitively and thoroughly. Unfortunately, with all your energy placed there, the rest of the cast was left to bounce back and forth between random couplings that often seemed like they had no basis in any reality whatsoever. It's hard for me to care about characters when they don't seem to really matter to you either. Oh and, please, give Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) something to do this year. Her once ferocious character is now just a flat joke (who honestly should have been arrested by now considering how many students she flings down stairs).

I miss how much you used to shock me, GLEE. Lately it seems you just lull me into a state of acceptance instead. Your sophomore year is now behind you. You let your junior year success go to your head and just rested on your laurels all the way through last year. It's time to get serious though; it's your senior year. If you don't find your focus again, I'm not convinced you'll graduate at the end of the year.

Gleefully yours,
joseph.

Black Sheep's TIFF11 Review

Officially, it has been eleven days since TIFF sucked me into its unique brand of vortex but I've been dedicating my time to the festival for what seems like weeks now. I caught my first pre-TIFF screening on  August 16 and finish today with my 35th and final film. Sure there is a lot of time in a month to see 35 films but more than 20 of them were in the last 10 days alone. Factor in all the writing, all the interviews and all the running around too and it is easy to see why some in the industry describe this festival as an endurance test.

I know a few people in the biz here and there but, for the most part, I keep to myself. I hear things though. I hear other journalists who have been doing this way longer than I have talk about how happy they are that its ending, complaining about everything from the free food to the films themselves. And while TIFF seems like such a burden for them, its like Christmas for me. Sure, its easy for even me to complain when I have six interviews in a day and not one of them seems to start on time, but I am always grateful for the amazing opportunities being part of this festival affords me.

Meeting Roger Ebert at big book signing

This year, I did three times as many interviews as I did last year. I met with filmmakers I admire a great deal, including Gus Van Sant, Steve McQueen and Jean-Marc Vallee. I interviewed actors I love to watch, including Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender and Matthew Goode. I met the reigning king of all film criticism, Roger Ebert. I even stood three feet away from the biggest artistic inspiration of my life, Madonna, on her red carpet for W.E.. Sure, I never got to fit in A DANGEROUS METHOD into my schedule and my Jessica Chastain interview was canned at the last second but that's TIFF. You can plan as much as you want, and I assure you I did a great deal of advance planning this time around, but something will always change. You just have to ride it out, wherever it takes you. And if you just sink into the journey, you will have plenty of time to appreciate it.

I took this at the W.E. red carpet. I was shaking a lot.

And now, I would like to run down my 10 favourite TIFF11 films and five least enjoyed, beginning with the latter. (Click any linked film title for the full Black Sheep Review.)


TOP 5 WORST TIFF11 FILMS I SAW
(in alphabetical order)

ANONYMOUS
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Mr. Emmerich tries to break away from the genre he is famous for with this period melodrama about the authenticity of Shakespeare's work but only ends up making yet another disaster movie.

BUTTER
Directed by Jim Field Smith
Any hope of this Jennifer Garner political satire having any bite whatsoever melts away in the first ten minutes. Though the subject is butter carving, this film never takes proper shape.

LIKE CRAZY
Directed by Drake Doremus
This movie about two young people in love and trying to make it work with an ocean between them should have been called "Like Tedious and Insipid".

TAKE THIS WALTZ
Directed by Sarah Polley
I know a great deal of people who loved this movie about a woman torn between two men but I never really saw why other man (Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby) would want the woman (Michelle Williams) in the first place.

TRESPASS
Directed by Joel Schumacher
First of all, Mr. Schumacher has no business at TIFF to begin with. This was the funniest film I saw at TIFF and it's supposed to be a hostage thriller.

Mia Wasikowska and Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs

TOP 10 TIFF11 FILMS I SAW
(in alphabetical order)

50/50
Directed by Jonathan Levine
It'd billed as a cancer comedy but, as I've now told everyone I know, I cried five times watching this. The fantastic cast, led by Joseph Gordon Levitt, make this a must see fall film.

ALBERT NOBBS
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia
Glenn Close gives the performance of her career as a male butler in this fascinating period drama about gender identification and sexuality. She is a shoe-in for an Oscar nod and I hope the film picks up a few more for itself too.

THE ARTIST
Directed Michel Hazanavicius
Everything you've heard about this enchanting black and white, silent film is true. It is a simply told and brilliantly executed celebration of the cinema. You cannot help but feel happy when you see it.

THE DESCENDANTS
Directed by Alexander Payne
I love Hollywood storytelling when it's done right, with heart and intelligence. This George Clooney vehicle is an incredibly unique tale that reminds us that we never know what will happen in our lives that will bring us closer to ourselves and the one's we love.

DRIVE
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
I feel like people are all Drive'd out at this point but I personally want to see this movie again and again. It has an energy and tone to it that you don't often see come out of Hollywood. In time, this will be a cult classic.

Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk about Kevin

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Directed by Sean Durkin
This was the first film I saw for TIFF this year and it remains one of the most disturbing experiences I had throughout the entire festival. Elizabeth Olsen is incredible in her debut and I hope she is able to hold the momentum she has started until she earns an Oscar nod for this.

MELANCHOLIA
Directed by Lars von Trier
I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of this man's work but I was fully absorbed by Lars von Trier's fascinating and visually stunning contemplation on depression set against the end of the world. Somehow, despite its subject matter, it still manages to be amusing.

SHAME
Directed by Steve McQueen
Michael Fassbender will pick up his first Oscar nomination for this incredibly honest look at sexual addiction. Audiences have been somewhat polarized on this but that often tends to happen when the mirror is held up to them with such strength.

TYRANNOSAUR
Directed by Paddy Considine

Actor turned director, Paddy Considine, has written a tale of two people struggling with the misery that has consumed their lives. To say it is dark would be a grand understatement but if you can find the hope in the film, it will move you significantly.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
This is by far one of the most striking and colourful films I saw this year. Tilda Swinton is unbelievable as a mother grappling with the love she feels for her sociopathic son. Bloody brilliant.

That's me with my pass! Always an honour.

I want to thank everyone that made TIFF11 possible for me. First of all, my editors at Hour Community and Ottawa Xpress for sending me. My boss at the bank for giving me the time off to pursue my passion. All the great PR people at Alliance, StarPR, AMPR, Fox Searchlight, Sony and eOne for all their assistance with booking advance screenings and interviews. And of course I need to thank my readers and fellow film enthusiasts for keeping the conversations going on the site, on Twitter and in person during the festival.

TIFF brings film fans from all over the world to Toronto and it is a pleasure to share this experience with everyone who truly appreciates just how rare and amazing it is. I am truly blessed to have had this opportunity for a second year and hope it comes around again next year. Thank you again for all your support and until then, Happy TIFF!

TIFF Review: THE DESCENDANTS

Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

Directed by Alexander Payne

Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Judy Greer

Matt King: I’m the back-up parent, the understudy.

It has been seven years since Alexander Payne’s last feature film, SIDEWAYS, charmed critics and audiences alike. The long gestation period has allowed him to make what I would describe as his most satisfying film to date, THE DESCENDANTS. Considering how much I love his earlier films, like ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT, calling his latest his greatest is not a compliment I extend lightly.

At one point in THE DESCENDANTS, a character refers to Matt King’s (George Clooney) current predicament to be one heck of a “unique dramatic situation” and he is not kidding. Payne's witty screenplay finds every single important tie in Matt’s life has been tangled together and he can no longer move forward until he figures out how to loosen the ropes that are tightening around him. As the executor of his family’s estate, he is responsible for deciding what to do with a fine piece of Hawaiian real estate his ancestors left to him in trust, which has drawn much scrutiny from the locals. More importantly though, his wife is in a coma from a speed boating accident and he has two daughters (Amara Miller and breakout, Shailene Woodley) he barely knows to comfort and console. When he learns that his wife was cheating on him before her accident, it becomes pretty clear that the life he knew is now finished.

As particular as THE DESCENDANTS is, Payne infuses it with his special brand of humanity, sensitivity and humour. Payne has an uncanny knack for bringing his audiences right into the troubled minds of his characters, leaving both their pain and their potential exposed for all to see. In this case, all that heart and heartache seeps from every element of Clooney’s fine performance. With so much on his plate, you can constantly see the wheels turning in his head as he drifts off into thought in the gorgeous Hawaiian skyline.  He acts as a filter of sorts for everything coming before this moment in his life, now faced with the task of passing on only the best parts to his two beautiful daughters. In doing so, THE DESCENDANTS only passes on the best that contemporary drama has to offer to us.

Black Sheep interviews RYAN GOSLING

BEHIND THE WHEEL

An interview with Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling has a dream but its not what you would expect. It isn’t riches or success or notoriety; he has already achieved those lofty goals. No, Gosling has something much more specific in mind. “My dream is to create a character that people go out as on Halloween,” Gosling tells me when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival. He says this with full sincerity and not a single trace of sarcasm on his beautiful face.

Gosling may have found that character in his new film, DRIVE. Known only as The Driver, his character sports a shiny bomber jacket with a giant scorpion on the back, is constantly fiddling with a toothpick in his mouth and he barely speaks a word most of the time. Aside from his inherent coolness, he is also one of the biggest badasses I’ve seen on screen all year. “He’s got issues,” Gosling quips of The Driver. “He’s a psychopath. He’s gotta get control of that, I guess.”

It was Gosling who pushed for DRIVE to be made and also for Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn to helm. And once those two got started, there was no stopping them. “Nicolas and I creatively copulated and this movie baby was born and then we had to raise it,” explains Gosling. When he says things like this, he looks straight at you and doesn’t even flinch. It’s impressive.

The buzz behind DRIVE is as loud as the film itself and if it connects with audiences, which I assure you, it most certainly should, Gosling has the chance to continue solidifying his status as one of the most intriguing and marketable stars working today. Not too bad for a boy from London, Ontario. His work in this summer’s CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE was the best of the bunch and he also stars in next month’s THE IDES OF MARCH, directed by none other than George Clooney. Oscar is abuzz.

People are calling Gosling the next De Niro but he’s having none of it. “There is no difference between me and anyone else,” Gosling says both firmly and humbly, clearly somewhat irked by the notion itself. “I hate when that stuff happens,” he says of comparisons. “There’s no where to go after. It just sets you up to fail.”

Comparisons aside, the kind of intensity Gosling gives in DRIVE could not as easily be achieved by too many other young actors today. He is extremely intimidating and all he has to do is stand there and stare at you to accomplish this. When I ask him where he has to go in his head to be that menacing, he answers with three words, “Not too far.”

Gosling would simply prefer that his work speak for itself and his work in DRIVE is some of the best I’ve seen from him. This is likely, at least in part, due to his strong understanding of the material itself, which is based on a James Sallis novel. “Driving can be something of an existential experience,” he explains. “You aren’t being watched; you are just the watcher. It’s similar to watching a movie.”

And if that movie happens to have Gosling in the driver’s seat, all the better.

TIFF Review: CAFE DE FLORE

Written and Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

Starring Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Helene Florent and Evelyne Brochu

When it comes to love, sometimes it feels as if there are greater forces at work and that we have no control over who we’re drawn to or how deeply we can feel. For some, a love as untamable as this is often considered to be destiny, as if it were written in the stars long before we were ever born. This sense of romance intertwined with fate runs rampant if Quebec filmmaker, Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest feature, CAFE DE FLORE, a love story that needs more than one lifetime in order to work itself out.

With CAFE DE FLORE, Vallée finds a voice as a director he seemed to have lost in his last outing, THE YOUNG VICTORIA. While the period piece was certainly beautiful and had its moments, it played out as, well, already played out. None of the urgency or energy Vallée created with his previous feature and biggest hit, C.R.A.Z.Y., was anywhere to be found. Perhaps it was a language thing because in returning to French language filmmaking again, Vallée is alive in all the choices he makes. And he would need to be on top of every moment in order to make this complex tale come off right. Vallée cuts back and forth between a present day Montreal romance involving a husband (Kevin Parent) who leaves the woman he’s been with since he was a teenager (Helene Florent) for another (Evelyne Brochu) and a complicated relationship between a mother (Vanessa Paradis) and her mentally challenged son (Marin Gerrier) taking place 50 years earlier in Paris.

Whether you enjoy CAFE DE FLORE or not will depend on whether you buy into the connection between these two plots. Vallée tells them both with great style; at times, the editing unspools like a record being mixed and scratched by a DJ, surely done to compliment the main character’s career as one. In fact, a general connection to music is a theme that runs throughout and ties characters together when nothing else is working.   Love itself, and the relationships that spring from it, is hard enough to figure out on its own and Vallée infuses this journey towards understanding into his storytelling. To his credit, Vallée inspires a fair amount of curiosity but the anticipation he builds throughout the film ends up being slightly more satisfying than the destination.

TIFF Review: 50/50

Written by Will Reiser

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, 

Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston

Adam: I can’t remember being so calm in a long time.

Katie: Would you describe it as numbness?

Adam: No, I would describe it as fine.

Up and coming director, Jonathan Levine’s latest film, 50/50, is being billed as a cancer comedy, only I cried about five times so I’m not sure the descriptor really fits. 50/50 is writer, Will Reiser’s first hand account of what it was like to get cancer in his 20’s. Clearly, as he is still here to tell the tale, he lives through the ordeal, but knowing this does not take away from the personal journey he shares with us. And fortunately for all involved, that journey is being taken on screen by the always impressive, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who easily makes 50/50 a sure bet.

Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, whom we first meet jogging down the streets of Seattle at dawn. Instantly, while we watch him wait at a red light to cross an intersection despite any trace of traffic approaching, we know that Adam is cautious and self-aware. Even when he is told that he has cancer, he protests on the basis that he doesn’t smoke or drink and that he recycles. Adam follows the rules and yet is being inexplicably punished. Adam is not particularly original, as far as characters go, but his emotional path leaves the character so exposed and vulnerable that we are deeply endeared to him. Commendably, Reiser does not make us pity him but instead it feels like a rare and  honest account of his experience. For Gordon-Levitt to be able to open himself up to this kind of candidness only further proves that he is one of the most relatable young actors working today.

I felt I could know Adam, that he could be one of my friends. That one of my friends could go through this is foreign to me and fortunately, not something I’ve ever had to go through. As much as 50/50 is about Adam’s plight, the other half of it is about how the people around him learn to support him. From his best friend (Seth Rogen, playing a role based on himself, as he is also Reiser’s best friend in real life) to his mother (Anjelica Huston, making the most of her little screen time) to love interests both potential (Anna Kendrick) and exiting (Bryce Dallas Howard), everyone in his life stumbles through supporting him as if they were blindly walking into walls. Everyone is trying though, reminding us just how important intention really is, and 50/50 surely has the best of them.

TIFF Review: MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

Written and Directed by Sean Durkin

Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy and John Hawkes

Martha: Do you ever have that feeling where you can’t tell if something’s a memory or if it’s something you dreamed?

 Instantly uncomfortable, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, is unlike any experience I’ve had at the movies. It is at times both eerily quiet and dishearteningly noisy; it is painfully present but yet also lost in a haze of what is real and what is imagined. It inspires great sympathy and even greater anxiety. Its tension is palpable and its style is distinct and effective. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is a truly accomplished piece of filmmaking from writer-director, Sean Durkin, a first time feature filmmaker. With that in mind, it is just plain shocking across the board.

As skillful as Durkin proves to be, he has help, led by a star-making turn from lead actress, Elizabeth Olsen. Olsen, who incidentally is the younger sibling of Mary-Kate and Ashley (and I’m sure never tires of seeing that repeated in print), is incredible as Martha. We meet her when she is Marcy May, her name changed when she entered a seemingly loving commune. Her new family turns out to be an abusive cult, led by recent Oscar nominee, John Hawkes (WINTER’S BONE), but the warmth they show her is still enough for her to leave behind the family she had always known. Olsen carries so much depth in her composure, her face and general demeanor are cold and lifeless. Still, there is fight inside her that breaks through the surface from time to time, hoping to make its presence more permanent. Olsen makes Martha’s struggle so grave, you feel as though she could slip away from everything at any moment, never to return. She is simply captivating and I could barely breathe as I watched her push back from hell.

Durkin takes this towering performance and drops it in the middle of a world of bewilderment, bouncing back and forth in time and place between Marcy May’s time with her adopted “family” and Martha’s attempt to reintegrate into society with her sister (Sarah Paulson) and her husband (Hugh Dancy). At times, many of them in fact, she cannot distinguish between the two experiences and subsequently, neither can we. Her transition is never simple and both situations place rules on her that she struggles against, leaving it open for debate as to which scenario provides her with real love, if any. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is as disturbing as you would expect from what I’ve described but it is also just as revelatory.

TIFF Review: TAKE THIS WALTZ

Written and Directed by Sarah Polley

Starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman

 Geraldine: Life has a big gap in it. You don’t try to fill it like a f#@king lunatic.

Canadian darling, Sarah Polley’s latest directorial effort begins with such great promise. The enigmatic, Michelle Williams, with her round face and gentle demeanor, comes in and out of focus in a quaint Toronto kitchen. The sun beams in and all you can hear is the clicking of the fan rotating in the corner and a soft folk song filling the soundtrack. It’s one of those perfect mornings; her muffins are rising slowly and the whole day awaits her. As she sinks to the floor by the oven and a man’s legs brush past her, the tone is set for a truly great film. Unfortunately, it is at this point that mouths are opened, awkwardness and discomfort come out of them and TAKE THIS WALTZ begins to step all over its own feet.

Williams plays Margot, a 29-year-old writer living in Toronto. She has been married to Lou (Seth Rogen, who continues to grow and show more depth as an actor) for six years now. The two clearly love each other but their relationship has never matured from its youthful beginnings. As a result, they resort to cutesy baby talk and childish games where they each come up with creative ways to kill the other person whenever there is potential for intimacy between them. Neither one seems to notice their relationship is stinted until Margot meets a man on Prince Edward Island, of all places, while on assignment. Daniel (the charming Luke Kirby) not only ends up sitting next to her on the plane, where Margot has the chance to spill some fairly overwrought dialogue about how she fears missing connections at airports and maybe really fears fear itself, but as it turns out, Daniel also happens to live a few doors over from her in Toronto as well. It’s crazy how life can line up like that, I mean, especially when it is being written that way.

Margot’s heart becomes torn between the love she’s known for years and the possibilities presented by something new, something potentially more adult. Ordinarily, I am drawn into every emotion Williams gives us but in TAKE THIS WALTZ, I just wanted to cut in, grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Margot is an unhappy sap, who sees her marriage to a supportive man as a true burden and who portends that the path she has taken holds her back without admitting it was of her own making or doing a single thing to change it. To watch her debate the greener grass across the street from her is an exercise in great patience as she comes off as unappreciative, immature and unaware. Granted, yes, people just like Margot exist in real life but the sympathy with which Polley demands for Margot is too much to ask and Margot never does one thing to deserve it. As far as I’m concerned, Polley can have her waltz back because I don’t want it.