AND THE WINNER IS…

Matt Damon tells CBS that he thinks the idea of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin becoming President is “like a really bad Disney movie… you know, the hockey mom—’Oh, I’m just a hockey mom from Alaska!’—and she’s the president!”

As I sit at the Newark airport awaiting the last leg of my trip home from another year’s visit to the Toronto International Film Festival, I  know that the first question that I will be asked by my friends and family upon my return will not be “What films did you see?” or “What films found distributors?” or “How was the weather?” but “Who did you see?!” For this reason, I have decided to go through the week in my head and write down the names of as many of the notables that I encountered as I can remember—and, let me tell you, you can see more stars in a day in Toronto without trying than you can over a week or even a month in Hollywood or New York or just about anywhere in the world. Anyway, without further ado, a walk down (recent) memory lane…

FRIDAY Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons at the Warner Brothers press conference for Appaloosa… Adrien Brody switching rooms between interviews at The Fairmont Royal York… Ethan Coen lunching two tables away at the Avenue lounge in The Four Seasons… Zac Efron, Claire Danes, and Geoffrey Rush at the CinemaNX shindig for Me and Orson Welles at the Empire Lounge’s ground floor, while Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear mingled with guests at an event for Ghost Town downstairs… Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Brad Pitt, Francis McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Richard Jenkins at Roy Thomson Hall introducing the Gala premiere of Burn After Reading and then watching it from the high-up seats a section away from me, allowing me to shake Pitt’s hand on his way out of the theater like a little fanboy… Coen, Coen, Pitt (sequestered in a little corner with some buddies and a punk bodyguard), McDormand, Malkovich (wearing a murse, or man-purse), Swinton, and Jenkins, along with Brody, Efron, Jeremy Piven, Miramax studio head Daniel Battsek, MSNBC newsman Dan Abrams, and Canadian-born Phoenix Suns basketball star Steve Nash at the Burn After Reading after party at  Spice Route   SATURDAY Brody at our interview at the Park Hyatt, while co-star Rachel Weisz chatted with other journalists in the same suite… Coen, Coen, Pitt, Swinton, and Malkovich at the festival’s hot-ticket Burn After Reading press conference at the Park Hyatt… actor-director Clark Johnson outside The Intercontinental… Keira Knightley, accompanied by three or four handlers, gracefully hustling through the main hall of the Park Hyatt… director/TIFF patron Ivan Reitman in the lobby of The Four Seasons… Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn, Adam Scott, and 23 year old director Nic Fackler at the first public screening of their film Lovely, Still at the AMC at Dundas… Efron, Christian McKay, and director Richard Linklater at the first public screening of their film Me and Orson Welles, with director Jason Reitman in the audience, also at the AMC at Dundas… Director Fernando Meirelles and his cast of Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Sandra Oh, and Danny Glover, joined by Brody in the audience, at the Gala premiere of Blindness at the Ryerson Theatre, which commenced following a painfully long introduction… Meirelles, Ruffalo, Brody, and Gael Garcia Bernal at the all-out after-party for Blindness at CTV Queen Street   SUNDAY Landau, Burstyn, Scott, Canadian director Atom Egoyan, and Egoyan’s actress-wife Arsinee Khanjian at a tea reception for Lovely, Still at the Empire Lounge… director Danny Boyle and actors Dev Patel and Freida Pinto at the tremendously-received premiere of the final cut of their film Slumdog Millionaire, with Reitman in attendance, at the Ryerson Theatre… Boyle, Patel, Pinto, Reitman, and Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart at the post-premiere celebration of Slumdog at Flow by The Four Seasons… director Richard Eyre and stars Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, and Antonio Banderas introducing the Gala premiere of The Other Man, with Banderas’ wife Melanie Griffith in the audience… Eyre, Linney, and Nash at the Other Man after-party, held at the best venue in Toronto, the awe-inspiring Casa Loma castle   MONDAY Shohreh Aghdashloo for our interview at the at the Avenue-and-Davenport Metrick residence… Brody, Ruffalo, Weisz, Edward Norton, Lauren Graham, Reitman, and former Miramax/current Weinstein Company studio head Harvey Weinstein at the Summit party for The Brothers Bloom at The Park Hyatt’s rooftop lounge  TUESDAY Boyle for our interview at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel… director Kevin Smith and cast members  Jason Mewes and Katie Morgan at the Visa Screening Room special presentation of Zack and Miri Make a Porno… Ethan Hawke animatedly conversing with a friend over drinks at The Park Hyatt’s mezzanine-level bar/restaurant… Benicio Del Toro causing piercing shrieks as he entered the Visa Special Presentation of part one of Che  WEDNESDAY Catherine Keener, a few rows ahead of me on a Porter Airlines flight from Toronto to Newark, and then directly behind me in the Customs line, where we compared our Obama t-shirts…

On Tuesday morning, I spoke for about fifteen minutes with director Danny Boyle, who is currently riding a wave of good feeling in Telluride and Toronto, where his latest film Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight, 11/28, clip) has screened and is being widely hailed as the best film of the year thus far. (I myself would put it right at the top of the list alongside WALL-E and The Visitor.) I left my digital audio recorder in a taxi yesterday, so I had to conduct the interview on an old-fashioned audio cassette recorder, which will require me to transfer into digital form, something I can do only after I arrive home tomorrow evening. Once I do so, you’ll be able to listen in as Boyle—who has also directed Trainspotting (1995), 28 Days Later (2002), Millions (2004), Sunshine (2007)—discusses his film’s remarkable reception, lack of “name” stars (and why India is the real star), working with child actors, and much more.

Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks scout talent in Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Also on Tuesday, I had a much-welcomed change of pace from the heavier, darker films I’ve seen this week—some of which I’ve quite enjoyed (Lovely, Still) and others of which rather pained me (Blindness)—when I attended the packed Visa Screening Room presentation of Kevin Smith‘s most irreverent and funniest comedy yet, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (The Weinstein Company, 10/31, trailer). The film, which only barely avoided a deadly NC-17 rating thanks to a successful MPAA appeal, is absolutely filthy, both in terms of language (you can’t think of a “bad word” not in the film) and to a lesser extent visuals (picture the worst sexual mishap imaginable)… and yet it never offended me because I know that it quite accurately reflects how today’s young people (that crucial 18-to-25 demographic) talk and act. There’s no question that a large percentage of the population would feel differently about it than I did… but, then again, people with Puritan sensibilities probably would never consider lining up to see a movie titled Zack and Miri Make a Porno in the first place!

Perhaps the funniest thing about the film, which stars the omnipresent Seth Rogen (also this year: Pineapple Express; Step Brothers; Fanboys; Kung Fu Panda; Horton Hears a Who!) and Elizabeth Banks (also this year: Definitely, Maybe; Lovely, Still; W; Meet Dave), is that its underlying plot is actually somewhat plausible! Smith perfectly balances the hilariously outrageous and over-the-top stuff (much of which comes from Craig Robinson, as well as Apple ad-guy/Drew Barrymore-ex Justin Long as Brandon Routh‘s irrepressible gay lover) with the love story between Rogen and Banks that is at the film’s center. And if you had any doubts about the abilities of Rogen and Banks as actors, doubt no more… the fact that they convince you that there’s a chance in hell that they’d end up sleeping together, under even the worst of circumstances, is a hell of an accomplishment.

Shohreh Aghdashloo at the ’03 Oscars, where she was nominated for House of Sand and Fog

This morning, Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog, 24), the greatest Iranian actress of our time, stopped by the apartment at which I am staying while in Toronto to grant me and my TIFF co-correspondent Jamie Metrick the honor of interviewing her about her remarkable life, career, and latest film, The Stoning of Soraya M. (which is hoping to find a distributor here at the festival).

Thirty years ago, Aghdashloo was one of the most promising young actresses in Iran. But, perceptively anticipating the Islamic Revolution that would forever change her country, she decided to leave behind her career, her family, and her best friend (a puppy) to follow the light of freedom to London and then Los Angeles. Ever since, she has been hard at work reinventing herself. It hasn’t been an easy journey. For far too long, she could find only bit parts like maids on TV shows like Matlock that offered her only a line or two of meaningless dialog. But she persevered, founding a successful theater company with her husband and traveling the world, confident that her moment was still to come. Sure enough, and out of the blue, Hollywood came calling, and even though the person from DreamWorks on the other end of the conversation butchered the pronouncation of her name, she responded… and how. She was cast as Nadi, Ben Kingsley’s wife, in the grossly-underappreciated House of Sand and Fog (2003), for which she won numerous critics awards and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Since then, things have been somewhat better, as she has overcome the unfortunate typecasting and stereotyping that still pervades the industry and appeared in a number of varied and colorful roles.

Aghdashloo’s proudest and possibly greatest role, however, is her latest. In The Stoning of Soraya M., she bears witness to one of the most brutal and savage acts of cruelty by mankind that is still practiced quite commonly in Iran: death by stoning. The film features a graphic sequence depicting a stoning running for roughly 10 minutes that no one would want to see but everyone should see. It took six days to film it, throughout which Aghdashloo says she found herself in tears.

Discussing the tragedy of what has befallen Iran in the name of religion again drove Aghdashloo to tears during our chat today, as she eloquently explained the intertwined narratives of her personal history, ther native country, and the story of the film. Once I get home from Toronto, I’ll post the full audio of our conversation, but for now consider this tremendous endorsement of the film from Jamie, who attended the film’s premiere on Sunday night: “It is the most powerful movie I’ve ever seen. I will never be the same.” If the film finds a distributor and enough others feel half as strongly, then we could certainly see Aghdashloo back at the Oscars in just a matter of months.

Keira Knightley is The Duchess

Allow me to preface this assessment of The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, 9/19, trailer)—which I saw last Friday—by noting that I, as a straight male, am not “supposed” to like it, let alone see it in the first place. And now allow me to explain why I did…

The Duchess, which is only the second film by the writer-director Saul Dibb, is without a doubt one of the finest films I’ve seen at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. It can perhaps best be described as everything that Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006) strove to be but no amount of hip music could make it—a star vehicle; a fashion photoshoot-come-to-life (right on the heels of another from this year, Sex and the City); and a celebration of the strength of women. My hunch is that women of all ages will strongly embrace it; that Academy members will strongly consider nominating it for Best Art Direction (Michael Carlin) and Best Actress (thanks to another fine performance in a period piece by Pride & Prejudice and Atonement star Keira Knightley, whose great beauty far too often causes reviewers to overlook her tremendous talent); and that it will almost certainly win Michael O’Connor the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

[NOTE: Some minor spoilers follow.] The eponymous character in the film, Georgiana Spencer (Knightley), was the most famous woman in late 18th century England. At the age of 16, unbeknownst to her, her opportunistic mother arranged for her to marry the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) and assume responsibility for producing him an heir. The Duke, who is introverted and cold to everyone, including his wife, makes it clear from their first night together that he regards her as nothing more than a means to achieve that end. When her first two pregnancies bear females, however, he becomes increasingly cruel and unfaithful to her, causing a deep rift in their relationship. He orders her, “Give me a son, and until then stay here and do as I say,” and thus she finds herself “imprisoned in my own house.” What makes it all the more shocking is that the Duke, as another character gossips, “must be the only man in England not in love with his wife!”

The Duke is missing a sensitivity-chip, not unlike Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, the film version of which also starred Knightley; the difference is that Darcy eventually finds one. The Duke is incredibly insensitive to his wife’s feelings and needs, as perhaps best illustrated in a scene at their breakfast table, at which he sits far at the opposite end from her. A baby is ushered in, the Duke casually acknowledges to the Duchess that it is a child whom he has fathered out of wedlock, and he tells her that he expects her to raise it. (“It will be good practice,” he mutters.) The umistakable symbolism of the distance between them in this dark, quiet scene must be an ode to a similar scene in another film that focuses on a domineering husband growing apart from his wife—that, of course, is Citizen Kane (1941).

Orson Welles and Ruth Warrick in Citizen Kane

For women of the Duchess’ era, mental and physical maltreatment of the sort practiced by the Duke was not uncommon; to independently go forward and make something of oneself in spite of it, however, certainly was, and that is precisely what she does. A few examples…

• She involves herself in politics, speaking out against proponents of “freedom in moderation” and quietly advocating for women’s suffrage… all the while retaining her good humor (“You politicians know nothing about fashion!”).
• She understands publicity (“I have many faults, not least among them the ability to draw attention”) anduses it to campaign for opposition party leader Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper of The History Boys), her childhood crush and future lover. [Incidentally, the hopeful and optimistic Grey reminds me of Obama (he even says, "Change is upon us!") while the dour and cynical Duke reminds me of McCain (he says of the much younger Grey, "He is a dreamer, like yourself. You both dream of a world that doesn't exist and never will"). It's as if she's married to McCain but in love with Obama!]
• She is in touch with her sexuality, experiencing an awakening of sexual pleasure fueled by her female friend, unmet by her husband, and satisfied by her lover. It demonstrates to her that a woman need not just go through the motions when it comes to sex or, for that matter, life, in general—that both can offer something more.
• And, above all, she’s stylish! Known around town as the “Empress of Fashion,” one speaker introduces her by saying “What we see her wearing tonight, I look forward to seeing you wear tomorrow!” (And even if Knightley and screenwriter Amanda Foreman don’t like them, comparisons between Georgiana Spencer, after she became the Duchess of Devonshire, and her great-great-great-great aunt Diana Spencer, after she became the Princess of Wales, are completely understandable and appropriate. Both women were born into normal families, married into royalty at a young age, endured largely unhappy marriages for the sake of their children, became activists and fashion icons, and died far too young.)
  

Generally speaking, men don’t understand women when it comes to clothes. We hate being dragged along for shopping sprees, we hate the idea of attending a fashion show, and most of us wouldn’t spend more than a minute or two gussying ourselves up were it not necessary to do so to attract women. Therefore, it is not surprising to hear the Duke ask the Duchess, “Why must women’s clothes be so damn complicated?!” It is enlightening, however, to hear her thoughtful response, especially considering the time period in which the story is set: “I suppose it’s just our way of expressing ourselves. You [men] have so many ways of expressing yourselves, whereas we must make do with our hats and dresses.” Indeed, for a woman as trapped (literally and figuratively) as the Duchess, clothes are a small outlet, and for even us hardened men it is hard not to be impressed with her stunning assortment of them. Indeed, numerous scenes in the film look like Vanity Fair photoshoots come-to-life (e.g. when the Duchess is given instructions for how to deliver her illegitimate child).

The saddest part about the film is watching the Duchess struggle to navigate the uncharted territory towards progress that she eventually walks. Upon catching the Duke philandering with her best friend under her own roof, she exasperatedly asks him not “What is wrong with you?!” but “What is wrong with me?!” Her own mother blames her for her husband’s infidelities. This was the cultural zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, and it is tragic to look back upon. “You don’t have to please others all the time,” her lover chides her, to which she responds, “It’s what I’ve been brought up to do—it’s hard to unlearn.”

When that lessons finally sinks in, and she learns to love herself, the Duchess feels inevitable regret (“I fear I’ve done some things in life too late and others too early”), but also discovers newfound courage. As she prepares to leave her husband, he warns her, “This will be the mistake of your life!” to which she responds, “No, I made that many years ago.” Oh. snap. But when he thrusts their children into the mix by threatening to keep them from her forever, she is forced to reconsider, for she, like most mothers, values them above even herself. I won’t give away her decision, but needless to say either option—to return or not to return—would come with great pain and sacrifice.

The film reminds me a great deal of the better melodramatic women’s weepies and sumptuous period costume dramas of Hollyood’s Golden Age. This is the sort of project that Douglas Sirk would have wanted to direct (think Written on the Wind, or better yet Imitation of Life) and feisty Bette Davis would have been assigned to star in (remember her role—and red dress—in Jezebel?), probably opposite, say, Laurence Olivier as the cold Duke and Robert Taylor as the forbidden lover.

The film treats the Duke far more fairly than he ever treated the Duchess, showing flickers of humanity beneath his cold attitude—teaching his lover’s boys about guns; awkwardly admitting his own ineptitude at expressing himself; and looking out a window at children playing while speaking his final, revealing lines in the film: “How wonderful to be that free.” It acknowledges that this was a far different place and time than the one we know today—the Duchess’ best friend’s husband beat her and stole her children, but as she tells the Duchess “the law is on his side.” But it rightfully celebrates a woman who was generations ahead of her time and who hoped for better.

Even if the Duchess was unable to achieve her dreams in her own lifetime, she put on a brave face, the requisite stiff upper lip,  and fought onward. History says she left a few cracks in that “glass ceiling” for women that has been invoked frequently, of late. For that reason, it seems fitting that The Duchess, which celebrates the courage and strenght of women, should be released now, in 2008—it’s the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the America, and it’s the year that Hillary almost became the first female presidential nominee, and Sarah Palin, for better or worse, could become the first female vice president. Things are far from perfect or equal for women, but they are getting better every day, and as modern women ponder their options of what they’d like to do and where they’d like to go, a movie like The Duchess will remind them of how far they’ve come, and serve as a reminder of how far they can go.

It’s 2:00am and I have never felt so tired in my life. This marks the fourth straight day of waking up at 9am (at the latest) and getting to bed at 2am (at the earliest). Not meaning to bitch, because the stuff that happens in-between is terrific, but it definitely catches up to you. More than that, it leaves precious little time to write about what I’ve seen. So here’s a brief overview, with a promise for much further detail about all of it just as soon as is humanly possible:

Over these past four days, I have seen screenings of Appaloosa (studio); The Brothers Bloom (studio); JCVD (Midnight Madness); The Duchess (studio); Burn After Reading (Gala Screening; international premiere); Lovely, Still (public); Me and Orson Welles (public); Blindness (Visa Screening Room special presentation; North American premiere); Slumdog Millionaire (Toronto premiere); and The Other Man (Gala Screening; international premiere). I have sat through press conferences for Appaloosa and Burn After Reading. I have interviewed Adrien Brody; Zac Efron; Adam Scott. I have attended parties for JCVD; Burn After Reading; Me and Orson Welles; Blindness; Lovely, Still; Slumdog Millionaire; and The Other Man. I have visited half a dozen hospitality suites, inconveniently located in half a dozen hotels. I have spent at least $200 on cab rides in order to rapidly make it from one event to the next. And the list of things go on.

For now, all you need to know is this: Slumdog Millionaire, the final cut of which premiered this evening at the Ryerson Theatre to raucous applause, is everything that Telluride, Jeff Wells, Tom O’Neil, and basically anyone else who has seen it has built it up to be: easily one of the best films of the year. My best short explanation of it is this: City of God meets Forrest Gump. Think along those lines… authentic and unvarnished foreign flavor along with a far-fetched but charming love story. Anyway, as far as awards campaigns go, it poses some serious challenges—it features an unknown cast and is about a foreign land, to name two of the bigger ones—but it does have Fox Searchlight behind it, and anyone who has been conscious these past few years knows that no film is too small for them to turn into an awards-winner, which this one unquestionably deserves to be. More soon.

Just hearing that the Academy Award winning actor Tommy Lee Jones has filed a lawsuit against Paramount (not Miramax?) alleging that they have stiffed him on $10 million of bonus-compensation that he says they promised to pay him if No Country for Old Men proved to be financially successful. Paramount ended up taking in $160 million and the Academy Award for Best Picture. They have not yet offered a public response.

Zac Efron stars in the new film Me and Orson Welles

These days, few if any males are more popular with the bobby-soxer demographic than Zac Efron, the actor whose good looks and voice single-handedly turned High School Musical (2006), High School Musical 2 (2007), and Hairspray (2007) into phenomenal commercial successes. This week, Efron, who is a month shy of turning 21, is in Toronto to call attention to his latest film, Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles (no U.S. distribution yet), which is quite different from anything else he’s ever done before. Set in 1930s New York, Efron plays a 17-year-old aspiring actor who has a chance meeting with Orson Welles outside the famed Mercury Theatre, impresses the great master, and is given the opportunity of a lifetime when Welles invites him to play Lucius in his production of Julius Caesar. Efron befriends the rest of the acting company, romances the secretary (Claire Danes), and learns some hard lessons along the way to opening night.

I’ll have more to say about the film when I have a minute to write it up, but for now I’ll note that Efron gives a surprisingly mature performance thatleads me to believe he’ll be around for years to come (and not only in singing roles), and share the audio of my chat with him (about the film, singing, and his relatively new celebrity) at Friday evening’s post-premiere after-party…

The Golden Lion, the highest honor at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, has been awarded by the International Competition Jury to The Wrestler, the Darren Aranofsky-directed film about an aging former professional wrestler who attempts an unlikely comeback. The title role is played by veteran actor/real-life boxer/former Hollywood “bad-boy” Mickey Rourke, whose magnificent reviews in Venice and now Toronto mark a great comeback for him, as well. Assuming The Wrestler will now find U.S. distribution, Rourke would have to be considered a serious contender in the Best Actor Oscar race.

Adrien Brody‘s immortal moment at the 2002 Oscars

On Saturday morning, I had the opportunity to speak for about ten minutes with the Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody, who is here in Toronto celebrating the release of his latest film The Brothers Bloom (Summit, 12/19, trailer), and who I’d already run into at a few parties and found to be incredibly gracious. I’ve enjoyed watching Brody’s career develop over the years, from The Thin Red Line (1998) to Liberty Heights (1999) to his triumphant, Oscar-winning performance in The Pianist (2002); I’m not sure if I agree with too many of his career choices since then, but I must say that he has remained the same fun-loving (just ask Halle Berry!) but also humble guy that he was before he struck stardom and celebrity. We covered all of this in what proved to be a pretty enlightening chat, entirely because of his unusually lengthy and insightful answers. You can hear for yourself…