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Trailer: 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Oct 2nd 2009 11:00PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Fall Movies
Indie director Wes Anderson has traded in his quirky characters (see 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'Rushmore') for more furry friends in order to bring to life Roald Dahl's classic children's story 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'

George Clooney provides the voice for Mr. Fox, who, along with his family, is plaguing a local farmer and his family. In order to save their chickens, the family decides to take revenge on the wily fox and his brood.
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Trailer: 'Paranormal Activity'

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 25th 2009 2:30PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips
Slated to be the next 'Blair Witch Project,' 'Paranormal Activity' is a low-budget romp about a happy couple who becomes haunted by a demonic spirit. Oren Peli's film stars unknown actors Katie Featherston (as Katie) and Micah Sloat (as Micah) as the pair in question.

The film premiered two years ago at the Screamfest Film Festival and uses the same home-camera style as 'Blair Witch.'
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TIFF Audience Choice Award Is 'Precious'

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 21st 2009 10:27AM
Filed under: Toronto Film Festival
TORONTO (AP) - A raw film about an abused teen named Precious won the audience choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, stoking predictions that the harrowing, Oprah Winfrey-backed tale is Oscar-bound.

'Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire,' snagged the coveted award at a luncheon that also named 'Cairo Time,' from Toronto director Ruba Nadda, the best Canadian feature.
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'Bright Star's' Ben Whishaw Turns Steadfast

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 19th 2009 3:18PM
Filed under: Celebrity Interviews, Features, Toronto Film Festival
Ben Whishaw is so thoughtful and soft-spoken that you don't dare interject when he pauses – and he pauses a lot. For a journalist with a relatively short time limit with the British actor, it is equal parts frustrating and refreshing. Frustrating because you wish you could peer into Whishaw's head to see exactly what he means (prior to the thoughts getting caught up in everyday verbiage) and refreshing because so few film stars dare to offer reporters answers that are not canned or watered down.

Whishaw was in Toronto last week to attend the Toronto film festival premiere of Jane Campion's 'Bright Star,' in which he plays poet John Keats. The film takes place in the last few years of Keats' life when he forged a relationship with his neighbour, Fanny Brawne (Australian actress Abbie Cornish). The duo embarked on a passionate love affair only to have it cut off abruptly by Keats' death, at age 25, from tuberculosis.
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Hot-Pink Horror: Sean Byrne on 'The Loved Ones'

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 18th 2009 3:00PM
Filed under: Celebrity Interviews, Features, Toronto Film Festival, Next Big Thing
In 2005, Greg McLean's 'Wolf Creek' introduced a new sub-genre to the horror tradition, that of the Outback slasher. This year, the Aussie filmmaker passes the baton on to Sean Byrne, whose film 'The Loved Ones' also takes place in rural Australia but is arguably more violent than its predecessor. The first-time filmmaker's "retro-deranged date movie" has taken the cinema world by the cojones and could be the first in a series of new "hot-pink horrors."

'The Loved Ones' hero is Brent (Xavier Samuel), a metal-headed marijuana smoker who cuts himself to numb the pain of his father's recent death. Things start to look up when he and his girlfriend are set to attend the prom, until Brent's secret admirer reveals she has other plans. Lola (aka "Princess," played by Robin McLeavy) has decided she wants Brent to herself and will not take no for an answer. Her fluorescent pink prom dress and glittery make-up may look harmless, but they thinly veil a madness that only Jeffery Dahmer could understand.

"Red is usually the colour of horror, but in our case it's hot pink," Byrne says with a laugh. The Aussie filmmaker was in Toronto to attend the film festival premiere of 'The Loved Ones' and spoke to Moviefone about 'Twilight' star Xavier Samuel, and why Australians are so good at horror.
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Why Terry Gilliam Can't Get it Right

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 17th 2009 11:56PM
Filed under: Toronto Film Festival, Reviews
There's a reason Terry Gilliam was nicknamed Captain Chaos. The filmmaker harbours the type of brain in which order dies and pandemonium reigns. This cerebral mishmash has served him well in his cinematic career, particularly when it weaves around clear plots such as those in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975), 'Brazil' (1985) and even 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' (1998). It's when Gilliam refuses to tether the cacophony in his brain that his films fall flat. Unfortunately, his latest opus, 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,' which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, is an exercise in pure unadulterated self-indulgence.
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Q&A: 'Tanner Hall' Stars Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris

By Soraya Roberts (Subscribe to Soraya Roberts's posts), Posted Sep 17th 2009 8:14AM
Filed under: Celebrity Interviews, Features, Toronto Film Festival



'Tanner Hall' is exactly the sort of film you think of when you hear the words "coming-of-age." It's a sterile look at four girls on the cusp of adulthood who attend an all-girls boarding school in New England. The setting is replete with colourful foliage and plenty of stone erections, while the girls each embody very identifiable types: the Lolita (Georgia King), the bad girl (Brie Larson), the lesbian (Amy Ferguson) and the pretty little bookworm (Rooney Mara) who leads them. It's a derivative piece of cotton candy, which attempts to mate 'The Virgin Suicides' with 'Dead Poets Society,' but has neither the spark nor wit to pull it off.

Thank goodness for Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris. The comedians stick out like sore thumbs in this relatively staid picture, and virtually save every scene in which they appear. 'Strangers With Candy' alum Sedaris plays batty Mrs. Middlewood, the dorm mother who can't seem to get her husband to sleep with her anymore. Kattan (best known for his stint on 'Saturday Night Live') plays the milquetoasty Mr. Middlewood, who suddenly finds himself lusting after the aforementioned Lolita.
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