Every year the Toronto International Film Festival grabs the attention of cinephiles the world over and signifies the start of a fall season loaded with entertaining movies.
It also serves to showcase what are likely to be some of the year's best-regarded titles that end up nominated for the big awards like the Golden Globes and Oscars.
In the past several years, it has been the first location for people to sit down and take notice of future best pictures like Ray, Slumdog Millionaire and American Beauty. The audiences seem to know what they're talking about, so if you care about only watching the good movies then paying attention to the TIFF is important.
Luckily, this is also the time of year when awards organizations also pay attention so movie distributors generally get their best gems out in the last few months of the year. This means that a lot of the year's best films are still around.
The Golden Globe nominations were just announced last week and the five nominees for Best Picture should make for a pretty interesting race. Why not catch one or two of these before the presentation ceremony on Jan. 16?
And the nominees are …
Inception came out during the summer and it baffled practically everybody in the audience. Complex? Yes, but what do you expect from Christopher Nolan, the same guy who brought us Memento., though this one really didn't do much for many people other than the critics. The special effects in the psychological landscape were spectacular. Too bad many of the main actors couldn't emote.
It's the twisted story of Dominick Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a master of corporate espionage. Instead of stealing things, he plants ideas in people's minds to make them fail. It's a tough, if not impossible task, and the plot is equally tough, if not impossible, to follow. If he can succeed with this last big job he can get his life and his kids back.
It's more than two hours long, feels like two days and you'll probably have to watch it two more times just to appreciate it. It's still playing at the dollar theatres so it won't break the bank if that's what you want to do.
You can also find The Social Network at the same multiplex. It was released in early October and it's as strong a movie as I've seen since director David Fincher's Zodiac. He's as diligent and driven with his stories as Nolan is, but he's more apt to drive his movies into the ground with his perfectionism. That's what happened to last year's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Here, he's got pure gold.
Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) has invented Facebook … or did he? Like the tagline says, "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." He's portrayed as a ruthless thief with horse blinders on to attain success and popularity.
Trouble is, he keeps hurting the people who mean the most in his life like his co-founder Eduardo Saverin and his girlfriend Erica Albright, who famously breaks up with him at the beginning of the movie. She tells him that he'll probably be very successful but he'll always think that girls don't like him because he's a nerd but it's actually because he's a jerk. She doesn't use those exact words though.
The acting and directing are brilliant but it's the words that pulled it all together. Aaron Sorkin's script was a delicious feast of jealousy, scorn and all-around hurt feelings. It made me think twice about Facebook and who my friends really are.
The three now battling on the big screen
The King's Speech is a compelling tale based on a true story about, well, the king of England. Can you imagine what it be like to wear a crown, have millions of people hanging on your every word, except you have a speech impediment?
Prince Albert (Colin Firth) finds himself in just that position after his father King George V dies and his older brother abdicates the throne. Suddenly installed as the new king, he must overcome his difficulties with the help of an unusual speech therapist just as his country is launching into the Second World War.
Things look pretty good for this movie. It already won the People's Choice Award from the Toronto Film Fest and garnered additional press thanks to a controversy about its foul language and the debate about how it should be classified. It's restricted in the United States but here in Alberta it's only rated PG.
The two freshest faces deal with one of the world's toughest sports and feature some tough performances.
The Fighter shows Mark Wahlberg as former real-life pugilist Mickey Ward trying to rise to glory while restoring the honour of his half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Eklund took on Sugar Ray Leonard and lost, and he fell hard before turning to drugs and crime. Ward is the kind of guy who rises against all odds and sticks by his family no matter how difficult life gets.
It's easy to believe Wahlberg as a boxer and Bale is the kind of hyper-committed actor that lives in his roles. Selling it as a character-driven drama may be flimsy but it's probably all that this film needs to demonstrate its awesomeness.
Finally, Black Swan is from Darren Aronofsky, a director from the same camp as Nolan and Fincher, and David O. Russell of The Fighter for that matter. It's a dark psychological drama about two warring ballerinas and the pressures of succeeding in a dog-eat-dog world.
Natalie Portman is Nina, a rising star who faces competition from Lily (Mila Kunis). They are both up for a big role in Swan Lake but their rivalry turns into a confused friendship as Nina loses her grip on reality. It's an ugly take on a world of beauty and it is getting rave reviews.
Wrap up
If none of these are to your liking then there are other respectable pictures that might be worth checking out. The Kids Are All Right is an indie film about a non-traditional family and the non-traditional conflicts that they face.
True Grit is the Coen Brothers' remake of the John Wayne classic, this time with Jeff Bridges in the lead role.
Rabbit Hole might be good but Nicole Kidman has a pretty spotty track record with her recent movies. If you have a strong constitution then 127 Hours should be fascinating as it portrays the real life circumstances that saw Aron Ralston (James Franco) trapped in a rocky crevasse with his arm pinned under a boulder. In the end, his life depended on a little canyon surgery. Under the helm of Slumdog Millionaire's director, Danny Boyle, it has a lot going for it.
