In Bloom

Beautifully shot In Bloom is Toronto-trained director Vadim Perelman's (House of Sand and Fog) second feature starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Eva Amurri as high school BFFs Diana and Maureen. When a colossal tragedy strikes their school, adult Diana (Uma) reflects on what could have been. Given the subject matter several scenes are hard to watch. Wood's main squeeze Marilyn Manson was in the audience for moral support and wee Evan (she just turned 20) flashed her brilliant cut waaayy too many times in the Q&A following the film.
TIFF programmer Jane Schoettle gave us the poop on the film's distribution. Word is it has been sold everywhere except for Canada and the U.S. (likely given its Columbine/Dawson College theme). *****

Michael Clayton

So far so good on all of our TIFF '07 picks. Started out the festival with Michael Clayton starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. First time director Tony Gilroy, (screenwriter who gave birth to the Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum franchise) packs a wallop with his saga of a corporate corruption. Wilkinson is exhausting as the bi-polar legal genius who threatens to tank his high powered New York law firm and the unconscionable biochemical multinational (headed by Tilda Swinton) that they represent. Clooney's Michael Clayton is the firm's 'janitor', called into the contain and mop up the mess it makes apart from his own hacked up life plagued by addiction, divorce, debt.

Clooney takes on corporate greed even in this fast paced Hollywood blockbuster sure to sweep the box office off its feet! *****

TIFF begins!!

Good box karma this year. Box 66 out of 75 and we were in Box 29. Got all of our picks but STILL had to wait in the scorching line for 5 hours on Labour Day to swap Chaotic Ana for Helen Hunt's directorial debut in Then She Found Me. I was humming and hawing over Before the Devil Knows You're Dead because j'adore everybody's favourite creep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman but it will likely come to the theatres soon and we can save it for a film club. My sister says Colin Firth is everyone's dream husband and I should not pass up on seeing him in zee flesh for a look at Capote sans greasy combover. Soooooo, the final list is as follows:

Michael Clayton - George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Sidney Pollack
In Bloom - Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
Then She Found Me - Helen Hunt, Colin Firth
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush
Married Life - Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams

Les boys are back in town and we have made prelims for Senator size martinis for Monday night. Bon festival!!!!