Thank You For Smoking
-Today’s edition is super-long and covers 3 days of TIFF-ing-

I did it…Mission accomplished. I saw Bono. For a brief and fleeting moment I was in his presence at the Breakfast on Pluto screening. But more on that later.

Film Festival recap:

Friday, September 9, 2005:

Films seen:
Thank You for Smoking
Neverwas

Celebrities Spotted:
Aaron Eckhart (at both screenings)
Maria Bello
William H. Macy
Jason Reitman (director)
David Koechner
Adam Brody
Rachel McAdams
Alan Cumming
Nick Nolte (yup, he really is that haggard and crazy)
Joshua Michael Stern (director)
Cameron Bright

I started the evening at the Ryerson Theatre, my new home away from home with the Thank You for Smoking preview. I showed up about an hour early and was about 30th in line. Not bad. Got a choice seat in my fave spot on the aisle. Waiting for the movie to start as people were filing in, I looked to my right and Rachel McAdams was walking down the aisle, talking to people with Maria Bello behind her. I didn’t recognize Rachel at first and not many people did. Maria Bello sat across the aisle from me and Aaron Eckhart followed her and sat in front of her, also across from me. We were separated by about 3 feet. William H. Macy came in next and sat in front of Aaron, so I was diagonally from him too. A lot of fun watching their reactions to the films, especially Aaron Eckhart’s during his sex scene with Katie Holmes (who wasn’t there but people booed and hissed at her name in the credits)- Aaron had slumped in his seat and covered his face with his hand.

The movie itself was great. Right up my alley. Filled with black humour (see Friday’s post with link to film descriptions). Laugh out loud funny. Eckhart was great at playing a loveable slimeball. Maria Bello had a minimal role and looked quite aged on screen. She was much more attractive in person. I thought that Adam Brody really stole the show. Having never been subjected to his show, The OC (out of principal and because of Peter Gallagher), I was surprised by his fast-talking and comical performance. The young star of the film, Cameron Bright, was also exceptional as his role featured long bouts of dialogue delivered in mostly long monologues.

There was a Q & A after the film and everyone but Maria Bello stuck around and came up on stage.

My second film, Neverwas, also starring Aaron Eckhart, was up next. I wasn’t as impressed with this film. It’s kind of a fairytale that can’t decide if it wants to be dark (there is a mystery to be solved!) or not and just comes off kind of messy. Still enjoyable, but I don’t know if I care to see it again. Sir Ian McKellen, who wasn’t in attendance gave a great performance as a mental patient who believes he is the king of a make-believe (or is it?) land called Neverwas. Brittany Murphy doesn’t really do much. At all. And Alan Cumming is barely there, which I guess is why he showed up in a red plaid suit so at elast someone would pay attention to him.

Again, a Q&A followed with the cast coming up on stage. God bless Nick Nolte. The man adds that certain something to Q&A’s. Wearing black, baggy pants, and an oversized black shirt and coat with a man purse, his hair wildy unkempt, he spoke into the microphone, contradicting everything the director had just said and sounding as if he had just smoked an entire pack of cigarettes. I will upload the pictures later….

Saturday, September 10, 2005:

Films screened:
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Breakfast on Pluto

Celebrities spotted:
Bryce Dallas Howard
Bono
Liam Neeson
Neil Jordan (director)
Cillian Murphy
Shane Black (director)
Piers Handling (TIFF director, author of film books on horror, required reading at Carleton U)

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is in the early running for my favourite film at the festival with Thank You for Smoking. It’s filmed like a modern film noir with Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. who both give the best performances I’ve seen them give in a while (Kilmer and The Salton Sea notwithstanding). This isn’t Val Kilmer from The Real McCoy, this is Val Kilmer in The Doors quality acting. Both actors are hilarious and the guys are great as a mismatched odd couple detective/actor duo. The film manages to encompass a mystery, murder, humour, and action all in one. Highly recommended. Because it was the second screening of this film, the actors had already shown up for the premiere but the director Shane Black was on hand to intro the film.

After a much needed nap, I went back out to see Breakfast on Pluto.

Got there early, got a good seat. Caught a glimpse of Bono on the red carpet. It was over before I knew what happened, but good. Short and sweet. The way I like it. Sigh. Counting down the hours until Wednesday’s concert… Saw sooo many talented Irish people whom I love.

Also good: Liam Neeson. Now, unlike most teenaged girls, I also had a crush on Liam Neeson (see previous posts re: high school crushes on Ralph Fiennes and Bono). He came up on stage with Neil Jordan (Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire) who is one of my fave directors. And Cillian Murphy was there too, who I can’t decide if he is good looking or ugly. Like handsome in anugly way. Not really in an ugly way but in a more or less unusal way. not so much of the "Brad Pitt" type, but I never go for those anyway. Yeah. It's decided. I love Cillian Murphy.

The film itself wasn’t bad, per se. Cillian does a great job as a cross dressing man in Ireland in the 1970s and it is well directed. But I felt like it had been done before with Velvet Goldmine (although more the story of musicians, but from the glam rock, boys dressing as girls era). Pluto has a good soundtrack and Neeson is good as always (yes, even better than Krull). The film is depressing and Jordan returns to some of his old IRA issues. But I still really liked it, although I'm obviously biased, and will see it again.

Cillian Murphy hung around outside the theatre after the screening to pose for pictures and sign autographs. He was virtually ignored on the red carpet earlier because he is still somewhat of an unknown. The woman I sat next to said she had talked to him and told he had nice eyes because no one was talking to him. I think I love him. He was soooo nice. And quite pretty as a woman in the film.
And then that was followed by The Mod Club for a night of boozing in celebration of Leanne’s birthday and my Bono/the Men of Ireland sighting.

Saturday, September 11, 2005:

Films screened:
Elizabethtown

Celebrities spotted:
None. But I ran into Shane so I didn't have to see the movie alone. We also saw a "Peter Jackson" hairy usher.

Now I like Cameron Crowe. I enjoy the work of Orlando Bloom when he is not dressed as an elf. Kirsten Dunst- I don’t have anything nice to say so I won’t say it at all (except an anagram for her name is “Dr. Sunken Tits” {I learned that from Go Fug Yourself} and it is apt. Apt!). Elizabethtown is no Almost Famous. It’s certainly not Say Anything. In fact, it’s not even Vanilla Sky. It is however, very long. Much longer than needed. It’s already on the list of things to skip along with Breakfast on Pluto and Tideland according to the newspapers.

It’s not Orlando Bloom’s fault. In fact, he’s good. I started off thinking that the film would have been better off if his character had been played by Peter Sarsgaard and Dunst’s character played by someone who can act. And the inclusion of Danny DeVito never hurt anyone. But in the end, the actors all worked well. Susan Sarandon has been relegated to the “mom” role now and shoved in the corner of the film. Everyone knows Crowe movies have a good soundtrack. It’s what they’re there for. Sometimes they are better than the films themselves. 2/3 of the music fit in with the theme and Kentucky setting of the film. Lynard Skynard works here. What doesn’t work and comes off as “soundtrack stuffing” is the “road trip” sequence at the end of the film. It’s almost an excuse to put in as many culturally significant and driving songs (a la “Free Falling” in Jerry Maguire) that Crowe can come up with to fill up his soundtrack. I thought the movie just went on too long. It should have ended 3 times. And of course, the excuse given to us before the film started was that this is a special festival cut and not the ultimate final version….Which you know means if people hate it then it’s an excuse to re-cut and merely say that they didn’t like it because it wasn’t the final product.

Again, a much needed nap, a quick recharge with a DVD, and thus concludes Sunday.

Up for tonight:
Everything is Illuminated- I’m going to try to get Elijah Wood to sign my VHS copy of North, and Liev Schreiber to sign Scream 2.
…and maybe Trust the Man (we’ll see). I might just go for red carpet, Peter Sarsgaard/David Duchovny spotting God willing.

And bonus points to Nayeli who saw (after I grilled her and showed her pictures because she doesn’t know who some people are being a Mexican from Mexico, she only knows Mexicans but not the movie The Mexican):
Bryce Dallas Howard (with me)
Jake Gyllenhaal (damn her!)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (she’s not sure if bf Sarsgaard was there)
Richard Gere (who is short apparently. Shorter than you’d think)
Steve Martin
Claire Danes
Terry Gilliam
Jason Schwartzman

This is turning out so much better than that time I ran into Ricki Lake in NYC.