Interstellar poster revealed

The end of Earth will not be the end of us...... and so goes the tag line for one of the most anticipated films of 2014, Interstellar. Directed by Christopher Nolan the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine. The story written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, centers around a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole. The official synopsis says, when a wormhole (which theoretically can connect widely-separated regions of spacetime) is discovered, explorers and scientists unite to embark on a voyage through it, transcending the limits of human space travel. Among the travelers is a widowed engineer (McConaughey) who has to decide to leave behind his two children to join the voyage with the goal of saving humanity.  Look for Interstellar at a theatre near you on November 7th. 

"Hunger Games Mockingjay" trailer debut

Hunger Games fans need wait no longer. The first full-length Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1  trailer has hit the internet.  A teaser was shown at Comic-Con, but the new trailer for the much anticipated upcoming third installment in the hit Young Adult franchise gives fans some insight into what the rebellion will look like. 

Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss Everdeen, but instead of fighting in the deadly games, she will be leading the rebels against the corrupt government, The Capitol. Directed by Francis Lawrence, Mockingjay is an adaptation of the first half of Suzanne Collins' third book. It also stars Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Mockinjay - Part 1 hits theaters on November 21. The final installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, will hit theaters one year later, on November 20, 2015. The Hunger Games franchise has been a box office sensation. The previous installment, Catching Fire, was released in Nov. 2013 and went on to become the top grossing film in North America, earning $424.7 million. Worldwide, it grossed $864.6 million.

TIFF14: And the People's Choice Award Goes To......

GROSLCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD                                                                                          

There were a number of extraordinary films at this year's Toronto International Film festival but there was one that was a clear front runner from the minute anyone laid eyes on it at early press screenings. This year marked the 37th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favorite Festival film, with the Grolsch  People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was prosecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts which the country deemed illegal.  The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Grolsch.

The first runner up is Isabel Coixet’s Learning to Drive. The second  runner up is Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. 

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS STARRING JEMAINE CLEMENT

The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement for What We Do in the  Shadows. The film follows three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life’s obstacles — like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. First runner up is Kevin Smith for Tusk and the second runner up is Jalmari Helander for Big Game.   The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Hajooj Kuka for Beats of the Antonov. Beats of the Antonov follows  refugees from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan as they survive displacement and the trauma of civil war. Music, a cornerstone of their traditions and identity, becomes itself a vehicle for survival. First runner up is David Thorpe’s Do I Sound Gay? The second runner up is Ethan Hawke’s Seymour: An Introduction.

Benedict Cumberbatch discusses his latest role in, The Imitation Game

From TIFF.NET   

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as brilliant Cambridge mathematician, cryptanalyst and pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, who spearheaded the Enigma code-breaking operation during World War II and was later persecuted by the British government for his homosexuality. 
One of the greatest stories of our time began back in the darkest days of the Second World War. Alan Turing was a brilliant Cambridge mathematician hired by the British military to break Nazi codes. His work leading a group of misfit geniuses didn't only shorten the war, it pushed technology to the point where computers could be imagined. But Turing paid a price.

At Cambridge University, the young Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) quickly establishes himself as a groundbreaking thinker with his theories about the potential of computing machines. When war between Britain and Germany is declared, these theories are put into active practice. Turing easily passes a test to become a member of a top-secret group assigned to decode critical German naval communications. Much to the surprise of the commanding officers, so does a woman, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley also appearing at the Festival in Laggies). Turing and Clarke become fast friends, and are soon engaged to be married. But Turing is gay, struggling with his identity at a time when it is illegal and subject to terrible punishment.

Cumberbatch plays Turing as a mercurial character, unafraid of his quirks and brashly proud of his intellect. Knightley's Clarke is his equal — for all his insight into the workings of consciousness, she may understand him better than he does himself. The meeting of their minds doesn't result in a conventional love story, but The Imitation Game does chronicle a remarkable relationship.

Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's Headhunters played the Festival in 2011 and won attention for its gripping pace and neat balance of suspense and character work. In his English-language debut, Tyldum excels again. Turing and his colleagues race against time to devise a machine that can crack Germany's Enigma codes, while Turing himself must work out how to be a gay man at a time when such men are routinely crushed by the law. It's an intensely powerful story.   I spoke with Benedict while he was in Toronto to discuss his challenging role in, The Imitation Game. 

TIFF '14: Jaume Bagueró & Manuela Velasco on [REC] 4 Apocalypse

REC 4: Apocalypse (stylized as [REC]4 Apocalypse) is a Spanish horror film, and the fourth and final installment of the REC franchise. The film is a direct sequel to the seond film taking place immediately after its events. Jaume Baguero the director of the first two installments, returns alongside actress Manuela Velasco, who reprises her role of the imperiled reporter Ángela Vidal.The film recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where I had the opportunity to catch up with Juame and Manuela for a spirited chat. 

Jason Robert Brown at TIFF 14

Sam Worthington at TIFF '14

Director Lindsay MacKay on "Wetbum"

From tiff.net -  An awkward teenage outcast (2014 TIFF Rising Star Julia Sarah Stone) finds unlikely companions in two aged residents of the retirement home in which she works, in this charming and poignant debut by Canadian director Lindsay MacKay. Starring Jenna Nye, Kenneth Welsh, Leah Pinsent and Craig Arnold.

A coming-of-age movie driven by sharp observations and a poetic sensitivity towards outcasts, first-time feature filmmaker Lindsay MacKay's Wet Bum is graced by an exceptional lead turn from 2014 TIFF Rising Star Julia Sarah Stone, whose performance is exquisitely crafted yet feels wonderfully devoid of guile.

Forced by her mother to work in the seniors' residence she manages, fourteen-year-old Sam (Stone) endures a daily gauntlet of cleaning rooms and dealing with disgruntled residents. In addition, Sam's slower physical development has made her very self-conscious about her body — an uneasiness that hasn't gone unnoticed by the fellow students in her swim class — and her swim instructor has become strangely solicitous of her.

Unhappy amongst her schoolmates, Sam finds herself increasingly drawn to two of the residents at the seniors' home: silent Judith (Diana Leblanc), who acknowledges Sam exclusively, and Ed (Kenneth Welsh), whose persistent rants and oddly half-hearted attempts to hitch a ride to a mysterious location intrigue and trouble her. As her relationship with them deepens, the girl is drawn into worlds far more complex than the one inhabited by her peers.

Featuring a stellar supporting cast (including Leah Pinsent as Sam's harried mother) and several wonderful set pieces — a mid-winter party in an unfinished house that encapsulates all the thrills and horrors of small-town adolescence — Wet Bum(developed as part of TIFF STUDIO) is a poignant debut whose hard-won wisdom belies the youth of both its star and director.

Wet Bum is preceded by Red Alert, a charmingly comic short documentary from veteran filmmaker Barry Avrich, in which a young auburn-haired girl (Sloan Avrich) panics when she finds out that redheads may become extinct in only a century.

Arabella Bushnell and Brad Dryborough Interview - Songs She Wrote About People She Knows

A timid officer worker becomes both pariah and Pied Piper when she unleashes her confessional, scathingly honest pop compositions upon friends and co-workers, in this hilarious comedy from Vancouver’s Kris Elgstrand (Doppelgänger Paul).

In his work as a playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker, Vancouver's Kris Elgstrand has wittily and often hilariously chronicled the foibles of bohemians. Following his collaboration with Dylan Akio Smith on 2009's Doppelgänger Paul, Elgstrand now makes his solo directorial debut with Songs She Wrote About People She Knows, which takes caustic aim at art therapy, the contemporary music scene, and the suppressed artistic yearnings of middle managers — which, it turns out, are better left suppressed.

Elgstrand's heroine is Carol (Arabella Bushnell), a timid thirtysomething who, as part of her art-therapy treatment, begins sending her friends and co-workers unsolicited recordings of her swoony pop compositions (think of a heavily medicated Zooey Deschanel), which viciously slag their behaviour and are peppered with some rather extreme turns of phrase. Some of her friends are so outraged they take out restraining orders, but Carol's boss Dave (Brad Dryborough) is so gobsmacked by her musical critique — which, he believes, calls him out for giving up on his dreams of rock stardom — that he quits his job the next day. What follows is a manic trip down and up the West Coast as Carol reinvigorates people's creative sides and bewitches numerous men — all the while completely bewildered as to why she and her songs are having such an impact on her listeners.

If her Carol is off-key, Bushnell is pitch-perfect as this inadvertent Pied Piper, and she has a perfect foil in Dryborough, whose Dave is so permanently wound up that (to paraphrase the late film critic John Harkness, writing about Dabney Coleman) even his hair seems clenched. Skilfully alternating between scenes of outright hilarity (especially the film's opening) and moments of genuine, keenly felt emotion, Elgstrand creates a cinematic world that is both comically exaggerated and thoroughly recognizable.