Darren Aronofsky’s much-awaited Black Swan premiered at the Venice Film Festival yesterday and some reviews from critics are below. Overall, the reviews are mostly positive (except THR’s) and most compare the film to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby or a darker, more absurd version of The Red Shoes.

Variety: “A wicked, sexy and ultimately devastating study of a young dancer’s all-consuming ambition, Black Swan serves as a fascinating complement to Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, trading the grungy world of a broken-down fighter for the more upscale but no less brutal sphere of professional ballet. Centerstage stands Natalie Portman, whose courageous turn lays bare the myriad insecurities genuinely dedicated performers face when testing their limits, revealing shades of the actress never before seen on film. As with The Wrestler, Fox Searchlight faces formidable marketing challenges, likely exploiting the psychosexual thriller’s racier elements to eke out a similarly modest score…”

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With his film already being compared to Charlie Kaufman’s work, video artist Daniel Cockburn is introducing his experimental debut feature, You Are Here, for the first time to the Canadian audience. The smart and playful film is comprised of multiple narratives in which the characters find themselves trapped in bizarre social experiments of their own making. It received respectable reviews from the Locarno Film Festival a few weeks back, and now has a new trailer out below:

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Interesting fact: veteran Canadian director Carl Bessai has had a film featured at TIFF every year since 2006 – Cole (2009), Mothers & Daughters (2008), Normal (2007) and Unnatural & Accidental (2006). This year, he brings a dark, fast-paced thriller to the Festival, Repeaters, starring Dustin Milligan, Amanda Crew, and Richard de Klerk. The story focuses on three young addicts in a rehab centre who attempt to make a path to recovery but live through a strange, eerie repetitiveness in each day. A new trailer popped up today for the film and can be seen below. There’s a little bit too much unrealistic gunfire for our tastes, but it does seem to be loaded with action and thrills.

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UPDATE: The box number selected this year is: 9 (of 39)

For those who are participating in the Advance Order, tomorrow Monday, August 30 1:00 PM is the official deadline to submit your order book and envelope. This year, the advance ticket draw is happening at the new Festival Box Office, 363 King Street West. Listed below, we have all the box numbers selected since 2004 when we started this website. If you’re into the numbers game, it looks like a lower number could be chosen tomorrow, according to the low-high alternating pattern from the last 6 years. That means it might be a good idea to submit your order early tomorrow morning if you haven’t done so (or not ). Good luck!

2004: Box 10 of 43
2005: Box 36 of 48
2006: Box 22 of 40
2007: Box 66 of 75
2008: Box 9 of 78
2009: Box 48 of 56

Keanu Reeves fans at TIFF have reason to rejoice as the Matrix star will be appearing in Henry’s Crime, a comedy about a man who decides to rob a bank. Co-star James Caan plays a criminal who teaches Reeves’ character a thing or two about how to take what you want from life. Watch a scene of the two actors below:

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Besides Kiran Rao’s Mumbai Diaries and Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl in Yellow Boots, there’s another film from India that should’t be overlooked. Aamir Bashir’s debut Autumn (Harud) tells the story of Rafiq, a young man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his older brother. The backdrop is set in India’s Kashmir region and we can see some beautifully-shot scenes of the war-ravaged area in the new trailer below:

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Directed by Achero Mañas, Anything You Want tells the story of Leo and his four year old daughter, who try to cope with the death of the mother. Leo attempts to take full responsibility of being a single parent, but he struggles, and faces great challenges due to his own prejudices about gender roles. Take a look at the new trailer below (Spanish with English subtitles):

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One of Colin Geddes’ non-Midnight Madness picks, A Horrible Way to Die is an indie thriller that follows a serial killer who escapes from prison. He eventually tracks down his ex-girlfriend, who has fled to a small town to recover from an alcohol problem. The film is directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett (Dead Birds from TIFF 2004). Check out the brand new trailer below:

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First-time director Shawn Ku takes a unique perspective in his feature, Beautiful Boy, in which a teenage boy has committed a mass shooting in his college, killed himself and left his parents in complete shock. Instead of focusing on the tragic shooting, the film takes a look through the eyes of the parents, played by Maria Bello and Michael Sheen. The newly-released trailer is intense and emotional, leaving us with the impression that the strong performances from Bello and Sheen will carry the weight of this film. Take a look below and consider adding it to your TIFF list: (more…)

After wowing audiences with Slumdog Millionaire in 2008 (which went on to win the People’s Choice Award), Danny Boyle returns to TIFF with 127 Hours, the true story of mountain climber, Aron Ralston (James Franco). The film follows Ralston’s adventure in the canyons of Utah, where a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him. Check out the exciting trailer below which was just released today:

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