Cinematical - Spike Lee’s films have always been fraught with the potential for greatness and disaster, shuddering with a nervy wire-walking energy that makes them superb when they stay on the narrow space between ambition and execution and gives you a long time to watch the fall when they don’t. But that, of course, is what makes them worth watching; for but one example, the only thing more shocking than the realization that there was a musical number in Malcolm X was the realization of how superbly it worked; Lee’s films are rarely undeniably perfect, but they are always undeniably his. So it is with Miracle at St. Anna, a bold, sprawling, messy epic of war and faith set behind enemy lines in 1944, as a group of four African-American soldiers are trapped far from their fellow troops in German-occupied Italy. There are moments here where the film does not work, where you can feel the sharp needle of disbelief or dislocation puncture the film mercilessly, and there are other moments that are not only willing but indeed eager to look at big, challenging, relevant issues of race and power, war and justice, faith and failure. These moments — and there are many of them — not only speak to Lee’s unwavering skill and commitment as a filmmaker, but also to the singular nature of his talent and will. When Miracle at St. Anna falters, it’s in the moments that seem like they could have been crafted by any other film maker; when Miracle at St. Anna succeeds, it’s in the moments that could only have been crafted by Lee. Miracle at St. Anna begins in the near present, as a postal worker seems to recognize one of his customers — and pulls a gun from his drawer and shoots the man dead. Searching the man’s apartment, police find a purple heart — and a priceless piece of Italian statuary. The murder, the medal, the masterwork; we flash back to 1944 to see where they all came from. Lee plunges us into the blood and thunder thick of battle, and if Sherman told us with undeniable conviction that “War is Hell,” then Spielberg told us with similar conviction that, after Saving Private Ryan, war is not only Hell but also shot hand-held, undercranked and then run through a bleach-bypass color correction in post-production. Miracle at St. Anna looks like most modern war movies, yes, but that may be the only way it resembles its peers… [Full Story]

Cinematical - …In the meantime, check out the new domestic poster for Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which features a design that came out after the original was turned down by the MPAA. Here’s how Smith explains it: “Our frustration in getting an MPAA approval on the American poster led to last-resort ideas about showcasing dopey, simple images instead of risque pics of our leads – which, in turn, led to what’s now the official American poster for the flick…” I still can’t believe that last poster was rejected since there really was nothing blatant about it. Okay, maybe it implied oral sex, but it’s not like a) kids don’t know what oral sex is, or b) kids who don’t know what oral sex is are going to suddenly figure it out by seeing that poster. Know what I mean? Whatevs. You folks are going to dig this one; Smith has made a very funny flick… [Full Story]

/Film - Darren Aronofsky is the director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain. His latest film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and was bought by Fox Searchlight the morning after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (You can read my review here). Earlier this week, I was granted the chance to sit down with Aronofsky for a half hour interview. You can read the first part and the second part of the interview at the provided links. Enjoy. Peter Sciretta: Speaking of boxing. What’s going on with The Fighter? Darren Aronofsky: We have a beautiful screenplay. It’s based on, you probably know, Mickey Ward. It’s a great great project. As I told you I love sports movies. Rudy and Chariots of Fire are some of my favorite films. Fighter is a great script. Scott Silver wrote it. He’s the guy who wrote Eight Mile. So we have a great script, we’re just trying to cast it and try and figure out how it’s going to get made. Peter Sciretta: So right now is it kind of on the back burner? Last I heard that Mark Wahlberg was training? Darren Aronofsky: Mark is training. Mark’s totally gung-ho, he just sent me text that he wants to see [the Wrestler] this week. So I guess I’ll set up a screening for him in L.A. He’s totally gung-ho and I think it’s a great project. It’s been in development so long there’s a lot of money against it already. They’re trying to figure that out but I’m ready to go on it… [Full Story]

ScreenDaily - In exhuming Tennessee Williams’s unproduced screenplay from 1980, actress-turned-director Jodie Markell has delivered a respectable 1920’s-set upstairs-downstairs story of a vain heiress (Bryce Dallas Howard) who looks beyond her Memphis surroundings but struggles for the respect of a man below her means. Just producing The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond automatically sets the film in the Williams oeuvre, and elevates its status beyond the reputation of its cast or director. Demand from festivals should be high, mostly in the US, where the film is assured a berth on television, with strong demand from home video and the educational market. Foreign interest is likely to be limited to English-speaking countries, where the limited audiences for Williams’ stage works will be the film’s primary market. Teardrop Diamond’s protagonist, bored and impulsive Fisher Willow (Howard), is a rich planter’s daughter. A younger twist on Alexandra Del Lago from Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, she approaches Jimmy Dobyne (Evans), to be her escort to the lavish social gatherings of her milieu, clothing him and driving him around in her Pierce Arrow. “I just know that I’ll have to buy most everything I want,” she tells the handsome young man of humble background. The young woman’s family is loathed for her father’s recent demolition of a levee which drowned some modest farmers. Revenge ripens when Fisher loses a costly teardrop diamond earring while descending from her car at a party and suspicions fall on Jimmy… [Full Story]

Toronto Star - In Europe people respect institutions like the Cinematheque Française in Paris, and they draw cinephiles who care how the shot is set up, how a scene is edited,” explains Noah Cowan, sounding professorial even while wearing a hard hat and safety boots on a dusty construction site that has more danger zones than some of the films he used to program for Midnight Madness. “In North America,” Cowan goes on, “people go to the movies for different reasons – perhaps because of the ideas embedded in the films. Maybe they got interested in genocide through seeing Hotel Rwanda. Our challenge is to tap into the passions and issues of our audiences, and engage them 365 days a year.” Welcome to Bell Lightbox, future home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, which is starting to raise its head, after a very long wait, on what used to be a parking lot at the corner of King St. W. and John St. You may have heard that this Lightbox aims to transform the way we see the world. In fact, the man running the place has undergone a bit of a transformation himself… [Full Story]

/Film - At every film festival, I try to pack in as many screenings as humanly possible (At TIFF this year, I’ve been rather unsuccessful…). This leads to seeing a lot of films you wouldn’t normally watch just because it fits nicely on the schedule between two other films. I call these movies the “nothing better to see movies”. I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years about the value of a movie critic’s opinion. What many people don’t understand is that a working critic sees a lot of movies he isn’t normally interested in. I believe one of the reasons the divide between mainstream opinion and critical opinion is the fact that the average moviegoer usually only sees movies you’re excited to see. Going in with that excitement is an investment. And chances are, more times than not, the average moviegoer will leave the theater satisfied. I’m not saying this is the sole reason for the critical/mainstream divide, but it accounts for some of it. Now most of these “nothing better to see movies” end up being average or poor. I don’t enter into a film festival without having done my share of research. And what that means is that I usually have a pretty good idea about which movies are worth seeing. But every once in a while one of these “nothing better” movies becomes a pleasant surprise. And this year at the Toronto International Film Festival, that movie is Lymelife… [Full Story]

Ain’t It Cool News - The past two nights, I had the pleasure of being a part of the first North American audience to see Steven Soderbergh’s two-part meditation (to be certain, this is NO biopic) on the career of Ernest “Che” Guevera. Introduced both times by the director, producer (Laura Bickford), and star (Benicio Del Toro), ‘Che (Parts 1 [The Argentine] & 2 [Guerilla])’ is a film(s) certain to divide critics and audiences alike, a sentiment echoed ever since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. On one hand, many will see this a grand, sweeping achievement of artistic and technical proportions, while on the other, some will see it as an epic, inaccessible failure. You can firmly put me in the camp of the former, as in my humble opinion, the film(s) are a masterpiece of scope and vision. Without going much into plot or the ubiquitous “personal connection” I have to the material, all I will say is that I went through my obligatory Che Guevara phase as a youth around the same time Soderbergh’s ‘Traffic’ (a film I still rank near or at the top of the best films of the 2000s) came out, and ever since then, the notion of Benicio Del Toro inhibiting the role he was born to play has been something of a dream project for me. And, in finally getting the opportunity to see the picture, my expectations were quite high (tempered, though, by the mixed Cannes reaction). However, as I do with most ‘auteur projects’, I put a lot of stock into how the director himself wanted the audience to view the film. In this case, Soderbergh had previously expressed something like how this was “an unconventional narrative that is not necessarily meant to show you how this man came to be who he is, but rather, who is he is and what is was like to be around such a figure”. And, my friends, this is the exact context one needs to keep in mind when watching both parts of ‘Che’ — unconventional, and not about how or why, but who… [Full Story]

Variety.com - ”Uncertainty” reps an uncertain attempt indeed by writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel to return to their roots in quasi-experimental, formally informed cinema. A potentially intriguing idea on paper — a young couple flips a coin to decide which of two ways they’ll spend the day, and the film portrays both options — proves half formulaic and half simply unimaginative onscreen. A bright visual package notwithstanding, this has little chance with the public. McGehee and Siegel made their mark in 1994 with the provocative “Suture,” which dealt in its own way with intriguing dualities. After a step forward with “The Deep End” and a step backward with “Bee Season,” the team tries something different here that deliberately marginalizes itself commercially without justifying itself artistically. The most striking moments are the initial brilliant, pristine images of the Brooklyn Bridge and environs, where lovers Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kate (Lynn Collins) pause to consider their future, in both the immediate and long-term senses. Kate is pregnant and admits, “I’m afraid of destiny,” so Bobby puts their fate at the mercy of a coin toss, triggering the film’s jump into two alternate, parallel realities… [Full Story]

View all photos from day 6, 7 & 8 in our photo gallery or Flickr group.

Variety.com - A naive, between-the-wars French painter is brought to vivid life in the satisfying fact-inspired drama “Seraphine.” An extraordinary perf by vet thesp Yolande Moreau in the title role will propel this throwback example of vintage Euro arthouse storytelling to a larger canvas of fests, theatrical deals and homevid. Just prior to the Great War, in the small town of Senlis, not far from Paris, middle-aged loner Seraphine Louis (Moreau) works a grueling series of domestic jobs while painting at night. In her fleeting free time, she communes with nature, furtively gathering soil, animal’s blood and even the run-off oil from church candles to mix the paints she otherwise couldn’t afford. Fittingly, her intricate, colorful canvases are of fruit and flowers run riot. When the German art critic Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur) and his sister Anne-Marie (Anne Bennent) move to town, he’s shocked to discover one of Seraphine’s smaller paintings at a dinner party thrown by the well-to-do art lover Madame Duphot (Genevieve Mnich). Uhde buys all Seraphine’s work promptly, with the middle of the pic delineating the delicate relationship between aesthete and savant… [Full Story]