I go back and forth on Alicia Keys– too much sampling and “interpolating.” But I do like this song and it has a great message. “We Are Here” is from a new album expected in November. Alicia does love a good anthem. She must have been in a marching band once upon a time!
I did get to meet Wayne Gretzky last night. WTH you ask? On the second floor of Toronto’s Soho House, I ambled over to a banquette and was introduced to 80s actress and pin up Janet Jones, beautiful and lovely as ever, who said, “Do you know my husband, Wayne?”
Hockey fans: what would you say? I’ve met just about everyone but Wayne freakin’ Gretzky? The greatest hockey player of all time? Now, that’s a star.
The Gretzky’s are here in Toronto because Janet plays Mrs. Compson in James Franco’s film version of William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury.” It’s a small part, she says, but the actress who starred in A League of their Own, A Chorus Line, and The Flamingo Kid is back! She came to Toronto with Wayne and their 21 year old baseball player son Trevor, who just finished minor league season with the Anaheim Angels.
The Gretzkys have five kids including 25 year old daughter Paulina, a stunner who’s also a trained singer. Paulina has made tabloid headlines for being engaged to rogue golfer Dustin Johnson. So how’s that working out? “We love him,” Wayne tells me. “I like him more than I like her,” he jokes. Does the NHL superstar ever golf with his son in law to be? “I’m not crazy,” he says. “Dustin’s the real thing.”
The Gretzky were out with young actor Jacob Loeb, a new Francophile, who plays Quentin in “S&F” and stars in Franco’s “Bukowski” as well and looks like a young James Franco. Nice guy, too.
Did I get my picture taken with Wayne Gretzky? No. Am I kicking myself now? Yes. What’s he up to these days? “Just following these people around,” he said, pointing to wife and son. It’s ok. He’s done just fine.
Let them eat “Cake.” That seems to be the theme of yesterday’s premiere of “Cake,” a designer indie movie conceived to get Jennifer Aniston back into the world of acting. To that end, the film works: Aniston is very good. She’d be better if the movie were stronger, but that’s not the point. In the meantime, I see that everyone is divided about whether “Cake” has enough nutrition.
For most of the time as Claire, Aniston is padded to look like she doesn’t have a killer bod. Her hair is greasy and unkempt. She doesn’t wear glam make up, but added to her face are cosmetic scars to indicate she’s been in an accident. The director Daniel Barnz (real name Bernstein, he’s not a rapper or a skateboarder) does everything he can to make Aniston look stripped down and unplugged with just a hint that she could be hot at any moment.
Claire is a lawyer who’s estranged from her husband, played by the ubiquitous Chris Messina. (Did anyone think that after “Vicki Cristina Barcelona” and “Julie and Julia” Messina would be in every film?) Something’s happened, and in time we infer that her child has died. That plus the scars equals a car accident. Now Claire, isolated in her house, depends on her Mexican housekeeper (Adrianna Barazza). She’s also obsessed with the suicide of a fellow chronic pain support group member (Anna Kendrick) to the point where she befriends her husband (Sam Worthington from “Avatar”).
What can I say? I like Jennifer Aniston. If she were really unleashed as a sardonic bitch– what Claire is supposed to be– she’d win some awards. There are times in “Cake” when it seems as though as she’s going to go for it. But I guess there’s so much riding on the Big Picture of her career as a Movie Star that she’s not allowed to go all the way. What a shame.
Suffice to say that Claire will not become an unsympathetic character. Considering she’s a serious pill popper who drinks like crazy, there are possibilities of taking her in great directions. But they are not going to happen. In the end, Claire is allowed to do her hair, put on some lipstick, and be identified as a victim.
Will Aniston get an Oscar nomination? I have no idea. She does get credit for doing this after making a ton of mostly forgettable comedies. She can do more, this proves it. Maybe she’ll keep going.
PS Cameos from real life acting couple Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy, and Mamie Gummer– all underused.
Did that title get your attention? Jane Fonda is 76 years old, and she’s never been better. The two time Oscar winner leads an all star cast in Warner Bros comedy “That’s Where I Leave You.” Shawn Levy directs Jonathan Tropper’s adaptation of his own hit novel.
The movie is more formulaic than Tropper’s book, but in the end it works even when you think the film is a little too “Parenthood” or “Brothers and Sisters.” That’s because Fonda is the rock solid comic center of this huge and talented ensemble including Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, the ubiquitous Adam Driver, Corey Stoll (who’s really taken off since playing Hemingway in “Midnight in Paris”), Rose Byrne, Connie Britton, Kathryn Hahn, Abigail Spencer, Debra Monk and Aaron Lazar.
In the novel, the mother –in this clan that must sit shivah for their dad– doesn’t have such a big part. But with Fonda at the helm, Hillary Altman takes the lead. (Did you notice this happened on “Brothers and Sisters” when Sally Field as the mom became the focus?) Her laser like comic timing keeps the action moving. Hillary is wise and salty and very very sharp. She also has a secret that involves Debra Monk, one of the great utility players of Broadway, TV and cinema.
The movie played great, as they say. Warners should be happy. They got two big hits out of Toronto– this and “The Judge” with Robert Downey Jr.
William Pohlad is mostly known as a movie producer and wealthy Minnesotan whose family owns the Twins. Now he can add feature film director to his resume. He’s done a great job making “Love and Mercy,” a terrific biopic about the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. At last night’s premiere here in Toronto, Wilson and Pohlad and the film got a real standing ovation– actually two of them– because the film is so moving and well made.
“Love and Mercy” still needs some trimming. It’s got four opening sequences and gets a little muddled at the three quarter mark. But all that can be fixed easily. The good news is that Pohlad and screenwriter Oren Moverman have very smartly made a film on two tracks– Paul Dano plays Wilson circa 1966 as he’s discovering he’s really a musical genius that his father is abusive. And John Cusack plays Wilson around 1994-95, when he the brain addled artist was under the sway of a real life Rasputin named Dr. Eugene Landy. ( I met Wilson and Landy in 1994, and it was quite a scene.)
The other player in this film besides Dano and Cusack is Elizabeth Banks, who plays Wilson’s second, Melinda. The movie shows how Melinda helped rescue Brian from Landy’s grip. They’ve been married for 19 years. Banks simply glows throughout “Love and Mercy.” She, Dano, and Cusack do stand out work here.
Brian and Melinda were in the audience last night at the Elgin. I don’t know how Brian Wilson could sit through this story– I really hope he napped or zoned out. The man who’s written so many astonishing compositions, pop classics, and so on has really suffered all his life. He started hearing “voices” in his head in 1963, according to the film. After experimenting with drugs, Wilson fell in with Landy who drugged him to keep him under his control. And still he outlived his two talented Beach Boy brothers, Dennis and Carl.
The movie, by the way, won’t help Wilson family relations. Beach Boy Mike Love, a cousin, always known as a creep, comes off just that way.
Lions Gate has international rights, they may release “Love and Mercy” in the US if someone else doesn’t. The movie’s a hit, though. And it’s so great that Brian Wilson has gotten a decent film document of his enormous cultural legacy.
One Direction is a boy band that you probably don’t care about. But this morning they announced their new release, the cleverly titled “Four.” Meaning it’s their fourth album. The single is called “Fireproof.” Here it is:
Catchy, huh? It’s good top 40. “Fireproof” has five listed authors. The first two are the most important: group members Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson. Are they the Lennon and McCartney of One Direction? We’ll see. But it is interesting that the group is now having songs written by members since in concert none of them play instruments — except Niall Horan, who sports a guitar for some songs.
The record business is in big trouble right now– the lowest sales numbers ever are being posted on the CD and digital download charts. The higher “sales” are for streaming and not owning the music. One Direction’s new release, set for November 17th, may tell the future of music sales as we know them.
The big talk this morning in Toronto– the sensational performance by British actor Eddie Redmayne as genius physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.  A biopic similar to A Beautiful Mind, James Marsh’s emotional but uneven film relies on Redmayne to pull off this miracle of a performance. Hawking, now 72, has lived in a wheelchair with a severe form of ALS since his early 20s.  Redmayne conveys completely Hawking’s genius and his suffering very much as Daniel Day Lewis did something vaguely similar  in its physicality with My Left Foot.  Redmayne has already proven himself as a star in the making from “Les Miserables” and on Broadway with “Red.” This cinches it.  Bravo!
Saturday in Toronto: Noah Baumbach’s last couple of movies are among my favorites ever– “Greenberg” with Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig, “Frances Ha” with Gerwig and Mickey Sumner, and his screenplay work for “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Now Baumbach goes all neo Woody Allen in the very funny, adroitly observed “While We’re Young,” which opened with a bang last night at the Princess of Wales Theater.
Something about Baumbach’s writing brings out the best in Ben Stiller. This time lightning strikes for all four main actors– Stiller, Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried, and Adam Driver. “While We’re Young” shrewdly satirizes the Lena Dunham generation of twenty-something Brooklyn, lower East Side slackers who feign indifference to success but are actually so ambitious for fame that they’ll do anything to get it.
Stiller and Watts are a long-married couple without kids, and happy that way. But then another couple has a baby and they are suddenly out in the cold as everything becomes baby talk. At the same time, a Driver and Seyfried, married, in their twenties, very hip downtowners, come into their lives and their whole order of business is turned upside down.
But 44 is a lot different than 25, as they soon learn. And on top of just not being able to keep up physically– Stiller, for example, finds out he has arthritis in a very funny scene– there’s professional mayhem. Baumbach adds in a kind of “All About Eve” twist that will ring all too familiar for a lot of the audience. And that’s when things get interesting thanks to a not seen enough Charles Grodin as Watts’ legendary documentary filmmaker father (sort of a DA Pennebaker, Richard Leacock character).
“While We’re Young” hinges on an incident that has echoes (but is different) of “Broadcast News.” Suffice to say, this is a smart comedy very much in the vein of later Woody Allen. All the acting is superb, including Beastie Boys performer Adam Horovitz (whose dad is playwright Israel Horovitz) who makes a nice feature film acting debut.
PS For Toronto, this is Naomi Watts’s second big success after her hilarious Russian hooker in Barry Levinson’s terrific “The Humbling.” It’s about time.
Some big studio or distributor will snatch up “Boychoir” today and have a big Christmas or Easter hit. Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard and some precocious young men are superb in Francois Girard’s film about the American Boychoir, a real and famous school that tours around the world.
Of course, the music — all choral– is a salve, gorgeously produced and wonderful to listen to.
The story– with Josh Lucas in a subplot as the main boy’s father– is a little contrived but it works. And Lucas is quite good as the dad who never wanted this kid and keeps him a secret from his family.
The main boys are played by Garrett Wareing (Stet) who comes to Boychoir as a juvenile delinquent who can sing like an angel– and Joe West, the angelic little kid who’s been the star and now turns a little evil to defend his position in the choir.
So guess what? Joe West is the son of Maura West, Emmy winning soap opera actress currently turning “General Hospital” into chaos as a beautiful 40s style female mobster. When I saw her in Roy Thompson Hall last night my first instinct was to call the police or duck. Her “GH” character means business. She told me Joe was her son, and that she has five kids! This one doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Anyway back to “Boychoir”: Kathy Bates wasn’t here last night but she got a big reaction from the audience. The screenplay throws her a lot of good lines, and she never fails to land them. Izzard is fine but a little flat because of the role. If you know his work, the real Eddie Izzard is a star. Hoffman plays the “Mr. Holland” character in this opus. It’s always instructive to watch him work. He is flawless in his delivery.
Again, a warm, welcoming movie, great family fare in the best way, sensational music.
After a very good screening for “Boychoir” with Dustin Hoffman– a lovely “Mr. Holland’s Opus” meets “Dead Poets Society” — and more on that later– the Toronto crowd braved pouring rain and headed over to Princess of Wales Theater for Theodore Melfi’s “St. Vincent.”
Bill Murray got such a thunderous standing ovation last night after the premiere of “St. Vincent” that he was still dazed and a little teary at the after party following at Patria (sponsored by Hudson Bay).
“St. Vincent” is evidently Harvey Weinstein’s surprise movie of the season, a “Silver Linings Playbook” style character study that is brilliant, weepy, poignant and unexpected. Bill Murray may actually win his Oscar at last for playing this sort of oddball outsider with a heart of gold because he manages to keep it from being saccharine. It’s Murray at his most endearing, sort of picking up signals from outer space while at the same communicating them to those around him warmly. Vincent may actually be the human version of “ET.”
Murray is totally aided in this effort by an exceptional cast starting with an 11 year old boy named Oliver played by Jaeden Lieberher who does his best to steal the movie from Murray but can’t quite. (We’ll see Jaeden next in Cameron Crowe’s new film.) But there are also Naomi Watts as Vincent’s paid Russian lady friend, Melissa McCarthy as Oliver’s mom, Chris O’Dowd as Oliver’s teacher and the local priest, and a talented group of New York actors in various other roles.
The movie is from first time film director Melfi, who’s done a lot of commercials. He is as sure with “St. Vincent” as a veteran. That he got this shot is a real tribute to Harvey Weinstein, who “got” this whole thing and went for it. Everyone in the press thought “Imitation Game” was Harvey’s Oscar card this season. Wrong! A nice surprise.
Bill Murray marches to his own drummer. They had “Bill Murray Day” here yesterday as a gimmick just to keep him interested in what’s going on. At the brief Q&A he joked that he only got the part “because they couldn’t get Jack Nicholson.” He asked, from the stage, “Where are we?” until audience members shouted back “Toronto.” It’s a role he’s assumed, and it’s a little real. But he knows what he’s doing. And now he’s got a good shot at his most major success.
At the party: “Mad Men” and “ER” star Linda Cardelini, who told me she became buddies with Bill because he just called her up one day to say how much he liked her. She’s here with “Welcome to Me,” which also stars Kristin Wiig– she was at the party, too, along with Josh Charles and a host of other actors who partied through the wet wet night.
PS Maybe they let that crazy mayor Rob Ford run this city after all. All the streets are blocked off around the film festival, traffic is a mess and access is impossible. Only Rob Ford could have thought of this. Being in Toronto is a frustrating experience. They’ve brought passive aggressive inconvenience to a high art!