It’s war! This week the New York Film Festival asserted its position in the film festival wars and announced its opening night and centerpiece films two weeks early– David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice,” respectively. Cool! Except that the New York Film Festival announcements usually come after the news from the Toronto Film Festival, which hasn’t announced its lineup yet at all.

Indeed, New York’s announcement usually come around July 29th, a week or so after Toronto’s. But not this year. And that means there’s rumbling on the horizon. Toronto has been claim jumped. Two major titles are now set for New York. Trouble?

After last year’s festival circuit, Toronto decreed that no films that had just played at the quirky and expensive Telluride Film Festival– held a week before Toronto– could come north for premieres. “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” were 2013 Telluride hits, and Toronto– aka TIFF– didn’t want to be overshadowed again.

Of course, the issue with Telluride is that they don’t reveal their list until everyone arrives there around August 29th. People come by stage coach and G4 planes over treacherous Colorado mountains, having spent thousands of dollars on a hunch. So right now, no one knows anything.

But if the Fincher and Anderson movies were announced two weeks early by New York where does that leave the suddenly squeezed TIFF? Will New York allow those films to be shown in Toronto first? Unlikely. And if TIFF grabs a bunch of other big names– like “The Imitation Game” with Benedict Cumberbatch,” or Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” or Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher”– a Cannes hit– where will that leave Telluride?

One film I’m looking forward to in Toronto is Shawn Levy’s “This is Where I Leave You,” with an all star cast, based on Jonathan Tropper’s novel, and set for release September 12th from Warner Bros. And another possibility is Nick Sandow’s “The Wannabe,” produced by Martin Scorsese, with no distributor yet but a lot of buzz.

Of course, the big difference between Toronto and the other fests is that they have audience and jury prizes. New York is obviously a high profile showcase–and it’s New York. Telluride is there so you can say you went to Telluride, and explain how you got there. Also, Tom Cruise lives there sometimes.

So let the games begin!

Waiting for the final season of “Two and a Half Men”? The CBS sitcom, awful in so many ways, has come up with a great plot to see themselves off the air. Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer will marry so they can raise a little boy they adopt together. Wretching? Yes. I know you are. The characters are not gay. But this will be some kind of nod to something– lunacy, stupidity, whatever. It makes no sense. But that’s what network TV is for.

When Charlie Sheen starred on “Two and a Half Men,” the so called comedy was notable for just being coarse and vulgar. But with Sheen gone, it’s just meandered into nothingness. Now, with nowhere to go, the writers have come up with this silliness. Sheen, whose character “died” two years ago, may return in some form. The faster this thing is off the air, the better. I guess they had to close it by adding a child since Angus T. Jones, who played Cryer’s son. left to become a religious zealot last year.

“Two and  a Half Men” ends its run without any Emmy awards (Cryer won one, but that was for being a good actor in a bad situation). By the way, wasn’t this already the plot of a bad Adam Sandler movie? Yes, it was.

It’s too simple to say Woody Allen’s “Magic in the Moonlight” is a romantic comedy. It’s so beautifully written, with undertones of philosophy, religion and science, that “MM” is that rare other thing that scores on many levels. It’s also very funny.

Last night stars Colin Firth and Emma Stone were joined at the swanky A list premiere (at the Paris Theater, followed by dinner at Harlow) by Katie Couric and husband John Dolner, French actress Audrey Tatou, “Good Wife” star and Emmy nominee Christine Baranski, actress Dana Delany, “Moneyball” director Bennett Miller, hot-as-a-pistol actor Dane DeHaan, Stone’s boyfriend Andrew “Spider Man” Garfield, plus Oliver Stone, Regis and Joy Philbin, long time Woody pal John Doumanian, former Police Commish Ray Kelly, his wife Veronica, and their son Greg (of Fox 5 fame here), Vogue’s Anna Wintour in sunglasses, and  a wide-smiling Josh Lucas, who left the party with a pair of long legged Danish models ages 18 and 19. (They’re just friends. Really.)

Andrew Garfield, by the way, is sporting a big beard for Martin Scorsese’s “Silence.” He’s going to play a priest, but we joked that he looked more rabbi.  It’s all good!

Woody and wife Soon Yi hit the premiere screening, and stayed a few minutes at the Harlow party. But Woody is in the middle of shooting a new movie in Providence, Rhode Island.

“MM” opens July 25th. It’s set in 1928, mostly around Nice and Provence in the south of France. Firth is a famous magician and de-bunker of fake psychics (very popular around that time). Stone is an American giving seances and communicating with the “other world” (where, Firth notes, he’s thought of opening a restaurant– built in audience).

Firth’s pal, played by the not-seen-enough-in-American-films Simon McBurney, convinces Firth’s Stanley to help him unmask Stone’s Sophie as a fraud. They all head to Provence, where Sophie is swindling the wealthy. By coincidence, Stanley’s wealthy aunt, played by a magnificent Eileen Atkins, lives nearby.

There are some other well known names in the mix: Hamish Linklater is the ukelele playing playboy son of Jacki Weaver who falls for Sophie; Marcia Gay Harden is her ambitious mother.  Jeremy Shamos is the on-scene shrink.

Woody often features magic and magicians in his films. A well known theme is that of mortality, the existence of God, and what is the meaning of life. All of this is present in “MM” but I think on a deeper level, and with funnier consequences. There’s a major surprise “reveal” or plot twist that must not be given away. There’s also a scene between Firth and Atkins that should be used for awards consideration. It’s a classic, and beautifully played.

After the masterpiece like “Blue Jasmine,” this film is a romp. Woody usually mixes it up since he releases a film per year. You get the Big Deal, then the smaller release. Ordinarily I’d say “MM” is a smaller Allen film, like “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy.” That may have been the intention. But “Magic in the Moonlight” has more going on than meets the eye– exactly as real magic does.  In the end, it’s a must not miss addition to the stunning Allen canon.