pokoke film

Written by Will Reiser Directed by Jonathan Levine Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick,  Bryce Dallas Howard  and Anjelica Huston Adam: I can’t remember being so calm in a long time. Katie: Would you describe it as numbness? Adam: No, I would describe it as fine. Up and coming director, Jonathan Levine’s latest film,  50/50 , is being billed as a cancer comedy, only I cried about five times so I’m not sure the descriptor really fits.  50/50  is writer, Will Reiser’s first hand account of what it was like to get cancer in his 20’s. Clearly, as he is still here to tell the tale, he lives through the ordeal, but knowing this does not take away from the personal journey he shares with us. And fortunately for all involved, that journey is being taken on screen by the always impressive, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who easily makes  50/50  a sure bet. Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, whom we first meet jogging down the streets of Seattle at dawn. Inst...

Meeting celebrated auteur, Gus Van Sant, to discuss his fourteenth feature film, RESTLESS , at the Toronto International Film Festival, certainly had my nerves on edge, given that I’m a bit of an admirer of his. It didn’t help matters much when he would pause and stare at me blankly for five or ten seconds after almost every question I asked. Fortunately, I realized very quickly that I was not the problem. “You can definitely become overworked talking to the press,” Van Sant admits to me of the whirlwind that is the contemporary festival experience. “When I hit the five-hour mark, I start to get pretty spaced out.” Our interview was his last before lunch so that explained a lot. The 59-year-old director returns to cinemas this fall with his first film since his 2008 masterpiece, MILK , which earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture as well as a second Best Director nod for Van Sant. (His first was for 1997’s GOOD WILL HUNTING .) And while RESTLESS is nowhere near...

At the end of the first season of the breakout hit, MODERN FAMILY , the Dunphy family finally fixed that stair they were always tripping over every time they ran up and down between floors. It had been a running gag throughout the whole season and it isn't long into the second season, now available on DVD and blu-ray, that the stair comes loose again, allowing for the same running gag to run right through the second season. Yet, instead of coming across as a lack of creativity, it only continues to be absolutely hilarious. The broken stair example is fairly apt when it comes to describing the rest of the season as well. First of all, it wasn't really broke so there was no need to fix it to begin with. And so, MODERN FAMILY follows much of the same trajectory it did last year. The series avoids anything remotely serialized and allows the same family interactions we're already accustomed to, to continue happening naturally. Claire (Julie Bowen) is still a control freak, whic...

On September 1, 2011, at 11:00 A.M., Quebecois director, Jean-Marc Vallée, the man behind the Canadian classic, C.R.A.Z.Y. , completed his latest film, CAFE DE FLORE . By 5:00 P.M. that same day, he was on a flight to Venice for the world premiere. “I don’t think I have the distance yet to talk well about it,” Vallée explains when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film’s second festival stop before it’s theatrical release. “In my humble experience, it usually takes a while before I know what words to use.” Vallee left, with Cafe de Flore lead, Kevin Parent To be fair, CAFE DE FLORE can be difficult to describe even after you’ve seen it a couple of times. There are two stories told simultaneously that take place far apart from each other in both time and space. In 1960’s Paris, Vanessa Paradis, looking dowdy and plain, plays a mother to a child with Down's syndrome (Marin Gerrier) and in contemporary Montreal, a DJ (Kevin Parent, in a surprisingly solid acting...

Written by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Directed by Bennett Miller Starring Brad Pitt, Johan Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman Billy Beane: There are rich teams; there are poor teams; then there’s fifty feet of crap; and then there’s us. These days, it seems that when it comes to conversations about the American economy, the focus is on the increasing divide between the rich and the poor. In MONEYBALL , that same gap is affecting America’s favourite pass time, baseball. How can a team that only has $40 million to pay its players possibly compete with teams that have three times that amount at their disposal? The answer is simple. Input everything you know about the players into a computer and let it do all the thinking for you. And once you have all your algorithms in place, you can apply them to the sport and rob it of all spontaneity and excitement. Unfortunately, some of the fun and excitement that usually spills over from the sport itself into the baseball movie genre, has also di...

Dear Glee, I mean everything I am about to say to you with love. Your third season begins this evening and I have high hopes for the changes you've made. You've branched out your writing staff and have sworn to focus more on longer story arcs instead of one-off theme episodes. You've also decided to reduce the number of songs per episode, so as not to come across like an iTunes jukebox each week. It's not that I don't like to hear all the talented members of New Directions belt them out so often but storytelling has been taking a seat in the back of the choir room for quite some time now. I've just finished watching your second season on blu-ray. I have to admit, it wasn't as uneven as I remember but if you don't fix some of your problems soon, you will start to lose your audience. That said, there were some fantastic additions to the GLEE lexicon in the second season. Highlights for me include Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday. I wish Paltrow wasn't...

Officially, it has been eleven days since TIFF sucked me into its unique brand of vortex but I've been dedicating my time to the festival for what seems like weeks now. I caught my first pre-TIFF screening on  August 16 and finish today with my 35th and final film. Sure there is a lot of time in a month to see 35 films but more than 20 of them were in the last 10 days alone. Factor in all the writing, all the interviews and all the running around too and it is easy to see why some in the industry describe this festival as an endurance test. I know a few people in the biz here and there but, for the most part, I keep to myself. I hear things though. I hear other journalists who have been doing this way longer than I have talk about how happy they are that its ending, complaining about everything from the free food to the films themselves. And while TIFF seems like such a burden for them, its like Christmas for me. Sure, its easy for even me to complain when I have six interviews in ...

Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash Directed by Alexander Payne Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Judy Greer Matt King: I’m the back-up parent, the understudy. It has been seven years since Alexander Payne’s last feature film, SIDEWAYS , charmed critics and audiences alike. The long gestation period has allowed him to make  what I would describe as his most satisfying film to date, THE DESCENDANTS . Considering how much I love his earlier films, like ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT , calling his latest his greatest is not a compliment I extend lightly. At on point in THE DESCENDANTS , a character refers to Matt King’s (George Clooney) current predicament to be one heck of a “unique dramatic situation” and he is not kidding. Payne's witty screenplay finds every single important tie in Matt’s life has been tangled together and he can no longer move forward until he figures out how to loosen the ropes that are tightening around him. As the executor of his family...

BEHIND THE WHEEL An interview with Ryan Gosling Ryan Gosling has a dream but its not what you would expect. It isn’t riches or success or notoriety; he has already achieved those lofty goals. No, Gosling has something much more specific in mind. “My dream is to create a character that people go out as on Halloween,” Gosling tells me when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival. He says this with full sincerity and not a single trace of sarcasm on his beautiful face. Gosling may have found that character in his new film, DRIVE . Known only as The Driver, his character sports a shiny bomber jacket with a giant scorpion on the back, is constantly fiddling with a toothpick in his mouth and he barely speaks a word most of the time. Aside from his inherent coolness, he is also one of the biggest badasses I’ve seen on screen all year. “He’s got issues,” Gosling quips of The Driver. “He’s a psychopath. He’s gotta get control of that, I guess.” It was Gosling who pushed for DRIVE to...

Written and Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée Starring Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Helene Florent and Evelyne Brochu When it comes to love, sometimes it feels as if there are greater forces at work and that we have no control over who we’re drawn to or how deeply we can feel. For some, a love as untamable as this is often considered to be destiny, as if it were written in the stars long before we were ever born. This sense of romance intertwined with fate runs rampant if Quebec filmmaker, Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest feature, CAFE DE FLORE , a love story that needs more than one lifetime in order to work itself out. With CAFE DE FLORE , Vallée finds a voice as a director he seemed to have lost in his last outing, THE YOUNG VICTORIA . While the period piece was certainly beautiful and had its moments, it played out as, well, already played out. None of the urgency or energy Vallée created with his previous feature and biggest hit, C.R.A.Z.Y. , was anywhere to be found. Perhaps it was a langu...

Written by Will Reiser Directed by Jonathan Levine Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick,  Bryce Dallas Howard  and Anjelica Huston Adam: I can’t remember being so calm in a long time. Katie: Would you describe it as numbness? Adam: No, I would describe it as fine. Up and coming director, Jonathan Levine’s latest film, 50/50 , is being billed as a cancer comedy, only I cried about five times so I’m not sure the descriptor really fits. 50/50 is writer, Will Reiser’s first hand account of what it was like to get cancer in his 20’s. Clearly, as he is still here to tell the tale, he lives through the ordeal, but knowing this does not take away from the personal journey he shares with us. And fortunately for all involved, that journey is being taken on screen by the always impressive, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who easily makes 50/50 a sure bet. Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, whom we first meet jogging down the streets of Seattle at dawn. Instantly, while we watch him wa...

Written and Directed by Sean Durkin Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy and John Hawkes Martha: Do you ever have that feeling where you can’t tell if something’s a memory or if it’s something you dreamed?  Instantly uncomfortable, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE , is unlike any experience I’ve had at the movies. It is at times both eerily quiet and dishearteningly noisy; it is painfully present but yet also lost in a haze of what is real and what is imagined. It inspires great sympathy and even greater anxiety. Its tension is palpable and its style is distinct and effective. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is a truly accomplished piece of filmmaking from writer-director, Sean Durkin, a first time feature filmmaker. With that in mind, it is just plain shocking across the board. As skillful as Durkin proves to be, he has help, led by a star-making turn from lead actress, Elizabeth Olsen. Olsen, who incidentally is the younger sibling of Mary-Kate and Ashley (and I’m sure never tir...

Written and Directed by Sarah Polley Starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman  Geraldine: Life has a big gap in it. You don’t try to fill it like a f#@king lunatic. Canadian darling, Sarah Polley’s latest directorial effort begins with such great promise. The enigmatic, Michelle Williams, with her round face and gentle demeanor, comes in and out of focus in a quaint Toronto kitchen. The sun beams in and all you can hear is the clicking of the fan rotating in the corner and a soft folk song filling the soundtrack. It’s one of those perfect mornings; her muffins are rising slowly and the whole day awaits her. As she sinks to the floor by the oven and a man’s legs brush past her, the tone is set for a truly great film. Unfortunately, it is at this point that mouths are opened, awkwardness and discomfort come out of them and TAKE THIS WALTZ begins to step all over its own feet. Williams plays Margot, a 29-year-old writer living in Toronto. She has been ma...