The Toronto International Film Festival is undoubtedly one of the paramount film festivals in the world. In fact, most insiders place it behind only Cannes in terms of importance. Some place it ahead.
But let’s be honest.
If you’re a Canadian living outside of Toronto, the 10-day schmooze fest is little more than some splashy coverage on one of those dinner-hour, CanCon-themed entertainment shows, or the odd red-carpet photo in your local paper’s movie section. Even if you do live in Toronto you have to be a pretty solid cinephile to brave the line-ups and crowds to catch a screening of an obscure foreign film that may, or may not, be any good.
And yet, as Canada’s national movie magazine, we can’t resist the opportunity to cover the country’s biggest celebration of movies; so we’ve decided to take a democratic approach by covering four major films that will screen at TIFF (as industry types call it), but then open wide across the country within the next couple of months.
Our Film Festival Section features interviews with cover girl Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the sequel to her 1998 pic about Queen Elizabeth I; Jake Gyllenhaal for Rendition, a drama about a CIA agent who witnesses a brutal interrogation; and Jodie Foster for her vigilante-justice thriller The Brave One. And everyone living outside of T.O. should check out our film festival roundup for info on eight more film festivals taking place across the country this month.
Now, I said we were covering four TIFF films in this issue, but only listed three above. That’s because we decided to break Naomi Watts out of the pack and give her a full-length feature for Eastern Promises, director David Cronenberg’s contribution to this year’s festival. Read “Watts Sheds Light on Dark Movie” to find out why Watts wants to manipulate your emotions and play tricks on your mind.
Films about the events and consequences of the War on Terror are coming fast and furious these days. Whether it’s a true story like A Mighty Heart or a fictional take on world events like Rendition, we’ve clearly emerged from the period in which using film to comment on the war is verboten.
This month’s contribution to the emerging genre is Jamie Foxx’s The Kingdom. The movie begins with a bombing at a Western housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, much like the one that actually happened in Riyadh four years ago. In “The Desert Foxx,” the actor/comedian tells us why he’s made only serious films of late.
And to lighten things up, we have “A Date With Destiny,” an interview with Jessica Alba and Dane Cook about their new comedy Good Luck Chuck.
—Marni Weisz