Anyone interested in meeting up for any screenings, let me know (especially for 360, Himizu, or Rebellion as no one else I know is going to those yet). Here's the lowdown on my near-finalized schedule, leaner than last year's by six films:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 09
02:15PM: Alois Nebel // Tomas Lunak
This B&W Czech animation uses the same rotoscoping technique used in A
Scanner Darkly. Looks like a visual stunner.
09:00PM: The Hunter // Daniel Nettheim
Willem Dafoe traveling through the jungle in search of a legendary tiger (with
Sam Neill in the mix). Sounds positively mythical.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
12:30PM: 360 // Fernando Meirelles
Interconnected stories are getting tired and Meirelles's last film, Blindness, was
a bust. Still, he has two major achievements in Constant Gardener and City of
God and a high-profile cast to help him along the way.
05:45PM: Death of a Superhero / Ian FitzGibbon
Coming-of-age stories always hit the spot for me. And the stills look promising
enough for this to be worth the gamble.
11:59PM: You're Next / Adam Wingard
A home invasion film with the Midnight Madness crowd is going to be a blast
no matter what. It helps that Wingard's $2000 Pop Skull was batshit crazy in
a good way.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
03:15PM: Samsara / Ron Fricke
The long-awaited follow-up to Baraka, 90 minutes of the most transcendent
footage from across the globe ever be put to film.
09:15PM: Miss Bala / Gerardo Naranjo
The buzz for this has just grown and grown since its Cannes premiere. I hear
it's an intense thriller.
11:59PM: Livid / Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo
From the guys who brought us the fucked up French home invasion horror
Inside. This is supposedly more like a really dark Grimm fairy tale.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
04:45PM: Dark Horse / Todd Solondz
An overgrown manchild looking for love sounds like just the right kind of
trappings for an awesome dark comedy.
08:00PM: The Loneliest Planet / Julia Loktev
A haunting travelogue film starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Early reviews have
been good and Bernal has a pretty good track record.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
03:15PM: Shame / Steve McQueen
If you've seen McQueen's Hunger, also featuring Michael Fassbender in his
breakout role pre-X-Men, you don't have to ask why this is a must.
10:00PM: The Moth Diaries / Mary Harron
Vampires, all-girls' boarding school. Could be the makings of a cheesy CW
show. Or it could be Harron's return to American Psycho craziness. Hopefully
the latter prevails.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
11:45PM: Café de Flore / Jean-Marc Vallée
C.R.A.Z.Y. is one of the few Canadian films that have blown me away in
recent years (with Incendies the only one after it). Like Cameron Crowe,
Vallée has a talent for pairing the perfect music to images and this looks no
different, supposedly with Sigur Ros, Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin in the mix.
03:00PM: ALPS / Yorgos Lanthimos
The latest from the director of the bizarro Dogtooth. The premise is sheer
genius - following a company who will hire out stand-ins for your deceased
loved ones.
09:15PM: Carré Blanc / Jean-Baptiste Léonetti
Dystopian sci-fi always has the potential to go to one extreme or the other.
The footage looks breathtaking so I'm taking the gamble on this one.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
11:00AM: Jeff, Who Lives at Home / Jay & Mark Duplass
Jason Segel in an existential comedy. My fest badly needed an injection of
lightness and this looks to be the ticket.
08:45PM: Himizu / Sion Sono
Anyone who has seen Sion Sono's insane four hour epic Love Exposure
featuring pervert gangs, cults, and kung fu or his more restrained dark
horror/drama work in Suicide Club and Cold Fish can't possibly pass this
up.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
02:45PM: Rebellion / Mathieu Kassovitz
Programmer Piers Handling calls it the French Apocalypse Now. But he's
been wrong - terribly wrong before (Re: Passion Play). Hoping this is more
La Haine, less Gothika or Babylon A.D..
06:30PM: The Awakening / Nick Murphy
When the program references The Others in its description of the film, I have
to give it a try.
09:00PM: Wuthering Heights / Andrea Arnold
Respected auteur. Classic source material. Supposedly radical treatment.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
03:00PM: Headshot / Pen-ek Ratanaruang
A director I've wanted to get into for a long time and a premise that sounds like
my kind of weird (man wakes up after being shot to see the world upside-down).
06:15PM: The Deep Blue Sea / Terence Davies
No, not the remake of the '90s shark movie. Though I would see it if it was
made. Most conventional movie of the fest for me - a traditional period piece
starring Rachel Weisz and Loki from Thor.
09:00PM: Killer Joe / William Friedkin
Could this be a return to form for the director of The Exorcist and The French
Connection? With Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey, and Juno Temple.
11:59PM: Kill List / Ben Wheatley
Another buzz-maker on the festival circuit playing the last night of Midnight
Madness. This should end the fest on a high note.
Possible last minute fest picks are: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Incident, Trishna, Twixt, Snowtown, Porfirio, Monsters Club, Keyhole, Michael, Crazy Horse, and Sleepless Night.
I may also be doing the movies Drive, Warrior, and Contagion during but not at the fest.
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