Opening Weekend: Due Date, Megamind, Fair Game
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, November 5, 2010 - 0 Comments
- Robert Downey Jr. (left) and Zach Galifianakis in ‘Due Date’
It’s hard to come to a movie without preconceptions. I saw Zach Galifianakis spark up a joint on Real Time With Bill Maher last week, thinking I was watching history being made, but then Maher tells Wolf Blitzer on CNN that it wasn’t weed after all, just cloves—”otherwise I would have smoked it.” Now I’m wondering if, instead of getting an on-air buzz, Galifianakis was just creating buzz for Due Date, in which plays an addled stoner opposite Robert Downey Jr.. A few nights ago, Letterman had Robert Downey Jr. on and Dave went into full-bore flattery mode, raving about Due Date as if it were the greatest movie ever made. At he prattled on, Downey kept rolling his eyes, as if to say, “Dave, what were you smoking?” Due Date is a formula comedy, a buddy road movie that plays like a highball mix of The Hangover and Trains, Planes and Automobiles, with Downey cast against type as the sober straightman and Galifianakis acting typically off-kilter as his shambolic travelling companion. So how is it? Well, I could have done without the masturbating dog. Really. But Due Date pretty funny. . . in places. While the story just goes through the motions, an acerbic Downey turns the movie into a meta acting class, with wild child Galifianakis serving as his puppy-dog apprentice.
Despite a brief, blousy appearance by Juliette Lewis as a dope dealer, Due Date is a very much a boy’s movie. So is the other big studio picture opening this weekend—Megamind, a thin but surprisingly witty 3-D animated feature from DreamWorks. It’s a smart, sparky send-up of the super-antihero, or anti-superhero, with a post-modern finesse that reminded me of Ghostbusters. You know that there’s something screwy about Hollywood when a blockbuster cartoon presents a more profound and nuanced view of good and evil than a high-pedigree political drama. I’m referring to Fair Game, which dramatizes the real-life scandal involving unmasked CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson, who was stripped of her secret identity after her husband, Joseph Wilson, blew the whistle on the mythical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Powered by a strong performance from Naomi Watts, Fair Game tells a compelling and necessary tale. But in the interests of political clarity, righteous moral drama is allowed upstage human intrigue.
Also playing in limited release this weekend in Toronto are two top-notch documentaries. Marwencol , playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, is a stranger-than-fiction portrait of an outsider artist working with dolls in the no man’s land between art and delusion; and A Drummer’s Dream, a wonderful music documentary from Canadian filmmaker John Walker, is essential viewing for percussion fans—playing at Toronto’s Royal Cinema, it deserves to be seen on the big screen with full theatrical sound.
More details . . .
Due Date
Any resemblance to The Hangover is not coincidental. Due Date was produced, written and directed by The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips. Instead of a gang, we have an odd couple: Peter Highman (Downey Jr.), expectant father, and Ethan Tremblay (Galifiankis), aspiring actor and disaster magnet. In The Hangover, the boys were trying to make it home for a wedding; in this case, the deadline is the birth of Peter’s first child. Ethan literally bumps into him at the Atlanta airport, where his shenanigans get both of them kicked off a flight to L.A. and placed on the no-fly list. Which sets the stage for a cross-country road trip in a rental car, with Ethan bringing along his dog plus his father’s ashes in a coffee can. But the story seems secondary to the casting, which involves twofold role reversals. First there’s the drug thing—with Downey, notorious ex-drug addict, cast as a sober control freak in a crisp suit opposite a stoner. Then there’s the thespian thing—with Downey, genius actor, playing the foil for a character who is heading to L.A. with delusions of Hollywood grandeur. At one point, Downey’s character actually starts giving Ethan a method acting lesson, and some sense the whole movie is kind of acting showdown between the hyper-controlled veteran and the reckless upstart. Along the way, there are some wild tonal shifts—the movie’s lunges into sentiment feel contrived. And, like some of Judd Apatow’s comedies, this is a buddy movie that pushes the homoerotic envelope. Between his much-talked-about perm and his fey mannerisms, Galafianakis offers ample suggestion his character could be gay without spelling it out. And Downey, whose character has a violent temper, acts so straight he could be in the closet. As for the masturbating dog . . . don’t ask, don’t tell. Continue…
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Meet the talented Will Ferrell, Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively
By Stephanie Findlay - Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 4:31 PM - 0 Comments
Who’s manscaped, who thinks his movie star days are numbered, and is there depth to this starlet?
Blake Lively
I think I’m getting the hang of this TIFF stuff. It’s a steep learning curve. Yesterday, there were a lot of firsts. First interview. First red carpet. And first big stars: Will Ferrell, Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, and Blake Lively. But first, how I got there.
My day began slowly, as it does when you’ve slept only four hours. Around 1 p.m. I got a call from Brian Johnson, Maclean’s film critic, who asked me to do a round table interview with Will Ferrell in about an hour.
Yikes. Here I was, standing on Queen West, in half of my pajamas (a pair of black tights I wore to sleep), no makeup, my breath smells like death and I’m supposed to interview Will Ferrell. I had no time to go home and spruce up, so off I biked to the Intercontinental on Bloor. I arrived just 10 minutes before the interview a sweaty mess. Great.
No matter, I was able to cool off because when you’re dealing with “talent” (aka actors) it seems like you have to wait around a lot. One journalist grumbled about the hotel, saying she wished she was at another one where “the internet is free and it smells better.” First up was the interview with Everything Must Go director Dan Rush, and then 20 minutes with Will Ferrell, the movie’s star.
Rush was was articulate and kind. It was his first group interview he said. (Mine too, I thought. But I didn’t want him to know that). Will Ferrell very articulate as well, but he was also comfortable—which makes a difference. He had control of the conversation at all times and dictated its direction. Physically, he is very tall and is immaculately groomed, his eyebrows and sideburns especially. Manscaping does wonders. He had a pair of retro ’70s style sunglasses that he rested on the table. I thought he looked expensive.
He was fun to speak with, even in our group of about eight. Not everyone asked questions, but for those that did, Ferrell gave detailed, professional responses. I asked him whether or not his children cared that he worked with another child actor. He said that it’s only been recently that his six-year-old son has deduced that he’s a movie star. (He told that story in much more interesting way than I just described it and the whole table laughed, though just a little bit too loud).
When our 20 minutes were up, I wandered to the second floor of the hotel to rest and find some food. I wandered into a lounge that had popped up on the second floor to get recharged. They were doing hair and makeup, so I figured why not? Then, I got my hair styled by not just one but two beautiful men. They were on either side of me twisting, teasing and pulling at my hair, while quietly talking back and forth. They were basically finishing each others’ sentences. “Should we do it…”
“Up?”
“And add some wave….”
“I’ll tease it…”
The final product was a high up do that was “rocker chic.” Then I got my makeup done. Hanging out in the film world you sort of get primped and polished just by osmosis because there are so many stylists and makeup artists in the vicinity. I’d come in an ugly duckling and left a not-so-ugly duckling. I went home to eat soup. And I ate it out of the can because I had 20 minutes to get changed and head over to my first red carpet event ever: The Town, starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively. The red carpet was held at Roy Thompson Hall. If you’re media you hang outside in a sort of corral to wait to enter and take your place on the red carpet. It’s very unglamorous. My colleague Tom and I eventually got assigned our spots, and then we waited. As I mentioned before, the talent makes you wait. Forty minutes later I heard blood curdling screams. The talent also makes people go nuts.
We saw Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck’s wife first. She literally ran down the carpet. She was all dolled up and jubilant, but maybe that’s cause she wasn’t talking to anyone. Then there was Chris Cooper. Then I talked with Ben Affleck and Tom talked with Jon Hamm. Affleck is tall, and when you’re crammed on the on the red carpet it’s uncomfortable having someone six foot four just a foot away from you, even if they’re a star. I asked Affleck about interviewing people in prisons for research about his movie. Tom asked Hamm about having a rough start in the industry. Whereas Affleck seemed like he was on autopilot, Hamm genuinely replied that he’s spent more time as a waiter than an actor and said something along the lines of this too shall pass, with respect to his current fame. Oh Hamm, you dreamboat.
Then Blake Lively came down the carpet. I could hear the media in line ahead of us asking about her clothes. I got frustrated by that. Sure, she’s known for her boob-baring, leggy outfits, but she’s gotta be something more than a hot bod and a fresh face. She’s the star of Gossip Girl, one of the most successful shows on television right now, she has many projects in the works, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour thinks she’s something special. And I haven’t seen a train-wreck photo of her coming wasted out of a club a-la-Lohan on celebrity tabloid gossip sites, which means she’s got her act together. I asked her about playing a woman in a male dominated movie. She responded with something generic about strong women. Obviously the red carpet isn’t the place to discuss serious questions. When she passed the next group a women gasped and cried out “Look at your shoes, how do you walk in them?!”
And then it was over. Celebrity mania is overwhelming. On one square metre of the red carpet you can have so many degrees of influence—the stars, their publicists, reporters, fans, producers, event staff—and everyone subscribes to the structure in the interest of making money, and maybe art, sometimes. But before I started ruminating on that thought, I had to refocus and get to the next party, the OneXOne Haiti fundraiser that Frank McKenna and Matt Damon were promoting during the day, held at the Bisha Hotel & Residences Presentation Centre. I came in just to catch the last couple songs of an intimate performance by John Legend. He was playing some low key songs, which I assume was for the sake of the older, well-heeled crowd. One of the event staff said to me that she thought his performance was a “bit arrogant,” because he kept telling the crowd to keep it down so he could play.
I didn’t stay there long, I wanted to check out another fundraiser at PEARS in Yorkville that director Paul Haggis, James Franco and AnnaLynne McCord (90210) were hosting. But by the time I got there, only Annalynne McCord was left. (Note to self: I need to start showing up on time for these things). I had planned to attempt to crash the Vanity Fair party, but couldn’t bring myself to give it a go, I hated to admit it but I was losing steam.
However, when I got home I was unable to sleep. I blame my TIFF diet: adrenaline, lattes and canned vegetable soup.
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MPs and Mark Wahlberg’s red tie
By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, January 8, 2010 at 2:57 PM - 0 Comments
The Canadian AIDS Society held a special “It’s A Red Tie Affair” fundraiser. Below, NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis with Jordan Tarini from the Canadian AIDS Society.
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Transport Minister John Baird.
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Conan better keep Jay on the team
By Jaime Weinman - Friday, June 12, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 4 Comments
O’Brien may deliver the right demographic, but mass audiences prefer the unhip Leno
On his first episode of The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien joked that Jay Leno would be coming back to NBC “in two days.” Well, not quite that soon, but starting in the fall, O’Brien’s Tonight predecessor will have a nightly talk show at 10 p.m. This was seen as a sign of NBC executives’ lack of confidence in O’Brien, but they may be doing O’Brien a favour. O’Brien’s first Tonight episode beat David Letterman in the ratings; if Leno had gotten a competing talk-show on another network, he might have beaten Conan, just as he beat everyone else. O’Brien told his audience that Leno is a friend and that “I’m looking forward to him being our lead-in.” It’s better to have him as a lead-in than competition, because audiences prefer the unhip, familiar, comfortable—in short, Jay Leno.Even Leno’s network didn’t expect him to be this popular for this long. Sue Trowbridge, who runs The Late Night TV Page (a Web resource for finding out the upcoming guests on talk shows), points out that NBC announced O’Brien as Leno’s successor in 2004 “far enough ahead of time that maybe Leno thought that would be a good time to step down.” But “five years passed, and he’s still number one and still enjoying it.” It wasn’t hard to see why NBC might have expected his popularity to decrease: Leno is a dinosaur in a talk-show landscape dominated by people with a hip, ironic take on the format.
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George W. on Laura Bush, Putin and getting the Hollywood treatment
By Nicholas Köhler - Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 9:18 PM - 0 Comments
And why Calgary was the first stop on his speaking tour
A sampling from the former president’s appearance in Calgary today, which included a post-speech interview with former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna.
On the Hollywood treatment: McKenna wondered whether Bush had seen Will Ferrell’s You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush, a Broadway show that also aired on TV this month. No, said Bush. “I don’t pay attention to Hollywood.” Had he seen any of the films made about him (W., by Oliver Stone, likely uppermost in McKenna’s mind)? “No.”
On Vladimir Putin: “He’s a tough dude. I liked him.” He added: “He and I saw eye to eye on Iran.”
On Laura Bush: After arriving home in Texas, Bush said to his wife: “Baby, free at last.” Replied Laura: “You’re free to take out the trash. Just consider it your new domestic policy agenda.”
ALSO AT MACLEANS.CA: George W. speaks in Calgary: Defends his decision to invade Iraq. Offers Obama help, if he wants it. And “They got the shoe cannon, eh“: While awaiting George W.’s arrival, two worlds collide on Calgary’s Stephen Avenue.
On his mother Barbara’s recent heart surgery: When his departure from the White House neared, Bush called his mother and told her he would soon be home—that it would be like old times. “She immediately checked herself into hospital for open-heart surgery,” said Bush. He maintains, however, that Barbara is a “tough old bird.” Barbara has told him she doesn’t like this expression. “Mom, it’s a sign of affection,” he told her. “Plus you are.” Considering his emotional reaction to his wife’s illness, George H.W. may be less so. “It is clear to me that he can’t live without her,” George W. said.
On the team of economists that have worked on the recession: Bush recalled how former treasury secretary Hank Paulson (“who I came to admire”) and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (“a good solid guy”) last year marched into the Roosevelt Room and declared: “Mr. President, the situation is dire … could be easily as great as the Great Depression.” Hmmm, thought Bush. “A heck of a way to end the presidency.” He added: “Wall Street got drunk and we got the hangover … I didn’t like it.” Bush said he was reluctant to say I told you so, but: “I actually tried to regulate Fannie and Freddie,” he said, referring to the government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, because, he said, they were over-leveraged. Bush reminded the audience he’s no economist (he was a history major and likes to tell C students: “You too can be president”). But when Bernanke says–as he did on 60 Minutes last week–that he predicts growth in the fourth quarter, “I trust him,” says Bush. “I don’t know what he’s basing that on.” But: “I like him.”
McKenna later wondered whether Canada’s banks hadn’t got it right. “Seems like your banking system was a lot more sober than ours,” Bush replied. Drink, offered McKenna, “but not the whole bottle.” “Not the whole crate,” said Bush.On former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi:
After Sept. 11, he said, then-PM Junichiro Koizumi called Bush in the Oval Office. “I’m with you, brother,” Bush recalled Koizumi saying. It is the kind of conversation, between a U.S. and Japanese leader, that 50 years ago would have been unthinkable, Bush said. “Koizumi, by the way, is a piece of work,” he added. Taking the Japanese PM to Graceland and seeing him sing Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog “was one of the great highlights of my presidency.”On picking Calgary as his first stop on the speaking circuit:
McKenna noted that Tony Blair also picked Calgary as the site of his first Canadian speech after leaving government in 2007. “In Blair’s case he wanted to,” replied Bush. “In my case it was my only choice.” -
Photo Gallery: Toronto Film Festival 2006
By Jeff Harris - Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 1:51 PM - 0 Comments
Juilette Binoche epitomized the “blonde bombshell” look at Breaking and Entering
premiere, along with…
Juilette Binoche epitomized the “blonde bombshell” look at Breaking and Entering
premiere, along with co-star Jude Law — who had an impish grin for festival paparrazzi. The Dixie Chicks came to town with a hot documentary that followed the backlash after their dig at President George Bush. From Ashton Kutcher to Zach Braff, see all the celebs that invaded Toronto this past September.
