Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' Trailer

i loved his last film 'melancholia'. this one looks a bit bizarre even for me. we'll see....

Kate and 'Labor Day'

kate's back thank god. 'labor day' opens 12/25 and goes wide in january.

here are the first 2 trailers

'Before Midnight' on Blu Ray and DVD

one of 2013's best films is now on disc. i love this film. i suggest, as i have in the past, that you watch 'before sunrise' and 'before sunset' first. it's an amazing trilogy of love from first bloom thru 18 years of longing and having that love. i really really can't recommend this enough.

'Gravity' ****stars and All The Stars That Are in the Galaxy It Inhabits

 

it's all been said over and over. 'gravity' is one of the best of the year. it's the best 3d has ever offered. sandra bullock has never been better.  george clooney is the charmer of all charmers. director alfonso cuaron has created a masterpiece.

it jumps to the top of my 2013 best film list. sandra gets my vote for best actress as of today. i actually love saying that.

there are more films and performances to come. this is merely oscarbation edging at this point. but it's hard to see beyond this film right now.

it's a must see in 3d.

run don't walk to 'gravity'.

'Blue Jasmine' **stars

i'm not going to waste a lot of time here. although there is a lot of oscar buzz around this woody allen film i just don't get it.

cate blanchett has best actress buzz around her for playing one of the most despicable characters in decades. she is way over the top from beginning to end. forget about it. one of the worst of the year. enough said.

'Prisoners' ****

'prisoners' is a damn good film. jake gyllenhaal and hugh jackman are at the top of their game. it's one of the best thrillers i've seen in years. it's tough, suspenseful and gritty. it's not for the squeamish or faint of heart. child abductions never make for easy viewing. this is not the exception.

kudos to director denis villeneuve for keeping me on the edge of my seat for 153 minutes. and for making me not dislike maria bello and melissa leo as much as i usually do. 

i have a feeling it may get lost in the oscar madness even though it is one of the best reviewed films of the year. it is certainly in my top 10 as of this date.

'Stalingrad': This Trailer Caught My Eye

it has the look of epic's past and cinema present and future. impressive.

Kate Talks 'Labor Day'

'labor day' is due in december. kate is due soonish. she is very pregnant. gregory ellwood of 'in contention', one of my favorite film sites, caught up with her in toronto. thankfully as she may not be doing a lot of publicity for the film till 2014.

here's kate the great

'Great Expectations'

i feel in love with holliday grainger in 'the borgias'. glad to see her hitting the big screen 11/8 in this charles dickens remake.

'Grace of Monaco' Trailer

it opens stateside on 11/27 and on the 29th in the uk

From Toronto Film Fest: 'Blood Ties' Press Conference

A First Look at 'Labor Day'

a sneak peak at kate's new film due christmas day.

'Morning' Trailer

also coming out of toronto is 'morning' starring jeanne tripplehorn as the grieving mother dealing with ehe accidental loss of her child. kyle chandler, jason ritter and laura linney also star. it is set for a 9/27 opening. looks like a sleeper that could to me. i'll keep an eye on this one.
here is the haunting trailer.

Toronto: Your Best Picture Winner Will Be '12 Years a Slave'

i am reprinting this 'new york' magazine article without permission. why? because it states what every critic i've read coming out of thr toronto film fest is saying" 12 years a slave will be hard to beat this coming awards season. 

(i will remove if requested)

Suspend the betting, close the books, and notify the engraver: I've just seen what will surely be this year's Best Picture winner, and it's 12 Years a Slave. There's no question in my mind that this will be our ultimate awards season victor, and the fact that there's still any room for debate at all means that Oscar bloggers were high on more than mountain air last week at the Telluride Film Festival, where the film first sneaked before tonight's official Toronto Film Festival premiere. In fact, I'll go one further … no, two further: Not only will 12 Years triumph in the Best Picture category, but I'd put my money on a historic Best Director win for Steve McQueen, and I'd mark Chiwetel Ejiofor as the frontrunner for Best Actor. Like, what's gonna beat this movie? Freakin'Monuments Men?

To bring you up to speed — though if you're unfamiliar with 12 Years a Slave, that won't last long — the fact-based film stars Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, a free violinist living in 1841 New York who is drugged by two shady employers (one of whom, randomly, is Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam), then kidnapped from his family, transported to Louisiana, and sold into slavery. Renamed Platt, the badly beaten Northup struggles to sublimate his personality in order to survive, a task that is already dehumanizing but becomes downright untenable when he is sold to the sadistic plantation owner Edwin Epps (played by Michael Fassbender, who previously starred for McQueen in Hunger andShame).

I'll leave the eventual review of 12 Years a Slave to my colleague David Edelstein; all I can tell you about is the audience reaction, plus my gut instincts. On the first count, the movie was simply shattering. It wasn't just that people broke down crying throughout — though plenty in my audience did — it's that during the closing credits, when I finally found it in me to stand and turn around, I looked back at faces that were shell-shocked to the core. One writer friend of mine was inconsolable, speechless; I took him to get a drink, and for a while at the bar, we just sat and said nothing. At a film festival, you're often expected to move on to the next screening or assignment, but this movie had knocked us flat, and two people normally quick with words not only couldn't find them, but didn't need to. Later, I had that same, silent "holy shit" moment with several other colleagues who'd seen the movie; when my roommate came home from her 12 Years screening as I was writing this article, she said simply, "There it is, we're done. Game over."

I expect the Academy will agree with her. There are still many movies yet to screen here at Toronto — August: Osage County, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, could be a contender — and Oscar blogger Jeff Wells told me he thinks that David O. Russell is due for an Academy Award and that the forthcoming American Hustle could be his ticket. But could even the best versions of those movies feel seminal the same way 12 Years a Slaveimmediately does? There hasn't been a filmed project that engages this galvanically with the subject of slavery since the television miniseries Roots; yes, we got Django Unchained last year, but compared to the hard truths of 12 Years, that jape-filled Best Picture nominee is from another dimension. It helps, too, that the movie is an across-the-board formal triumph. McQueen makes not a single misstep with the camera, many of the actors are turning in career-best work (or, in the case of surefire Supporting Actress nominee Lupita Nyong'o as a sympathetic fellow slave, building a career on the spot), and behind-the-scenes contributions from writer John Ridley and compose Hans Zimmer are simply sterling.

Should another film come along that's capable of equalling 12 Years a Slave, I'd be happy for my awards predictions to be proven wrong, but let's get real: That isn't going to happen. It's the capstone to a remarkable year for black cinema that also includes success stories Fruitvale Station and The Butler, and it could reign supreme in a night destined to make Oscar history, especially if McQueen becomes the first black filmmaker to take home Best Director. As I sat in the bar with that shattered writer tonight and we struggled to speak, I said, "A century from now, when they put together a montage about the history of movies? They'll put the film we just saw in the first ten seconds of that montage." He didn't even question it; he just nodded, a lump rising in his throat. Normally, I'd feel like I was sticking my neck out to engage in that sort of hyperbole, but this is as easy a call as I've ever made. Beat that, kids.

• By Kyle Buchanan

'Gravity' UK Trailer

'12 Years a Slave' Featurette

coming out of the festivals at toronto and telluride '12 years a slave' heads to the top of the oscar frontrunners this year. it's been getting rave reviews from the sources and persons i admire most in film critique.

'The Butler' ***1/2

the oscar season truly has begun. 'the butler' is a contender. it's american history from the perspective of afro-americans. finally! well yes you can argue that it has been done before by let's say spike lee. it just has not been universally accessible before. mr lee was just to angry for mass audiences. lee daniels has made an honest, tragic at times yet heartwarming film from the black man's perspective. it has dignity and that dignity comes from the heart and soul of the forest whitaker character cecil gaines. the real life white house butler's story takes us through five or so presidents (mr truman seems to have been left out) and the civil rights struggles and triumphs during their tenure. 

along with mr whitaker's cecil david oyelowo and oprah winfrey shine as son louis and wife gloria respectively. make no mistake i am not a big fan of ms winfrey but her performance here is oscar nom noteworthy as is mr whitaker's and mr oyelowo's. the rest of the cast which is large adds dimension and depth to both the black and white characters. this really is a must see. in the theater. now.

so you may ask why only ***1/2's? well there was a bit of stunt casting in the case of the president's depicted. they did not work. in fact they were a distraction in an otherwise flawless ensemble. and having two of hollywood's biggest liberals, john cuzak and jane fonda, portray richard nixon and nancy regan was just gimmicky. i admire both actors and i am a liberal but it ruined the flow of the film. nitpicking? not really. it just 'hurt' the film and knocked it off it's pace. that being said it is still a must see. now. today. this coming weekend. just go to a theater and support this film. it's a very welcome relief from the summer crap we are subjected to.

'Lovelace' Now in Theaters and VOD

International trailer for 'Diana' with Naomi Watts

Sandra Talks 'Gravity'

trailer