Hot Docs Wrap-Up: Favorites and Oscar Prediction

Amir here, to wrap up my coverage of the Hot Docs international documentary film festival. The festival is regarded as TIFF’s younger, less glitzy sister here in Toronto but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an abundance of great films on display.  The real difference is in the pleasure of discovery, since most of the titles come to Hot Docs with very little advance buzz. Coincidentally, though, my favorite film happened to be one of the most anticipated. I still have a couple interviews and screeners but with the festival now over and about 35 films under my belt, it’s as good a time as any to wrap things up. 

Favorites
The audience prize winner was Muscle Shoals, a documentary about the titular town in Alabama that became the spiritual and creative inspiration for many influential musicians of the 20th century. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the film. It’s quite entertaining but it owes its prize more to the magical music of the artists it features than the film that encases them.

my favorites and the Oscar hopefuls after the jump...

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The Linkover

Vulture whose butts have we seen on Game of Thrones. Funny interactive even if you don't watch the show
LA Times AMPAS just keeps on changing its rule. That board of governors is the fussiest and most bored ever, right? Always tinkering! Members are now no longer required to see foreign film and shorts at Academy screenings in order to vote on them. I personally liked the more restrictive voting in those categories. If I had my way nobody would be able to vote on anything unless they'd seen all the nominees in the category.
Slate wonders where Jay Gatsby's mythical mansion really is/was (The Great Gatsby) 
Pajiba wonders what Marvel Studios could do to make Daredevil work onscreen 
CHUD it's not every day that a movie spoiler comes by way of costume design (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
MNPP Which is hotter George Clooney retro edition
Ender's Game website has gone live in anticipation of the trailer. Messages from the crew asking us to "stay informed" It seems to be mostly informative backstory journals at this point. Until Viola Davis is schooling me, I ain't learning this!

it's Bradley's world
Awards Daily Bradley Cooper might not be done with Oscar yet. He's now set to star for Steven Spielberg in American Sniper, a true story about a Navy SEAL who fell victim to another soldier's PTSD
In Contention Bradley will also star in Chef for August Osage County director John Wells

pretty pictures
imgur '50 greatest matte paintings from the movies.' a fine tribute to a lost art now that CGI fills in where set-construction leaves off
/film new images from Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind is Rising which we were just talking about in our
Animated Oscar Predictions (in case you missed them)
Hyung86 cute illustrations of Disney characters as college students. My favorites here are actually Hercules and Pocahontas

Happy Gabby Day

JA from MNPP here, wishing a very happy birthday to Gabourey Sidibe, who's turning 30 years old today. In the four years since she popped on the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, in Lee Daniels' film Precious, Sidibe's proven that she's nothing like the sullen abused girl that brought her stardom - every awards show and every red carpet that year didn't come alive until she showed up, a star right out of the box. I don't watch The Big C so I can't speak to what she's done there but I was elated when she got cast in the upcoming third season of American Horror Story - I can't wait to see what Ryan Murphy does with her. What do you hope the future holds for Gabby?

Review: Iron Man Three*

This review was originally posted in my column @ Towleroad

When last we saw Tony Stark he was eating shawarma in New York City with his fellow superheroes in the stinger of Marvel's The Avengers (reviewed). When we last saw Iron Man, minutes before that, he was plummeting from a cosmic wormhole to his near-death having just saved the world from an alien apocalypse. (S.H.I.E.L.D's workman's comp insurance must be pricey.) I mention Tony Stark and Iron Man separately because the franchise's new writer/director Shane Black, who previously worked with Robert Downey Jr on the underappreciated comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, seems more interested in Stark than Iron Man. This is a good sign, especially for a third picture. Time to flip this tin can around.

IRON MAN THREE takes great pains to make a distinction between the impenetrable suit and the man inside it. Tony Stark's first attempt to suit up is a comic misfire since he's engineered an Iron Man suit that comes right to him when he calls. He hasn't quite worked out the speed of his flying wardrobe -imagine a metal codpiece flying 60 mph right at your Andrew Christians. The second time we see Iron Man, if I'm remembering the sequence of events correctly, Tony Stark isn't in the suit at all. He's engaging in some prankster remote control business for girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, wonderful in this role but haters gonna hate). MORE AFTER THE JUMP

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Hot Docs: LGBT Films

Amir here, reporting from the Hot Docs documentary festival in Toronto. There are a few films at the festival this year that deal with LGBT issues. Paolo has already reviewed one of them – though I’m using the term “issue” very loosely with regards to that one - but on a more serious note, here are three more documentaries about the gay community.

First up is Valentine Road, which explores the story of a 15 year old student, named Larry King, in Oxnard, California who was fatally shot by a classmate, Brandon McInerney, during school hours for confessing his love for him in front of a group of friends. Larry, a biracial boy who had always shown female tendencies, had begun to dress in girls’ clothing and put on heels and make-up to school. On the face of it, the crime is one born of hatred, homophobia and racism, but director Marta Cunningham isn’t satisfied with such reductive explanations. Her film is a wild ride that smacks the audience right out of their conclusions every time one is apparently reached, digging layer after layer of evidence to uncover the complexity of the case.

Valentine Road spends its entire running time exploring the grey areas of human psyche. It’s a gut-wrenching film that patiently and intelligently unravels the background to the dark events of that fateful February 2008 day [more...]

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