Nathaniel's No Fly Zone

Are you rushing to plan an international jaunt days before said jaunt? I can't recommend!

Last week I realized that TIFF was upon us and realizing that I hadn't at all planned for it (the summer was bumpy) - no accreditation requests, no tickets, nothing, I attempted to course correct.  I thought I'd pop up to Toronto for the last four days of the festival and scrambled: line up premiere invites, find lodging, buy new premiere outfit, order first pair of glasses ever (for long nights staring at my laptop). I closed my eyes tight-shut and hit "purchase" on the expenses as my card buckled in protest. Then Tuesday evening whilst packing, I realized that my passport had vanished. When was the last time I'd used it? Iceland??? Seven hours later my apartment, looking like Dorothy had just been violently whisked off to Oz, still refused to give the sacret document up. I brought every document of my existence with me to the airport last night (expired passport, birth certificate, you name it) and was unceremoniously turned away. I was offered the option of driving with one caveat -- Canada would let me in with my current documents but the US would not let me back in.

The worst part of the whole experience? The Boyfriend said "You're like Nasseri in Charles de Gaulle". And just when I had managed to forget all about the existence of Steven Spielberg's woeful The Terminal, too! Argh!!! and thanks a lot.

The bright side? (Always make lemonade, people.) The airline and the hotel did not rob me blind on cancellation fees but merely pickpocketed. Amir is still there to cover the fest. And now that I'm not in Toronto there's time to catch up on posting, hit some screenings right here, share my Lizzy Caplan interview, and tell you the story of how I met Kristen Stewart and Gabby Sidibe. Stay tuned! Yes, Fall Film Season, and Starry Oscar Campaign Trails are already upon us. I'm thrilled despite being grounded for the forseeable future.

May your September travels be smoother!

Ewan joins the cast of "August: Osage County"

Julia Roberts. Meryl Streep.

Margo Martindale. Abigail Breslin. Juliette Lewis. Cumberbatch. Chris Cooper. Dermot Mulroney. And Sam Shepard as Beverly Weston.

And now, Ewan McGregor.

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insert squeal here to stifle the natural hyperbolic reaction.

O, Prez

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JA from MNPP here. I saw this picture on the little TV inside my office building's elevator of all places this afternoon, so I suppose it's making the rounds. Oprah posted it to Instagram (doesn't she know you're supposed to make something look like a weathered daguerreotype pulled from under piles of dirt and bones if you use Instragam?) - it is O herself alongside director Lee Daniels, with Jane Fonda and Alan Rickman giving us our first look-see at their Nancy and Ronald Reagan drag for Daniels' next flick called The Butler. The movie's about a man (played by Forest Whitaker) who was a butler at the White House over the course of eight different presidencies. We'll also be seeing James Mardsen as JFK and John Cusack as Nixon, amongst others. 

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What do we think of the Reagans? 

I think Rickman's expression is especially priceless.

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Christian's A Nympho

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JA from MNPP here. When you think of Christian Slater, what's the first thing you think of? This question assumes you're old enough to know who the hell Christian Slater is and maybe recall when he was known for things, of course. 

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I assume most people think of his "Jack Nicholson by way of James Dean" riffing in Heathers. Or maybe you're really cool and Gleaming the Cube or Pump Up the Volume hit you like a mack truck. Me, I've got brain issues - I immediately think of The Legend of Billie Jean (but then that's a film that's always near the surface of my brain, any time, anywhere).

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Anyway if Lars Von Trier has his way in a post-Nymphomaniac world you're going to think of Christian Slater in a different way - he's just cast the actor to play Charlotte Gainsbourg's father in that promises-to-be-controversial next flick of his, which will document, according to Lars, the entire sexual life of a woman, from her childhood to old age. Since I have seen a Lars Von Trier movie before, I know to be worried.

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Is 2012 The Year of Divisiveness?

Hello, loves. Beau here, considering something I've been knocking around in my head for the past week. There has yet to be a film that's been released this year that has garnered widespread acclaim from all viewers (critics, audiences, and bloggers alike). At this point last year, we had a few already that we could point to: Midnight in Paris, Bridesmaids, Harry Potter had all done beaucoups bucks at the box office, and garnered more than respectable responses from the general public and critics alike. But this year... what?

LAWL.

The Hunger Games, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises have made the most, but each inspired a heated dialogue about some element of the filmmaking. Examples: The Hunger Games 'should not have been PG-13'; 'bland, dull, watered-down'; The Avengers 'fan-fiction cum brand/merchandising cash cow' and 'Didn't move the genre forward'; The Dark Knight Rises 'nowhere near as good as The Dark Knight'; and 'WTF with the Bane sound design? the politics?')

Prometheus was enormously divisive, and Brave was widely regarded with a shrug. The critical darling Beasts of the Southern Wild didn't quite crossover. It's made $10 million so far but it's a fairly straightforward narrative, however poetically delivered, that elicits warm feelings and it made less than something as abstract, obscure and strange as Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. (The latter had the advantage of starring Brad Pitt, but even so, people don't always follow the movie stars - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford made a paltry $4 million back in 2007 as well.)  More... 

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