My TIFF Film Picks

TIFF - The Toronto International Film Festival is just about to begin a milestone year with it's 40th Film Festival starting next week.  Now is the time when people are quickly planning their 10 or 11 days at the festival.  Every year the festival gets bigger and bigger and it gets tougher to try and see all the films you want to see in such a limited time span.   With a couple hundred films at a dozen different theatres it's tricky to figure out where to be and when and what to see.  So planning has been the key for many successful longtime film goers.  Some of my friends create Excel spreadsheets to map out where there films are.   This year I used the spreadsheet that created by Tiff and whittled it down to the picks of films I want to see.

Art is very subjective and this list is the films I want to see.  Your list may be very different.  I choose my films based on subject matter, sometimes an actor that I think will be very good, sometimes it's a director and sometimes it's just something I think would be just a lot of fun.

One thing I have learned in my 15 years doing TIFF is that it's hard to get everyone to agree on the same film.  With my 30 odd Tiff teammates we can all see the same movie and there will be a few in the bunch that weren't fans of the film while it hit home to others.  A dozen of us saw a film last night and a few cried while it didn't touch others the same way.  So you never know what films you will connect with.

Here is my list of films I hope to see either at Tiff or the near future and I hope a lot of them end up being Academy Award Nominated films this year.

I won't go into detail now about the films or why I chose them but I write about the ones I do get to see later.

I hope you get to see a few goods films and look out for some of these at screens in the future.

FILM Title	Programme	Director(s)
45 Years	Special Presentations	Andrew Haigh
About Ray	Special Presentations	Gaby Dellal
Amazing Grace	TIFF Docs	Sydney Pollack
An	Contemporary World Cinema	Naomi Kawase
Beeba Boys	Gala Presentations	Deepa Mehta
Being Charlie	Special Presentations	Rob Reiner
Black Mass	Special Presentations	Scott Cooper
Born to be Blue	Special Presentations	Robert Budreau
Brooklyn	Special Presentations	John Crowley
Casual	Primetime	Zander Lehmann
Demolition	Gala Presentations	Jean-Marc Vallée
Desierto	Special Presentations	Jonás Cuarón
Every Thing Will Be Fine	Masters	Wim Wenders
Eye in the Sky	Gala Presentations	Gavin Hood
Five Nights in Maine	Discovery	Maris Curran
Freeheld	Gala Presentations	Peter Sollett
Guilty	Special Presentations	Meghna Gulzar
He Named Me Malala	TIFF Docs	Davis Guggenheim
Hyena Road	Gala Presentations	Paul Gross
Into the Forest	Special Presentations	Patricia Rozema
Janis: Little Girl Blue	TIFF Docs	Amy Berg
Keith Richards: Under the Influence	Primetime	Morgan Neville
LEGEND	Gala Presentations	Brian Helgeland
Len and Company	Special Presentations	Tim Godsall
London Fields	Special Presentations	Mathew Cullen
Miss You Already	Gala Presentations	Catherine Hardwicke
Mississippi Grind	Gala Presentations	Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden
Mr. Right	Gala Presentations	Paco Cabezas
Our Brand Is Crisis	Special Presentations	David Gordon Green
Remember	Gala Presentations	Atom Egoyan
Spotlight	Special Presentations	Tom McCarthy
The Danish Girl	Special Presentations	Tom Hooper
The Dressmaker	Gala Presentations	Jocelyn Moorhouse
The Family Fang	Special Presentations	Jason Bateman
The Lady in the Van	Special Presentations	Nicholas Hytner
The Lobster	Special Presentations	Yorgos Lanthimos
The Man Who Knew Infinity	Gala Presentations	Matthew Brown
The Martian	Gala Presentations	Ridley Scott
The Meddler	Special Presentations	Lorene Scafaria
The Steps	Contemporary World Cinema	Andrew Currie
The Witch	Special Presentations	Robert Eggers
This Changes Everything	TIFF Docs	Avi Lewis
Trumbo	Special Presentations	Jay Roach
Truth	Special Presentations	James Vanderbilt
Women He's Undressed	TIFF Docs	Gillian Armstrong
Youth	Special Presentations	Paolo Sorrentino

Entourage Movie

Yes, I am a big fan of the Entourage TV show and would binge watch DVD's of the show in one weekend when they were released.  I didn't watch it on HBO but had to wait for the DVD's and watching the ENTOURAGE MOVIE kind of felt like my old binge watching days.

I realized how much I missed watching the shows and I also realized that this film might not have the same appeal to everyone as it did for me.  I realized that because I brought my gay friend who wasn't an Entourage watcher and his assessment after the movie was that it was just "I don't know, kind of as predicted" or something to that effect.

The room full of audience members howled at some of the situations Vinnie Chase and his boys got themselves into.  But my friend didn't laugh as hard as I did and I realized it was because he didn't have the history of each character and the time to develop a love of each of them.  And I suppose as a gay man he wasn't so impressed by the abundance of naked females.  I am probably the one that should have been offended by this but it's part of the character of the shows.  It's excess in every way.  And I guess the fact that I used to work with a bunch of guys that kind of lived in this excess world I could understand that while the fact that it's in Hollywood and with people that have endless bank accounts there are still people that try and live this way even if they aren't Hollywood celebrities.  I knew an 18 year old once that was a Vinnie Chase with an attitude and Daddy's money and I bet he can watch this film and relate to it.

I look past all the objectification of the women and look into the heart of this Entourage group.  Four guys from Queen's, New York trying to make it in Hollywood with the help of super agent Ari Gold played by Jeremy Piven, who will do whatever it takes for his pal and client Vinnie Chase played by Adrien Grenier.

Ari Gold is one of the most interesting characters of this film.  He is trying to keep his ego, and anger in check to please his wife while trying to achieve his goals as a studio head and make put the Gold spin on Vinnie Chases movie.

This film is an extension of the series but a little more fuller with more complications and an Entourage baby is even introduced.   The next generation?  Hmmm...

This film has so many celebrity cameos that you can't even count them all.  Some of my favourites include Mark Wahlberg of course and Billy Bob Thornton plays the money guy with his sone being played by Haley Joel Osment, a character you would have never predicted you would see him be.

Then there are the returning Entourage guest appearances by people like Jessica Alba, Andrew Dice Clay, Gary Busey, David Spade, Bob Saget and so many more.

And of course Ari Gold's former gay assistant Lloyd appears again as a successful agent and he convinces Ari to give him away at his wedding and somehow talks Ari into having it at his home.

There are so many crazy things going on with the boys as usual but really at the heart of this movie it's really about the friendship and loyalty of the boys and what they will do for each other.

To me this is the male version of Sex in the City.   People seem to be divided on which team they are on.  I am on team Entourage for sure.   I can also relate because I am on Team Entourage during the Toronto International film festival although my Entourage team can't even come close to the lives of these boys but at least sometimes we get to see the real Mark Wahlberg in person and I can tell you that the guy is a class act in person.   Yes I am still an Entourage fan and I hope that you are too and as I always say go and see the movie and decide for yourself.

The MOVIE will be in theatres starting June 3rd.