Author Archive
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Frances Ha” & “Imogene”

  One of the things that happens at film festivals is that as you see many films in back-to-back proximity, mini-trends start to emerge, at least in the mind, and pictures that were made entirely separately, and which may ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Anna Karenina”

  ANNA KARENINA – Watch It At Home – Beautiful But Overconceptualized Version of the Tolstoy Classic Joe Wright was introduced to the world with his film of Pride and Prejudice, and it seems like he’s b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Much Ado About Nothing”

One of the most charming things about Joss Whedon’s new film of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, unveiled today at the Toronto Film Festival, is that it’s not out to prove anything. Its actors are garbed in modern dress, and...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Argo”

At this point, with 3 first-rate films to his name, it’s time to stop remarking on how surprising it is that Ben Affleck is a major American filmmaker and just accept that he is one.  His latest, ARGO, is his best yet, ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “The Company You Keep”

As soon as Robert Redford had enough clout to start generating his own movies, he began starring in and often producing some of the best politically-themed films of the 1970s, including The Candidate, Three Days of the Condor�...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Thanks For Sharing”

Stuart Blumberg’s first film as a director (his screenwriting credits include The Kids Are All Right), THANKS FOR SHARING, never quite manages to solve its own central problem:  how to make a sensitive and funny (and not...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “At Any Price”

With the notable exception of Friday Night Lights, Hollywood has rarely even attempted a serious depiction of life in the American heartland in recent years.  More often, the center of the country is a setting for stories of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “The Impossible”

    THE IMPOSSIBLE – Worth A Ticket – A Tsunami Film With Both Spectacle and Emotion Director Juan Antonio Bayona has done a spectacular job of re-creating the 2004 Asian tsunami in THE IMPOSSIBLE. Staged...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Something In the Air” and “Ginger and Rosa”

Toronto this year provided two notable portraits of teenagers growing up in a time of political turmoil, Olivier Assayas’s SOMETHING IN THE AIR and Sally Potter’s GINGER AND ROSA. Assayas’s film is about th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO:: “Iceman”

Michael Shannon is brilliant in ICEMAN, but it has to be said that he’s brilliant in just about the same way that he was in Take Shelter, in Revolutionary Road, on Boardwalk Empire, and even in The Runaways (althoug...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “The Sapphires”

  With The Silver-Linings Playbook and now Wayne Blair’s THE SAPPHIRES, Harvey Weinstein may have the feel-good part of the coming awards season locked down.  This slight but charming true story (or at least R...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Passion”

It’s unfortunately not saying very much to note that PASSION is the best eeffort Brian DePalma has managed to turn in lately.  DePalma’s Redacted was one of the worst films by a major American director in recent...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Writers”

  WRITERS is considered an “independent” movie because it was made without big-studio financing and because its stars (Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Kristen Bell) are familiar faces, but not at the level th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Go On”

A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have ha...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “The Sessions”

Oscar buzz has been trailing THE SESSIONS (which was then called The Surrogate) since it was unveiled at Sundance in January, and with good reason.  For Academy members, it doesn’t get much better than a warm “base...
by Mitch Salem