TIFF

The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off yesterday and considering my lack of preparation to purchase tickets this year (and every year), I couldn't be more excited! Although I missed out on (most of) my top choices, I manage to squeeze by with a few flick tix.

Here are a few of the films I'll be seeing over the course of the week:

Trishna: Self-effacing British auteur Michael Winterbottom sets

his unique spin on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles against a

contemporary Indian backdrop. The beautiful Freida Pinto stars as the

titular Trishna, a young woman who is seduced by the wealthy son of a

property developer. As the romance develops, their relationship also

becomes increasingly sordid and volatile.

Cafe de Flore: Jean-Marc Vallee returns to French-language 

filmmaking with this powerful and unconventional  love story

that weaves together two disparate narratives to create a  tale

of emotion and destiny. The stories center on a devoted mother

(Vanessa Paradis) of a young boy with Down syndrome in 1969 Paris,

abd a successful DJ (Kevin Parent) who is going through an 

emotiomal divorce in present-day Montreal. 

Behold the Lamb: Firmly lodged between slapstick and

tragedy, Behold the Lamb follows a dodgy duo--rough, tough

and pregnant junkie Liz (Aoife Duffin) and middle-aged loser

Eddie (Nigel O'Neill)--as they course through the Northern

Irish countryside en route to the weirdest score of their lives.

Hotel Swooni: Kat Beels' debut feature explores the destructive

consequences of living a lie when six seemingly unrelated

individuals descend upon Hotel Swooni, an oasis where the wealthy spend

idyllic sunny afternoons lounging by the rooftop pool. Beels ultimately

exposes the darker picture lurking beneath the surface.

Thoughts?

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