Eric Lavallée

Apparently I'm not the only one to think highly of Mike Mills' Beginners -- Focus Features was the winner among a five distributor horse race and will agree to a significant P&A to help push the film. Pic will be released in 2011 - my guess is another festival release to help promote the rom dramedy in other territories, and then they'll have to strategically place the film during a mid year release -- perhaps the same date as The Kids Are All Right.

Among Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes' foreign film delicacies is a number that is part Italian (heavily influenced by giallo), part Hong Kong (exotic locals) and part French, because of its tag team helmers in Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud. Soaked in red and clad in its rubbery textures, Red Nights is a directing debut that the type of product you might receive from a pair of rabid fans who've not only grown up with borrowed/pirated video VHS tapes without subtitles but have also been, part of the industry that is cult to them.

Coming on the heels of his Born Free the M.I.A video, Romain Gavras continues his whaling on the gingers, or as he refers to them: the "inferior" race. Notre jour viendra premiered at TIFF one week ago, and it's a difficult pic to sum up. The narrative is messed up and works with it's own set of rules.

It feels slightly odd to celebrate the Yuletide spirit in mid September, but Christmas Eve in Home for Christmas serves only as a calendar marker for a smidgen more of humanity and compassion between strangers, and the estranged. Logically lighter than most films bathing in traditional Scandi noir humor, the small miracle friendly film composed of intertwined vignettes (based on a short story collection from Levi Henriksen translated as Only Soft Presents Under The Tree) sees TIFF regular Bent Hamer (95's Eggs and 2003's Kitchen Stories) string together a tragi-film where despair doesn't completely drown out good intentions.

Mostly void of dialogue, moral degradation is the film's key concern, but the notion of resilience (perfectly fitted and enveloped in Romanian, surprisingly very English 4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days actress Anamaria Marinca) provides this portrait with an almost lyrical rawness and explains the plight that many female refugees have had to endure, forget or overcome.