TIFF 2007 Day 4: Sit downs of all kinds

With only 3 films on the slate today, you might think I’m taking the day off, but in fact I had the chance to interview the director behind Cannes Palme D’or winning 4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days … it was a very cool discussion with Cristian Mungui … this was followed by my first “public” screening…

…well I can’t really call it a screening but morsels of clips and a full length 10-minute-ish trailer for Religulous. The must see documentary film for 2008 was actually a hilarious 90 minutes or so conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles. You can tell by the awful picture I’ve taken that its time to invest in something that can cap something worth publishing. The trio of films I did catch were…

Pulled from the novel, Sarah Gavron’s directorial debut Brick Lane could have easily fallen into stereotypical roles – but the characters are assigned a less predictable outcome and aren’t one note as first advertised.

 And while there are people in this film that might come across as victims (see film above), in Ken Loach’s newest film (It's a Free World) – a gutsy female protag (played by my new crush newcomer 30ish actress Kierston Wareing) who learns a life lesson the hard way – Very much part of his school of hard knocks – Loach delivers a raw and energetic immigrant exploitation experience.     

The first 30 minutes the film is a solid laugh factory, Lars and the Real Girl will have them laughing in the aisles – but the dark comedy sees Ryan Gosling emit a solid array of emotions in the company of an inanimate object named Bianca. Sincere, smart without poking at viewers with sentimental schlep, I hope Craig Gillespie’s film finds a large audience upon release in October.