Toronto International Film Festival »

I am obsessed with all things even vaguely related to The Mighty Boosh, a bizarre comedy from the UK that features besties Howard Moon, a gloomy jazz fan, Vince Noir, an androgynous mod, Naboo the shaman, and Bollo the talking gorilla as they go on "a journey through time and space." (Incidentally, the DVDs of the show are finally available for region 1 DVD players!)

There have been rumors of a Boosh movie, and Noel Fielding is also in a bizarro fake documentary called I Spit on Your Rave as the Zombie King. (It's described as "a mockumentary by director Chris Boyle about the first post-apocalypse zombie music festival" and is due out in 2010.) But meanwhile, I'll sate my ravenous hunger for more of the Boosh crew with their new movie, Bunny and the Bull. Boosh director Paul King wrote and directed the screenplay, and fans will be excited to see Boosh regulars Julian Barratt (Howard Moon) and Noel Fielding (Vince Noir) among the cast, as well as Simon Farnaby, who plays Bunny, and Richard Ayoade. It sounds as bizarre and hard to describe as The Mighty Boosh, based on the write-up on the TIFF website.

Guy Maddin is not your everyday director. Over the last twenty years, he's made a name for himself with his beautifully hazy black and white shorts and features, from the docufantasia wonder of My Winnipeg to the hops-filled thrills of Isabella Rossellini and The Saddest Music in the World. These projects have inspired many to call him the Canadian David Lynch, but while the two create rich fantasies for their films to thrive in, Maddin's always have a clear-cut narrative. The path might be surreal, strange, and utterly fantastical, but it's also easily understandable. With his latest, Night Mayor, Maddin turned an ode for the NFB's 70th anniversary into the tale of an immigrant who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to help teach Canadians their national identity.

During TIFF, Cinematical had a chance to talk to the filmmaker about how Night Mayor came to be, Maddin's cinematic process, the magic of collaboration, and his next project (a choose-your-own adventure!). On top of more timely chatter, Guy also took a moment to share the story behind Sissy Boy Slap Party (my favorite guilty pleasure), and how a moment of spite turned into a memorable short.

Toronto might have its own short film extravaganza -- the Worldwide Short Film Festival -- a week rife with pithy pieces of cinema. But every year, just a few months later, there's a second serving at TIFF with the collection Short Cuts Canada.

This year, the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) had a bunch of shorts in the mix, and when I got a handful in the mail, it was like an Oscar-led explosion. Talent abounds in these films. That's not entirely surprising considering the fact that we've got the latest from Oscar-winner Chris Landreth and Oscar-nominee Cordell Barker, plus a slew of other notable talent. Talent, I must say, that's topped with Night Mayor, the short the NFB commissioned Guy Maddin to do as part of the board's 70th anniversary.

Read on for the details of Night Mayor, Vive the Rose, The Spine, and Runaway.

After a long week and a half chock full of films and celebrity intrigue, the Toronto International Film Festival has come to an end. And like any good fest, the end means the nice wrapping bow of award-giving (each link is to a review) and final hurrahs.

The Cadillac People's Choice Award: Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
First runner up: Mao's Last Dancer
Second runner up: Micmacs
The New Cadillac People's Choice Award for Documentary: The Topp Twins
First runner up: Capitalism: A Love Story

The New Cadillac People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness: The Loved Ones
First runner up: Daybreakers

FIPRESCI Prize for Discovery: The Man Beyond the Bridge

FIPRESCI Prize for Special Presentations: Hadewijch

Best Canadian Feature Film: Cairo Time

Best Canadian First Feature Film: The Wild Hunt

Best Canadian Short Film: Danse Macabre

Hit the jump for a round-up and the last little bits of TIFF...

In his decade in the storytelling business, Rodrigo García has made a name for himself not only as a notable television director (Carnivale, Six Feet Under, and In Treatment), but also as a filmmaker intensely interested in the lives of women and the intricacies of smaller, often interconnected story lines. It started with Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her and Ten Tiny Love Stories, but García really made his mark with 2005's Nine Lives. When he followed it up with the television movie Fathers and Sons, it was inevitable that he would one day take that same theme and apply it to the female characterizations he loves so much. It wouldn't be in the form of Mothers & Daughters, as Carl Bessai* brought that very film to TIFF in 2008. But with a slightly different title, Mother and Child, García jumps leaps and bounds beyond Bessai's take and has created a well-crafted web of female characters and universally engaging storytelling.

*Who, by the way, has his own Fathers & Sons on the way.

How many movies can you watch in a row before they all begin to blur into one? As I'm sure many happy yet weary attendees of the Toronto International Film Festival can testify, it's very tempting to cram as many movies as possible into every viewing period at a festival. Beyond the confines of festivals, movie fans in general want to see as many good movies as possible, and time is short.

I sat through Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic 15 and 1/2 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz during a very long night and a morning at a theater and felt drained, both physically and emotionally; I've watched seven movies in a row at Fantastic Fest and loved every moment; I've sat through eight movies back to back to back on videocassette in one day while on vacation. Lately, though, I find I'm lucky if I can watch even two movies in a row without interruption. Even if I had more unbroken availability, after two or maybe three movies I feel like I need a break, especially if they were good flicks. I want time to absorb what I've seen and think about them. That's especially true if I plan to write about them; the experiences begin to blend together, fusing themselves into an unholy viewing memory that is sometimes difficult to separate into individual segments.

How about you? I'm not talking about movies playing in the background while you do other things, but films that you're actively engaged in watching, either at home or at a theater. What's the most that you've seen in a row? Are some movies better as part of a double -- or triple or quadruple or whatever -- feature? When do they start to blur?

The lasting impact of first love is the subject of Jane Campion's Bright Star, a Palme d'or-nominated film that is at once about, and not merely about, the brilliance of the Romantic poet John Keats. Tossing the usual biopic formula, Campion opts not to retell Keats' entire life, focusing instead on the brief lifespan of his romantic courtship with a young woman named Fanny Brawne in 19th century London -- a relationship that, Campion argues, awakened love in Keats, and in turn, inspired his genius.

As such, what unfolds is less a by-the-numbers examination of the artist, who died a pauper at the age of 25 before any of his poetry was truly appreciated, and more a tribute to the power of the well-documented love that Keats and Brawne shared, partly through letters.

When they first meet, Keats (played marvelously by British actor Ben Whishaw) is a struggling poet with no money to his name. He has a sick and dying brother and no marriage prospects, but he's beloved among a circle of London artist types who look out for him here and there, including fellow poet Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider). Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), on the other hand, is the eldest daughter of the family next door. A fashionista of sorts, Fanny spends her days sewing and designing her own clothes, and has no interest in things like poetry – that is, until she becomes fascinated with Keats.

Celeb Sightings: Most of the celebs wave g'bye by Wednesday or Thursday, but as the packed star-hunting masses slowly peter away from downtown hotel entrances, there's still a little gossip and celebrity news coming in. My favorite: Drew Barrymore supposedly skipped out of her film's afterparty to drink some Pabst at Toronto's Sweaty Betty's. And if you happened to catch the "Tiff at TIFF" headlines earlier in the week -- that was a whole kerfuffle with Jennifer Connelly and some pretty massive foot-in-mouth nastiness directed at her. But in more upbeat news: Joan Baez is taking the stage tonight at Yonge and Dundas Square as part of the festival's joining cinema and live performance -- honoring the world premiere of American Masters featuring Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound. And ever wonder what the stars do with their pets during the fest? It seems they get the hotels to go above and beyond.

Our Coverage: I added a review for Chloe to the TIFF mix -- Atom Egoyan's latest starring Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, and Liam Neeson. While buzz amongst many fest attendees centered on the salacious sex scene between Seyfried and Moore, I noted: "while Chloe might not connect on a personal level, it does trap you into these lurid lives that flirt with every notion of bad behavior."

More Blog News After the Jump

The name of the cinematic game is believing what happens on the big screen, and suspending belief when necessary. It's a particular and difficult game -- one that is, of course, pulled off with varying degrees of success. One person's perfectly natural action is another person's highly irregular one, and there's no set line for what will be stomached, accepted, and believed. In the case of Atom Egoyan's erotic thriller Chloe, Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Max Thieriot, and Liam Neeson toe the line of believability as they sail through the sticky waters of romantic discontent and mistrust.

Seyfried is Chloe, a young prostitute well-versed in the finer points of subterfuge -- embodying everything her clients dream. And Moore is Catherine, a successful gynaecologist -- the established professional, mother, and aging woman desperately wishing for the lust-filled attentions that her husband David (Neeson) used to heap on her. After he avoids her on his birthday, "missing" a plane (and subsequently a surprise party), she becomes wary. And when he continues to flirt with every young woman he meets, Catherine becomes convinced that he is cheating.

Celeb Sightings: Natalie Portman was spotted about town a little too overdressed (it's not cold yet!) and talking about her love of obscene hip hop. The In-Style bash scaled back this year to only the bare minimum of lavish foods and gifts. At that amfAR benefit, Sarah Maclachlan performed and more than $700,000 CND was raked in. But best of all, the SxSW karaoke party that many film bloggers hit on Tuesday night had a surprise guest: Samantha Morton showed up and belted out Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." And did you know Jay Baruchel is Canadian? Not only that, but he refuses to give up his Montreal home.

Our Coverage: There's one new review to hit the pages of Cinematical in the last 24 hours (but more are on the way!), and that's Todd Gilchrist's view of Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. He writes: "Capitalism: A Love Story redeems itself because it possesses the same quality that has inspired our country in the last year – hope. In his best moments, Moore is deeply passionate and relentlessly idealistic, but he's an advocate for positivity and redemption, if also for transparency and common decency."

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