TIFF 09

The Toronto International Film Festival is just around the corner. There are so many good films premireing this year I don't know what to choose to go see.
Last year was the first year I went to a showing of a film, Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist.

Some of my favourite picks of the festival. (I'll add trailers as they come in)


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Terry Gilliam
United Kingdom/Canada
Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer
North American Premiere This fantastical morality tale tells the story of Dr. Parnassus and his travelling show, the extraordinary 'Imaginarium'. Blessed with the remarkable gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, and won immortality. Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on the condition that when his daughter reached her sixteenth birthday, she would become the property of Mr. Nick.



The Young Victoria
Jean-Marc Vallée
Canada/United Kingdom
Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent
The Young Victoria is set in the period from 1836, the year before Victoria ascended the throne, to 1840, the year she married Prince Albert, and revises the widely held picture of Queen Victoria as an elderly widow dressed in black. In addition to being a love story and family drama, the film explores the idea of instant celebrity - one minute Victoria is living under virtual house arrest, the next she is the most famous woman in the world.



Whip It
Drew Barrymore
USA
Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis
Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small-town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller-derby. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss’s disapproving mother, while Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars.



Glorious 39
Stephen Poliakoff
United Kingdom
Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, David Tennant!!, Juno Temple
This tense conspiracy thriller set on the eve of World War II and based on disturbing real events, focuses on a young woman who stumbles across evidence of a sinister Nazi appeasement plot. As her close friends begin to die in suspicious circumstances, she finds her own life in danger from an increasingly menacing and powerful enemy.

Creation
Jon Amiel
United Kingdom
Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany
What happens when a world-renowned scientist, crushed by the loss of his eldest daughter, conceives a book which will prove the non-existence of God. This is the story of Charles Darwin and his master-work "The Origin of Species". It tells of a global revolution played out the confines of a small English village; a passionate marriage torn apart by the most dangerous idea in history; and a theory saved from extinction by the logic of a child.


Bright Star
Jane Campion
United Kingdom/Australia
Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish
A drama based on the secret love affair between 23-year-old English poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats’s illness and untimely death proved insurmountable.



The Informant!
Steven Soderbergh
USA
MAtt Damon
Mark Whitacre, a rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), suddenly turns whistleblower. Exposing his company’s multinational price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre imagines himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn’t been quite forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre’s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre’s rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.



The Invention of Lying
Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson
USA
From Ricky Gervais, the award-winning creator and star of the original BBC series The Office and HBO’s Extras, comes the new romantic comedy The Invention of Lying, which takes place in an alternate reality where lying—even the concept of a lie—does not even exist. Everyone—from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street—speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and he begins to realize that things are getting out of control when some of his tallest tales are being taken as, well, gospel. With the entire world now hanging on his every word, there is only one thing Mark has not been able to lie his way into: the heart of the woman he loves.



Leaves of Grass
Tim Blake Nelson
USA
Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon, Keri Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Blake Nelson
Bill Kincaid, an Ivy League classics professor, returns to rural Oklahoma to bury his dangerously brilliant identical twin brother who had remained in their native state to grow hydroponic pot. Leaves of Grass is a fast-paced comic film that contrasts two distinct approaches to life. Featuring Edward Norton in the role of each twin.


So many movies to choose from. How can I pick?