Whenever I am staying in a hotel and have a little time to kill, I usually end up watching terrible television. With the limited channel selection and subpar early afternoon HBO programming, there’s not a lot to choose from. But Marriott hotels are looking to change that by offering Netflix streaming on the in-room television. Unfortunately for some, you have to be a Netflix subscriber to use the service, but it is definitely a cool little perk to make the business or pleasure stay more pleasurable. The service is already employed in a few hotels in New York and California, with a full roll-out expected in 2016. So, if you find yourself at a Marriott with Netflix this weekend, check out what you should be watching, along with new streaming suggestions elsewhere on the internet.

Netflix

A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn, 2014)

One of the most underrated films of 2014, A Most Wanted Man boasts a slick spy game look and fantastic performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman (in his last lead performance) and its ensemble cast. Only Anton Corbijn’s third feature film, he fully controls a rich script based on a John le Carre novel. The work of the popular spy novellist has shown to translate well to the screen, and A Most Wanted Man is no exception—its geopolitical messages are complex and absolutely vital to today’s world culture. Beautifully shot in industrial Hamburg, Germany, the dreary atmosphere cranks up the the already tense political landscape. Working in every aspect, it is surprising that the film didn’t receive more critical praise last year. Now is the time to check it out for yourself and re-think your top 10 of 2014 list.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
Ballet 422 (Jody Lee Lipes, 2014)
Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2014)
Cake (Daniel Barnz, 2014)
GasLand (Josh Fox, 2010)
What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus, 2015)

Fandor

Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012)

Because of a strange split release, Dolan’s newest film Mommy received it’s fair share of attention at the end of last year and will likely pop up on end-of-year lists in future months (it was #3 on our best of the year so far list), but Laurence Anyways is the young filmmaker’s best film. The film stars Melvil Poupaud as a school teacher who decides to undergo a gender transition. There haven’t been many films that positively depict a transgendered lead, making Laurence Anyways more interesting. Dolan fully employs his sensual, vibrant style, full of color and bold cinematography. There is plenty of drama, too, as Laurence’s decision affects his family and long-term girlfriend, played by Dolan staple Suzanne Clement. Clement delivers a fiery and dynamic performance, enough to make me wonder why other filmmakers haven’t seemed to discover her yet.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
Confidentially Yours (François Truffaut, 1983)
Othello (Orson Welles, 1952)
Street of Shame (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1956)
The Stranger (Satyajit Ray, 1991)
Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

MUBI

The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)

With Jurassic World setting the box-office on fire, it’s a good time to watch/re-watch one of the best modern monster movies. Before he broke through to English language film with the indie-hit Snowpiercer last year, South Korean auteur Bong Joon-Ho built his career on clever genre constructions, The Host chief among them. The film follows a family trying to save one of their own from a vicious sea monster that has come to destroy Seoul. The Host is scary, thrilling, funny, action packed and super cool. And the title monster features one of the most inspired creature designs. On MUBI, the curated titles are only available for 30 days, so you’ll want check out The Host sooner rather than later.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Exiled (Johnnie To, 2006)
The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt, 1925)
My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)
The Rink (Charles Chaplin, 1916)
A Summer’s Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1996)

Video On-Demand

While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, 2014)

Baumbach’s latest film now makes its VOD debut along with its release on DVD and Blu-ray. Starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a 40-something hipster couple whose relationship hits a breaking point after befriending a 20-something hipster couple, While We’re Young is a very funny look across generations. The film has a sharp eye on how culture, music, technology and filmmaking has changed over time and how we have become dependent on finding the next coolest trends. Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried are great as the foils to Stiller and Watts, slightly exaggerated versions of Brooklyn youths, but well-developed and whole characters in their own right. Baumbach has become one of the premiere indie directors of his generation, and While We’re Young strengthens his place.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman, 2014)
The Little Death (Josh Lawson, 2014)

On this week’s extra-packed episode of the Way Too Indiecast, Bernard, CJ, and Dustin discuss the 2015 Cannes Film Festival lineup, which looks to break the mold and announce some new filmmakers into the fold as opposed to showcasing the same old faces. Then, inspired by the recent release of While We’re Young and the upcoming The Age of Adaline, the gang talk about the subject of aging in film and why we find it so endlessly fascinating. Also on the show, “Name 5” returns and the boys share their indie picks of the week. Enjoy, friends (while we’re young)!

Topics

• Indie Picks of the Week (2:12)
• Cannes 2015 Lineup (13:10)
• Name 5 (33:58)
• Aging in Film (39:04)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

2015 Cannes Lineup

While We’re Young review

Different Drum review

Kevin Chenault interview

Blue Jasmine review

Before Midnight review

112 Weddings review

Doug Block interview

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

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• and don’t forget to leave us a rating and quick review!

It’s a dreadful feeling to know, deep down, that you’re not where you should be in life. It’s a feeling that can strike at any age, really, but Noah Baumbach‘s generational comedy While We’re Young aligns itself with the middle-aged set with which the Brooklyn-bred director associates. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play a New York couple in their mid-40s who glom onto a young hipster couple in their twenties (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) as a way of redefining and rejuvenating their relationship and finding their place in the world. It’s a witty, funny, sharply composed film about mid-life restlessness and paranoia that unfortunately takes a sour turn in its third act, which is so hostile and caustic it ends things on an unpleasantly dour note.

Josh (Stiller) and Cornelia (Watts) live in a gray domestic malaise, living in comfort in their cozy New York apartment. Comfort; not contentment. While most couples their age, like their buddies Fletcher and Melina (Adam Horovitz and Maria Dizzia, respectively), repurpose their lives by having a baby, thereby solving any identity crisis they might have (or at least distract themselves from it). Josh and Cornelia are still undecided on whether they want to have kids or not, but a random friendship they strike up with Jamie (Driver) and Darby (Seyfried), a vibrant pair of young lovebirds, sucks them into a world of hipster cool that makes them excited about living life again.

Josh and Cornelia’s silly attempts to acclimate to millennial culture is the main source of humor, and being that Baumbach is a mid-lifer living in New York, he’s clearly got a grip on what’s funny about people in their 40s trying to act like their younger friends. Whether it’s Cornelia practicing moves she learned at a hip-hop dance class or Josh pulling a back muscle while riding bikes with Jamie, the jokes are all hilarious and presented sneakily enough by Baumbach that they don’t appear as broad gags (even though, really, that’s exactly what they are). When Josh starts wearing an ill-fitting fedora to mimic his buddy Jamie, it makes for a running visual gag that echoes Stiller’s quick turn as “Tom Crooze”, Tom Cruise’s loser stunt double, in a sketch they did at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. Driver looks like a slick Brooklynite wearing a cool hat; Stiller looks like a clown.

What’s also funny is Baumbach’s spot-on portrayal of hipster culture. Jamie and Darby love to run through abandoned tunnels at night, make artisanal ice cream, throw summer block parties, and listen to Lionel Richie on vinyl. Their phony adoption of vintage things and forced eschewing of all technology hints at the major conflict on the horizon. Jamie is an aspiring documentary filmmaker, which is how he connects with Josh, who’s a more experienced (struggling) documentarian himself. When we discover the real reason Jamie befriended ol’ “Joshie”, his true nature is revealed and the movie becomes something of a curmudgeon, presenting the young characters as entitled pests.

In the film’s easygoing first two-thirds, Stiller seems to be struggling to fight off the manic, fidgety mode of acting he’s so comfortable in. When the Jamie revelation comes, however, Stiller reverts back to the panicked, fidgety actor we’re all so familiar with, and it’s for the worst. Josh’s arc is an interesting one, in which he learns to let go of his competitive, jealous nature and be at ease with himself, but Stiller is so agitating on-screen that it’s a little too easy to stop caring about him. Driver’s character isn’t likable either, so all we’re left with are the two female counterparts, both of whom aren’t afforded nearly enough time. By the end of While We’re Young, there’s an overriding feeling of apathy for the characters. It’s a shame, because in the first half of the movie we learn to like them, but after the shit hits the fan, our affection for them never returns.

Driver’s lanky physique and dopey charm is perfect for the role of Jamie. There are some nice, subtle details to the character Baumbach throws in, like how Jamie sometimes ends some sentences with “see?”, like someone from a vintage gangster movie. Watts and Seyfried are terrific, but unfortunately fade into the background as the plot becomes progressively more fixated on Stiller. Charles Grodin is pitch-perfect as Cornelia’s gruff, revered documentarian father, whose success is a point of envy and rage for Josh, ever the insulated starving artist.

Surprisingly, the breakout star of the film is Horovitz, whose measured, even-keeled performance is the polar opposite of the wild-man Ad-Rock persona he flaunted for so many years in the Beastie Boys. (Stiller, on the other hand, loses his composure as the film goes on.) He’s shockingly good, and the prospect of him working with Baumbach again (or with anyone for that matter) excites me. While We’re Young is a mostly breezy movie that’s mostly very enjoyable and would have been great save for the uneven drama that emerges near the end making the film more of a downer than it needed to be.

Noah Baumbach loves making movies. Somehow, he’s got two coming out in 2015: Mistress America, his latest collaboration with Frances Ha‘s Greta Gerwig, is tentatively set to come out later this year, and While We’re Young, a cross-generational comedy starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, is out tomorrow in limited release, with an expansion to follow.

Stiller and Naomi play a married, middle-aged couple living in New York whose lives are rattled to the core when they meet a younger, more spontaneous, hipper couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) who inspire them to ditch their bland home-body life and reinvigorate their long-dormant adventurous side. The presence of the hip twenty-somethings eventually drives a wedge between them, leading to jealousy, restlessness, and self-loathing.

In a media roundtable interview, we spoke to Baumbach about being so prolific, the film’s generational theme, Adam Horovitz’s acting career, his relationship with Dreamworks Animation, writing the lead role for Stiller, his writing process, portraying hipsters, and much more.

Was the plan always to make While We’re Young and Mistress America back-to-back?
Yeah. It goes back even further. The initial plan was to make While We’re Young first, but it didn’t happen for various reasons. Then we made Frances Ha, and Ben was making Walter Mitty, which was a much longer commitment. Greta [Gerwig] and I were working on Mistress America and had this other movie we wanted to do, and we felt like, we’re not going to have enough time to finish it, but why don’t we just do it as far as we can do it. I knew we had enough time to shoot it and start cutting it, but I wasn’t going to be able to [finish it.] I actually cut it fairly well, but I wasn’t finished, so I made While We’re Young and then went back and finished Mistress America.

Several of your films have this generational conflict going on.
I wasn’t really that conscious of the notion of being young or old as much as I was characters that were interesting to me and stories that I was interested in telling. I was thinking about couples from different generations and how they interact, but I wasn’t thinking of it in terms of my other work. That doesn’t mean it’s not there.

You’ve got one of my childhood heroes in the movie, Adam Horovitz. He’s great in the film. From being around him do you get a sense that he might want to keep acting?
Yeah, I think so. I hope he’ll do it for me again. I love working with Adam. There was no question in my mind that he was going to be great. You could just tell.

In the credits you thank Dreamworks Animation.
I worked on Madagascar 3. They’ve been great partners in a way, and I really like working with them. I felt like I wanted to acknowledge their support for me even though they weren’t involved in this movie.

Were you thinking of Ben as your lead while you were writing the script?
I don’t always write with someone in mind, but I started writing this after Greenberg came out, and we had a really great time on that. There was a connection and we became friends. I did this one with him in mind, and it was clear to me early on that I wanted to write a comedy of a type, something that connected me to movies from my adolescence, when studios would make comedies for adults that could be mainstream and have broad humor, but could also be character oriented. I felt like using Ben’s comic iconography in my terrain.

One of the first things I asked Richard Linklater when I met him was if his actors improvised in his films, and he said, “No. Nothing.” It’s astonishing to me, because the dialogue sounds so natural, as if it had to be improvised, and yet it’s not at all. From what I understand you work the same way, with your actors not improvising at all on set.
To quote Richard Linklater, “No.” [laughs]

Does writing dialogue come naturally to you?
Dialogue for me is something that comes quickly. That doesn’t mean the scenes come quickly. Often I kind of write my way and have conversations [in my head] to find the characters and the scenes early on. In a way, I’m improvising with myself. I can write dialogue for quite some time, but it’s like, where in it is the scene? Sometimes you’re lopping off the top and bottom and it’s in the middle, and other times it’s like, I found it over here, and now I can start the scene. It really depends. In some ways, that’s the motor for me.

I admire the fact that your portrayal of hipsters is so balanced, making them very likable and not too douche-y.
Part of it is that we meet the [hipster couple] through Naomi and Ben. We’re kind of learning them through the eyes of another couple. Because Ben’s character is stuck in many ways and looking for answers, he puts so much of it on Adam Driver’s character. I felt like, from Adam Driver’s character’s perspective, no human being should have to bear the responsibility of saving somebody else’s life. As it turns out, he doesn’t hold up under that weight, nor should he. Some people have looked at it the other way. “You’re saying the hipsters are destroying [everything.]” But I don’t see it that way at all. There are also arguments about technology and truth in art, which are subsets of the major story that I’m telling, which is of a marriage. Sometimes you have to come apart to come back together, which is a traditional comedy structure. Shakespearean even. In that I could then wrestle with all these arguments about things in the moment and generational fights without needing to take sides. I wouldn’t know what side to take anyway.

Charles Grodin is sort of a picky actor and doesn’t work as much as a lot of us would like him to. How did you get him involved?
One of my casting directors, Doug Aibel, was at a benefit or something and saw Grodin there. He intimated that he was open to working, and we happened to be casting. We were thinking about this character, and Doug told me [about Grodin] immediately, and I said, “Let’s make this happen.” I met with him, had a long meeting, and he did it.

A small detail I noticed was that Adam Driver’s character sometimes ends sentences with “see.”
In crafting the way he talked, I felt like that was a sort of old-timey way of saying things. It might be something he kind of took to. It’s kind of like a Damon Runyan thing, like he’d be into old New York. The way he says “beautiful” is like in the ’60s when people would say, “It’s just beautiful! It’s just beautiful!” It’s like a compilation of old stuff.

You’ve mentioned that you were trying to get The Squid and the Whale into the Criterion Collection. Has there been any progress on that?
Yes. It’s more like dealing with a rights thing right now, but yeah. Everybody wants it to happen.

The soundtrack is really eclectic. Why Vivaldi?
Vivaldi supplied a timeless aspect to the movie, which balanced it out because it is so eclectic. I felt like the overarching score would almost take you into another era entirely, or all eras, really. Vivaldi for me also brings back older movies that I liked. Kramer vs Kramer is one that used Vivaldi very well, obviously to different effect. I thought it was working really well for the movie, but it also was bringing me back in touch with movies from my childhood that had real meaning for me. I saw this movie as my version of those films. I love the energy, and there’s something very New York-y about it.

I read in an interview that you loved Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr. and that you thought her performance was very funny. I agree.
I saw humor in it. That audition [scene] she does…you can’t do that if you don’t know what’s funny. It’s funny because it’s not funny. I’d wanted to work with Naomi for a while, and there were times when I thought of her, but I didn’t have a part for her. She’s just somebody I’ve had on a wish list of actors I’ve wanted to work with. This just seemed like an ideal thing for her. Again, thinking of Kramer vs Kramer, I thought Ben and her together almost evoked Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. We even sort of dressed them similarly. I was thinking of that symmetry. She’s just lovely. I always think of the hip-hop [dance class] scene. I felt like Naomi Watts going into that class feels much more intimidating because you feel her anxiety about what’s going to happen. Thus, it’s that much funnier when she actually jumps in and commits. It was like a way to have a comic set piece without announcing, “Here comes the funny dance scene.”

Two weeks after the controversial conclusion to HBO’s The Jinx, the premium cable network struck again with the television premiere of Alex Gibney’s latest expose, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Belief. Ever since the doc first played at Sundance earlier this year, it has been surrounded by high praise for its sheer audacity in uncovering one of the time’s most secretive and powerful organizations. The film’s premiere also was met with wholesale denial from the Scientology community and even direct threats. For Gibney, this is his second film to be distributed by HBO following his 2012 exploration of child abuse in the Catholic Church Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God. Gibney’s journalistic style and HBO’s reach have proved to be a good partnership, and along with The Jinx and the recent premiere of Citizenfour, the channel is providing a really nice platform for provocative documentaries to reach into the spotlight. And now see below for other news items you may have missed over the weekend.

Trevor Noah to Become Next Daily Show Host

The search for Jon Stewart’s replacement as the anchor of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has been one of the most debated and speculated items in a while. It seems to be over as the New York Times is reporting that 31-year-old Daily Show correspondent Trevor Noah has been tabbed as the man. On Friday, Variety saw Noah as the frontrunner for the gig, though no official announcement had been made. Former host Craig Kilborn and Jon Stewart were both in their 30s when they sat at the desk, both viewed as comedy up-and-comers, so this seems like a very consistent move for the network. It also continues the Comedy Central’s streak of being one of the most diverse networks on television.

Gillian Flynn to Write Heist Thriller for Steve McQueen

First reported by Deadline, the author and screenwriter of 2014 hit Gone Girl (seriously, how was she not recognized by the Academy?) is set to adapt 2002 British miniseries Widows for Film 4 and Regency Enterprises. The previous miniseries starred Mercedes Ruehl, Brooke Shields, Rosie Perez and N’Bushe Wright as four widows who look for their husbands’ killer while finishing off a painting heist that led to their deaths. This is a slightly different direction for Flynn, but she’s already shown she can pull off pulpy thrills and snappy dialogue. This may be a bigger change-up for tapped director Steve McQueen, who has primarily worked with very serious material with an artistic sensibility. There is no current timetable for release.

Baumbach’s While We’re Young Huge in Limited Release

After It Follows set a 40k per screen average in its limited release opening, Noah Baumbach’s latest While We’re Young opened in four screens this past weekend to an estimated $60,500 per screen average, the highest since American Sniper took the nation by storm. Despite critical acclaim and his indie cred, Baumbach has never had a bonafide hit at the box office – The Squid and the Whale is his highest grossing film at just $9.4 million. If the hot limited release is any indication, While We’re Young may become his most successful film. It will be expanding over the next few weeks, sure to carve out the indie alternative to the impending blockbuster schedule.

2015 Roger Ebert Film Festival Lineup Announced

Each April, movie lovers from around the world flock to college town Champaign, Illinois to see a five-day festival curated by late film critic Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz. This year’s Ebertfest, the third since Roger’s passing, is focused on new work from some of the critic’s favorite filmmakers. Highlights include opening night selection Goodbye to Language 3D, Ebertfest vet James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour, and a tribute to Harold Ramis. You can check out the full festival schedule at the festival website. You should also check out Chaz Ebert’s heartfelt rundown of each selection at RogerEbert.com.

Ugh: Force Majeure Set for Hollywood Remake

One of my favorite films of last year, Swedish dark comedy Force Majeure is already set to get a remake, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The film’s premise is certainly broad enough to go in other directions, so let’s hope that the eventual screenwriters decide to do something new with the tale of family, masculinity and vacations-gone-wrong. On the bright side, Julia Louis-Dreyfus will have heavy involvement with the remake, as she is in negotiations to star in the film along with acting as a producer. The Veep star deserves much more time on big screens, and her acerbic wit might be enough to make this thing work.

Trailer of the Week: Dope

One of the first Sundance hits to get a U.S. release date, ’90s hip-hop comedy Dope now also has its first official teaser trailer, which can be seen below. Dope is directed by Rick Famuyiwa and stars Shameik Moore, Zoë Kravitz and Forest Whitaker. It is scheduled for a June 19 release.

A new Noah Baumbach release is indie film’s version of a tentpole summer blockbuster. The writer-director behind The Squid and the Whale and Frances Ha is returning in a few weeks with his newest film, While We’re Young, and the second trailer for the film has been released.

While We’re Young stars Baumbach vet Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a middle-aged couple whose relationship is tested after they meet a spontaneous couple played by Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver. The film premiered at TIFF 2014, where we saw it and called it a “very funny film thanks to a wonderful cast.”

While we’re anticipating the film’s release on March 27th, check out the trailer below!

While We’re Young Trailer

Two years ago Noah Baumbach charmed Toronto audiences with Frances Ha, although fans of the whimsical free-form narrative in his last film might be disappointed with the concise structure and fastened script found in his latest film While We’re Young. Forty-something married couple Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) begin to notice the signs of growing older–close friends are having babies, arthritis settles in, and bed time is always at 11 o’clock sharp. Though it’s when they meet a spontaneous mid-20s couple Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) that they really start to question their own lives.

There’s a huge age gap between the couples which accounts for how differently they act and think from each other. Though ironically, it’s the older couple that has the CD collection and prefers digital films while the younger one enjoys antiquated technology like vinyl records and VHS tapes. Spending time with the impromptu hipster couple makes Josh and Cornelia feel young again, envying the way they show unconditional love towards each other. But they soon realize it’s easy to take for granted what already you have and that everyone has their own problems.

Unlike Frances Ha which pleased critics and the arthouse crowd, While We’re Young tightens things up on all levels, making it appeal to a wider audience. While the comedy is more conventional, it’s nonetheless a very funny film thanks to a wonderful cast led by Stiller and Driver. Baumbach continues to show he has a knack for creating relatable characters, this time in the form of relationship routines and the act of growing old. Despite a formulated script and an awkward rant on Fair Use policies, While We’re Young remains a very watchable film that many people will find enjoyable.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. As the summer begins to wind down, cinephiles begin to flock to Canada as the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off another year. With almost 300 feature-length films playing over 11 days (along with over 100 shorts), for some people this is more of a marathon than a festival. And for film-obsessives like ourselves, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.

Now, we won’t lie: when we saw this year’s line-up we weren’t as excited as we were in the last few years, but there’s still a lot to watch. There aren’t as many films coming in with the levels of hype as 12 Years A Slave or Gravity, but that’s because it’s a different year. The Oscar race is wide open at this point, and a lot of films this year are wild cards rather than sure bets. Could it mean another out of nowhere discovery like Slumdog Millionaire or The Hurt Locker?

We got a bit of a head start on TIFF this year with our coverage at Cannes, so myself, our editor-in-chief Dustin and fellow WTI writer Nikola put our heads together and came up with our 15 most anticipated films at TIFF this year. We’ve got some new discoveries, films we couldn’t get to at Cannes, exciting follow-ups, legendary auteurs and more in our list, so take a look below to read what we picked and why. And if you happen to be in Toronto between September 4th and 14th, be sure to check out one of these movies at the festival.

Our 15 Most Anticipated Films of TIFF 2014

Bird People

I don’t know much about Bird People, and yet it’s something I’m dying to see this year at TIFF. Why? Well, back when Bird People premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, it wasn’t on my radar. Then the reviews started coming in, with people comparing it to In the City of Sylvia. I adore that film, and even wrote about it for the site earlier this year. Anything similar to In the City of Sylvia will immediately pop up on my radar, and when critics also said the film has a major surprise that people should avoid finding out about before watching, I was sold. I haven’t read anything about Bird People since, and that mystery is largely why I’m making sure I watch it at TIFF. [C.J.]

Eden

I was completely enamored with Mia Hansen-Løve’s previous film Goobye First Love, which perfectly captured relationship quarrels. In her third feature film, Hansen-Løve recalls the rise of French electronic music that gained popularity in the 1990s. While EDM is at the heart of the story (and likely the soundtrack too), Eden also contains a relationship-observation vantage point we come to expect from Hansen-Løve. The other reason we’re excited for the film is it stars two indie darlings, Brady Corbet (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Simon Killer) and Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha, Lola Versus). This is one of those films that might not have a lot of attention before the festival, but could have people buzzing afterwards. [Dustin]

Goodnight Mommy

Before the official lineup for TIFF came out, some of the early rumors predicted Ulrich Seidl’s In the Basement to be at the festival. Being a huge fan of the director, I was saddened to learn the film would show in Venice instead. But Seidl will still have a part in this festival, credited as a producer of the bizarre looking Goodnight Mommy. The film is about two young twins who begin to question their mother’s identity when a cosmetic surgery leaves her buried beneath bandages. All cooped up in an isolated countryside home, the two boys become restless and out of control. It sounds equal parts absurd and nerve-wracking, a combination we don’t mind here at Way Too Indie. [Dustin]

Horse Money

Pedro Costa has scuffled around the arthouse circuit since the 80s, but it’s the Fontainhas trilogy (Ossos, In Vanda’s Room and Colossal Youth) and their subsequent Criterion packaging, that perked up people’s ears and opened up most cinephiles’ eyes on this Portuguese master’s mesmerizing works. This is cerebral, poetic cinema of the highest order, choreographed mise-en-scene fit to be framed and admired in the most respected of museums. Costa mostly focuses on the bottom-of-the-barrel lost souls in impoverished surroundings of his home country, and this year we will finally see his follow-up: Horse Money. The movie continues to follow Ventura, the main person of interest from Colossal Youth, as a revolution is bubbling. He’s already won Best Director at the Locarno Film Festival, which is a good sign as any that Horse Money is much of the same cinema magic as his indelible trilogy. [Nik]

It Follows

First making a splash at the Critics’ Week sidebar in Cannes, It Follows now makes it way over to North America for a midnight premiere. Writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s horror film deals with a 19-year-old girl receiving a sexually transmitted curse (yes, you read that right). Her curse is an entity taking the form of any person, an apparition only she can see, who begins slowly following her. When it catches up to her, she’ll die. She can outrun it, but it’ll always be following. Mitchell’s premise sounds like wondrously creepy fun, an American take on something that sounds like it came straight out of J-horror. Buzz has been building steadily on this one since May, and we can’t wait to check it out during TIFF. [C.J.]

The Keeping Room

Brit Marling is one of my favorite upcoming actors, so any film with her name attached to it instantly sparks my interest. In The Keeping Room, she and Hailee Steinfeld are sisters who must defend their farm during the end of the American Civil War. Fighting along their side is their family’s young slave (Muna Otaru) as two Yankee scouts aim to ravage their land and prosperity. The Keeping Room is based on a screenplay that ended up on the esteemed Black List back in 2012. And it’s easy to see why considering the powerful subject matter. This remarkable story touches on several important historical events; the Civil War, women’s rights, and slavery. American History films tend to sit well with Academy voters (Lincoln, 12 Years A Slavery), so don’t act too surprised if The Keeping Room ends up being an early Oscar candidate. [Dustin]

Luna

Admittedly this one might fly over many people’s heads, and with 143 World Premieres at TIFF this year, it feels like Dave McKean’s Luna is destined to be seen only by the major McKean fans. I count myself among this crowd, as many a night his art in comic books and graphic novels (particularly those written by Neil Gaiman,) kept me permanently stuck to the pages, jaw-dropped in a mixture of horror and awe. Check out Batman: Arkham Asylum written by Grant Morrison, or the covers of Gaiman’’s Sandman series, to get the idea. MirrorMask was McKean’s debut as a filmmaker, and it’s a visual feast with art direction as darkly intriguing as some of his best artwork on print. Luna’s trailer gives some cause for pause when it comes to the dialogue and performances, but there’s a taste of what the story will look like, as it surrounds the death of a child and the re-imagining of said child’s death through batshit fantastical scenarios. Sounds about right. Those of you following McKean will likely have been waiting for this one, but those who are yet to discover the man’s artistic prowess are strongly advised to take a leap of faith with Luna. [Nik]

Miss Julie

Everyone knows Liv Ullmann as one of Ingmar Bergman’s main muses during his peak years, since she’s helped make films like Persona, Shame, and Cries and Whispers some of the greatest from Bergman’s canon. But, she’s also pretty handy behind the camera as well. With the help of Bergman’s natural talent for scriptwriting, she’s directed Private Confessions and Faithless into compelling and potent chamber pieces. Now, after 14 years, Ullmann makes her comeback with a film adaptation of infamous Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Set in Ireland, starring on-fire Jessica Chastain and fired-up Colin Farrell, the film details the power struggle between a countess and her valet, wrought with sexual tension. Austere Swedish cinema, two wonderful actors (say what you want about Farrell, then watch any of his arthouse roles and you’ll see he’s pretty great), Ullmann directing a Strindberg play, gorgeous Irish landscapes. Is it possible for this movie to be anything but absolutely fantastic?  [Nik]

The New Girlfriend

Toronto absolutely adores François Ozon. And there’s no reason to blame them. The French auteur has shown fourteen of his films at the festival and his newest film The New Girlfriend marks his fifth in a row. Ozon tends to explore taboo topics and The New Girlfriend is no exception. A young woman (Anaïs Demoustier) discovers the husband (played by Romain Duris of Mood Indigo) of her late best friend enjoys cross dressing. Needless to say, we won’t be surprised if the lines are long at TIFF for this film. [Dustin]

Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler wasn’t even supposed to make my list. But after reading more about it and, especially, after watching the trailer, the movie skyrocketed into my must-see list at TIFF. Apologies to Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language 3D which I’m sure is awesome. Gilroy’s film deals with the underground world of freelance crime journalism, and it stars Jake Gyllenhaal. Sounds like ol’ Dan stepped into a world designed by David Fincher, you say? Not so; Dan is the younger brother of Tony Gilroy, the director behind political super-thriller Michael Clayton and writer of the three original, adrenaline-injecting Bourne movies. Dan is a successful screenwriter in his own right, and now Nightcrawler is his directorial feature debut (he’s also the sole writer credited.) Sounds like he’s got more than enough pedigree and experience to tell a suspenseful crime story, and I for one am really excited. Just watch the trailer again, you’ll see what I mean. [Nik]

Phoenix

Personally speaking, all I needed to see were two names before deciding to put Phoenix high on my most-anticipated list: Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss. This pairing of director and actress might be one of the best ones in cinema right now. If you haven’t seen Barbara, their last collaboration, do yourself a favour and watch it as soon as possible to understand why Phoenix is one of TIFF’s more anticipated titles. Hoss plays Nelly, a Holocaust survivor undergoing facial reconstruction surgery after getting injured while imprisoned in a concentration camp. Nelly returns home after surgery searching for her husband, and in the process learns her husband might have been the one to hand her over to the Nazis. Petzold knows how to create brilliant drama, and with a plot like this it’s hard to think Petzold will go wrong here. Phoenix will have its World Premiere at TIFF, and we’re excited to be one of the first people to see it. [C.J.]

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

It’s finally happening you guys. Roy Andersson is back after seven long years, and his latest is getting its North American premiere at TIFF. After the news of no Inherent Vice softly devastated me, I practically jumped up like a bona fide film geek when I heard that the other Andersson (the extra s means he’s Swedish) will be coming to Toronto with A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence. Yep, still my favorite title of the year. I’m expecting the usual dose of existentialism and sandpaper-dry humor that made his Songs From The Second Floor (2000) and You, The Living (2007) such joys to watch. Though Andersson is mostly popular with reclusive cinephiles like myself, it’s nice to see that Pigeon has been garnering hype since it’s been on festival prediction lists for a few years now; hopefully this means more people will get to experience the bizarre, hilarious, and foppish world Roy Andersson so meticulously crafts with his distinctly angular, motionless camera style. Yum. [Nik]

Spring

While fellow writer Bernard Boo wasn’t a big fan of Resolution, I thought it was one of the best horror debuts in years. A smart, clever and refreshingly self-aware film, Resolution found a way to craft a compelling mystery while breaking down horror tropes and audience expectations – think of it as a cross between Cabin in the Woods and Funny Games, except with less finger-wagging and more creepiness. Spring is directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead’s follow-up, and it sounds like an interesting change of pace from their first film. After a young man’s (Lou Taylor Pucci) mother dies, he heads off to Europe and ends up falling in love with a woman while visiting Italy. Sounds romantic, but this is a horror film, and it looks like this mystery girl has some sort of dark secret. Colin Geddes, the programmer who selected Spring for TIFF, calls the film “Before Sunrise with a supernatural twist.” Maybe it’s just me, but that alone has me looking forward to Spring. [C.J.]

Tokyo Tribe

I’m an unabashed fan of Sion Sono all the way back to when I first saw Suicide Club. Last year at TIFF I reviewed Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and thought it was a fun time. Tokyo Tribe looks like Sono has, once again, outdone himself. The incredible trailer, incomprehensible and so batshit-crazy you can’t help but grin, looks like it’ll be an uber-violent story about gang warfare with hip-hop musical numbers thrown in for good measure. May sound crazy to you, but it’s par for the course in Sono’s off-kilter imagination. Tokyo Tribe opens Midnight Madness this year, and it’ll be one of the hottest tickets to get in that programme. Midnight Madness crowds love Sono (Why Don’t You Play in Hell? won the audience award for the programme last year), so if you can snag a ticket be sure to go. [C.J.]

While We’re Young

Noah Baumbach schmoozed Toronto audiences two years ago with his delightful indie comedy Frances Ha, so it’s no surprise a lot of attention surrounds his newest film While We’re Young. While the previous film focused on an free-spirited twenty-something dancer who was anything but mature, Bamubach’s latest focuses from a different perspective. Here a middle-aged couple (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) begin to question themselves after meeting a much younger and hip couple. Using New York City as his backdrop once again, Baumbach explores how relationships and ambitions can fade with age. If While We’re Young is even remotely as good as Frances Ha, we’ll be in for a real treat. [Dustin]

Today marks the kickoff of the fall festival season, as the Toronto International Film Festival announced its first wave of Special Presentations and Galas. TIFF CEO Piers Handling and Creative Director Cameron Bailey announced around 13 Galas and 46 Special Presentations set to play this September, including some films we easily predicted and a few big surprises. Surprisingly the opening film wasn’t announced today. Instead the closing film, Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos starring Kate Winslet, was revealed today. Also playing will be some of the more buzzed about titles from Cannes earlier this year, including Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Wild Tales, David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, and Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher.

One of the more controversial aspects of this year’s festival is TIFF’s decision to take a tough stance on its World and North American premieres. In recent years the Telluride festival, taking place just before TIFF, stole away some of Toronto’s major prestige film premieres from them. Telluride was able to get away with it because their screenings were “sneak previews” instead of full blown premieres, announcing the film with short notice. Last year Telluride nabbed sneak previews of 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, and Prisoners, all major films for TIFF in 2013. The buzz was coming from Telluride instead of Toronto, and TIFF decided enough was enough. This year the first four days of the festival will only screen true World and North American premieres, with all other films playing in the remaining 7 days of the fest. That means, if a film plans to play Telluride first in any way, TIFF won’t play it during the first four days.

With that policy in place, people have been curious to see how it would impact TIFF’s line-up this year. Will it succeed for them, or will it backfire completely? When news came out that Birdman would open Venice, followed by the New York Film Festival getting world premieres for David Fincher’s Gone Girl and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, people already began claiming the new policy was a failure. Losing two of the fall’s most anticipated titles is a blow for TIFF, but until we got a look at the line-up it was impossible to say whether or not TIFF’s aggressive approach paid off.

So what some of the films TIFF announced today? Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young, Jason Reitman’s Men, Women and Children, Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie, Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler, The Good Lie starring Reese Witherspoon, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn starring Al Pacino, Jon Stewart’s Rosewater, Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything, and Jean-Marc Vallee’s Wild, just to name a few. For arthouse fans new films from Abel Ferrara and Mia Hansen-Love will play as well. 37 World Premieres were announced today, not too shabby of a number.

Read below for the full list of films announced today, and be sure to check back next week when TIFF unveils more titles. As always, Way Too Indie will be covering the festival this fall, so be sure to check out our reviews, news and interviews as we get closer to one of the biggest film festivals in the world. The Toronto International Film Festival starts on September 4th this year, and if you want to learn more or buy tickets go to www.tiff.net/thefestival

Gala Presentations

Black and White (Mike Binder), USA, World Premiere. Black and White is the story of a widowed grandfather who is left to raise his bi-racial granddaughter. When the little girl’s paternal grandmother seeks custody, a bitter legal battle ensues that forces the uneasy family members to have an honest conversation about life, death, anger and America’s racial divide. Starring Academy Award-winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, as well as Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Ehle, Gillian Jacobs, Bill Burr, Andre Holland and Jillian Estell.

The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua), USA, World Premiere. In this big-screen adaptation of the cult ‘80s TV show, McCall believes he has put his past behind him and has dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by—he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to extract vengeance upon anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer. Starring Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.

Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller), USA, Canadian Premiere. Based on true events, this film tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. Starring Anthony Michael Hall, Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Ruffalo and Sienna Miller.

Haemoo (Shim Sung-bo), South Korea, International Premiere. The ragtag crew of a fishing boat takes on a dangerous commission to smuggle a group of illegal immigrants from China to Korea, in this tense high-seas adventure co-scripted by South Korean genre-movie guru Bong Joon-ho. Starring Kim Yoon-seok and Park Yoo- chun.

The Judge (David Dobkin), USA, World Premiere. Big city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth, and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard and Billy Bob Thornton.

Closing Night Film: A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman), United Kingdom, World Premiere. A landscape gardener with a taste for the unconventional is invited to design one of the fountains at the Palace of Versailles. As she battles with the weather, the perilous rivalries at the court of Louis XIV and her own private demons, she finds herself drawn closer to the formality and enigma of the architect who hired her. Starring Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, Alan Rickman and Matthias Schoenaerts.

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg), Canada/Germany, North American Premiere. David Cronenberg forges both a wicked social satire and a very human ghost story from today’s celebrity-obsessed culture. Starring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams, Sarah Gadon, John Cusack and Robert Pattinson.

The New Girlfriend (Une nouvelle amie) (François Ozon), France, World Premiere. When her best friend Lea dies, Claire falls into a deep depression. However, after making a surprising discovery about her late friend’s husband, she’s given a new lease on life. Starring Romain Duris, AnaÔs Demoustier and Raphaël Personnaz.

Pawn Sacrifice (Ed Zwick), USA, World Premiere. In this remarkable true story set in the height of the Cold War, chess legend Bobby Fischer is locked in a gripping championship clash with the Soviets as he struggles against his own psychological demons while the whole world anxiously awaits the outcome. Starring Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard and Liev Schreiber.

The Riot Club (Lone Scherfig), United Kingdom, World Premiere. A privileged young man is inducted into the exclusive, debaucherous company of Oxford’s elite “Riot Club,” in this scathing dissection of the British class system. Based on the hit play Posh, the film stars Natalie Dormer, Max Irons, Sam Clafin, Jessica Brown Findlay and Douglas Booth.

Samba (Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano), France, World Premiere. Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burnout. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives—Samba’s willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track—until fate draws them together. Balancing light-hearted moments with heavier emotion, Samba is a story about two strangers on a new path to happiness. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Sy and Tamar Rahim.

This is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy), USA, World Premiere. Shawn Levy’s dramatic comedy follows four adult siblings who return home after their father’s death to spend a week with their over- sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and frayed relationships among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways. Starring Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll and Kathryn Hahn.

Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée), USA, International Premiere. After years of reckless behaviour, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. Wild powerfully reveals Cheryl’s terrors and pleasures as she forges ahead on a journey that maddens, strengthens and ultimately heals her. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Michiel Huisman, Gaby Hoffmann and Kevin Rankin.

Special Presentations

99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani), USA, Canadian Premiere. After his family is evicted from their home, proud and desperate construction worker Dennis Nash tries to win his home back by striking a deal with the devil and working for Rick Carver, the corrupt real estate broker who evicted him. Starring Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern and Michael Shannon.

American Heist (Sarik Andreasyan), USA, World Premiere. Two brothers with troubled pasts become embroiled in a high-stakes bank robbery, in this indie action thriller. Starring Adrien Brody, Hayden Christensen, Jordana Brewster and Akon.

Before We Go (Chris Evans), USA, World Premiere. Set in Manhattan, the story follows two strangers after their serendipitous meeting in Grand Central. Over the course of one night, they form an unlikely bond and the conflicts in their own lives become the basis for exploration into each other and themselves. Starring Chris Evans and Alice Eve.

Breakup Buddies (Ning Hao), China, World Premiere. Recently cuckolded and reeling from a messy divorce, a hapless former singer hits the road—and the bar—with his all-too-helpful best bud, in this hilarious romantic comedy.

Cake (Daniel Barnz), USA, World Premiere. Cake tells the story of the acerbic Claire Bennett who has managed to alienate everyone from her life, with the exception of her loyal housekeeper. When Claire becomes fascinated with the suicide of a woman in her chronic pain support group, she develops a poignant relationship with the woman’s grieving husband and comes to terms with her own personal tragedy, catapulting her forward into life. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman and Sam Worthington.

Coming Home (Zhang Yimou), China, North American Premiere. Lu Yanshi and Feng Wanyu are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labour camp as a political prisoner, just as his wife is injured in an accident. Released during the last days of the Cultural Revolution, he finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife has amnesia and remembers little of her past. Unable to recognize Lu, she patiently waits for her
husband’s return—until Lu determines to resurrect their past together and reawaken his wife’s memory. Starring Chen Daoming and Gong Li.

The Dead Lands (Hautoa) (Toa Fraser), New Zealand/United Kingdom, World Premiere. Hongi, a Maori chieftain’s teenage son, must avenge his father’s murder in order to bring peace and honour to the souls of his loved ones after his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery. Vastly outnumbered by a band of villains led by Wirepa, Hongi’s only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden “Dead Lands” and forge an uneasy alliance with a mysterious warrior, a ruthless fighter who has ruled the area for years. Starring Xavier Horan, Raukura Turei, Rena Owen, James Rolleston, Lawrence Makoare and Te Kohe Tuhaka.

Dearest Peter (Ho-Sun Chan), China/Hong Kong, North American Premiere. Drawing on remarkable true stories, Peter Chan delivers a moving drama about child abduction in China. Huang Bo stars as a father whose young son disappears in the streets of a big city. He sets out on a search across China, stopping at nothing to find him. In this star-studded cast, Zhao Wei plays the role of a mother from a poor rural area.

The Drop (Michael R. Roskam), USA, World Premiere. The Drop follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski through a covert scheme of funnelling cash to local gangsters in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv, Bob finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighbourhood’s past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living – no matter the cost. Starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts and John Ortiz.

Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve), France, World Premiere. In the ’90s, French electronic music is developing at a fast pace. Entering this exciting Parisian nightlife, Paul and his best friend form a DJ duo called Cheers. But just as they rapidly find their audience, they are caught up in a euphoric and short-lived rise to fame. Eden retraces the steps of the “French touch” generation from 1992 to today—a generation that still enjoys outstanding international success thanks to DJs like Daft Punk, Dimitri from Paris and Cassius. Starring Félix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Greta Gerwig, Golshifteh Farahani, Laura Smet and Vincent Lacoste.

Far From Men (Loin des Hommes) (David Oelhoffen), France, North American Premiere. Algeria, 1954. While the rebellion rumbles in the valley, two very different men thrown together by a world in turmoil are forced to flee across the Atlas mountains. In the midst of an icy winter, Daru, a reclusive teacher, has to escort Mohamed, a villager accused of murder. Pursued by horsemen seeking summary justice and vengeful settlers, the two men decide to confront the unknown. Together, they fight to gain their freedom. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Reda Kateb.

Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund), Sweden/Norway/Denmark/France, North American Premiere. A Swedish family’s ski trip in the French Alps is cut short by news of an oncoming avalanche, during which an impulsive decision by the father Tomas drives a wedge between him and his wife, Ebba—he has run for his life, while she has stayed to protect her children. When the anticipated disaster fails to occur, reality and embarrassed relief returns to the mountainside resort, but the family’s world has been shaken to its core. Force Majeure is an observational comedy about the role of the male in modern family life. Starring Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju and Fanni Metelius.

The Gate (Régis Wargnier), France, World Premiere. Two decades after forging an unlikely alliance in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, a French ethnologist and a former Khmer Rouge official meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity, in this drama from top French director Régis Wargnier.

Good Kill (Andrew Niccol), USA, North American Premiere. A Las Vegas-based fighter pilot turned drone pilot fights the Taliban by remote control for 12 hours a day, then goes home to the suburbs and feuds with his wife and kids for the other 12. But the pilot is starting to question the mission. Is he creating more terrorists than he’s killing? Is he fighting a war without end? This story follows one soldier’s tale with epic implications. Starring Ethan Hawke and January Jones.

The Good Lie (Philippe Falardeau), USA, World Premiere. Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon and an ensemble of young Sudanese actors—all of whom have direct personal ties to the war in their country—bring the inspiring and uplifting story of The Lost Boys of the Sudan to the screen in a film about heartbreak and hope, survival and triumph. Also starring Corey Stoll, Arnold Oceng, Kuoth Wiel, Ger Duany, Emmauel Jal and Femi Oguns.

Hector and the Search for Happiness (Peter Chelsom), Germany/Canada, North American Premiere. Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. Deciding to break out of his deluded routine, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive formula for true happiness? and so begins his larger-than-life adventure with riotously funny results. Starring Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, Simon Pegg, Stellan Skarsgård and Jean Reno.

The Humbling (Barry Levinson), USA, North American Premiere. The Humbling tells the story of a legendary stage actor who has an affair with a lesbian woman half his age at a secluded country house in Connecticut. Based on Philip Roth’s final novel, it is a tragic comedy about a man who has lived inside his own imagination for too long. Starring Al Pacino, Mandy Patinkin, Dianne Wiest and Greta Gerwig.

Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo), Italy, International Premiere. Mina and Jude meet while stuck together in the restroom of a restaurant, marking the beginning of a true love story. They move in together. They get married. And anticipate the arrival of their baby—until a spiritual guide tells Mina she is bearing an “indigo” child. Starring Adam Driver, Alba Rohrwacher and Roberta Maxwell.

The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum), United Kingdom/USA, Canadian Premiere. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was prosecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts which the country deemed illegal.

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet Canada/France/Lebanon/Qatar/USA, World Premiere. (Roger Allers, GaÎtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz,Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar)
and Michal Socha. Inspired by the beloved classic, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is a richly-animated story and celebration of Gibran’s book, created by artists, animators and musicians from around the world. Starring Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek-Pinault, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina, John Rhys-Davies and Quvenzhané Wallis.

The Keeping Room (Daniel Barber), USA, World Premiere. Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women—two sisters and one African-American slave—must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army. Starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Sam Worthington, Muna Otaru and Kyle Soller.

The Last Five Years (Richard LaGravenese), USA, World Premiere. In this adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, The Last Five Years is a musical deconstruction of a love affair and a marriage taking place over a five year period. Jamie, a young, talented up-and-coming Jewish novelist falls in love with Cathy, a Shiksa Goddess and struggling actress. The film, told almost entirely through song and a beautiful pop music score, portrays an honest, heartbreaking, often funny, exploration of love and its consequences on individual identity. Starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.

Learning to Drive (Isabel Coixet), USA, World Premiere. As her marriage dissolves, a Manhattan writer takes driving lessons from a Sikh instructor with marriage troubles of his own. In each other’s company, they find the courage to get back on the road and the strength to take the wheel. Starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley.

Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad), USA, World Premiere. Focusing on Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of The Beach Boys, Love & Mercy paints an unconventional portrait of the artist by interweaving seminal moments in his life, from his artistic genius to his profound struggles, and the love that keeps him alive. Starring Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack and Paul Giamatti.

Manglehorn (David Gordon Green), USA, North American Premiere. Angelo Manglehorn is a small town locksmith who never got over the love of his life. Clara was a beautiful, idealized woman who left him heartbroken 40 years ago. He still writes her letters obsessively as he tries to find her and get back the woman of his dreams. Manglehorn is the journey of this magical man, his son, his cat and a beautiful new woman trying to help him put the pieces of his heart back together. Starring Al Pacino, Holly Hunter and Chris Messina.

Mary Kom (Omung Kumar), India, World Premiere. Glamorous Indian star Priyanka Chopra completely transforms herself to play Mary Kom, world champion in women’s boxing. From traditional village life in remote Manipur state to high-stakes bouts in India and around the world, this is a remarkable story of triumph.

Men, Women & Children (Jason Reitman), USA, World Premiere. Men, Women & Children follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. Starring Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler and Judy Greer.

Miss Julie (Liv Ullmann), Norway/United Kingdom/Ireland, World Premiere. A country estate in Ireland in the 1880s. Over the course of one midsummer night, Miss Julie explores the brutal, charged power struggle between a young aristocratic woman and her father’s valet. Starring Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton.

Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh), United Kingdom, Canadian Premiere. This biopic explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, until his death. Throughout his life, the popular—if anarchic—member of the Royal Academy of Arts travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty. Starring Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Joshua McGuire, Ruth Sheen, David Horovitch and Karl Johnson.

My Old Lady (Israel Horovitz), USA, World Premiere. A down-and-out New Yorker inherits an apartment in Paris from his estranged father and is stunned to find a refined old lady living there with her protective daughter. Starring Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley), USA, World Premiere. Ned Rifle is the third and final chapter of Hal Hartley’s tragicomic epic begun with Henry Fool (1997) and continued with Fay Grim (2007). At once a saga concerning the Grim family of Queens and how their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of the self- proclaimed genius Henry Fool, the trilogy is also an illustration of America’s grappling with ideas, art, politics, and religion over the course of 20 years. In this swiftly paced and expansive conclusion, Henry and Fay’s son Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother’s life. But his aims are frustrated by the troublesome, sexy and hilarious Susan, whose connection to Henry predates even his arrival in the lives of the Grim family.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy), USA, World Premiere. Lou Bloom, a driven young man, discovers the nocturnal world of L.A. crime journalism. Joining a group of freelance camera crews who film marketable mayhem, Lou makes his own place at the table, aided by Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news. Blurring the line between observer and perpetrator, Lou finds his calling in a murderous world reduced to transactions. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton.

Pasolini (Abel Ferrara), France/Italy/Belgium, North American Premiere. Rome: on the night of November 2, 1975, the great Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini is murdered. Pasolini is the symbol of an art that’s fighting against the power. His writings are scandalous, and his films are persecuted by the censors; many people love him and many hate him. The day of his death, Pasolini spends his last hours with his beloved mother and later with his dearest friends, until he finally goes out into the night in his Alfa Romeo in search of adventure in the eternal city. At dawn Pasolini is found dead on a beach in Ostia on the outskirts of the city. In a film dreamlike and visionary, blending reality and imagination, it reconstructs the last day in the life of this great poet. Starring Willem Dafoe.

Phoenix (Christian Petzold), Germany, World Premiere. Nelly Lenz is a concentration camp survivor who has been left with a disfigured face. Following facial reconstruction surgery, Nelly begins the search for her husband Johnny. When she finally does find him, he does not recognise her. Nevertheless he approaches her with a proposal: since she resembles his wife, whom he believes to be dead, he asks her to help him claim his wife’s considerable inheritance. Nelly agrees, and becomes her own doppelganger—she needs to know if Johnny ever loved her, or if he betrayed her. Starring Nina Hoss.

The Reach (Jean-Baptiste Leonetti), USA, World Premiere. Ben, a young man who works as a hunting guide, gets a job of a lifetime when he is hired by Madec, a wealthy businessman from Los Angeles, to hunt a bighorn sheep. Their excursion in the Southwestern desert quickly goes from bad to worse when overly-eager Madec gets trigger happy, accidentally killing an old prospector. He attempts to bribe Ben for his secrecy, but Ben staunchly refuses. Outraged, Madec turns on Ben, determined to eliminate the only witness to his crime. Trapped in a sadistic cat-and-mouse game, Ben has to rely on his basic survival skills to make it out alive. Starring Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irvine, Hannah Mangan, Lawrence and Ronny Cox.

Red Amnesia (Chuangru Zhe) (Wang Xiaoshuai), China, North American Premiere. A retired widow has her daily routine derailed when she starts receiving mysterious, anonymous phone calls, in this scintillating thriller from Chinese “Sixth Generation” master Wang Xiaoshuai. Starring L Zhong, Shi Liu, Feng Yuanzheng, Qin Hao and Amanda Qin.

Return to Ithaca (Laurent Cantet), France, North American Premiere. A terrace overlooking Havana. Five friends gather to celebrate the return of Amadeo after 16 years of exile. From dusk to dawn, they reminisce about their youth, the group they used to form, the faith they had in the future—also their disillusionment.

Rosewater (Jon Stewart), USA, Canadian Premiere. The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart makes his directorial debut with the true story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari (played by Gael García Bernal), whose appearance on Stewart’s show in 2009 precipitated his five-month imprisonment by the Iranian government.

A Second Chance (En chance til) (Susanne Bier), Denmark, World Premiere. How far are decent human beings willing to go, when tragedy blurs the line between just and unjust? Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen have crafted a startling yet moving drama, about how easily we lose our grasp on justice when confronted with the unthinkable, and life as we know it hangs by a thread. Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Maria Bonnevie, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Lykke May Andersen.

Still Alice (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland), USA, World Premiere. Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested. Alice’s struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Starring Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth and Julianne Moore.

The Theory of Everything (James Marsh), United Kingdom/USA, World Premiere. The extraordinary true story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde. Hawking receives an earth-shattering diagnosis at age 21. Together, Stephen and Jane defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine and science. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis and Emily Watson.

Time Out of Mind (Oren Moverman), USA, World Premiere. George, a man on the decline, enters the New York City homeless shelter system when he runs out of options. George struggles to navigate his way through this new world with the help of Dixon, a shelter veteran while trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter Maggie. Starring Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone, Kyra Sedgwick, Jeremy Strong, Yul Vasquez, Coleman Domingo, Geraldine Hughes, Michael Kenneth Williams and Steve Buscemi.

Top Five (Chris Rock), USA, World Premiere. Written, directed by, and starring Chris Rock, Top Five tells the story of New York City comedian-turned-film star Andre Allen, whose unexpected encounter with a journalist forces him to confront both the career that made him famous and the life he left behind. Starring Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Smoove, Gabrielle Union, Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, Jay Pharoah, Anders Holm and Michael Che. And featuring music by Questlove.

While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach), USA, World Premiere. Noah Baumbach’s exploration of aging, ambition and success, stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a middle-aged couple whose career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives. Also starring Amanda Seyfried, Adam Driver, Charles Grodin, Maria Dizzia and Adam Horovitz.

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle), USA, Canadian Premiere. Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite East Coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability – and his sanity. Starring Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser, Austin Stowell, Nate Lang, Max Kasch and Damon Gupton.

Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) (Damian Szifron), Argentina/Spain, Canadian Premiere. More than living up to its title, director Dami·n Szifron’s compendium of outrageous, hilarious and truly bizarre anecdotes offers a
subversive, blackly comic portrait of contemporary Argentina. Starring Ricardo Darin, Oscar Martinez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Erica Rivas, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg and Dario Grandinetti.

It’s a new year, and that means new films, right? 2013 gave us some truly wonderful films, but amongst catching up on those that we missed and all the Oscar buzz, we’re also thinking about what’s on offer this year. Narrowing these films down to just a few was an incredibly difficult task, as not only are there so many films set to come out, but some are so clouded in mystery that you just don’t know where to start. Nevertheless, we have selected 10 films that we’re looking forward to the most in 2014, and they come from just about every genre. Let us know if there are any you think we missed, but as far as just these 10 are concerned, the anticipation is killing us.

10 Most Anticipated Films of 2014

Gone Girl

David Fincher makes the movies I love to see. The man seems to have a knack with twisty tales, whether they be completely crazy endings (like Se7en or Fight Club) or characters you love to hate (like The Social Network or Netflix’s House of Cards). Having read the novel, I know Gone Girl has both. And with a great cast that includes power-hitter Ben Affleck playing Nick Dunne, the husband who is unexpectedly thrown into the national spotlight when his wife goes missing, my expectations are pretty high for the film adaptation. Casting for the lead part of Amy, the housewife-gone-missing, took some time to be solidified, with several major actresses in consideration. But Rosamund Pike was finally chosen, which has me quite curious. Pike has played some really soft roles in the past and, without giving any of the story away, Amy is the sort of character that could either show off Pike’s versatility or ruin the whole thing. The book is known for it’s major plot twists and I for one can’t wait to see Fincher put his own mark on the visuality of the story. Slated for an October release, it should be exactly the sort of chilly Fall tale we’ll be craving. [Ananda]

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson is famous for his distinctive visual and narrative style in such films as Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Darjeeling Limited, and will be releasing his latest quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel in March of this year. The film follows the adventures of an infamous concierge at a well-known and well-frequented European hotel. Their experiences are shared with an all-star cast, most of which have worked with Anderson in the past; Jude Law, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, and Adrien Brody. The Grand Budapest Hotel looks to be quite the dramatic comedy with the charm and flare we all know Wes Anderson films to behold. [Amy]

While We’re Young

Last Year my faith was restored in Noah Baumbach as a filmmaker to be vigilant of again after supplying his delightful indie comedy Frances Ha, a film that landed the #2 spot on our Best Films of 2013. Reuniting with the director again for the first time since 2010’s Greenberg is Ben Stiller, playing the part of a middle-aged filmmaker whose marriage gets more tranquil after making friends with a young free-spirited couple. Joining Stiller as part of the cast are Amanda Seyfried, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, and Brady Corbet. It will be interesting to see if While We’re Young plays out to be more like his earlier work (The Squid and the Whale), or more like his re in nt work (France Ha). Though a happy medium between the two could be in order. Either way, we are glad to see the uptick in frequency which Baumbach is making films as of late, he even has another film in post-production at the moment. [Dustin]

Nymphomaniac

At this point it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know about Nymphomaniac. Split into 2 films, and running for 4.5 hours total, Nymphomaniac is Lars Von Trier’s newest film. It tells the story of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the titular sex addict who explains her life story to a stranger (Stellan Skarsgard) after he saves her life. The eclectic cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier and Jamie Bell, just to name a few, and it`s already been widely reported how porn actors were used as doubles for the film`s hardcore sex scenes. The film`s marketing, including ‘appetizer’ teaser clips and a provocative series of character posters, have helped make Nymphomaniac the arthouse event of 2014. The film will be out in theatres and on VOD in March, but Lars Von Trier purists might have to wait even longer. The theatrical version wasn’t put together by Von Trier, and he’s already preparing a 5.5 hour director’s cut that will presumably come out later this year (Volume 1 of the “uncut” version is set to premiere at Berlin, and it won’t be a surprise if Volume 2 pops up at Cannes). [CJ]

Knight of Cups

Just as Flaubert and Joyce understood the need for literary revolution in the face of an unstable society, so did certain filmmakers understand cinematic development as part of a larger social reality: Griffith, Welles, and Hitchcock to name a few, and now, Terrence Malick. Some people are just game-changers, and there is no denying that Malick has changed the world of cinema irrevocably. I could wax lyrical for hours about his conceptualisation of film – his work is nothing short of a feast for the eyes and indeed the very soul – but truly, all you need to do to understand is watch some of his work. His recent association with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in The Tree of Life brought mainstream audiences just a little closer to Malick’s world, so it’s incredibly exciting to think of what he could have in mind to really show audiences what he is capable of. Knight of Cups is in post-production and has been for a while now; while we’re still not entirely certain it will come out this year, we can but hope. With names like Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and Teresa Palmer on the bill, there’s no doubt Malick has something breathtaking in store for us – I’m certainly going to keep my eyes peeled for this one. [Pavi]

Interstellar

It’s time to let him off the leash again. Christopher Nolan has proven he can sell a movie ticket or two with his Dark Knight trilogy, which has earned him the freedom (granted by big studios like Paramount) to make movies and tell stories on his terms. Based on the theories of relativity physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar looks to excite the senses and tickle the imagination in the same way Inception did. The film follows a group of scientists who, with their home planet drying up, travel to different dimensions in search of a place to grow crops so that their people can endure. Boasting a killer ensemble cast featuring Michael Caine (surprise, surprise), Anne Hathaway, Casey Afleck, Matthew McConaughy, Ellen Burstyn, Wes Bentley, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Bill Irwin, and Mackenzie Foy, Interstellar is sure to get sci-fi geeks all hot and bothered leading up to its November release. Plus, Nolan strapped an IMAX camera to the nose of a freaking learjet. Hold on to your butts! [Bernard]

Journey to the West

Back in September at the Venice Film Festival Tsai Ming-Liang publicly stated that he hoped Stray Dogs would be his last film. The news was disappointing, especially since Stray Dogs was his best film in years (it went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at Venice). It came as a surprise, then, that the Berlin Film Festival announced a new Tsai Ming-Liang film would be premiering in February. There isn’t much information out there on Journey to the West, but from what we know it’s going to be a loose adaptation of the classic Chinese tale. Knowing Tsai’s style, this will probably be a very loose adaptation, but regardless it’s exciting to see him continue to work. Tsai is one of the most distinct filmmakers working today, and while his style may not appeal to everyone (the last two shots of Stray Dogs combined come close to breaking the 30 minute mark) it’s undeniable that no one out there is making films in the same way. [CJ]

Jupiter Ascending

While Cloud Atlas was not the return of the Wachowskis I had hoped for, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that it’s because they were working with someone else’s writing, and an incredibly complex novel at that. This time Andy and Lana are back to writing a story of their own, and hopefully tapping into the vein that brought us the complex and sci-fi world of The Matrix. Granted, it has Channing Tatum, and he’s wearing eyeliner. But if there’s anything the trailer proves, it will definitely be up to par with the visual grandeur that we’ve come to expect from the Wachowskis. Similar to The Matrix, Jupiter Ascending is the tale of a girl with a genetic destiny, Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis). Destined to overthrow the Queen of the Universe, Jupiter is rescued from her life of toilet cleaning by Tatum’s genetically engineered hunter. She discovers the vastness of the universe she lives in and that she has an important place in it. Who doesn’t love a good tale of comeuppance, on an intergalactic scale? Even if it’s got a bit of cheese, it comes out in July when we’ll all be glad for an excuse to escape to the theater, and I for one will gladly splurge to see the Wachowskis first 3D endeavor. [Ananda]

The Double

Richard Ayoade began his career as a comedy actor starring in relatively popular television shows such as The IT Crowd and he Mighty Boosh, before making his incredible feature directorial debut with Submarine. The Double is Ayoade’s sophomore film that stars Jesse Eisenberg as a man who goes crazy after running into this doppleganger. The film already premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a lot of praise for its trippy mind games and quirky comedy–which is exactly the kind of films we kind to enjoy here at Way Too Indie. Make sure that The Double is on your list of films to catch in 2014. [Dustin]

Inherent Vice

Set in 1970s Los Angeles, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice follows the fuck-ups and follies of druggy detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), who’s surprised to find that the kidnapped girl of a case he’s investigating is his ex-girlfriend. What’s most exciting to me about the project (aside from the obvious fact that ol’ PT never fails) is that Anderson is reuniting with director of photography Robert Elswit, who helped him make There Will Be Blood look so damn pretty. As per usual for Anderson, everything will be filmed in 35mm film stock. The cast is stacked, with Phoenix being joined by Josh Brolin, Martin Short, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Kevin J. O’Connor, Maya Rudolph, and more. [Bernard]