The Toronto International Film Festival is only a few days away, and while this year’s festival will still look a bit different, TIFF is getting ready to welcome guests, talent, stars, and filmmakers from around the world.
Steven Soderbergh
Let Them All Talk is a witty and unpretentious story about overcompensating and pretentious people.
Logan Lucky, director Steven Soderbergh first film after stepping away from the big screen for several years, is an odd duck. Tonally strange, it falls somewhere between a mainstream blockbuster and avant garde restraint. The story is a classic sort of heist caper that could be played up for maximum broad effectiveness (a la Soderbergh’s Ocean’s films), but instead it’s played straight with nary a wink or nod to the audience. It vacillates wildly between outlandish silliness, dry humour, and high drama, speeding up or slowing down whenever it feels like it. As a result of such shifting, Logan Lucky is an uneven movie, but also a thoroughly fascinating and consistently enjoyable one.
Former mixed martial arts star Gina Carano is Mallory Kane, a freelance hired gun who works for governments to deal with tough situations, like hostage situations where normal covert tactics are not possible. As we first see her, waiting for someone at a small diner in the middle of nowhere, Mallory ends up getting the crap beaten out of her as an ex-coworker shows up to drag her back to her boss.
This week on DVD and Blu-ray, Matt Damon stars in Steven Soderbergh‘s corporate drama, The Informant!; Cameron Diaz and James Marsden play a troubled couple in the sci-fi film, The Box; plus a look at Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and Sorority Row.
Opening in theatres this week, two Toronto International Film Festival picks make their debut; the teen-horror film Jennifer’s Body, and Steven Soderbergh‘s The Informant! Also new to theatres, Bill Hader stars in the animated tale Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston look for romance in Love Happens.