TIFF 2002

Photos from the press conference for Frida at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, featuring Salma Hayek.

Photos from the press conference for Max at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, featuring John Cusack, Menno Meyjes & Noah Taylor.

Photos from the press conference for Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, featuring Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Melanie Griffith & Antonio Banderas.

Photos from the The Four Feathers red carpet and press conference at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, featuring Heath Ledger, Djimon Hounsou, Shekhar Kapur and Kate Hudson.

Photos from the White Oleander press conference at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival with Robin Wright, Alison Lohman & Michelle Pfeiffer.

Elvis Presley fans may not be so happy when they see Bubba Ho-Tep, a film that stars the incredible Bruce Campbell as the supposedly late, but great King of Rock n’ Roll. The twist is that he’s alive today and living in an old-folks home in Texas after he gave up his life to an impersonator, one Sebastian Haff (who is also played by Campbell). Once Haff dies though, Elvis is left to live Haff’s life – too bad for him that while he’s impersonating himself, he throws out his hip and ends up in a coma.

When I read about this film, it sounded so cool… a bike courier meets his favorite action director and tries to convince him that he can be the next big movie star in the film that he’s casting for. It sounds great, right? Well, it certainly has the essence of greatness, especially thanks to very compelling performances by both Johnny Gooltz, as “The Kid”, and Carlo Rota, as director Bruce Donato.

Photos from the The Wild Thornberrys Movie at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, featuring Lacey Chabert, Tim Curry and Lynn Redgrave.

Greg Kinnear has done some great things in his few short years as a star, but he’s also done some awful films too. His role in As Good As It Gets propelled the story, and he was both fun and tragic. Then, in The Gift, he was the charicature of a real character and seemed like he might have been trying way too hard to be something he wasn’t. Now, in the film Auto Focus, he’s taken on the like of Bob Crane without really capturing the heart or soul of a man who was both a star and a sexual ravenous playboy.

Taking on the events of September 11th in the form of 11 short films, which are all 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame long, was risky business. Especially from the perspective of 11 culturally diverse filmmakers from around the world that don’t all view the events in a sympathetic light. In response to the film, many Americans who saw the film were in fact more insulted than pleased, but that’s a partial victory for the films that mostly have no qualms about being blunt and honest about what September 11th means to the world.