Between her scripts for this Jason Reitman-directed Paramount film and the yet-to-be-shot Lamb of God, Diablo Cody has, it seems to me, created a pair of headstrong, somewhat startling post-millennial female characters (i.e., 20- and 30somethings) whom you haven’t quite known or perhaps even met before. At least someone is coming up with new lassie permutations.

Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone and I recorded our post-Telluride Film festival sum-up yesterday afternoon as we drove south on 550 from Durango toward Albuquerque. The sound quality is relatively decent considering we were inside a barrel-assing SUV at 80 mph. Here’s a non-iTunes, stand-alone link.

Marcu Hu‘s Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Markus Schleinzer’s Michael. The Austrian-produced drama preemed at last May’s Cannes Film Festival and will have its North American debut next week at the Toronto Film Festival. All Toronto-covering journos are urged to catch it. Nothing is “shown,” trust me. And you won’t be sorry.

In my Cannes review I called Michael “a somewhat chiily, jewel-precise study of an Austrian child molester. It isn’t “pleasant” to watch, but it’s briliiant — emotionally suppressed in a correct way that blends with the protagonist, aesthetically disciplined and close to spellbinding.

“Because the titular character, a 30something office worker (Michael Fuith) is an absolute fiend and because the film acquaints the audience with the behavior and mentality of a child molester in ways that are up-close uncomfortable, a fair-sized portion of the crowd in the Lumiere theatre was booing when it ended. Those were the chumps in the cheap seats — the moralists.

“The people who know from film and especially a powerhouse flick when they see one were clapping, of course.

“Michael is easily the most gripping and cunning film I’ve seen here. It operates way above and beyond the raw brushstrokes and the imprecise, at times florid manner of Lynne Ramsay‘s over-praised We Need To Talk About Kevin. Don’t even talk about Ramsey’s film at this stage.”

Per official request I’m holding my reactions to Bennett Miller‘s Moneyball (Sony, 9.23) until the day after tomorrow (i.e., Thursday, 9.8). But I don’t see how I’d be breaking an agreement by linking to a 3.24.11 posting that included two responses to a Moneyball research screening in Los Angeles. Just to get the readership in the mood, so to speak.

I took an LA-to-NY Delta redeye last night, landing this morning around 8 am. I slept for a couple of hours at my son’s Brooklyn apartment, and then G- and M-trained over to Sony’s Madison Avenue headquarters to catch a pre-Toronto screening of Bennett Miller ‘s Moneyball (Sony, 9.23). I then stumbled around midtown in the rain, finally settling into a Starbucks on 57th near Lexington.

There’s nothing quite like Manhattan during a windswept, slightly chilly rainstorm. Tens of thousands of bodies, voices and spirits (plus that many umbrellas) all trooping down streets and boulevards, all with the same (or similar) urgency, and all of them damp and alive and alert to the symphony of things. I bought a huge umbrella for only $10 bills from a guy on a streetcorner. I visited the Apple store on Fifth Ave. and 59th — packed to the gills — to get my iPhone diagnosed and my SIM card correctly re-inserted.

The last interview I did at the Telluride Film Festival was with Chapin Cutler, honcho and co-founder of Boston Light and Sound, and one of the few people on the planet who really know how to project films to their absolute technical utmost. Cutler oversees the projection of all films during Telluride as well as Sundance, Hollywod’s TCM Classics Film Festival, and the Doha and Dubai Tribeca film festivals.

Cutler is like a NASA rocket scientist when it comes to theatrical projection. He adheres to standards that most commercial exhibitors avoid due to their cheapskate, nickle-and-dime attitudes about putting on a show with celluloid and digital.

Earlier that day I was floored by the almost highdef-video-level clarity of the projection of David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method, and I wanted to know what kind of projector was used ands what light levels and whatnot.

The video below is something I took at the corner of Oak and Galela in Telluride. The spot is two houses down from a three-storied Victorian owned by Jack Zoller, where Sasha Stone and I stayed during the festival. Producer-writer Glenn Zoller invited us both. They were the greatest and most gracious hosts anyone could have asked for or dreamt of. Thanks very much, guys — you made us feel right at home.