Peter Howell‘s annual Toronto Film Festival buzz piece went up yesterday, proving once again that handicappers are always fallible and are sometimes ill-informed.
Example #1: The highest vote-getter — Ang Lee‘s Lust, Caution — has been losing steam since Variety‘s Derek Elley gave it a stiff whack across the chops (“too much caution and too little lust”) at the Venice Film Festival last Thursday. Example #2: Anne Brodie, daily film columnist for MSN/Sympatico, describes The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as “testosterone-heavy.” It’s mainly about guys and definitely has a supply of the stuff, but if there was ever a western that isn’t “heavy” with testosterone, it’s this one.
I make at least one embarassing prediction each every year, and it’s starting to sound like this year’s HE wrongo, to judge by reactions from a friend at Telluride as well as MCN’s David Poland), was picking Noah Baumbach‘s Margot at the Wedding.