TORONTO â€" The front-loaded schedule at the Toronto International Film Festival has yielded a few expected payoffs and a few unpredicted ones. Eagerly-awaited movies like Ben Affleck's “Argo†(which earned good word-of-mouth at a sneak preview at the Telluride Film Festival last month) delivered, earning a standing ovation at its packed premiere on Friday. Reviews called the film, about the Iranian hostage crisis in the 1970s, Mr. Affleck's coming-of-age moment as an actor-director. At the after-party last week, Mr. Affleck was jovial, ordering pizza and chatting with friends like Matt Damon, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt late into the night. He talked eagerly about shooting at CIA headquarters in Lang ley, Va., but admitted to some worry that the geo-political theme would make the film “challenging†to market. “I'm working harder to promote this movie,†he said. “I can furnish you with endless†material. (We will expect it.)
The two big-budget, big-expectation tentpoles, “Cloud Atlas†(from the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, distributed by Warner) and “The Master†(from Paul Thomas Anderson, and released by the Weinstein Company) had audiences waiting for hours and industry speculating. “Cloud Atlas†played well at its premiere on Saturday night, although some reviews called the nearly three-hour historical sci-fi fantasy movie muddled. And “The Master,†which won several top prizes at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, was praised for its visual sophistication and performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but also criticized for being too cerebral.
On the opposite end of the c ineaste spectrum was “The Silver Linings Playbook,†from the director David O. Russell, a surprise hit with audiences and critics alike. A dark comedy about two unstable Philadelphians, played with unfiltered conviction by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, it quickly garnered early awards-season speculation, especially since it, too, is distributed by the Weinsteins, who successfully launched previous Oscar winners like “The King's Speech†here. “The Silver Linings Playbook†also has a notable performance from Robert De Niro, as a Philadelphia Eagles-obsessed father.
“The Sessions,†a Sundance favorite about a man in an iron lung (John Hawkes) who hires a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) also played well, with standing ovations at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, for the cast and its director, Ben Lewin. The studio, Fox Searchlight, is betting that the film, based on a real-life story, will have a statuette-filled future: Mr. Lewin said executives sugge sted to him that he not schedule any major personal events this winter, just in case.
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