The Weekly Reader: September 24

Toronto is over, and NZ/Aus distribution announcements are starting to trickle in; Madman's releasing BUBBA HO-TEP director Don Coscarelli's new film JOHN DIES AT THE END, whilst Palace is distributing THE END OF TIME and STORIES WE TELL, both of which made The Star's top films of the fest. Completist film nerds (like, um, me) will want to see IndieWire's list of Toronto acquisitions, which is North American-centric but still a good cue as to which films are getting traction.

There's a bazillion TIFF wrap-up pieces around the web, but people whose tastes veer to the artsy should check out Darren Hughes and his day-by-day diary. He's only up to day 4, so keep posted as he catches up - so far, he's convinced me that BIG IN VIETNAM is worth looking out for.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I would have never expected Rob Zombie's new film to be on my radar, but Drew McWeeny's piqued my interest with comparisons to Argento.

Meanwhile, in Austin, Texas, Fantastic Fest is in full swing. Gawk at the program here (our picks that we pray get picked up down here: WRONG, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, THE AMERICAN SCREAM, THE DOOMSDAY BOOK, EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY, THE EXORCIST IN THE 21ST CENTURY, VANISHING WAVES, and Kiwi co-pro THE ABC'S OF DEATH), or shake your fist with jealousy as NZ's own inveterate film geeks Andrew Todd and Steve Austin experience the chaos and joy firsthand.

Another Fantastic Fest title is Rian Johnson's hotly anticipated LOOPER, a time travel film that precipitated Aaron Yap's list of top-ten time travel films at Flicks. It's the rare slideshow that I actually clicked to the end of, despite its failure to feature one of the most pivotal time-travel films of all time, Rich Christiano's TIME CHANGER.

Also playing at Fantastic Fest is NZFF conversation-starter HOLY MOTORS. Glenn Kenny provides an excellent, irreverent but well-considered, spoiler-filled take on Leos Carax's deeply sad, deeply strange film.

One side-effect of THE MASTER's release is increased interest in the 70mm format; here's a resource on all the 70mm projectors that are or were functioning in New Zealand.

And in Christchurch, movie theaters are thin on the ground, but Alice in Videoland has taken a small step forward in fixing that.

Reverse Shot's snark-filled hypothetical program of future retrospectives is pretty amusing. Cheers to Hugh Lilly for the link, who also wrote a not-so-brief history of mumblecore on his way to reviewing YOUR SISTER'S SISTER.

Bilge Ebiri is keeping busy, writing about Boris Barnet's ALYONKA for Senses of Cinema and Pedro Almodovar's VOLVER for the Sundance Channel.

Rather unexpectedly, the New York Times has covered one of the most extreme horror films of recent times: THE BUNNY GAME.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't give a shit who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; in the real world, the award affects what films we get to see, and so it's worth taking a look at Guy Lodge's rolling list of submitted films and their probable chances.

The BFI hosts a lengthy discussion about how various people made their top ten list for Sight & Sound.

Despite Guillermo Del Toro's wishes, his new film PACIFIC RIM is being post-converted to 3-D. Hear why he thinks it's a bad idea.

Finally: can you guess what recent film is by "one of the great director-actress duos of our time", is a "pleasurable, kinetic experience", and "respects your intelligence"? Click here for the unlikely answer from R. Emmet Sweeney and Dave Kehr.