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Whistler in the dark, stars meet snowflakes

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Young Adult, director Jason Reitman’s latest collaboration with Juno writer Diablo Cody, kicks off the Whistler Film Festival Wedneday night, as the mountainside movie bash braces for a flurry of high-profile flicks.

Young Adult stars Charlize Theron as a divorced author who heads back to her hometown high school reunion seeking to mix things up with her now-married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). Actor-comedian Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) co-stars as the lumpy guy she doesn’t remember from high school.

Also on the festival list is director David Cronenberg’s drama A Dangerous Method, starring Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, with Keira Knightley as a troubled patient who comes between them.

Young Adult’s Oswalt will be at the festival with his movie, as will busy actor Michael Shannon, on a break from filming his role in Vancouver as General Zod in director Zack Snyder’s currently filming Man of Steel. Shannon will be getting a career tribute Saturday night at the festival, complete with clips from a body of work that includes this fall’s apocalyptic thriller Take Shelter, his Oscar-nominated role in the period drama Revolutionary Road, and TV’s Boardwalk Empire.

American actor Shannon is one of those stealth talents, slowly building into a career that looks to be patterned after the great Brits – Jeremy Irons, say, or Anthony Hopkins. A quirky fave among his past roles was as the flamboyant promoter in the girl-group biopic The Runaways.

Canadian writer-actor Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, How to Train Your Dragon) will be at Whistler to be honoured as a screenwriter to watch, on the heels of his screenplay for this year’s hockey comedy Goon.

Coming from closer to home is Smallville regular Allison Mack’s buddy-crime drama Marilyn, co-starring Vancouver’s Ryan Robbins and directed by former Smallville producer Christopher Petry.

And while spotting these and other screen types should be easy in Whistler’s compact surroundings, cinephiles can head inside to sample 31 features and 46 shorts screening at the festival.

Joining Marilyn among the B.C.-made offerings is Doppelganger Paul, from co-directors Dylan Akio Smith and Kris Elgstrand. It’s impossible to do this dry comedy’s plot justice in just a few words, but I’ll try: Two losers hit the road to take back credit for the epic best-seller that was stolen from them by two other losers now on a book tour. A thumb is severed along the way. Brad Dryborough and Tygh Runyan star, and you’ll never again see odd movie chemistry quite like theirs.

Ontario director Max McGuire came to B.C. to make Foreverland, another road movie on Whistler’s list. American Max Thieriot stars as a young man with cystic fibrosis who goes on a quest with the sister of a dead friend (Quebec’s Laurence Leboeuf). Juliette Lewis, Matt Frewer and Gary Farmer are among those playing the people they meet along their road.

Vancouver writer-director Simon Davidson is behind The Odds, a murder mystery set among teen gamblers.

Now in its 11th year, the festival is getting better at luring marquee films to the mountain. Canadian films from elsewhere worth checking out include Edwin Boyd, a marvellously detailed period crime drama starring Scott Speedman and Kelly Reilly in the true story of a flashy 1950s Toronto bank robber. Director Nathan Morlando will be at the festival.

Quebec’s Monsieur Lazhar, about a Middle Eastern school teacher in an urban school, is Canada’s hope for a foreign film Oscar nomination this year, and director Philippe Falardeau will be at the Whistler screenings.

Keyhole is the latest from Winnipeg director Guy Maddin. This one stars his frequent muse Isabella Rossellini alongside Jason Patric in a black and white mash-up of Homer’s Odyssey and a 1940s crime drama.

Café de Flore, from Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria), stars Vanessa Paradis as a 1960s single mother whose son has Down’s Syndrome. Vallée will be at the festival.

Ontario director Randall Cole’s latest is the stalker thriller 388 Arletta Avenue, starring Nick Stahl, Mia Kirshner and Vancouver’s Devon Sawa.

On the international slate, U.S. director Whit Stillman hasn’t been seen much since a decade-long run of wordy comedies that began with 1989’s Metropolitan, continued with 1994’s Barcelona, and ended with 1998’s The Last Days of Disco. His latest is this year’s Damsels in Distress, starring another generation of smooth talkers, Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton and Adam Brody.

The reggae music documentary Rasta: a Soul’s Journey, features Donisha Prendergast, Bob Marley’s granddaughter, who will be at the festival.

As well, animation giant Pixar will offer up free screenings of its short films at a specially built enclosure in the Whistler Plaza Thursday and Friday.

Elsewhere on the short film front, the festival’s annual short film pitch competition has become an industry draw. The winner gets $10,000 in money and other help to make their short film. Last year’s winner Jeremy Lutter is bringing his now-finished short Joanna Makes a Friend, a gothic story about a little girl who creates a robot. Castmates Dalila Bela and Fred Ewanuick (little girl and robot, respectively) will also be at the screening Saturday.

The festival’s industry component also includes an appearance by U.S. director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who will talk about her experience making the animated hit Kung Fu Panda 2.

Whistler Film Festival

Where: Whistler Conference Centre, Village 8 Cinemas, Millennium Place

When: Wednesday until Sunday. See whistlerfilmfestival.com for full schedule and ticket info.

Tickets: $15/$12 per screening, six for $75 at festival venues



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