TIFF 2009 – Day 6 (Wherin We Get Thoughts on JENNIFER’S BODY and THE WILD HUNT)

Bjorn’s absence has caused a gap that his younger brother must fill in caring for their father and making the ends meet. This, in turn, causes a riff between Eric and his girlfriend Lynn who runs off to the wild woods as well, under Bjorn’s care, in search of something more. Eric follows her up there in hopes of mending the last remnace of their dwindling relationship once he is informed that she has been “kidnapped” by the evil Shaman Murtagh. Eric is thrust in to a world of cast systems and hierarchy; Knights, Elves, Viking Lords, and Celtic Savages; none of whom take kindly to people entering the game who aren’t ready to embrace the world.

Eric reluctantly joins his brother Bjorn in the Viking quest to rescue the Valkarie Evelina (Lynn) from the savage Celts and the power of their leader, Murtagh. He is unprepared at how relentlessly everyone accepts this world as their current reality but finds, as he starts to “play along”, that he enjoys the freedom and release that the fantasy holds as much as everyone else. The turn from game to tragedy comes when some of the thwarted Celts push the boundaries of fact and fiction blurring the lines of reality and fantasy. In twists and turns that would make the Bard himself gasp in awe, we watch as each character is forced to face there own marrow and peer into the looking glass to see if there are truly warrior or desk-monkey.

Alexandre and Mark have woven a story of fear, bravery, and revenge in the face of savagery and done it flawlessly. They have also opened a door to a very vibrant and creative international community and shown it in a humorous yet still respective way with profoundly layered characters.

Early on Eric challenges one of the players by saying, “You realize that you’re one of the weirdoes right?” to which the player says, “Yeah, but we’re the weirdoes having fun.” That is the joy of LARP. To leave the dreary 5 day – 9 to 5 and become something more. To live the adventure and get back to the wilderness for a while. (Miss B)

Before I get into the film JENNIFER’S BODY, I want to flash back a couple of years to another TIFF premiere, when a little-known gem called Juno burst onto the big screen, winning rave reviews, and garnering some major awards, thus becoming the Little Movie That Could, and capturing hearts all over the place. I saw Juno premiere at TIFF that year, and had chosen it simply because of its lead actor, Ellen Page. The girl had already impressed the heck outta me in Hard Candy and, though I sort of feared her, I also wanted to see what else she could pull off when she switched to another genre. I wasn’t disappointed, to be sure. But that year, that screening, also managed to spark an unexpected love in me for its writer, Diablo Cody.

So when The Hatter told me that Diablo was writing a horror movie, I was instantly on board. Nothing else mattered other than the fact that one of my new favourite writers was writing a script in one of my all-time favourite genres. I was sold from the get-go.

I kept half an eye on the film as it developed, but didn’t want to know too much. I wanted to be surprised. The first chance I got, I quickly bought my ticket for the screening, and eagerly awaited the film’s premiere as TIFF’s opening night Midnight Madness selection this year.

The film centres on odd-couple BFF’s who, in addition to being complete opposites in life, also happen to be a little…closer…than most. There’s Needy, the mousy, nerdy quiet girl that (with the exception of her boyfriend, Chip) every guy ignores, and Jennifer, the hot, spontaneous, outrageous, confident and rebellious girl that every guy would die for.

And, as it turns out, they get their wish.

Without giving too much away, everything changes for both girls one fateful night at a local bar, where they’ve gone to watch a ‘salty’ band from the city perform. Tragedy strikes, suddenly and unexpectedly (as it does), and changes the lives of everyone in their little town. Adam Brody is hilariously self-absorbed, slightly vacuous, and ultimately focused all at once…though with perhaps a mildly creepy fascination with his van…

Anyway.

Aside from the possible crazy circus of having a Megan Fox as the title character (in fact, she actually turned out to be sort of perfect for the role, and pulls it off with a finesse one may not realize she was capable of), and beyond the quiet brilliance of Amanda Seyfried’s performance as the lead, and of course not discounting the solid direction of Karyn Kusama bringing out the best in everyone who graced the screen in this film – ALL of that aside, I was really there primarily for Diablo Cody.

Her unique and singular voice can tell a story like no other, and few can touch her in the one-liner department. She’s beautiful, quirky, intelligent, unashamed, unapologetic and completely irreverent. Cody has carved out a new voice in the world of horror, simultaneously paying homage to the classics while somehow also managing to create something no one has ever seen before. In a world of Hollywood-ized remakes, where a film’s soul can literally get lost in the translation, Diablo Cody and Kusama together have accomplished what horror fans around the world have been aching for, and yet finding so little of, particularly in more recent years. They’ve created something new.