Upcoming Stay-at-Home Cinema events:
Join us at 7pm EDT, Wednesday, April 1, for an Instagram Live (@tiff_net) virtual Q&A with Sarah Polley and Cameron Bailey. At 7:30pm EDT, audiences can view Polley's debut feature, Away from Her.
Join us at 7pm EDT, Friday, April 3, for an Instagram Live (@tiff_net) virtual Q&A with Catherine O'Hara, Bo Welch, and Cameron Bailey. At 7:30pm EDT, audiences can view O'Hara in Tim Burton's bonkers classic, Beetlejuice.
If you missed last Friday's Q&A with Mandy Patinkin, it's now on TIFF's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zie30vUTSYE
As most of know classic coming of age book Little Women will be getting its another film adaptation this coming Christmas starring Sairose Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Emma Watson and others. The original is a classic and led to an Oscar nomination for a young Winona Ryder and helped launch the careers of Claire Danes and Kirsten Dunst.
So there are big expectations on this one.
You might not know that the script was originally written by Sarah Polley (known actress but now perhaps more known for writing/directing). But during production Greta Gerwig (Ladybird) was brought in to rewrite and is now directing (with Polley's name removed from script).
The reason this bothers me is because although Little Women is a a classic the subject matter can come off a little schmalzy and Hallmark movie for lack of a better word (see 2018 version with Lea Thompson).
Great Gerwig while a great writer and director has a tendency to lean comedy in her writing and her movies seem to hit familiar notes. Although thats not a bad thing, in a movie like this I feel like it could take it to a movie of the week type feeling. especially with big names attached and a Christmas release. And I feel the exact opposite is what made the 1994 one successful.
I think that Polley probably would have had a more interesting take based on the subtlety she showed in her writing and directing (and on female aging) in Away from Her.
