Few performances have impressed me as much as Mark Ruffalo’s breakthrough turn in Kenneth Lonergan’s 1996 off-Broadway drama “This Is Our Youth.” Having attended junior high with some aimless youth from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, it was eerie how perfectly Lonergan’s dialogue captured them, and how movingly Ruffalo brought it to life. I’m not a frequent theatergoer, but it was easily one of the best performances I’ve ever seen.
Movie stars don’t usually leave me awestruck but true talent does, so I was grateful for the chance to tell this to Ruffalo when I saw him at In Style’s annual Toronto fest party Wednesday night. He’s in town filming the role of a doctor in a city affected by a blinding plague in Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness” (just picked up for the U.S. by Miramax for around $5 million). He’s also promoting Terry George’s drama “Reservation Road” from Focus Features, and seemed understandably fatigued by the dual duties.
So I asked him what he’d be interested in discussing outside the standard “what drew you to this project” questions. “I wish someone would ask me what I think about Bush and Cheney,” he said.
“We should begin articles of impeachment against them. There’s so much corruption in this administration now and an unprecedented consolidation of power,” he continued. “That kind of concentration of power will corrupt any individual. It’s very dangerous, and whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican in the Oval Office next, this is something we need to do for our children and for their children. Impeachment is not a bad thing. It’s a corrective our forefathers put into the constitution for exactly what’s happening now.”
Ruffalo and I shook hands and parted ways. I turned and saw Paris Hilton sitting in a banquette. When I got home I realized it had been 9/11 that day, and not one of the dozens of people I’d spoken with at the festival brought it up, including me. (Gregg Goldstein)

If Fox Searchlight’s “Juno” is the accessible indie darling that has festgoers swooning, MGM’s “Lars and the Real Girl” (above) surely is its utterly oddball counterpart. A packed house at the Ryerson Theatre last night cheered wildly for the Sidney Kimmel Entertainment production, which stars Canada’s own Ryan Gosling as an emotionally stunted but sweet man who embarks on a (mercifully) platonic love affair with a sex doll.

It’s not just Gosling’s heart that “Bianca’s” been stealing, though. During a Q&A following the screening, one man suggested that the doll deserved her own best supporting actress campaign — a notion met with a hearty bout of applause from the audience and wide smiles from Gosling (at right) and his castmates Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Kelli Garner and Paul Schneider. The film opens in the U.S. Oct. 12. (Gina McIntyre)

UPDATE: Read THR’s review of “Lars and the Real Girl”

Simon Pegg fans were well-served at the Monday night screening of Picturehouse’s “Run, Fat Boy Run,” David Schwimmer’s feature directorial debut about a about a slacker (Pegg, pictured at left) who decides to run a marathon to win back his fiancée (Thandie Newton). At the Q&A with Schwimmer, Pegg, Newton and the producers after the late screening, one audience member asked if Pegg was ever in a marathon. “Pffft, don’t be ridiculous,” sneered Pegg comically, much to the audience’s enjoyment. Then he turned serious. “I was talking to a journalist earlier about the New York marathon, and I think I should try it.”

“Shaddup,” came this voice from the back of the theatre, so distinct and unmistakable that any Pegg fan recognized who it belonged to: Nick Frost, Pegg’s real life best friend and on-screen chum in movies “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” The audience howled. And when the moderator asked for a few more questions from the audience, Frost let out, “Why wasn’t Nick in the film?” more laughs ensued. (”We couldn’t afford him” was the reply, by the way.)

Pegg revealed that he and his “Dead/Fuzz” collaborator Edgar Wright have set their sights on their third movie in what is called their “Blood and Ice Cream” trilogy, and will start writing the script this fall. Sorry, guys, no details beyond that. Schwimmer, meanwhile, said the hardest part about making his debut was creatively and strategically turning the only 200 extras the low-budget production could afford into a thousand marathon runners and a hundred thousand cheering fans. (Borys Kit)

UPDATE: Read THR’s review of “Run, Fat Boy, Run”

People are talking about how the festival has grown, not just over time but even from last year, with more stars than ever and thus more parties than ever. One hot spot has always been the rooftop bar of the Park Hyatt, which on the weekend was filled with players, wannabes and stars such as Naomi Watts and Geoffrey Rush. The place was packed early, leaving many vets on the wrong side of the velvet rope. “We always got in last year, no matter what hour,” said one publicist. Of course, that didn’t stop some from trying their darndest. And if one couldn’t use their body to gain access, well, then they’d try to use somebody else’s.

“Don’t you know who I am?!,” said one belligerent one chap (yeah, he actually said that) to a bouncer on the weekend, trying to get access to the elevator. Now bouncers at this place aren’t like bouncers at clubs. These guys at the Hyatt are more normal folk, more “Canadian,” which means more nice. Still, you never know if they played hockey, so they could get tough.

“No I don’t sir,” said the bouncer, polite but firm. He had several more behind him, all quiet like, behind the rope. The chap, skinny and well-dressed in a suit, began describing impatiently and in the man’s grill who he was. A little bit drunk was what he was. The bouncer wasn’t letting him through.

“Do you know who Charlize Theron is?,” the man said, a combination of a whine and desperation and anger.

“Yes, sir, I do.”

“I will come here Monday night and bring Charlize Theron and she will sleep with you. I’m not lying. She will have sex with you.”

“That’s a very tempting offer sir but I would lose my job.”

The supplicant was turning red. “Don’t you understand? She will have SEX with you. I can guarantee it!” (Quite frankly, I wanted to know what Stuart Townsend, Theron’s boyfriend in town for his directorial debut “Battle in Seattle,” would have thought about this.)

The stand-off continued, with the guy begging to get in. When one girl tried to get in and was stopped, the bouncer said that only hotel guests could get up to the bar at this point. “Room keys only,” he shouted to those waiting to get in. This just lit a fire under our chap. “Fuck this. Fuck this then. I want a fuckin’ room,” he said to anyone who would listen. “I want a room now!,” Surprisingly, no one came. “Fuckin’ now!,” he spat. He would have bought the hotel if he could, that’s how desperate he was. (Borys Kit)

One of the biggest surprises of the festival so far is Fox Searchlight’s “Juno,” Jason Reitman’s heartfelt follow-up to his debut feature “Thank You for Smoking.” That movie did so well that “Juno” was superstitiously presented at the exact same place and time as “Smoking” screened, only two years later. The movie, which follows a teenage girl played by Ellen Page as she accidentally gets pregnant, deftly navigates a line between laughs and drama. While nothing like Fox Searchlight’s sensation of last year, “Little Miss Sunshine,” the movie is emotionally similar, and it’s nothing like the other high-profile Oscar-bait movies that have so far been showing here such as“No Country for Old Men,” “Michael Clayton” and “Into the Wild.” With one of the most original scripts of the year, watch for screenwriter Diablo Cody’s stock to rise. Don’t be surprised for an Oscar campaign for Ellen Page and maybe for some of the supporting cast like Allison Janney. Even the music, by Kimya Dawson, stands out. The movie also has classic Michael Cera, and should hopefully benefit from his turning into a star off of “Superbad.” Cera has turned into one of the most unlikely sex objects in ages, and at the Fox Searchlight party in Toronto’s cool Distillery District, he was never alone for too long.

The Oscar buzz campaign began right after the screening, when the cast was on stage for a Q&A, even if it came from a biased questioner. “I wonder if you’ve written your acceptance speech for the Oscars,” asked one gentleman of Reitman, pictured. Reitman shook his head, embarrassed, laughing as he said, “George Dubiecki, the father of my producing partner Dan Dubiecki, ladies and gentlemen.” (Borys Kit)

While star Charlize Theron was getting much of the attention from fans and media outside the premiere screening of boyfriend-filmmaker Stuart Townsend’s ensemble drama on the 1999 World Trade Organization riots, “Battle in Seattle” (pictured above), inside the Ryerson Theatre it was the movie’s politics that was in the sights of the audience. “It’s not an activist film,” said Townsend on stage with the cast after the screening. “I wanted to make a mainstream film, but what activists think is one of my main concerns.” This being Toronto, where issues on corners and street marches are common, many viewers were into the film. Some of the acquisitions people, though, were thinking its veering too much into activist territory may make it a hard sell. “It’s like a trailer for something bigger,” said actor Andre Benjamin, describing the movie and its issue, and his wanting to be involved in the project. Theron had less altruistic reasons for joining the cast. “I just wanted to sleep with the director,” she joked. (Borys Kit)

The acquisitions are heating up as the first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival unspools. The first big sale of the Toronto fest went to ThinkFilm and Canadian distributor TVA Films Saturday morning. The companies picked up U.S. and Canadian rights, respectively, to Helen Hunt’s directorial debut “Then She Found Me” (pictured above) starring Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, and Matthew Broderick, in a $2.5 to $3 million combo deal. In one of the first sales from the Toronto fest, IFC Entertainment picked up all North American rights to Baltasar Kormakur’s cop thriller “Jar City.”And The Weinstein Co. on Friday preemptively nabbed worldwide rights (excluding U.K. TV) to the Toronto fest entry “Boy A.” (Gregg Goldstein and Borys Kit)

New Line Cinema’s “Rendition,” Gavin Hood’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning “Tsotsi,” received a rousing standing ovation from the crowd at Roy Thompson Hall Friday night. Several “Bravos” were heard as were enthusiastic yells. The reaction contributed to Hood’s love for the festival, which began because his previous movie started its ascent here. It’s a feeling common to filmmakers whose films begin their awards journey in Toronto. “The one thing this festival does that is amazing is that it looks for something special in films no matter where they come from, be it from small countries to even Hollywood,” he joked.

His film does have its share of Hollywood stars — to help the movie’s politically-loaded subject matter go down more smoothly — and Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were on hand for a panel discussion at the Park Hyatt earlier in the day, then for premiere and the after-screening dinner at a swanky place called The Fifth. And while Toronto audiences love to star watch in a way that L.A. has forgotten, the paparazzi are a growing problem. Reese was the last to show up for the discussion because when her car showed up to a hotel entrance, her way was blocked by hordes of photogs so that she couldn’t get out; she had to circle the hotel until her people found a more discreet way in.

And then at night, photogs ran from the screening at Roy Thompson Hall, chasing her black Cadillac SUV on foot as it made its way to The Fifth. “She’s not in this one, she’s not in this one!,” yelled the one that got to the SUV first, when the doors opened and it became apparent a switcheroo worthy of a heist movie had been made. In the temporary confusion, Reese did show up in another black SUV and was quickly escorted into the building. Co-star Jake, on the other hand, had a way easier time getting in. (Borys Kit)

UPDATE: Read THR’s review of “Rendition”