DailyCandy

The stars: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Chris Messina, and many others
The gist: Affleck directs the fluid, entertaining political thriller during which a group of CIA agents concocts a ruse to free six American hostages from Tehran during the Iranian revolution. The ruse? They’re posing as a Canadian film crew making a movie about a cosmic war called Argo. Lots of feathered hair, oversize spectacles, and Led Zeppelin.
The buzz: No one’s said a bad thing about it yet. The flick looks like prime Oscar meat.

(Photo Courtesy of TIFF.net)

The stars: Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham
The gist: The Zefron channels Cole Trickle to play Dean Whipple, a farm boy speed racer with daddy issues. From Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart) comes an American story with great writing, smart direction, and beautiful lighting, even if it is a little corny at times.
The buzz: Aside from Lee Daniels’s The Paperboy, we haven’t seen the Z-man in an R-rated flick. He drops the F-bomb, plays with guns, and gets frisky with an older local (Graham) — awkward.

(Photo Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

The stars: Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, and Javier Bardem
The gist: A couple falls in love in France and out of love in the States. Similar to The Tree of Life (same concept, same crew), Terrence Malick’s follow-up settles in the windy plains of Oklahoma, where the actors whisper their lines, Emmanuel Lubezki’s camera floats through classic Americana, and Hanan Townshend’s score sets the tone.
The buzz: The Texas director was nowhere to be found. But his wife was. And she made a pretty odd statement about 9/11 at the film’s premiere on the tragedy’s eve (Google it).

(Photo Courtesy of TIFF.net)

The stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Ben Wishaw, and many others
The gist: The Wachowski sibs of The Matrix fame and Perfume director Tom Tykwer adapt David Mitchell’s gimongous novel for the screen. Several big-name actors play several mind-boggling roles over a span of 500 or so years. It’s incredibly ambitious, fascinating to watch, and an experience everyone will get something different from. For us, we love wedding cake, but we don’t want to eat all five tiers — in one sitting.
The buzz: Standing ovation on premiere night. We hear Chi-Town residents will get to live the tale a whole week before the rest of the country; it’s the Centerpiece for the Chicago International Film Festival.

The stars: Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins, and Josh Gad
The gist: The men are not all right in screenwriter Stuart Blumberg’s funny and naughty directorial debut. They’re addicted to sex but trying to clean up their act — or as Tim Robbins as Mike so eloquently puts it, “It’s like trying to quit crack, while the pipe’s attached to your body.”
The buzz: Blumberg makes sex addiction look like alcoholism’s hot older brother. Critics are calling it the funnyman’s Shame.

(Photo Courtesy of TIFF.net)

The stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Holland
The gist: The Orphanage director J. A. Bayona’s English-language Spanish production tells one family’s true story of battling the Indian Ocean tsunami that wiped out Thailand. And it hit us like a tidal wave — no joke. Bayona’s technical recreation of the churning water monster is terrifying. It’s horror without the gimmick, drama without the melo. And those heartstrings, they’re a’tugged.
The buzz: Critics’ reviews are split. Some hail the Spaniard; others accuse him of drowning the picture in melodrama and are irked he used English actors to tell a Spanish family’s story. To this he says, “Why English? If you need $50 million to make a movie, it’s what you do.”

(Photo Courtesy of TIFF.net)

The stars: Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Rose Byrne, Ray Liotta, and Ben Mendelsohn
The gist: Blue Valentine’s lookalike team, Derek Cianfrance and Ryan Gosling, reunites for the director’s TIFF premiere. This one about three interconnected stories — all stemming from one particular bottle-blond, tatted-up motorcycle stuntman who does bad things for the good of his family.
The buzz: It’s really growing on critics (and us) and attracted the likes of Focus Features, which bought rights to the film. We’re looking at a 2013 release.

(Photo Courtesy of TIFF.net)