My friend Emanuel Pereira came into Toronto from Vancouver to see two films on which he was post-supervisor working with Brightlight Pictures who, consequently, have their first two films ever in the Toronto Film Festival.

Tonight we saw “American Venus” starring Rebecca de Mornay as a freakishly control-crazy mother and Jane McGregor who plays her anxiety-ridden but highly sympathetic daughter.

Pic starts off as a dark comedy in the spirit of American Psycho before taking a more serious turn that examines topics – addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety and depression and type A domination over another.

The film’s score sounds like a direct Thomas Newman lift, which was my primary complaint seeing as the title already feels derivative of the Allan Ball pic. The other point of contention however – the unusual, deliberate pacing of the scenes, where the simple act of going through a stack of cheques unfolds as it would, rather than time-cutting, ultimately won me over.

Rebecca de Mornay gives a tour de force performance. She digs in and commits fully – giving us full reason to believe that she indeed is addicted to unloading a mag from a 40 .cal just because it helps calm her nerves, and will go to any length to get her fix, even in a place like Canada where getting hold of a gatt isn’t so easy.

Jane McGregor, as her daughter is heart-achingly fragile and ever so lovely. I can’t to see more from her as her star inevitably rises.

All in all, an engaging and unconventional perspective on an old idea, I’d tell friends to put down a ten piece for it. 3.5/5

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Monday we go see Manny’s other pic from Brightlight – “They Wait” – a psych thriller featuring James King (oops, it’s Jamie now).

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – I auditioned for the role of Robert Ford while I was shooting the L Word in Vancouver. I wanted it something firece. Lost the part to a better man. But this one will do well, I think. Of course because of Brad Pitt, but it’s a solid script and a great take on an old legend. Top five for buzz at this festival.

Lars and the Real Girl - I think the journalist who implied Ryan Gosling might smell Oscar hype over a role wherein he is myopically in love with a silicon blow up doll is a bit of a reach, but I certainly must believe that director Craig Gillespie must have done something right. Yep you guessed it – I read for this part as well, when I was shooting “Cake” with Heather Graham in Toronto back in 2004. I don’t think I quite understood how this was going to play – as a Farrelly Bros. comedy or as a straight piece like Edward Scissorhands. I am hearing it’s somewhere in between. Worth checking out either way. High on the buzz meter at the fest among critics.

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Tags: American Venus, Brightlight Pictures, Edward Scissorhands, Rebecca de Mornay, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival