37th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Seven
September 12th, 2012 – by Ian Evans
Octavia Spencer, James Ponsoldt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jennifer Cochis at the Smashed premiere. ©2012 DigitalHit.com. All rights reserved. Photographer: Ian Evans
Day seven of the Festival found us at Ryerson University for James Ponsoldt’s Smashed, which stars Octavia Spencer and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Winstead plays Kate, a functioning alcoholic whose drinking is endangering her teaching career. Participating in a twelve-step program, Jenny (Octavia Spencer) becomes her sponsor, but the road to recovery is made difficult by the fact that Kate’s husband is not ready to face his addiction as well. Spencer had high praise for director and co-writer James Ponsoldt. She told reporters she was a huge fan of art representing life. She said that Mary’s character had a coming-of-age moment as an adult and that’s not often something we see in the movies though so many people go through that experience.
It was then off to the Elgin for Rhino Season. Written and directed by Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, Rhino Season’s love story spans three decades, beginning during Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Actress Belcim Bilgin said on the red carpet that the film had a beautiful visual look, very poetic, but it was also disturbing. She hoped that audiences would see it to try and understand the situation in Iran.