Posts by Wesley Morris

September 18, 2013
Do You Like Prince Movies? Podcast: The Toronto International Film Festival and Arsenio Hall

Wesley accidentally stalks famous people, while Alex just heckles them. Also: the Toronto Film Festival, and why it’s great but weird to have Arsenio Hall back on TV. Listen to the podcast here: ESPN.com Podcenter. Subscribe to Grantland Pop Culture on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
September 16, 2013
Hot Mess: The Broadcast of Miss America in 2014

If you use your television regularly, Sunday nights are pretty much spoken for: Revenge, Hollywood Exes, the final episodes of Dexter and Breaking Bad, showings of Breaking Amish: LA, Sunday Night Football, Major League Baseball, Love It or List It, Too, Boardwalk Empire, Big Brother, Devious Maids,, Sister Wives, Bad Ink, Cutthroat Kitchen, Duck Dynasty, […]
September 13, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: Nicolas Cage’s Face, Woody Allen the Pimp, and Jessica Chastain in Something Fantastic

My last handful of movies has brought me to a terrible conclusion about a very specific aspect of life. Nicolas Cage has a head and face and hair that no longer belong anywhere before the year 2150. Above the neck, he’s all science fiction now. It’s not his crazy face, not the way his acting […]
September 12, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: Scarlett Johansson, Space Aliens, and Jesse Eisenberg vs. Jesse Eisenberg

These are the last days of this festival, and they’re quiet. The cross-checking and confusion has dissipated. The odds of attaining a ticket to a public event or a seat at a press screening are vastly improved. You know what to see and what to avoid — and knowing that is the difference between having […]
September 11, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: Kate Winslet Near Her Worst, Sandra Bullock at Her Best

Most people come to Toronto looking for the best the movies can do. Many films will reach for greatness. Few will attain it. Then there are movies that don’t even reach. They’re armless! This year one of those movies asks you to believe Kate Winslet as a shut-in single mother who comes out of her […]
September 10, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: 9-1-1 Calls and the Eco-Terrorism of Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning

By now you might have heard the big news out of Toronto yesterday. A blogger called 9-1-1 to report someone using a phone during a new Ti West horror movie. That was not big news in Toronto. It never came up in any conversation. But there’s time. (For the record, when a moviegoer uses a […]
September 9, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: Oscar Tyranny, Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix, and Our Lord and Savior Matthew McConaughey

When this vast, important film festival — street name: “TIFF” — moved its hub to downtown Toronto, it was a win. The streets are smaller. The food is better. And so are the multiplexes and nightlife. There are also fewer businesspeople to trip over and protests to avoid. (I’m not kidding: I have missed the […]
September 6, 2013
Toronto Film Festival Diary: Cumberbitching About Freedom of Information in The Fifth Estate

Those who don’t plan on seeing movies at the Toronto International Film Festival do plan on seeing stars. That plan includes loitering at the airport, spending the day positioned behind guardrails, and doing that thing where you pretend to be totally cool when you recognize someone famous at a deli or Foot Locker or crossing […]
September 6, 2013
Scrambled Egos

Vin Diesel plays his spirit animal. Plus: the controversial new J.D. Salinger documentary.
September 3, 2013
Fall Movie Preview: Summer Is Over, Thank the Sweet Lords of Hollywood

I’m not psychic — stop it; I’m not! — but I’m predicting right now that the summer of 2015 will look vastly different from the one we just suffered through. (Summer of 2014 is pretty much all booked. Sorry.) There will certainly be your Batman-Superman mega-movies, but I’m guessing there will be fewer of them […]

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