Continuing on with our first look image series, tonight we've got the first images from director Malcolm Venville's Henry's Crime (which stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Danny Hoch, and Fisher Stevens) and more images from Mike Goldbach's Daydream Nation (which stars Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, and Rachel Blanchard).  Synopses and more info after the jump:

While I'll agree that Keanu Reeves isn't the best actor, I think he gets more shit than he deserves.  Personally, I've really enjoyed a lot of his movies and will usually check out whatever he's doing…I stress the word usually, because even I wouldn't see The Lake House.

Anyway, his new film, Henry's Crime, premieres at the Toronto Film Festival. Here's the synopsis:

After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, an amiable but aimless man decides to rob the bank for real. His plan involves infiltrating a local theatre company, but his scheme gets complicated when he falls for the company’s lead actress. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens, Peter Stormare, Danny Hoch and Bill Duke.

While this sounds like a small character piece, with the cast involved, I'm looking forward to checking it out next month.

The other film we've got images for is Daydream Nation.  Just a week or so ago we posted the first trailer and it looked nothing like what I expected.  While the images further down the page are nothing special, Daydream Nation is another film on my radar at TIFF.

And if you missed our previous first look images articles, here’s a few links:

Henry's Crime (info and images via TIFF's website)

  • Country: USA
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: English
  • Producer: Lemore Syvan
  • Executive Producer: Scott Fischer, Cassian Elwes, Lisa Wilson, Alison Palmer, Peter Graham, Stephen Hays, Sacha Gervasi
  • Screenplay: Sacha Gervasi, David White
  • Runtime: 108
  • Principle Cast: Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Danny Hoch, Fisher Stevens
  • Director: Malcolm Venville
  • Producer: Lemore Syvan
  • Executive Producer: Scott Fischer, Cassian Elwes, Lisa Wilson, Alison Palmer, Peter Graham, Stephen Hays, Sacha Gervasi
  • Cinematographer: Paul Cameron
  • Editor: Curtiss Clayton
  • Sound: Christof Gebert
  • Production Designer: Chris Jones

Daydream Nation (info and images via TIFF's website)

In this striking and slyly funny debut by filmmaker Mike Goldbach, a young woman (Kat Dennings) is uprooted to a small town where her classmates seem permanently stoned, an industrial fire burns ceaselessly in the background and a killer preys on the unsuspecting populace. The film also stars Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, Reece Thompson and Rachel Blanchard.

  • director Mike Goldbach
  • Country: Canada
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: English
  • Producer: Christine Haebler, Trish Dolman, Jennifer Weiss, Simone Urdl
  • Executive Producer: Cameron Lamb, Tim J. Brown, Sam Maydew, Aaron L. Gilbert
  • Screenplay: Mike Goldbach
  • Runtime: 98
  • Principle Cast: Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, Rachel Blanchard
  • Director: Mike Goldbach
  • Producer: Christine Haebler, Trish Dolman, Jennifer Weiss, Simone Urdl
  • Executive Producer: Cameron Lamb, Tim J. Brown, Sam Maydew, Aaron L. Gilbert
  • Cinematographer: Jon Joffin
  • Editor: Jamie Alain
  • Sound: Nelson Ferreira
  • Production Designer: Renee Read
  • Canadian Disstributor: eOne Films

Here's the full description:

Only seventeen years old, Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) is facing a teenager’s nightmare: her widowed father has moved from the city to a tiny, nowhere town where the major tourist attraction is an industrial fire that seems destined to burn forever. Everyone under the age of nineteen is permanently stoned. Concocting new ways of getting high is a major hobby for most of Caroline’s classmates, including the lovelorn Thurston (Reece Thompson), who falls for Caroline the minute he lays eyes on her, although she’s more interested in someone else. And then there’s the minor inconvenience of a killer running around the neighborhood.

Visually arresting, slyly funny and boasting its share of chills, Daydream Nation is a smart debut from Mike Goldbach (who co-wrote Don McKellar’s Childstar). An astute and frequently comic account of adolescent confusion and angst, the film exposes the wide rift between the adult and the adolescent worlds. No parent really knows how out of control their children are, but the adults in this world don’t seem to possess any more maturity than their juniors.

Daydream Nation is driven by a stellar performance by Dennings as a girl who’s too smart to get sucked into teenaged melodrama, but has only a tenuous hold on her temper. The film is propelled by Caroline’s voice-over, a potent mix of sarcasm, naïveté and confusion. Dennings is supported by a magnificent cast which includes Josh Lucas, Ted Whittall, Katie Boland, Rachel Blanchard and Andie MacDowell as Thurston’s overwhelmed but sharp single mother.

Goldbach subtly and effectively overlays genres here; initially, the film is an exposé of adolescent life, using suspense elements to invest the characters’ dilemmas with gravitas. The principal characters may be young, but their decisions are fateful. Daydream Nation announces the presence of a skilful and exciting new voice on the Canadian film scene.

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