Detroit native Mike Binder's Black and White MIS Hollywood North Toronto Film Festival brims with Jewish-related features and documentaries. Here are some highlights. Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News T his year's Toronto International Film Festival will run Sept. 4-14, with screenings of more than 300 films from more than 60 countries in almost a dozen theaters scattered through- out Metropolitan Toronto. The 2014 festi- val offers an astonishing number of festival films with a Jewish connection — writers, directors, actors and/or themes. Here, briefly described, we spotlight some of these films in the two marquee festival categories — "galas" (films with major stars and a red carpet premiere) and "special presentations" (high-profile premieres) — as well as less high-profile offerings from contemporary world cin- ema (narrative feature films with "a com- pelling story") and notable documentaries. Gala Guide Black and White stars Kevin Costner as the maternal grandfather of a biracial child. The child's paternal grandmother, an African-American, disputes his cus- tody. This film was written and directed by former Detroiter Mike Binder. Boychoir is a drama in which a troubled 11-year-old clashes with the choirmas- ter (Dustin Hoffman) of a fancy music school. Debra Winger co-stars. Foxcatcher, for which Capote direc- tor Bennett Miller and writer Dan Futterman once again team up, is based on the true story about the troubled rela- tionship between two Olympic wrestling champs (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo) and a neurotic millionaire (Steve Carrell). Map to the Stars is a very acerbic look at Hollywood life, directed by David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises). Pawn Sacrifice, a docu-drama directed by Edward Zwick, recounts the famous 1972 world chess championship match that pitted Russian Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) against American Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire). Ruth and Alex co-stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton as a long- married couple forced to consider selling their Brooklyn apartment. Alysia Reiner and former Detroiter Miriam Shor have supporting roles. Samba, a French film about a recent migrant to France who fights to stay with the help of a rookie immigration officer (Charlotte Gainsbourg), was written and co-directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, Sephardic Jews whose parents fled Algeria and Morocco, respectively. This is Where I Leave You, directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) and the most Jewish film among the big- budget features, is based on a 2009 novel of the same name by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the screenplay. The plot: The four combative siblings of the Altman family (changed from "Foxman" in the novel) reunite at their childhood home after their father dies for a week of sitting shivah (the siblings are played by Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll; Jane Fonda plays their Jewish mother). Special Presentations 99 Homes stars Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) as an unemployed construction worker so desperate to save his family home that he joins an unscru- pulous realtor in foreclosing on poor people. American Heist is about two brothers (Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen) with troubled pasts who become embroiled in a high-stakes bank robbery. Cake, directed by Daniel Barnz, stars Jennifer Aniston as a woman in a chronic- pain support group who begins to investi- gate the suicide of a fellow group member (Anna Kendrick) and develops an unex- pected relationship with the dead woman's husband. Clouds of Sils Maria, a French film written and directed by Oliver Assayas, stars Juliet Binoche as a veteran stage star who leans on her assistant (Kristen Stewart) as she jousts with a younger actress. The Cobbler stars Adam Sandler as a lonely N.Y.C. shoe repairman who discov- ers a major heirloom that allows him to walk in another man's shoes. This fantasy co-stars Dustin Hoffman and Ellen Barkin. The Humbling, directed by Barry Levinson from a 2009 Philip Roth novel of the same name, stars Al Pacino as a former star actor whose talent has faltered. Things get complicated when he enters into affairs with younger women. Co-stars include Kyra Sedgwick and Charles Grodin. The Keeping Room is about three Southern young women (one played by Hailee Steinfeld) who are left on an iso- lated farm at the end of the Civil War and have to fight off some murderous Yankee soldiers. Madame Bovary, an adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic novel, stars Mia Wasikowska as the disgruntled provincial wife yearning to breathe free and co-stars Ezra Miller as one of her lovers. Manglehorn stars Al Pacino as a quirky small-town locksmith who tries to start his life over again with the help of a new friend (Holly Hunter). Harmony Korine, the director of Spring Breakers, has a big supporting role. Men, Women and Children, directed by Jason Reitman and co-starring Adam Sandler, offers a poignant look at the many ways the Internet has changed the relationships between teenagers and their parents. Mr. Turner, directed by Mike Leigh, is a British film about the famous 19th-cen- tury British painter, J.M.W. Turner (played by Timothy Spall). My Old Lady, directed and written by Israel Horovitz based on his play, stars Kevin Kline as a Jewish New Yorker trying to sell the Paris apartment he inherited. His plans are delayed by the apartment's tenants, played by Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas. Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a drifter and petty thief who picks up a camera and scours the city for gruesome crime-scene footage he can sell. Rosewater marks the directorial debut of Jon Stewart of The Daily Show fame. It recounts the true story of Iranian- Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari (played by Gael Garcia Bernal), whose appearance on Stewart's show in 2009 precipitated his five-month imprisonment by the Iranian government. Phoenix is a German film that takes place in ravaged postwar Berlin. Nelly, a Jewish concentration camp survivor, has facial reconstructive surgery after the war and begins to search for her (non-Jewish) husband. She finds him, but he doesn't recognize her. But because she resembles his wife, who he believes dead, he asks her to impersonate his wife so he can claim her big inheritance. She agrees because she needs to know if her husband ever loved her, or if he betrayed her to the Nazis. The Reach stars Michael Douglas as a high-rolling corporate shark who plays a most dangerous game with his impover- ished young guide during a hunting trip in the Mojave Desert. The Search, a French film directed by Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), tells about the terrible face of war as experienced by a 9-year-old Chechen orphan and a teen Russian soldier during the 1999 Russian invasion of the break- away republic. A Second Chance, a Danish film direct- ed by Oscar winner Susanne Bier, is about a veteran police officer, with a new wife and baby, who makes a fateful decision regarding some drug-addict parents. Shelter co-stars Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie as homeless people on the streets of New York who find solace and strength in each other. Still Alice, co-directed by Richard Glatzer, stars Julianne Moore as a suc- cessful Columbia University professor who struggles to maintain her mind and self after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Time Out of Mind, directed by Oren Moverman, stars Richard Gere as a New York man forced into a homeless shelter who tries to reconnect with his estranged Hollywood North on page 68 JN August 28 • 2014 63