Men Women and Children

It’s hard not to root for a guy like Dean Norris. After years of being a character actor in everything from ‘Terminator 2’ to ‘Police Academy 6: City Under Siege,’ everything changed after Norris was cast as an Albuquerque DEA agent named Hank Schrader in what would become one of the most successful television series of all time, ‘Breaking Bad...

The first batch of mainstream films about dating, romance, and seeking connection on the Internet – think ‘You’ve Got Mail,’ ‘Must Love Dogs,’ and even ‘Euro Trip’ – didn’t demonize the relatively new technology, they instead mined it as another way to illuminate and examine human relationships. For romantic comedies and more sex-fueled outings, the Internet simply provided a fresh place for its characters to meet cute. Yet, as the Internet has become more normalized in actual society, its portrayal on the big screen has gotten consistently more nefarious – meeting cute no longer seems probable, it doesn’t even really seem possible.

Jennifer Garner is extremely good at Catchphrase. The 'Men, Women & Children' actress hit 'The Tonight Show' last night to chat about a variety of things -- from her new film to, oops, that one time her entire family got head lice -- but she really hit her stride when it was time to play Catchphrase with host Jimmy Fallon.

It was interesting that when Jason Reitman and I discussed the recent merits of Adam Sandler – who stars in Reitman’s new film, ‘Men, Women & Children’ – Reitman turned the tables back on himself, mentioning the box office failure of ‘Labor Day.’ And, surprisingly, openly talking about the failures of ‘Labor Day.’ Reitman’s point is that even if it looks like Sandler might not care about a movie like, say, ‘Jack & Jill,’ Sandler still desperately cares about that movie. Because, as Reitman points out, people picked on ‘Labor Day,’ but that doesn’t mean Reitman wasn’t trying to make his best movie. Sure, that didn’t happen, but you don’t know until it’s made.

We got a first look at Jason Reitman's latest effort before TIFF 2014 with a non-speaking 'Men, Women & Children' trailer, but since it screened at the film festival to mixed reviews, a new one has, appropriately, debuted online.

On Thursday, the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off and this marks (along with Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival) that, yes, Oscar season just fired its starting gun. I will be headed to Toronto to cover the festival for ScreenCrush and, well, it's a little overwhelming. There are a lot of good movies! There's Benedict Cumberbatch playing WWII code breaker Alan Turing in 'The Imitation Game'; and Jake Gyllenhaal as a sleazy freelance photographer in 'Nightcrawler,' and Jon Stweart's directorial debut, 'Rosewater'; and the Cannes darling, 'Foxcatcher,' starring Channing Tatum, Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo. And two -- count 'em -- TWO Adam Sandler movies that just might signal his long-awaited return to, let's say, well reviewed films with 'The Cobbler' and Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women & Children.' Anyway, I can't decide on my own, so we enlisted the help of a slew of respected film journalists who are also headed to TIFF and asked them what it is they are all looking forward to seeing.

The internet, coupled with other technological advances, changed our lives in ways many of us don't even consider, and director Jason Reitman is tackling these issues and struggles in his upcoming film, 'Men, Women and Children.' The first trailer, appropriately void of dialogue in favor of online and textual interactions, is a dark look at what's to befall his cast of characters -- and potentially the rest of us -- in the internet age.