Natalie Portman, Danny McBride, James Franco and Zooey Deschanel star in a medieval sword-and-sorcery spoof that strays often into beyond-kinky territory — and plays it so resolutely straight that the profane seems downright divine.

I’ve been acting since I was 11. I’ve gotten to have so many amazing experiences and work with so many amazing people that it’s been sort of a school for me. Having the opportunity to go to university, … [I realized that] I wanted to take advantage of everything I could. And psychology seemed also a way where I could learn things that would be eventually helpful to my acting career without actually taking acting classes.

— Natalie Portman, on going to Harvard University to study psychology, in an interview on Fresh Air 11/30/10.

Natalie Portman on ballet: “As a child, I idealized [ballet] because, as a little girl, you just think of it as this pretty, light, delicate and feminine thing. You see how much darker the world is when you’re immersed in it.”

Natalie Portman and Zach Galifianakis in Between Two Ferns

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Tomorrow: Natalie Portman. Vincent Cassell.

Next week: Natalie Portman

Ann Marie Baldonado: Oscar Shoo-Ins at the Toronto Film Festival

Oscar shoo-ins are continually mentioned at the Toronto Film Festival.  Who are the shoo-ins for Oscar nominations from the films this year?

Some names that people are talking about?  Natalie Portman in Black Swan.  Javier Bardem in Biutiful.  And Colin Firth in The King’s Speech.

The King’s Speech, directed by Tom Hooper (of the HBO series John Adams) is based on the real story of King George VI, the father of the current Queen, Elizabeth II, who became King after his brother abdicated the throne.  

The King lived with a stutter that prevented him from giving public addresses, and this inability to speak made him a very reluctant ruler.  Enter speech therapist Lionel Logue, who begins to get results with the would-be king and manages to befriend him, despite the difference in their standing.  Sounds exactly like the kind of film that would do well at the Oscars, huh?  Well the audiences are loving this film here.  

And they are not wrong.  Colin Firth really does give an excellent, nuanced performance. And Firth is certainly on a roll, since he was nominated last year for his work in A Single Man, which was purchased here in Toronto last year by the Weinstein Company.  Geoffrey Rush may also get a nod, for his turn as the therapist.  

Speaking in a Q & A after one of the screenings, Firth, Rush, and director Tom Hooper, attribute the on-screen chemistry between the two actors to the three week preparation period they had before filming began.  Apparently, such prep time is rare.  

That prep will probably pay off the beginning of 2011, when those Oscar nominations are announced.