On a bright Toronto Morning, The Wrestler's director Darren Aronofsky still can't quite wrap his head around his past week: "It's been wild. Look, we started shooting in January; we finished the film five days ago. I was in Venice four days ago, with no buzz; three days ago, we won the Golden Lion out of nowhere, and two days ago, we showed it at Toronto and sold it to Fox Searchlight, so everything changed in five days. ..." Cinematical spoke with Aronofsky about the world of '80s wrestling, the unique possibilities and challenges inherent in working with Mickey Rourke, custom-crafting an old-school Nintendo game on an indie budget, punching up political commentary in post-production and more. ...

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Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is surely one of the fall's most enigmatic releases -- and one of the most eagerly awaited. Bad Taste got hold of the first production stills from the film, and it looks every bit as creepy and moody as you'd expect from the man behind Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain (which was awesome despite its generally negative reception).

The movie is about a retired professional wrestler, played by Mickey Rourke, who is trying to survive on the small-time independent wrestling circuit. It sounds campy, but I think it's more likely to be grim -- I've read some stories about that scene (anyone else read Swan Song by Robert McCammon?) and it sounds, if anything, awfully depressing. These photos confirm that, I think, as does the fact that Clint Mansell is once again writing the musical score.

The movie premieres in Venice next month, then Toronto shortly thereafter. It doesn't have a US distributor yet, but I'm guessing that won't last long. Check out a couple more photos (including one featuring Marisa Tomei as a stripper) in the gallery below, then see the rest over at Bad Taste.

Right off the bat, I have issues with this list. Not so much for the fact that almost all of the films are sci-fi horror/thrillers, but because they left off a film with such a depressing ending that it still haunts me to this day. But first off, Den of Geek has compiled a list of what they feel are the 10 most depressing movie endings ever. Before you click over and check them out, be warned that massive amounts of spoilers await you. Here's their top ten: Soylent Green, The Elephant Man, The Descent, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Spider, Nineteen-Eighty Four, A.I. and -- drum roll please for number one -- The Mist.

Yes, valid points are made on all of them. Yes, they are depressing. But what about The Last American Virgin? Now there's a film with the most depressing ending I've ever seen (and if you've watched that film, you know exactly what I'm talking about). Off the top of my head, No Country for Old Men had a pretty depressing ending -- as did Goodfellas. There's Untamed Heart, Venus, Requiem for a Dream -- pretty much any film where someone is dying of an illness, but gets one last chance at love. Though it served as a bridge film, I thought Empire Strikes Back had a pretty depressing ending. Check out their list, then tell us which films were left off.

In your opinion, which film has the most depressing ending of all time? (Dammit, now I have The Last American Virgin ending stuck in my head. Sigh.)

UPDATE: Here's another list from our friend Alex on the 15 Bleakest Film Endings of All Time. A lot of the films you folks talked about in the comments are on his list, so hop on over and check it out.

The strike is over, the Oscars are going on as planned, and there will be inevitable cries of fury and outrage towards at least some of the winners. The Academy always shocks and disappoints us with at least a few of the picks, and no matter how much I prepare myself to be bummed, I still wind up surprised. Honestly, I usually just watch it masochistically to get my fill of obituary sadness.

There have been 79 Oscar ceremonies, and that's a lot of disappointment and upset. So really, you can just zoom into any year and pick a few really worthy losers that should have scored themselves those coveted trophies. Me, I'm picking a few recent ones. One win was sad, and the other was completely infuriating, but both stick with me because of performances given, the actors who gave them, and the wonder of the films themselves. Instead of adding more glory to the winners, we should give the losers the appreciation they deserve. This week -- Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story and Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream.

Check both out after the jump ...

The Onion AV Club is unquestionably my favorite entertainment-focused website (other than Cinematical, of course!). Their outstanding coverage of all things pop culture suggests an indie-leaning Entertainment Weekly, and I consider that a very good thing. They always do a great weekly list, and one of their recent offerings is no exception. Check out "Not Again: 24 Great Films Too Painful to Watch Twice." The first movie I thought of when I saw that title was Requiem for a Dream, so it's fitting that they put it in the #1 spot (not sure if these are in order of "most painful" or not). I saw Requiem for a Dream in college -- on a double date! So imagine not only suffering through one of the toughest movies of all time in a theater, but suffering through it with a hyperventilating girl you're trying to get to first base with! Needless to say, it didn't work out.

Though I don't think it's a "great film" by any stretch of the imagination, I can certainly see why Irreversible (#13 on the list) was included. I don't know if I physically could stomach that one a second time. I remember convincing my friends to come see it with me by telling them "It's supposed to be just like Memento!" It was not just like Memento. I still shudder when I walk past a fire extinguisher. I must be a masochist, because I either would watch or have watched several of the movies on their list more than once -- United 93, Million Dollar Baby, Audition, Leaving Las Vegas, etc. There's a lot of good rental ideas for those with a taste for challenging fare, so fire up your Netflix queue and head on over to the link. Just don't plan any parties around these flicks! How about you guys, what is a great film you could never sit through a second time?

Were you lucky enough to catch The Fountain over the weekend? It seems like everyone else was shuffling their Happy Feet or playing at the Casino Royale, but I slipped into a half empty (what a shame) theater and caught this beautiful film. I was pretty glad I missed Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, because I was in the mood for something a little more somber. But don't worry, later this week after a couple of beers, I'll be getting my fill of Jack Black and Kyle Gass.

Darren Aronofsky's 1998 film Pi was one of those movies that hit me in the stomach and made me actually think about the world, and stayed with me for years afterwards. Movies like that are extremely rare these days, and when one comes along you want to latch onto it and encourage everyone to go see it. Unfortunately, when I told my friends that I was going to see The Fountain this weekend, they all responded with a collective: "Huh?" Most of them hadn't heard about the film, and after I mentioned that Hugh Jackman was in it, others said, "Oh right, is that the movie about magic?"

This is what happens when advertising for quality films are choked out of the public eye by zillions of previews for Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj and posters reminding you that American Idol will be back on the airwaves soon. Chances are that you never saw the poster for The Fountain as a result. Thanks to FirstShowing.net, you can actually own one to frame and hang on your wall. They are giving away 15 copies of the poster, and all you have to do is answer three very simple questions about the film. Enter now, and then rush off to see this movie before it vanishes from the theaters forever. This one needs to be seen on a big screen with a great sound system.

I'll admit that I haven't seen director Darren Aronofsky's film The Fountain ... yet. I am, however, very excited about seeing it because of his previous work on films like Pi and Requiem for a Dream, and because all the buzz seems to indicate this film is definitely worth seeing. That said, some of you may have already seen it and might have questions or are otherwise confused about the film in some way. Or, you may want a little primer to aid in your understanding when you do eventually see it.

No matter if you already saw The Fountain or plan to do so in the future, a recent article form the New York Times will hopefully help you interpret, comprehend or answer some of your questions about the film. The biggest problem with The Fountain, according to the article, is how to understand a film, which is sort of a love story about time travel and a man's eternal quest to save his wife's life, that even its writer/director describes as a puzzle? "You have to pay attention; everything is a clue for later," said Aronofsky in the article, "You always hear that people want to see something different. Then you give them something different, and they don't know how to deal with it.

The article then goes on to explain that in an unusual move, Aronofsky sent his screenplay to a group of artists, many known for their work in comic books and graphic novels, for their help in interpreting his film and explaining it to audiences. He did this because, according to the director, The Fountain is similar in many ways to the structure of a graphic novel. "The first 60 pages, you don't really know what's going on, but then it starts to focus. I think a lot of the artists responded to that," said Aronofsky in the article.

So, what was the result when these artists attempted to interpret and explain his film? Eleven different visions of what the movie is all about. The studio will use the illustrations created by these artists to promote The Fountain on the film's official website until its release on November 22. But thanks to me (and the New York Times) you can see them now. To be honest, I looked at them and I don't know if they helped me or not. They were definitely unusual and well done but as an aid in understanding the film -- I just don't know. Maybe they'll do better for some of you. Either way, do you think this kind of thing helps when promoting a film or is it pretty much a waste of time?

Making fake trailers is hard enough, but movie mash-ups are something else entirely. With live-action films, it's damn hard, because you're restricted to what the figures on screen are actually saying, and any attempt to join one movie's images with the audio of another will usually result in editing that is necessarily so rapid as to be seizure-inducing. And who's going to want to watch that? When you're working with animation, however, it's a different story. Sure, when the characters are talking, their words seem to sync perfectly with their mouths. But admit it - if you mute Finding Nemo, you really can't read Dory's fishlips. Right?

So, using that fact to his advantage, someone has put together a trailer for a movie called Toy Story 2: Requiem, which combinines the audio from Requiem for a Dream with visuals from Toy Story 2. Though the sound is a bit muddy at times, it's pretty good - who knew that cute little Yodeling Cowgirl was a junkie?