Seth Rogen

Actor/producer Seth Rogen (R) with actress Lauren Miller arriving at "50/50" Premiere at Ryerson Theatre during the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Sarjoun Faour Photography/Getty Images)

Talked to Seth Rogen this morning. The dude is so Seth Rogen. That’s a good thing.
He has two films here in Toronto. One is a personal project — he produces, it’s based on his experience with a friend — called “50/50.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a twentysomething who finds out he has a potentially fatal form of cancer: His chances are 50/50. Rogen plays his best friend, and the film is both surprisingly funny and touching.
I told Rogen I could count cancer comedies on two fingers: “50/50″ and “Funny People,” which Rogen did with Adam Sandler (Sandler’s best movie by me). I asked if he’d considered branching out to diabetes and heart disease. He said he’d found his niche: “Guy Ritchie does gangster comedies, I do cancer comedies.”

Rogen’s other film is Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz” which has major buzz, and I hear it’s a turn toward the serious (but not too serious) for Rogen. Polley, a Canadian, is a goddess in Toronto, but that also has to do with her having one of the best track records as actress and director in the business. It stars Michelle Williams (talk about track records), can’t wait to see it.

Best thing I saw today — and it’s just watching movies for me from here on out — was “Hysteria,” a period piece starring Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal about the invention of the, uh, personal massage vibrating machine for the relief of female tensions in Victorian England. An amazing true story, a sweet and funny film. Onwards.