By Stu Robinson,

Casting is the big factor behind my screening choices for this weekend’s Scottsdale International Film Festival.

I love the TV science-fiction drama Orphan Black on BBC America, so the fanboy in me can’t wait to see its talented star, Tatiana Maslany, opposite Academy Award-winner Richard Dreyfuss in Cas & Dylan.

Tatiana Maslany and Richard Dreyfuss hit the road in Cas & Dylan. – SIFF

Directed by Jason Priestly (Beverly Hills, 90210 and Call Me Fitz), the Canadian film looks like another road movie with mismatched protagonists supposedly learning valuable lessons from each other. That’s a well-trod path; just off the top of my head, I think of The Sure Thing (1985), Midnight Run (1988), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Zombieland (2009) and, most recently, 2012’s The Guilt Trip.

But Maslany has made smart choices so far in her brief career, and her portrayal of multiple clones – with different looks, personalities, accents and even genders – have earned her back-to-back Critics Choice Awards and a Golden Globe nomination. I’m hoping her youth and intensity will bring out the best in Dreyfuss, who won the Best Actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl in 1977 but last starred in a big hit with Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995). (Full disclosure: I loved Dreyfuss in 1988’s Moon over Parador.) Priestly also has a history of quirky projects, so I am gambling that Cas & Dylan won’t be “just another” anything.

Laggies stars Keira Knightley as Megan, a not-so-young adult held back by her lack of a vision for her future. I can relate to that premise; I’m 20 years older than her character and still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. In a last-ditch effort to hide from maturity, she takes refuge in the home of 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz). But that also puts her in the adult orbit of Annika’s single dad, Craig (Sam Rockwell).

The blurb for Listen Up Philip calls the film “idiosyncratic.” It stars Jason Schwartzman, which seems to square with that description. Schwartzman plays the titular Philip, an author. But just like the unsuccessful Megan in Laggies, the successful Philip seeks a refuge for the complexities of his life. He retreats to a friend’s isolated country home – which, to me, sounds a lot like the premise of Swimming Pool (2003). But Schawrtzman is an interesting actor, and Listen Up Philip surrounds him with Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter and Eric Bogosian.

I have little interest in contemporary dance, the ostensible topic of Match. But the cast – Sir Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard – compelled me to buy a ticket. Stewart is simply an icon at this point. Gugino has won my affection with a good body of television work, plus the movie Sin City (2005). But it’s Lillard who has transformed his career in the last few years. After a forgettable string of teen and/or stoner movies, Lillard has taken a sharp turn toward serious work. He popped up in The Descendants (2011) as the guy who was having an affair with George Clooney’s wife. And for the last two years, he has portrayed alcoholic reporter Daniel Frye, one of the most compelling characters on FX’s The Bridge.

The one-night adventure in an strange location is almost as cliche as the road movie. So what sold me on seeing Layover? On one hand, it evokes Tom Hanks’ The Terminal (2004) and Clooney’s Up in the Air (2009). I may just be fascinated by airports. But then there is the after-dark danger and romance of unknown people and places. You might think of Before Sunrise (1995) and its sequels, but I think of a unique indie picture called Falling Overnight (2011) that I saw at the Phoenix Film Festival a few years ago.

Also Playing

When I interviewed actor Charles Baker (Breaking Bad) in December on the set of his forthcoming film Eleven Eleven, he was excited about his recent work a movie called Wild, which stars Reese Witherspoon and is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyer’s Club). That film, which pits a messed-up woman against the wilderness, has drawn a lot of film-festival buzz and is the SIFF’s closing-night feature.

The Imitation Game features Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness and Sherlock) as Alan Turing, the brilliant British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist involved in cracking the German Enigma Code during World War II.

Elsa and Fred stars Oscar winners Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment) as seniors who find love, while Drunktown’s Finest offers three stories of life in the Navajo Nation, which comprises parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The SIFF runs through Monday at the Harkins Shea 14 on Shea Boulevard just east of Scottsdale Road.

Meanwhile …

The Phoenix Film Festival is staging a Fall Film Showcase Monday through Thursday at the Harkins Scottsdale 101.

Why the Monday overlap? I support both festivals and already had a ticket for the SIFF’s Monday night screening of Laggies when I found out the PFF would be showing the highly touted Bill Murray film St. Vincent – in which he plays a flawed father figure to a neighbor boy – at the same time. Traditionally, the SIFF is in the fall and the PFF in the spring. So why would the PFF choose to screen a big “get” like St. Vincent on the SIFF’s closing night? I really hope this isn’t just festival politics.

The Fall Film Showcase offers four films over four nights:

• Monday, Oct. 13 – St. Vincent (Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd and Terrence Howard)
• Tuesday, Oct. 14 – Force Majeure (Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju and Fanni Metelius)
• Wednesday, Oct. 15 – Stonehearst Asylum (Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine)
• Thursday, Oct. 16 – Birdman (Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Ryan)

Birdman has drawn a lot of buzz for having Keaton, known for playing a superhero in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), portraying an actor known for playing a superhero. Force Majeure won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In Stonehearst Asylum, a young doctor encounters nefarious activity in a mental hospital.

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Stuart J. Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: Bill Murray, Birdman, Carla Gugino, Cas & Dylan, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jason Priestly, Jason Schwartzman, Keira Knightly, Laggies, Listen Up Philip, Matthew Lillard, Michael Keaton, Orphan Black, Patrick Stewart, Richard Dreyfuss, Sam Rockwell, Scottsdale International Film Festival, SIFF, St. Vincent, Tatiana Maslany, The Layover