Critic’s Notebook: TIFF 2014: Kristen Wiig, Ansel Egort and Adam Sandler get webby

Studies in social media seemed to be an early theme at the Toronto International Film Festival -- at least for me.

Early one morning, I caught director Jason Reitman’s bad mood about Facebooking and texting in “Men, Women & Children.” The sprawling cast includes rising star Ansel Egort from “The Fault in Our Stars” and the struggling Adam Sandler. For my money, serious is a better look on Sandler than the D-level comedies he churns out -- “Blended” with Drew Barrymore being the latest.

But this is Reitman’s party. The film is a dark piece about human disconnection in the Internet age, but it doesn’t hold together as well as you would hope from a filmmaker who’s quickly built an impressive body of work. “Juno” and “Up in the Air” get most of the attention, but “Thank You for Smoking” and “Young Adult” should get props too.

In “Men, Women and Children,” Reitman’s come up with some cool au courant visuals to meld the online and real worlds on screen -- texts and Facebook posts share space with the stars in dynamic ways.

But the cultural politics of the film get a little too close for comfort to one of those quintessential Facebook rants -- if you’ve spent even a few minutes on Facebook you’ve seen them. Maybe you’ve even written them.

All I can tell you is that what is bearable in tiny slices is much harder to take for two hours. #geezlightenupalready

My afternoon was considerably brighter thanks to Kristen Wiig and “Welcome to Me.” The second feature from “Fully Loaded” director Shira Piven, this is a quirky and bold comeuppance -- smarter, funnier and sadder in better ways than the drunk single moms seeking hookups of her first.

It follows a bipolar Alice (Wiig) after she wins the lottery and begins remaking her life -- on TV. James Marsden plays a TV producer happy to take Alice’s money when she funding her own version of an Oprah-style talk show, It is train-wreck scary -- and mesmerizing -- to watch this so-called borderline personality working out her issues in front of a camera with a live feed.

Although it is set in a time before flat screens and reality shows had become such a craze, the levity and the poignancy in the story captures the modern-day ethos of TV as the ultimate confessional. All will be revealed. All will be forgiven -- sort of.

It’s the kind of role that plays to Wiig’s physical comedy, the actress disappearing wonderfully inside Alice’s awkwardness.

And Piven’s direction makes you feel the discomforts and the joys of an unfiltered life unfolding in “reel” time. Final punch line is as subtle as it is sarcastic. When the film does come to a theater near you, it’s worth staying through the credits to see it.