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Podz (centre) with Dolan and Castonguay on the set of Miraculum |
6/30/2013
Anticipated Canadian Titles for TIFF
6/29/2013
Bitchin' 'Heat'
The Heat
(USA, 117 min.)
Dir. Paul Feig, Writ. Katie Dippold
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir,
Marlon Wayans.
Summer movie season cranks up the heat! A fun, brazen comedy
hits the multiplex this weekend amongst the sea of returns and redids. The Heat, Paul Feig’s follow-up to the
2011 smash hit Bridesmaids, boasts
more rowdy fun from the ladies. Bridesmaids
took the R-rated comedy, which was beginning to look tired after one serving of
American pie too many, and brought it back to life by having a troupe of female
comedians deliver some of the wildest dirty jokes in some time. It was also a
really smart comedy, which made it as much of an anomaly. The Heat takes another staple of the guy-movie canon, the buddy cop
movie, and introduces its first set of mis-matched female leads. The Heat might not be on par with the
raucous raunchiness of Bridesmaids,
but this odd-couple comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy is solid
laugh-out loud entertainment.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Melissa McCarthy,
Sandra Bullock,
The Heat
6/27/2013
'The Guy who Knocks'
How to Make Money Selling Drugs
(USA, 96 min.)
Dir. Matthew Cooke, Writ. Matthew Cooke, Grant Jolly (story)
Narrated by: Matthew Cooke
There’s only one season left of Breaking Bad, so entrepreneurs who want to get rich or die trying need some schooling if they want to be the next Heisenberg. As any follower of the exploits of Mr. Walter White knows, it’s a tough process to go from minor player to Kingpin. Or, as the bald man in the pork pie hat might say, it takes a lot of work to go from fearing the knocks to being the guy who knocks. If you want to be the danger, you have to learn how to make money selling drugs.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Documentary,
Susan Sarandon
KFF Review: 'The Front Line'
The Front Line
(South Korea, 133 min.)
Dir. Hun Jang, Writ. Sang-yeon Park
Starring: Ha-Kyun Shun, Soo Go, Je-hoon Lee, Ok-bin Kim.
The first Korean Film Festival in Canada’s capital began
with the Ottawa premiere of The Front
Line, a film that offers film buffs a historical account of a pivotal
period in Korean history and a good snapshot of the strength of contemporary
South Korean cinema. The Front Line,
which was South Korea’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film race
for the 2011 Oscars, is a war film of impressive scope. Featuring some
excellent battle sequences and a potent tale on the futility of war, The Front Line makes a worthy stand to
kick-off this week’s fête for Korean cinema.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
CFI,
Ottawa Arts
6/25/2013
2013 in Review: The Best so Far
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Frances Ha is the best film so far this year. |
2013 has already reached its midpoint. It seems to be going
by so quickly, but the seasons of festivals and Oscar goodies can’t come soon
enough. These movies could be a welcome relief to cinemas since 2013 hasn’t
been an especially good year for films so far. Perhaps it was inevitable that
the new crop might suffer in comparison to the endless stream of strong films
that came out in 2012. I still haven’t given a five star review, although I was
tempted to upgrade Frances Ha, which
is far and away the best film to be released this year, when I saw it a second
time.
6/22/2013
Zombie Apocalypse
World War Z
(USA, 116 min.)
Dir. Marc Forster, Writ. Matthew Michael Carnahan and Drew
Goddard & Damon Lindelof
Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos.

Joe the moviegoer is like a helpless child stranded amidst
the zombie apocalypse of World War Z. The
zombie flicks just don’t stop swarming the multiplex. Summer after summer,
movie after movie, Joe joins the masses and gets sandwiched between a family of
four, in which mom smuggles a bag of cellophane wrapped goodies into the
theatre and passes them to the kids whilst dad makes inane comments and eats nachos.
Cheap Tuesday is Doomsday at the multiplex in summer movie season, especially
when the masses show up for redundant cash-grabs like World War Z.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Brad Pitt
Hi-ho, Silver!
The Lone Ranger
(USA, 149 min.)
Dir. Gore Verbinski, Writ. Justin Haythe, Ted Elliot, Terry
Rossio
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Ruth Wilson, Tom Wilkinson,
William Fitchner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, and Helena Bonham Carter.

“Hi-ho, Silver! Away!” Summer movie season continues with
the rollicking redo of the classic western series The Lone Ranger. Times have changed and so has the entertainment
business, and the adventures your granddaddy used to listen to on the radio for
free are now mashed into one epic widescreen adventure for a whopping thirteen bucks a ticket. One doubts that a movie has
provided so much bang for your buck since Cloud Atlas, and The Lone Ranger guarantees
a solid few hours of harmless escapism. It’s a hoot if you never take it too
seriously.
Happy Birthday Meryl Streep!
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Grande Streep: The Devil Wears Prada |
Remember to enjoy free Starbucks on this, your birthday.
Cheers,
-Pat
Labels:
Meryl Streep
6/21/2013
The Kids Are Totes Not All Right
The Bling Ring
(USA, 88 min.)
Written and dir’d by Sofia Coppola
Starring: Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Taissa
Farmiga, Claire Julien, and Leslie Mann.
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Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Katie Chang and Claire Julien in The Bling Ring, an eOne Films release |
The Bling Ring is
the film Spring Breakers wanted to
be, but wasn’t. Smart, stylish, and satirical, Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring captures the excess and
aimlessness of the current generation. The satire is so spot-on in The Bling Ring that it’s almost
impossible to notice. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Bling Ring,
Sofia Coppola
6/20/2013
FEFF Review: 'Random Acts of Romance'
Random Acts of
Romance
(Canada, 87 min.)
Dir. Katrin Bowen, Writ. Katrin Bowen, Jillian Mannion, and
Kevin McComiskie
Starring: Sonja Bennet, Laura Bertram, Katharine Isabelle,
Robert Moloney, Zak Santiago, Amanda Tapping, Ted Whittall.
Love makes people do all crazy sorts of things. Or is it sex
that makes people wacky? The rules of attraction fly out the window in Katrin
Bowen’s screwball sex farce Random Acts
of Romance, an intimate ensemble dramedy that plays this Friday at the
Female Eye Film Festival.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film
FEFF Review: 'The Disappeared'
The Disappeared
(Canada, 86 min.)
Written and directed by Shandi Mitchell
Starring: Billy Campbell, Ryan Doucette, Brian Downey, Shawn
Doyle, Gary Levert, Neil Matheson

Did you ever see the Alfred Hitchcock movie Lifeboat?
The classic is one of The Great Director’s better flicks, as Hitchcock offered
a suspenseful tale of shipwrecked survivors clinging to life in the ocean,
trapped with one of the very Nazis that sunk their ship. The 1944 thriller
holds up to this day, but one suspects that Mr. Hitchcock would have tipped his
hat to writer/director Shandi Mitchell in appreciation of The Disappeared.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film
6/19/2013
Korean Film Festival in Ottawa June 26-29
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The Front Line opens the Korean Film Festival |
Labels:
Best Foreign Lang Film,
CFI,
Ottawa Arts
6/14/2013
Contest: Win Tickets to see 'The Bling Ring' in Ottawa! (Closed)

Labels:
Bling Ring,
contests,
Sofia Coppola
The Enlightened Screen: Catherine Martin
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Catherine Martin appears at CFI's 'Enlightened Screen' June 20 |
Screening in the third installment of “The Enlightened
Screen” are:
Labels:
Canadian Film,
CFI,
Ottawa Arts,
The Enlightened Screen
6/13/2013
Viva Margarita!
Margarita
(Canada, 90
min.)
Dir.
Dominique Cardona, Laurie Colbert; Writ: Dominique Cardona, Laurie Colbert,
Margaret Webb
Starring:
Nicola Correia Damude, Patrick McKenna, Claire Lautier, Christine Horne, Maya Ritter, Marco Grazzin.

What a charmer Margarita
is! It’s easy to see how this delightful Canadian production won over audiences
at last year’s Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto, and managed to do the same at festivals in America and Europe. This international
crowd-pleaser, which plays like an indie relative of Mary Poppins with a LGBT twist or like Canada’s answer to The Kids Are All Right, is sure to receive a warm reception when it opens this month in Ottawa and Toronto.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film
6/11/2013
'Gabrielle' Trailer
micro_scope released a trailer today for their latest production Gabrielle, which is the newest film to be produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw, the Oscar nominated producers of Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar. (And last year's equally good Inch'Allah.) Gabrielle is directed by Louise Archambault, whose credits include the feature Familia and a segment from 2011's The National Parks Project. The film stars Gabrielle Marion-Rivard and Incendies star Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, along with Alexandre Landry,
Benoit Gouin, Marie Gignac, Isabelle Vincent, Sébastien Ricard,
and Vincent-Guillaume Otis. The film's synopsis, described by my rough translation, is as follows: 'Students Gabrielle and Martin are madly in love. However, their friends do not allow them to realize their love, as Gabrielle and Martin are not quite like the others. Determined, they will face the prejudices to expect to live a love story that is anything but ordinary.'
Labels:
Best Foreign Lang Film,
Canadian Film,
Gabrielle,
Incendies
Summer Movie Reads
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A Long Way Down should be first on your reading list! |
6/10/2013
'The East' a Wake-Up Call for the West
The East
(USA/UK, 116 min.)
Dir. Zal Batmanglij, Writ. Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling
Starring: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page,
Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Julia Ormond, and Patricia Clarkson.

The West seems to have it all. The countries on this side of
The Prime Meridian have a sizable share in the wealth, power, and privilege
of the world. One percent of the population wields more influence than the other ninety-nine. Fortunes are made, empires are built, and profits soar for some, while others lose. Such powers come
with equal responsibilities, though, and the majority might not always remain
silent as it sits and deals with a mess that allows few to prosper.
Labels:
2013 reviews
6/09/2013
After the Sunset
Before Midnight
(USA, 108 min.)
Dir. Richard Linklater, Writ. Richard Linklater, Julie
Delpy, Ethan Hawke.
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it, there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.
-Bernstein (Everett Sloane), Citizen Kane
What does it mean to chase the one that got away? Mr.
Bernstein’s nostalgic monologue in Citizen
Kane—one of the film’s best—is a classic ode to a kind of love that seems
to exist only in the movies. The unattainable girl on the ferry, the one that
got away, serves as a quintessential catalyst
in the cinema’s quest for happily ever after.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Before Midnight,
Ethan Hawke,
Julie Delpy
6/07/2013
'Blue Jasmine' Trailer
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Cate Blanchett as Jasmine Photo by Merrick Morton © 2013 Gravier Productions, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics |
Blue Jasmine will be released July 26 from Sony Pictures Classics. Mongrel Media will distribute the film in Canada.
Labels:
Blue Jasmine,
Cate Blanchett,
Sally Hawkins,
Trailers,
Woody Allen
6/05/2013
'Last Woman Standing' Airs Tonight
Mary Spencer Shadow Boxing |
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Documentary,
Hot Docs
6/04/2013
A Smart Take on 'Hannah Arendt'
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Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt |
Labels:
film criticsm,
Hannah Arendt,
TIFF
6/03/2013
Golden Lyin'
Pieta
(South Korea, 104 min.)
Written and directed by Kim Ki-duk
Starring: Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin.
The press notes for Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta begin with the following note, which appears on a page unto
itself thus stressing its overall significance in the grand scheme of the film:
‘Pieta’, meaning ‘pity’ in Italian, is an artistic style of a sculpture or painting that depicts the Virgin Mary sorrowfully cradling the dead body of Jesus. The Virgin Mary’s emotions revealed in ‘Pieta’ have represented the countless pains of loss that humans experience in life that are universally identifiable throughout centuries. It has been revived through master artists such as Michelangelo and Van Gogh.
Labels:
2013 reviews
6/02/2013
Stories Sarah Tells
Photo courtesy the NFB |
Labels:
awards,
Canadian Film,
NFB,
Sarah Polley,
Shorts,
Stories We Tell
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