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"Viva Argentina" kicks off Wednesday with The Last Elvis |
9/30/2013
CFI Premieres "Viva Agentina" This Week
Labels:
CFI,
Ottawa Arts
9/27/2013
Even From Hollywood, Villeneuve Hits Close to Home
Prisoners
(USA, 153 min.)
Dir. Denis Villeneuve, Writ. Aaron Guzikowski
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard, Viola
Davis, Maria Bello, Paul Dano, and Melissa Leo.
Prisoners might be
among the best mainstream studio films to hit theatres so far this year and,
wouldn’t you know it, it’s the Hollywood debut of Canadian director Denis
Villeneuve. Villeneuve follows the success of 2010’s Oscar-nominated Incendies, which posed a significant
milestone in terms of drawing international attention to Canadian cinema, by
showing what a great director can do with a potentially formulaic premise. Prisoners is as powerful and as visceral
an experience as Villeneuve’s previous works, but it’s told on a grander scale.
It only seems fitting for Villeneuve to follow the Greek tragedy of Incendies with the epic of Prisoners.
9/25/2013
A Canadian Caper
The Art of the Steal
(Canada, 90 min.)
Written and directed by Jonathan Sobol
Starring: Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon, Jay Baruchel, Kenneth
Welsh, Chris Diamantopoulos, Terrence Stamp, Katheryn Winnick, Jason Jones
“I got a job for you,” says Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell)
whilst convincing his former forger, Guy (Chris Diamantopoulos) to reunite for
another heist.
“America?” Guy replies.
“No, Canada,” says Crunch.
“Enh, America-lite.”
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film
9/24/2013
'Gabrielle' is Canada's Oscar Pick
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Photo courtesy Les Films Seville |
It’s an excellent choice. (See my TIFF review here.) Gabrielle is easily the best Canadian film of the year. Gabrielle also marks the third submission
in three years for producers Kim McCraw and Luc Déry, who took Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar to the Oscars in 2010 and 2011. Let’s see Canada
nominated in 2013! Bonne chance Gabrielle!
Labels:
Best Foreign Lang Film,
Canadian Film,
Gabrielle,
Oscars
2013 Ottawa International Film Festival Line-up!
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Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton in Penthouse North |
Labels:
Canadian Film,
OIFF,
Ottawa Arts
9/23/2013
OIAF 2013: Wrap-up and 'Best of the Fest'
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But Milk is Important - Pat's choice and the public choice. (A rare match!) |
Labels:
Animation,
OIAF,
Ottawa Arts,
Shorts
OIAF Review: 'Tito on Ice'
Tito on Ice
(Germany/Sweden, 75 min.)
Dir. Max Andersson & Helena Ahonen, Writ. Max Andersson
Starring: Max Andersson, Lars Sjunnesson Helena Ahonen,
Nedim Cisic, Katerina Mirovic.
I have never quite seen anything like Tito on Ice. The film, which scooped the Grand Prize for Best
Animated Feature at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival, is a
unique hybrid of animation and documentary. It’s not necessarily something new
to use animation in documentary film, but Tito
on Ice takes form and meaning to new levels as it juxtaposes stunning paper
cutout sequences with interviews and documentary footage shot on inexpensive
DV. The film finds a kind of truth through its exploration of reality and
fiction.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
OIAF Review: Short Competition 2
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Rollin' Safari |
OIAF Review: 'Arjun: The Warrior Prince'
Arjun: The Warrior
Prince
(India, 95
min.)
Dir. Arnab
Chaudhuri, Writ. Rajesh Devraj, R.D. Tailang
Starring: Yuddvir Bakolia, Ila Arun
An ancient story comes to life in the animated epic Arjun: The Warrior Prince. Arjun dramatizes a story within the
Indian epic the Mahabharata that tells of the five sons of King Pandu. One of
these sons, Arjun, becomes a valiant warrior. Akin to animated heroes like
Hercules and Aladdin, the Arjun of Arjun:
The Warrior Prince is an endlessly noble hero of fairy tale lore.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
9/22/2013
OIAF Review: Canadian Showcase
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Soup of the Day |
Labels:
Animation,
Canadian Film,
OIAF,
Shorts
OIAF Review: 'The Boy and the World'
The Boy and the World
(O Menino e o Mundo)
(Brazil, 85 min.)
Dir. Alê Abreu
Enter the world of Cuca, a small boy growing up in a simple
family in the idyllic Brazilian countryside. Cuca’s playful, carefree existence
is thrown for a loop when his father quits the rural homestead for the city so
that he may provide for his family. Cuca thus embarks on a journey to find his
father. The Boy and the World (O Menino e o Mundo), which had its world
premiere this week at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, is a notable
animated feature offering from Brazil. The warm playful colours of The Boy and the World will bring out the
kid in everyone as audiences find themselves enthralled with Cuca’s charming adventure.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
OIAF Review: Short Competition 4
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Another |
9/21/2013
Ottawa International Animation Festival Award Winners
The winners for the 2013 Ottawa International Animation Festival were handed out tonight. The awards, presented in a ceremony at St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts, acknowledged the best in the festival seemed by jurors for the short film and feature film competitions. The winners are:
-Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation: Lonely Bones, Rosto
***as the winner of this prize, film is now eligible for competition for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.
-Grand Prize for Feature Animation: Tito on Ice, Max Andersson & Helena Ahonen.
Honorable Mention: The Boy and the World, Ale Abreu
-Best Narrative Animation: Oh Willy, Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels
-Best Experimental/Abstract Animation: Virtuoso Virtual, Thomas Stellmach & Maja Oschmann
-Best Promotional Animation: 50e Anniversaire de la Cinemateque Quebecoise, Diane Obomsawin
-Best Television Animation Made for Adults: Archer 'Coyote Lovely' (Bryan Fordney)
-Best Television Animation Made for Kids: Regular Show 'A Bunch of Full Grown Geese' (JG Quintel)
-Honorable mentions: SpongeBob Squarepants 'It's a SpongeBob Christmas' (Mark Caballero & Seamus Walsh), Adventure Time 'A Glitch is a Glitch' (David O'Reilly)
-Best Short Animation Made for Kids: Written by a Kid 'La Munkya' (Roque Ballesteros).
Honorable mentions: Tome of the Unknown (Patrick McHale), The Little Blond Boy with a White Sheep (Eloi Henriod)
-Best Music Video Animation: Stuck in Sound 'Let's Go' (Alexis Beaumont & Remi Godin)
-Best Undergraduate Animation: Rolling Safari (Kyra Buschor, Constantin Paeplow & Anna Habermehl)
-Walt Disney Prize for Best Graduate Animation: But Milk is Important (Eirik Gronmo Bjornsen & Anna Mantzaris)
Honorable mention: Na Ni Nu Ne No No (Manabu Himeda)
-Best High School Animation: Abduction Milk Cow (Shin Hye Kim, Woo Sol Lee & Hyun Ji Yoon)
-Best Canadian Student Animation: Wind & Tree (Konstantin Steshenko), honorable mention: Blackout (Sharron Mirsky)
-Best Animated School Showreel: Tama Art University, Japan
-Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation: Two Weeks -Two Minutes (Judith Poirier)
Honorable Mentions: The Clockmakers (Renaud Hallee), Crossing Victoria (Steven Woloshen)
-Public Prize: But Milk is Important (Eirik Gronmo Bjornsen & Anna Mantzaris)
See the winners when the Best of the Festival screens Sunday, Sept. 22 at 7:00 pm and 9:15 pm at the ByTowne Cinema.
-Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation: Lonely Bones, Rosto
***as the winner of this prize, film is now eligible for competition for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.
-Grand Prize for Feature Animation: Tito on Ice, Max Andersson & Helena Ahonen.
Honorable Mention: The Boy and the World, Ale Abreu
-Best Narrative Animation: Oh Willy, Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels
-Best Experimental/Abstract Animation: Virtuoso Virtual, Thomas Stellmach & Maja Oschmann
-Best Promotional Animation: 50e Anniversaire de la Cinemateque Quebecoise, Diane Obomsawin
-Best Television Animation Made for Adults: Archer 'Coyote Lovely' (Bryan Fordney)
-Best Television Animation Made for Kids: Regular Show 'A Bunch of Full Grown Geese' (JG Quintel)
-Honorable mentions: SpongeBob Squarepants 'It's a SpongeBob Christmas' (Mark Caballero & Seamus Walsh), Adventure Time 'A Glitch is a Glitch' (David O'Reilly)
-Best Short Animation Made for Kids: Written by a Kid 'La Munkya' (Roque Ballesteros).
Honorable mentions: Tome of the Unknown (Patrick McHale), The Little Blond Boy with a White Sheep (Eloi Henriod)
-Best Music Video Animation: Stuck in Sound 'Let's Go' (Alexis Beaumont & Remi Godin)
-Best Undergraduate Animation: Rolling Safari (Kyra Buschor, Constantin Paeplow & Anna Habermehl)
-Walt Disney Prize for Best Graduate Animation: But Milk is Important (Eirik Gronmo Bjornsen & Anna Mantzaris)
Honorable mention: Na Ni Nu Ne No No (Manabu Himeda)
-Best High School Animation: Abduction Milk Cow (Shin Hye Kim, Woo Sol Lee & Hyun Ji Yoon)
-Best Canadian Student Animation: Wind & Tree (Konstantin Steshenko), honorable mention: Blackout (Sharron Mirsky)
-Best Animated School Showreel: Tama Art University, Japan
-Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation: Two Weeks -Two Minutes (Judith Poirier)
Honorable Mentions: The Clockmakers (Renaud Hallee), Crossing Victoria (Steven Woloshen)
-Public Prize: But Milk is Important (Eirik Gronmo Bjornsen & Anna Mantzaris)
See the winners when the Best of the Festival screens Sunday, Sept. 22 at 7:00 pm and 9:15 pm at the ByTowne Cinema.
Labels:
Animation,
awards,
OIAF,
Oscars,
Ottawa Arts
OIAF Review: Short Competition 5
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But Milk is Important |
OIAF Review: 'The Pain and the Pity'
The Pain and the Pity
(UK, 75 min.)
Written and directed by Phil Mulloy
“It’s got to mean something. Why else would it have
screened?” asks a character in Phil Mulloy’s animated feature The Pain and the Pity. The same question
is bound to befuddle OIAF-goers who tackle the film. The Pain and the Pity is difficult to handle, but it is not without
its rewards since one can gain some sense that the film means something even if
that “something” is always hard to grasp. It’s a fun film to ponder and debate.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
9/20/2013
OIAF Review: 'Anima Buenos Aires'
Ánima Buenos Aires
(Argentina,
95 min.)
Dir. María Ramírez
Ánima Buenos Aires
is a struggle. It evokes comparison to Paris,
je t'aime since it offers a cute little anthology film set in the exotic
city of Buenos Aires, but it deserves more comparison to the dull mess of Paris’ follow-up, New York, I Love You. The four vignettes of Ánima Buenos Aires feel like four random shorts slapped together.
Nothing connects them narratively, aesthetically, or thematically. There is no
reason to show these films together aside from geography.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
OIAF Review: Short Competition 3
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Archer: 'Coyote Lovely' |
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF,
Shorts
OIAF Review: 'It's Such a Beautiful Day'
It’s Such a Beautiful
Day
(USA, 62 min.)
Written, directed, and narrated by Don Hertzfeldt
What a difference a year makes. The Ottawa international
Animation Festival screened Don Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day last year in competition as a short film.
It ran twenty minutes, yet I nearly fell asleep and I basically wrote it off
when time came to review the programme. It's
Such a Beautiful Day is back at OIAF, but this time it is screening as part
of the feature competition. And this time I liked it much, much better.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
OIAF Review: Short Competition 1
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Wind |
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF,
Shorts
OIAF Review: 'A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman'
A Liar’s
Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman
(UK, 85 min.)
Dir. Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, Ben Timlett
Feat. Grahman Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael
Palin, Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, Cameron Diaz.
Fear not, parents! The Ottawa International Film Festival is
not all Bambi and bunnies! There’s some R-rated fun to be had in the features
programme with a film made not for the kiddies, but for mum and dad. Mature
audiences at OIAF 2013 are far more likely to enjoy A Lair’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham
Chapman than the young folks are, anyways, since this film is a silly lark that
looks back upon the greatest comedy troupe of your parents’ youth. This one is
strictly for fans.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
Documentary,
OIAF
9/19/2013
OIAF Review: 'Approved for Adoption'
Approved for Adoption (Couleur de peau: miel)
(France/Belgium, 73 min.)
Written and directed by: Laurent Boileu & Jung
Starring: Jung, William Coryn, Christelle Cornil, Jean-Luc
Couchard, David Macaluso
Jung was born in South Korea but was adopted by a Belgian
family at the age of four. Jung knows few details about his life in Korea,
aside from the year of his birth and the description written the adoption
agent, “Colour of skin: honey.” It is therefore unsurprising that Jung grew up
with his adopted family in Belgium feeling a hole in his life and wondering
about the family and culture he left behind. Jung, now forty-two, returns to
South Korea in Approved for Adoption
and retraces his family.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Animation,
OIAF
9/17/2013
Contest: Win Tickets to see 'Don Jon' in Ottawa! (Contest Closed)
TIFF 2013: Festival Wrap-up and 'Best of the Fest'
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TIFF People's Choice winner 12 Years a Slave |
9/16/2013
TIFF Review: 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her'
The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her
(USA, 190 min.)
Written and directed by Ned Benson
Starring Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Viola Davis, Bill
Hader, Ciarán Hinds, Isabelle Huppert, William Hurt, Jess Weixlerm, Nina
Arianda.
Programme: Special Presentations (Work in Progress)
The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her is a Rashômon-esque
pas de deux. The film, a double shot
of his and her love stories, is a profoundly moving meditation on the shared
emotion of love. The film consists of two halves, Him and Her, which could
act as stand-alone features but must truly be appreciated as complementary
parts of a whole. The film screened in differing stages at this year’s Toronto
International Film Festival screenings of Eleanor
Rigby alternating with a set list of Him
then Her or Her before Him. I caught
the former sequence of Eleanor Rigby
and I can’t imagine seeing it any other way.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Eleanor Rigby,
James McAvoy,
Jessica Chastain,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Review: 'Under the Skin'
Under the Skin
(UK, 108 min.)
Dir. Jonathan Glazer, Writ. Jonathan Glazer, Walter Campbell
Starring: Scarlett Johansson
Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere)
Scarlett Johansson might play Black Widow in the Marvel
movies, but she is a true man-eater in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. She also plays an alien. Under the Skin gives Johansson her weirdest, strangest role to
date, because she not only plays an alien, but because she owns what is mostly
a dialogue-free one-woman show. Her alluring come-hither look can indeed carry a
film. Johansson provides a seductive stare for 108 minutes as her
extraterrestrial named Laura travels the picturesque Scottish countryside
devouring men who succumb to her charms.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Scarlett Johansson,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013,
Under the Skin
TIFF Review: 'The Animal Project'
The Animal Project
(Canada, 90 min.)
Written and directed by Ingrid Veninger
Starring: Aaron Poole, Hannah
Cheesman, Jessica Greco, Emmanuel Kabongo, Sarena Parma, Johnathan
Sousa, Jacob Switzer.
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
(World Premiere)
Toronto’s indie film queen Ingrid
Veninger walks and talks with the animals in her latest and arguably most
ambitious film The Animal Project.
The film sees Leo, an unconventional acting teacher played by Aaron
Poole (The Conspiracy), test his
students by tasking them with an unusual acting exercise that takes them out of
their comfort zones and has them unleash the beast within. The assignment,
dubbed The Animal Project and inspired by a memory from the childhood of Leo’s
son (Jacob Switzer), asks the acting class to dress up as furries and wander
the streets of Toronto.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Reviews: 'Siddharth', 'Witching and Bitching', 'Hotell', 'Mystery Road'
Siddharth
(Canada/India, 96 min.)
Written and directed by Richie Mehta
Starring: Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Anurag
Arora, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (North American
Premiere)
Mahendra, played by a remarkably affecting Rajesh Tailang,
is a chain-wallah on the streets of New Delhi. He makes little money to bring
back to his family’s small home, so he sends his twelve-year-old son, Siddharth,
to work in a factory far away. Siddharth doesn’t come home, though, when the
family reunites for Diwali. Mahendra, afraid that Siddharth might have been a
victim of child trafficking associated with factory labour, embarks on a search
to find his son. Siddharth evokes a
heart-rending, if unabashedly sentimental, tale as Mahendra travels the streets
of India and explores every gutter and slum to find the son he lost long before
he learned of Siddharth’s disappearance. Writer/director Richie Mehta tells the
touching fable with startling realism, making the abject poverty that
precipitated the awful situation a central character in the story. The quest is
not so much a search for a lone boy, but for an end to the social conditions
that might lead a parent to feel so helpless and destitute that he would sell
his child in the first place. The fittingly unconventional end to Mahendra’s
search denies the closure one needs to bring such a poignant tale full circle,
which makes the lack of resolution all the more effective.
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Capsule reviews,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Review: 'Unforgiven'
Unforgiven
(Yurusarezarumono)
(Japan, 135 min.)
Written and directed by Lee Sang-il
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Akira Emoto, Koichi Sato
Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere)
Now here’s a remake that shows adaptation to be alive and
well. Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western Unforgiven,
now a classic and a hallmark of the genre, reignited the western when it seemed
good and dead. Eastwood was a fitting choice to bring tale of iconic
gunslingers back to life, since he made a name for himself as the man with no
name in the great spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. Any good Film 101 student,
however, knows that the legacy of the great American genre has some of its
richest roots not in Yankee folklore, but in the samurai tales of the East.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
9/15/2013
TIFF Review: 'The Husband'
The Husband
(Canada, 80 min.)
Dir. Bruce McDonald, Writ. Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Kelly Harms
Starring: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, August Diehl, Sarah Allen,
Jodi Balfour, Stephen McHattie
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
Bruce McDonald brings the mojo to #TIFF13 with the smart
black dramedy The Husband. The film,
directed by McDonald and written by star Maxwell McCabe-Lokos and producer
Kelly Harms, is a bitingly funny study of masculinity. McCabe-Lokos stars as Henry,
a downtrodden ad-man whose manhood is crushed when his wife Alyssa (Sarah
Allen) goes to prison for having sex with a fourteen year old boy. How
emasculating.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Bruce McDonald,
Canadian Film,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Review: 'Gabrielle'
Gabrielle
(Canada, 104 min.)
Written and directed by Louise Archambault
Starring:
Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Alexandre Landry, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin
Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere)
What a joy Gabrielle is!
Writer/director Louise Archambault (Familia)
provides one of the most tender and touching romances this country has seen in
years with the tale of young Gabrielle (played by Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) and
her quest to love as freely as others do. Gabrielle is a twenty-five-year old
woman with Williams syndrome living in a centre for developmentally challenged
persons. Gabrielle acknowledges the lack of her independence for the first time
when she realizes that the rules—and constant guardianship—of the centre act as
a barrier to the love that is blossoming between her and one of her fellow
choir members, Antoine (Alexandre Landry).
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Best Foreign Lang Film,
Canadian Film,
Gabrielle,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
9/14/2013
TIFF Reviews: 'A Field in England', 'A Touch of Sin', 'Sarah Prefers to Run'
A Field in England
(UK, 90 min.)
Dir. Ben Wheatley, Writ. Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump
Starring: Michael Smiley, Reese Shearsmith, Julian Barratt,
Peter Ferdinando, Ryan Pope
Programme: Wavelengths (North American Premiere)
The shit hits the fan in Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England and the result ain’t pretty. A Field in England gives TIFF-goers their
first and hopefully only chance to experience an intoxicating drug trip in 1648
England. A troupe of men flees the ongoing Civil War only to be captured by a
cruel commander (Michael Smiley) who forces them into doing the heavy work on a
treasure hunt. The hidden gold is a crop of hallucinogenic mushroom that sends
the men on a bizarre romp of brutal violence and imaginative flights of the
imagination.
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Capsule reviews,
Sarah Prefers to Run,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Review: 'Our Man in Tehran'
Our Man in Tehran
(Canada, 85 min.)
Dir. Drew Taylor and Larry Weinstein
Feat. Ken Taylor, Pat Taylor, Joe Clark, Flora MacDonald,
Tony Mendez, Carole Jerome.
Programme: Mavericks (World Premiere)
Last year's Toronto International Film Festival hosted the
World Premiere of Ben Affleck's wildly entertaining blockbuster Argo. Controversy followed the TIFF
screening as the film ended its thrilling embellishment of the 1979-1981
Iranian Hostage Crisis, for which Canada played an especially important role in
sheltering and rescuing six Americans who escaped the siege on the American
Embassy. The feat became dubbed “The Canadian Caper” and it made national
heroes out of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, his wife Pat, and the team of
Canadians at the embassy in Iran who took part in saving six of Canada’s neighbours.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film,
Documentary,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Reviews: 'Felony', 'When Jews Were Funny', 'The Sea'
Felony
(Australia, 105 min.)
Dir. Matthew Saville, Writ. Joel Edgerton
Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney,
Melissa George, Sarah Roberts
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
Joel Edgerton makes an impressive screenwriting debut with Felony. Felony, a solid crime thriller from Australia, is fuelled by a
complicated moral atmosphere that ensnares its three leads in a thorny bind.
Malcolm (Edgerton) is a detective recently dubbed a hero who makes a terrible
mistake—and commits a terrible crime—en route home from celebrating his
endeavours. The greater crime, depending how one views things, comes next when
veteran officer Carl Summer (Tom Wilkinson, in a spectacular performance)
decides that the law need not apply to the brethren of the badge. Caught in the
centre is a Carl’s new partner Jim (Jai Courtney), who views the law, and the
inevitable moral baggage it brings with it, with the clarity of black and white
perspectives.
Labels:
Alan Zweig,
Canadian Film,
Capsule reviews,
Documentary,
Joel Edgerton,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013,
Tom Wilkinson
9/13/2013
TIFF Review: 'Tom at the Farm'
Tom at the Farm (Tom à
la ferme)
(Canada/France,
105 min.)
Dir. Xavier
Dolan, Writ. Xavier Dolan, Michel Marc Bouchard
Starring: Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy,
Evelyne Brochu
Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere)
Xavier Dolan, the wunderkind of Québécois queer cinema, does
a surprising turn of form in his fourth feature Tom at the Farm. Dolan strips away much of the visual audaciousness
that, for better or for worse, defines the young auteur for a new generation of viewers. Some film fans, including
this reviewer, found Dolan’s first three films to favour style over substance
(not always, though), so it’s a pleasant surprise that Tom at the Farm sees Dolan make unexpected use of minimalism as he
changes gears and delivers a haunting love story set in rural Québec.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Canadian Film,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013,
Xavier Dolan
TIFF Reviews: 'Philomena', 'Child's Pose', 'Third Person'
Philomena
(UK, 98 min.)
Dir. Stephen Frears, Writ. Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope
Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan
Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere)
“Fucking Catholics,” quips Martin Sixsmith one of Philomena’s many lines that is
alternatively provocative and hilarious. Philomena
boasts one of the best scripts of the year in Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope’s
adaptation of Martin Sixsmith’s non-fiction work The Lost Child of Philomena Lee. Philomena’s tale is heartbreaking as Martin assists Philomena track
down the child that was taken from her by the church when she was a teenage
mother. Coogan and Pope’s screenplay is a compelling character study and a bold
social commentary alike as the film reveals the coldness of the Catholic Church
and shows how some overzealous, not to mention criminal, piety betrayed members
of the faithful.
TIFF Review: 'August: Osage County'
August: Osage County
(USA, 130 min.)
Dir. John Wells, Writ. Tracy Letts
Starring: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson,
Margo Martindale, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch,
Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Misty Upham, and Sam Shepard.
Programme: Galas (World Premiere)
August: Osage County,
of all the films waiting to be unveiled at the Toronto International Film
Festival this year, was arguably the one for which festivalgoers had the
highest expectations. Deliver on those expectations, August: Osage County most certainly did, and it did so with a
capital D. August: Osage County had a
high bar to meet considering that the source play by Tracy Letts won a slew of
awards including the Tony and Pulitzer Prize. The film will
doubtlessly add more hardware to the A:OC
awards tally if the booming reception both during and after the film's
Tuesday screening at the VISA Screening Room is any indication.
9/12/2013
TIFF Review: 'Around the Block'
Around the Block
(Australia, 104 min.)
Written and directed by Sarah Spillane
Starring: Christina Ricci, Hunter Page-Lochard
Programme: Discovery (World Premiere)
Christina Ricci delves into full Michelle Pfeiffer mode in Around the Block, aka Australian Dangerous Minds.
Around the Block is a familiar story
of an outsider teacher who wades in to a high school populated with students
from rough urban environments and vows to take a stand against racism, class,
and perceptions of social determinism. The premise, tried and tested, always
makes for a compelling payoff, and Around
the Block is no exception. Writer/director Sarah Spillane, making her
feature film debut, provides a perspective to the story that remains relevant.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Christina Ricci,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
TIFF Review: 'Rhymes for Young Ghouls'
Rhymes for Young
Ghouls
(Canada, 90 min.)
Written and directed by Jeff Barnaby
Starring: Devery Jacobs, Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes, Roseanne
Supernault, Mark Antony Krupa
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Photo courtesy of the Canadian Film Centre |
It’s 1976 on Red Crow M’igMaq Reservation. The Indian Act
has hit its 100th anniversary and, as the title cards state in the
opening of Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for
Young Ghouls, Her Majesty’s Government insists that every Indian child under
the age of 16 must attend residential school. 1976 also marks the 15th year
of a young woman named Alia, played by revelatory newcomer Devery Jacobs. Alia
has less than a year to go until she can finally live outside the shadow of the
rez, for she has been fortunate to escape the school by running drugs for her
uncle Burner (Brandon Oakes) in order to pay off the school’s nasty Indian
Agent, Popper (Mark Antony Krupa).
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9/11/2013
TIFF Review: 'Enough Said'
Enough Said
(USA, 91 min.)
Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gondolfini, Catherine
Keener, Toni Collette (Sarah), Ben Falcone.
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) finds herself in a love triangle
of sorts in Nicole Holofcener’s radiantly funny Enough Said. Eva, a divorced and single parent, finds herself exploring
a second chance at love when she meets a fat, slobby man named Albert (played
by the late James Gandolfini) at a party. Albert is not the kind of man to whom
Eva would normally take a liking. Her first impression with him, in fact, sees
her blurt that she doesn’t find a single man at the party attractive. Albert
quips back that he finds all the surrounding women repulsive. They’re a funny
pair.
TIFF Review: 'Devil's Knot'
Devil’s Knot
(USA, 114 min.)
Dir. Atom Egoyan, Writ. Paul Harris Boardman, Scott
Derrickson
Starring: Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, Stephen Moyer,
Alessandro Nivola, Kevin Durand, Bruce Greenwood, Collette Wolfe, Rex Linn,
James Hamrick, Seth Meriwether.
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
A lot has been said, shot, and written on the tumultuous
case of the West Memphis Three. It's a story so bizarre and convoluted that one
might never believe it to be true. It's a surprise, then, that so much of the
coverage of the case of the three murdered boys and the three wrongly convicted
young men has largely been non-fiction. Devil's
Knot, directed by atom Egoyan and written by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott
Derrickson, dramatizes a loose adaptation of the exhaustively detailed and
researched book by Mara Leveritt. Anyone who has read Devil's Knot, seen some of the many documentaries produced about
the subject, or followed the case at all will learn little new from this film. Devil’s Knot, unfortunately, offers little new on the subject and both a
missed opportunity and, sadly, the biggest disappointment of the 2013 Toronto
International Film Festival so far.
Labels:
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9/09/2013
TIFF Review: 'You Are Here'
You Are Here
(USA, 112 min.)
Written and directed by Matthew Weiner
Starring: Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Amy
Poehler, Laura Ramsay
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men” might be one of the most
cinematic television drama series ever created. The period drama has a style,
scope, and substance rarely seen on the airwaves. It’s no wonder, then, that You Are Here, Weiner’s feature film
directorial debut, would yield considerable interest from fans eager to see
what he could do in a different canvas. You
Are Here might therefore be an entirely different film experience for fans
of the AMC series and for filmgoers who have never had the pleasure of watching
one of Don Draper’s Shakespearean ad pitches. You Are Here might be a case where ignorance is bliss.
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TIFF Review: 'Labor Day'
Labor Day
(USA, 111 min.)
Written and directed by Jason Reitman
Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith, Clark
Gregg, Tobey Maguire.
Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)
Jason Reitman is all grown up. The Canadian filmmaker
displayed an increasing maturity in the journey from Thank You for Smoking to Juno
to Up in the Air and then to Young Adult, but he seems to have really
come into his own with his adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel Labor Day. Reitman displays a masterful
hand behind the camera and improves on a talent that already felt accomplished
in his first three films. Labor Day
easily marks Reitman's best film to date. It's a note-perfect adaptation of the
novel, and an intelligent, profoundly insightful, moving, and entertaining film
with a voice of its own.
Labels:
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TIFF 2013: CFC BBQ
Norman Jewison at the Canadian Film Centre's annual BBQ |
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TIFF Review: 'The Railway Man'
The Railway Man
(UK/Australia, 116 min.)
Dir. Jonathan Teplitzky, Writ. Frank Cottrell
Boyce, Andy Patterson
Starring: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine,
Stellan Skarsgard, Hiroyuki Sanada.
Programme: Galas (World Premiere)
Academy Award winners Colin Forth and Nicole Kidman finally share the
screen in The Railway Man, the true
life story of war survivor/railway enthusiast Eric Lomax. Firth gives an
excellent performance in the lead role as the man haunted by memories of the
past. His meticulously detailed performance does for post-traumatic stress
disorder what his performance as the King George did performance for glossophobia,
confidence, and leadership in The King’s
Speech. Kidman is equally fine in a supporting turn as Eric’s wife, Patti,
whom Eric meets on, where else, a train. The stars have good chemistry as they
honor their real life subjects but forge a creative interpretation of a tale
that’s a romance and thriller both.
Labels:
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TIFF Review: 'Cinemanovels'
Cinemanovels
Dir. Terry Miles, Canada
Starring: Lauren Lee Smith, Ben Cotton, Jennifer
Beals, Kett Turton, Katharine Isabelle
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (World
Premiere)
Cinemanovels, the
newest maplecore film from Indie Canadian filmmaker Terry Miles (A Night for Dying Tigers), is an
ambitious and innovative tribute to the canon of Canadian cinema. Miles
reunites with Tigers alumnus Lauren
Lee Smith, who stars as a young woman named Grace Laurentian who is putting
together a film retrospective for her late estranged father. Grace’s dad, a
Denys Arcand type director, was one of the greatest filmmakers of all time
according to the onscreen pundits, not only for Canada but also for the world.
His death is equated with the losses of Bergman and Antonioni.
Labels:
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Capsule reviews,
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TIFF Review: 'Brazilian Western'
Brazilian Western (Faroeste
Caboclo)
(Brazil, 105 min.)
Dir. René Sampaio, Writ. Marcos Bernstein, Victor Atherino
Starring: Fabrício Boliveira, Isis Valverde, Felipe Abib,
Antônio Calloni, Flavio Bauraqui
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (Canadian Premiere)
Is this film a gangster pic or a western? Well, it’s both
and smartly so. Providing a protagonist who is both a noble lone hero and a
rugged outlaw, the lawlessness of the Wild West meets the tensions of gangland
Brazil in Brazilian Western. Our
hero, João Santo Cristo (Fabrício Boliveira), becomes both a radical and a
symbol for a greater cause in his quest for freedom and retribution. René
Sampaio’s Brazilian Western is an
exciting fusion styles and tropes and an exhilarating exercise in the fluidity
of genres and national cinemas.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
TIFF,
TIFF 2013
9/08/2013
TIFF Review: 'Empire of Dirt'
Empire of Dirt
(Canada, 99 min.)
Dir. Peter Stebbins, Writ. Shannon Masters
Starring: Cara Gee, Jennifer Podemski, Shay
Eyre, Luke Kirby
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (World Premiere)
![]() |
Minnie (Jennifer Podemski) & Lena (Cara Gee) in Empire of Dirt. Photo by Jason Jenkins. Courtesy of Mongrel Media. |
As one watches Cara Gee’s sensational performance in Peter
Stebbins’s Empire of Dirt, it’s quite
easy to see how the actress landed a spot in this year’s TIFF Rising Stars
programme. Gee is a fiery revelation as Lena, a young Aboriginal mother
struggling to get her wayward young daughter, Peeka (newcomer Shay Eyre) back
on track. Gee is well matched by co-star Jennifer Podemski (Take This Waltz), who also produced the
film, in the role of Lena’s estranged mother. Empire of Dirt is worth seeing for the performances alone when Gee
and Podemski go head-to-head with the powerful words of Masters’ script.
Labels:
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Canadian Film,
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TIFF Review: 'Hateship Loveship'
Hateship Loveship
(USA, 102 min.)
Dir. Liza Johnson, Writ. Mark Poirier
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Nick
Nolte, Christine Lahti, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sami Gayle
Johanna Parry is always a bridesmaid and never a bride. One
could perhaps say the same about Kristen Wiig, who seemed to have gotten stuck
in a sketch comedy mould following her success as the latest funnywoman on “Saturday
Night Live”. This is not to say that Wiig is a one-trick point or that comedy
is the bridesmaid to drama’s bride. Far from it. Any doubt about Wiig's skills
as a dramatic actress will be cast aside in Hateship
Loveship, an adaptation of the short story “Hateship, Friendship,
Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” by Alice Munro.
Labels:
2013 reviews,
Alice Munro,
Kristen Wiig,
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