Cellar Door Film Festival Co-Presents 'Beetlejuice' with Centretown Movies!

Do you like movies in the park? Do you like things that go bump in the night? Then you’re in luck! The Cellar Door Film Festival (CDFF) co-presents the upcoming screening of Beetlejuice this weekend at the Centretown Movies Outdoor Film Festival. CDFF invites Ottawans to grab their lawn chairs and blankets and join them for Tim Burton's strange and unusual 1988 classic starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton. Beetlejuice screens in Dundonald Park on Saturday, August 2nd at approximately 9:00 PM. Admission is pay what you can. Hope to see you there!

Contest: Win Tickets to See 'The F Word' Across Canada!

“Friend,” “fudge,” “funny,” “fantastic,” “foxy,” and “film,” are all choice F-words, but the real F-word everyone loves is “free.” Yes, that’s right! The F Word is coming to town and we have free tickets to a sneak peek near you. The F Word, one of the most popular Canadian films from last year’s fall film festival circuit (it scored a spot on TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten list and scooped a Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this year), is finally coming to theatres. The F Word opens August 22 from eOne Films, but if you want a chance to win tickets to an advance screening of The F Word in cities across Canada, answer the trivia below and enter to win!

'Noah': Faith in Chaos?

Noah

(USA, 138 min.)

Dir. Darren Aronofsky, Writ. Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel

Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth

There’s an old ruse in the adaptation crowd (mostly among the cranky folks in the English department who know diddly about film) that deviating from a book while transforming it into a film begets an act of heresy. Infidelity quips arise with folks decrying, “That’s not how it is in the book!” and some movies are shorted in the discussion. What happens, however, when said changes arise when adapting, well, The Good Book? Is it heresy of Biblical proportions when an author rewrites a sacred text, or is there something greater at play when one diverges from the source of all sources?

                                                                

TIFF Announces Docs, Masters, Midnight Madness, and Vanguard Films

The Golden Era. Photo courtesy of TIFF

The Toronto International Film Festival adds to its international spectrum today with a very world cinema heavy announcement. Titles for the TIFF Docs, Masters, Midnight Madness, and Vanguard programmes were released today. They’re a diverse group of films to complement the range of international films announced last week. (An element I admittedly glossed over.) The documentary titles, which will comprise the bulk of my work this year as I’ll be covering for POV, features some especially good gets including new films from Lixin Fan, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Fred Wiseman, plus a film from Ethan Hawke. Included in the Masters section are many Cannes hits including Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language, plus Leviathan, which many pundits pegged to win the Palme. The Masters section also features Ann Hui’s The Golden Era, which stars Lust, Caution’s Tang Wei.

A Love Story, Unplugged

Hard Drive

(Canada, 82 min.)

Written and directed by William D. MacGillivray

Starring: Douglas Smith, Megan Follows, Laura Slade Wiggins, Jerry Granelli

Laura Slade Wiggins and Douglas Smith as Debs and Ditch in Hard Drive.
  Photo credit Dan Callis

William D. MacGillivray goes searching for analogue love in a digital world with Hard Drive. Hard Drive, which marks the director’s return to narrative film since 1990’s Understanding Bliss, might not be as formally engaging his some of his previous films are, but it’s nevertheless an intriguing film from a thematic perspective. The digitally titled and digitally shot Hard Drive takes an unconventional approach to young love in this technologically saturated age. Ditch (Stage Fright’s Douglas Smith) doesn’t seem to have Facebook, a cell phone, or even an iPod. He doesn’t Instagram his food when he goes for Chinese with his mom, played by Megan Follows (aka Anne of Green Gables), and he listens to music on, wait for it, the old-fangled combination of a Walkman and a cassette tape. Downtown hipsters be damned, Ditch is the real deal!

Hoffman the Shark

A Most Wanted Man

(UK/USA/Germany, 121 min.)

Dir. Anton Corbijn, Writ. Andrew Bovell

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Nina Hoss, Daniel Brühl, Homayoun Ershadi

“His strength was a total immersion in the role and a lack of vanity,” recalls director Anton Corbijn while speaking of his experience working with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman on A Most Wanted Man. A Most Wanted Man, Hoffman’s final starring role and last completed film (although his final work in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay hits theatres this fall), displays Hoffman’s humble absorption in his work at its best. His engrossing turn as German spy Günther Bachmann in this adaptation of John le Carré’s A Most Wanted Man displays the kind of immersive character work that made Hoffman of one the best actors of his generation, if not the best.                                                

Call Me Biased, but I Was Totally on 'Her' Side...

Photo: Jens Ziehe

“He gives me that look…”

“What look?”

“That look that says, ‘Your life is trivial. You are so trivial.’”

-Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), The Hours

Call be biased, but I was totally on her side the whole way through Him + Her. Maybe it’s the die-hard Streep fan in me, yet the chorus of Meryls makes a very compelling case in their twenty-three minutes of (seven) screentime. The Meryls, interestingly enough, don’t actually make a plea in a divorce case against a host of Jack Nicholsons as I originally thought they did—they don’t intentionally, anyways—but the malleability of this he said/she said piece is truly brilliant.

'The Judge' to Open TIFF

Photo courtesy of TIFF

Here’s a surprise! The Toronto International Film Festival announced the selection for its Opening Night film today and the film is a film that was already announced. David Dobkin’s The Judge, which appeared in Tuesday’s first wave of Galas and Special Presentation selections for the 2014 festival, will open TIFF on September 4^th. Perhaps, as speculated earlier this week, the delay was simply a matter of technicalities. “The stars aligned and we are thrilled to announce that we will kick off the Festival with The Judge,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF in a statement released by the Festival. “David Dobkin has delivered a moving, textured story about family, duty and the way we remember our past. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to this year’s event.” TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey added, “We always want to deliver for our audience and we can't think of a better way than kicking things off with The Judge. Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall are terrific in the film, and David Dobkin guides the entire cast to rich, satisfying performances.”

The Artistic Mind

Triptych (Triptyque)

(Canada, 95 min.)

Dir. Pedro Pires and Robert Lepage, Writ. Pedro Pires

Starring: Frédérike Bédard, Lise Castonguay, Hans Piesbergen

“The ultimate creator is the human brain and God is but one of his creations,” says Thomas (Hans Piesbergen) while recalling the mind-bending beauty of the Sistine Chapel in Triptych. Triptych, the latest film from Robert Lepage, is a brilliant meeting of artistic minds. Look only to the beautiful sequence in which Thomas, a brain surgeon, gazes up at the artistry of the Chapel’s ceiling and visualizes the image of a brain outlining the heavenly bodies of the paintwork. To conceptualize and to theorize art is to bring it to life, and to give life to oneself in the process. Triptych, needless to say, is a richly involving film.

What Film Could Be the TIFF Opener?

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in A Most Violent Year

One question was probably on the minds of most future TIFF-goers as yesterday’s programming announcement ended: What could that open night selection be? This omission is the only real blip in an otherwise strong announcement. (There are so many appealing titles from yesterday's picks that it’s hard to do a top five, although Wild, Ned Rifle, Maps to the Stars, The New Girlfriend, and The Riot Club are immediate standouts.) I thought that The Riot Club seemed like a good bet for opening night, for Lone Scherfig’s film opens in the UK just a week after the festival. The factors of an attractive period drama, a cast of popular young leads (who also appeal to the older ‘Downton Abbey’ fans in the crowd), and a Danish director let The Riot Club check all the boxes for Oscar potential, commercial appeal, and world cinema. Opening with a film by a female director is also a great way for the festival to tell the industry, “We’re listening.” The Riot Club, though, doesn’t have US distribution at the moment and that seems to have been a decent factor in getting high profile titles such as Looper and The Fifth Estate for opening night in previous years. Other TIFFers pegged Wild, The Good Lie, and This is Where I Leave You as possible gets—all good ideas, but incorrect guesses. One can presume that it’s some sort of technicality that’s holding up the decision/announcement, like logistics, release dates/distribution, or maybe even final cuts.

TIFF Announces First Galas and Special Presentations

This is Where I Leave You

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced the first wave of titles for #TIFF14 and it’s a very promising list! Among the Galas making their World Premieres at Roy Thompson Hall are Shawn Levy’s This is Where I Leave You, Lone Scherfig’s The Riot Club, and Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, which will be the festival’s Closing Night Film. (Curiously, the Festival didn`t name an Opening Night Film.) David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars is among the North American premiere Gala selections, although more Canadian films will be announced on August 6.  Maps is one of several films in the line-up directed by Canadian filmmakers. The others are The Good Lie and Wild from Philippe Falardeau and Jean-Marc Vallée--American titles, but they're among the festival's bigger gets.

Ottawa International Animation Festival Line-up Ranges from Local to Global

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) announced today the line-up for the 2014 festival. In addition to the five features announced previously, the programme for OIAF ’14 has a healthy list of films that range from local to global. Two filmmakers will rep Ottawa’s animation scene amongst the competition. Mike Geiger’s film On the Subway is slated for a World Premiere in the Canadian Showcase while recent Algonquin College Grad Dougall Dawson’s The Pug appears in the Canadian Student Showcase. OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson noted the strength of Ottawa animation in the festival’s release, saying, “Whether we’re talking about Norman McLaren’s masterpiece, Neighbours (made in Rockcliffe Park) or John Kricfalusi’s ground breaking TV series, Ren and Stimpy (whose roots go back to his days at Brookfield High School), Ottawa’s animation history is long and diverse. It’s refreshing – and not all that surprising - to see contemporary local animators carrying forward this rich tradition.”

Hell on Wheels

Snowpiercer

(South Korea/USA/France/Czech Republic, 126 min.)

Dir. Bong Joon Ho, Writ. Bong Joon-Ho, Kelly Masterson

Starring: Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ah-sung Ko, with John Hurt and Ed Harris.

Courtesy eOne Films.

“My friend, you suffer from the misplaced optimism of the doomed,” sneers a haughty Mason (Tilda Swinton) to Curtis (Chris Evans), the hero leading the masses from steerage to first class in Snowpiercer. Swinton’s snivelling elitist and Evans’s compelling leader help make Snowpiercer one of the more provocative, not to mention entertaining, depictions of contemporary economic and ecological battlefields as ideologies clash within the confines of the heavily segregated train. South Korean director Bong Joon Ho (Mother) conducts a world cinema thrill-ride en route to the end of humanity, for the spectacular production design and foreboding darkness make Snowpiercer one of the stronger destinations for alternative fare this summer. Snowpiercer, aside from some choppy bumps in the ride, is an exhilarating first class ticket.

'The Rover' Wanders a Nihilist Wasteland

The Rover

(Australia, 103 min.)

Dir. David Michôd, Writ. David Michôd, Story by Joel Edgerton and David Michôd

Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, Tawanda Manyimo, David Field

Courtesy eOne Films.

Chalk up The Rover under the list of 2014’s disappointments. This sophomore feature by Animal Kingdom’s David Michôd is as technically accomplished as his debut feature is, but audiences looking for another helping of exhilarating Australian cinema are in for a letdown. The Rover looks and feels great n its creation of a present-day dystopia, yet the unrelenting bleakness and pensiveness of Michôd’s vision has little payoff. More dull than thought-provoking and more a musing than a meditation, The Rover is a tragically empty wanderer.

Rideau Hall Movie Nights to Include NFB Shorts

Big Drive is one of several NFB shorts playing at the Rideau Hall Movie Nights

The inaugural Rideau Hall Movie Nights will now include shorts! The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, in good old moviegoing fashion, announced today that a selection of short films from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)  will precede the feature film screenings on August 17 and 19. The shorts are a range of contemporary films and Canadian classics.

'Mommy' Trailer

It's here! Les Films Séville released a trailer for the hotly-anticipated Canadian film Mommy today. It's a beaut, especially from the clips highlighting the performances from regulars Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clément. The latest film from Xavier Dolan (Laurence Anyways, I Killed My Mother) gets an energetic (and sexy) preview after its much-buzzed debut at Cannes where it won the Jury Prize. The film will presumably get a North American premiere at Toronto, but Quebec audiences will at least get to see the film when it opens in theaters September 19. More dates to follow.

Ottawa 48 Hour Film Project Screens This Week

Ottawa’s reputation as Film Challenge City continues with the inaugural Ottawa edition of the 48 Hour Film Project. The 48 Film Project, though, is a global film challenge that dares filmmakers throughout the world to conceive, shoot, and complete a short film within forty-eight hours. Winners from each city move on to the big Filmapalooza event, which happens in Hollywood this year! Ten finalists then move on to a special screening at Cannes! Going from The Mayfair to Hollywood to Cannes is a pretty exciting trip!

'Blood Ties' a Bloated and Familiar Family Saga

Blood Ties

(USA/France, 127 min.)

Dir. Guillaume Canet, Writ. Guillaume Canet, James Gray

Starring: Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Mila Kunis, James Caan, Lily Taylor, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts

Blood Ties is a total gong show of terrible acting. It’s shocking to see so many stars turn in so many unwatchable performances. Something must have been in the water on the set of Blood Ties because the members of the usually reliable ensemble all deliver turns that are shockingly terrible. Even Marion Cotillard doesn’t come off well in this review. What happened?

TIFF 2014: What Canadian Films Could Play Toronto?

Anne Dorval in Mommy. Photo: Les Films Seville

Festival season is just around the corner. Speculations have already begun for what might appear where, but we’ll have the first clues when Toronto, the big daddy of the festival circuit, unveils the first act of its programming line-up on July 22. Much of the early prognoses, however, haven’t really paid heed to the Canadian content of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which is too bad since Toronto is, well, Canadian.

TIFF 2014 to Include 25th Anniversary Screening of Michael Moore's 'Roger & Me'

Michael Moore interviews 'The Bunny Lady' in Roger & Me

The first official title has been announced for the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. This year’s festival will include a special 25^th anniversary screening of Michael Moore’s landmark 1989 documentary Roger & Me. Roger & Me, which sees Moore explore his hometown of Flint, Michigan as the closure of the General Motors plant throws the city into economic downturn, premiered at the festival in 1989 and won the now-coveted People’s Choice. Last year’s festival included a retrospective screening of the 1983 People’s Choice Award winner The Big Chill, which was a festival highlight. No word exists on whether Moore will revisit the popular “Pets or meat” sequence from Roger & Me, but one assumes that this screening will be just as enlightening and entertaining. A special 25th anniversary Blu-ray™ edition, DVD and Digital HD will be released from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on October 7, 2014.

A Life and a Legacy

Life Itself

(USA, 118 min.)

Dir. Steve James

Feat. Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel in Life Itself.
Photo credit: Kevin Horan

“Two thumbs up.” It’s a term so iconic and synonymous with film criticism that Siskel and Ebert had the term trademarked to prevent fraudulent doubling. The legacy of Siskel and Ebert is apparent on nearly every page of the web, for Facebook pages, YouTube links, and whatnot use enthusiastic thumb emoticons to note approval. Anyone can express himself or herself in clear terms.

Nazis in the 613? That Can't Be!

Scarecrow Club

(Canada,85 min.)

Written and directed by Ric Groen

Starring: Brennan Martin, Faye Rowland, Eric de Niverville, Ryan L. Palmer, Vincent Valentino, Jurgen Vollrath

Gasp! Nazis in the 613? That can’t be!

No, it’s not the Harper government reigning in a new era of fascism in the new Ottawa flick Scarecrow Club by Ric Groen. It’s the good old-fashioned Nazis, ideological descendants of Hitler, who win a surprise victory in the Ontario provincial election. Democracy uproots itself as Canucks across the country are thrown into a titter as unfathomable Canadian flags are raised with a swastika branded smack in the centre of the maple leaf. Oh, Canada—whatever will we do?

Asinabka Festival Film Line-Up

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs in Rhymes for Young Ghouls

The programme of films for the annual edition of the Asinabka Festival was recently released. The Ottawa film and media festival looks to be expanding impressively as it grows in its third year. Asinabka celebrates Indigenous film and media in the Algonquin territory by programming films by local, national, and international Indigenous film and media artists. The festival opens on Wednesday, July 23 with an outdoor screening of Rhymes for Young Ghouls (review here, and Top Ten pick here) with filmmaker Jeff Barnaby in attendance. This is a great chance to engage with a film that marks one of the landmark First Nations films in Canada. The pay-what-you-can screening happens at Victoria Park, which served as a the base camp for Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence during the heat of the Idle No More movement, and will be preceded by an assembly organized by the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa.

Trailer for Jean-Marc Vallée's 'Wild'

Fox Searchlight released a trailer for Wild, the upcoming film from Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Café de flore), and it looks beautiful. Wild is based on the popular memoir by Cheryl Strayed (which was recommended in this year's Summer 'Movie Reads' list) and is adapted by Nick Hornby (An Education). Reese Witherspoon (Mud) stars as Cheryl Strayed and her performance looks every bit as compelling as early word rumors it to be (see the Summer 'Movie Reads' list for Strayed's own words on Witherspoon's performance) . Wild opens in theatres December 5th, but I'm crossing my fingers for a premiere at TIFF.

All Good Things Fade...

Before the Winter Chill (Avant l’hiver)

(France/Luxembourg, 103 min.)

Written and directed by Philippe Claudel

Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, Leïla Bekhti, Richard Berry.

Kristin Scott Thomas in Avant l'hiver.  (UGC Distribution / Fabrizio Malteze)

It’s tragic to think that French Kristin Scott Thomas movies are an endangered species. Strangely, though, one can’t help but keep the great ex-pat British actress in mind, and her revelation this year that she “cannot endure another film,” while watching Before the Winter Chill (Avant l’hiver), her latest collaboration with writer/director Philippe Claudel. Chill is a good film by any measure and Miss Scott Thomas is very fine in an underwritten role as “the wife” Lucie, but that’s exactly the problem. If one considers that Mr. Claudel is the same talent who penned and directed 2008’s I’ve Loved You So You Long, a devastating drama in which Miss Scott Thomas gives the performance of her career, then Before the Winter Chill is bound to disappoint. It’s a quietly serviceable marital drama, but one that just cries to have more meat and gusto, especially when there is so much subtly fragile coldness, mystery, disappointment, and despair percolating in Lucie’s eyes whenever she’s on screen.

Contest: Win Tickets to See 'I Origins' in Toronto and Vancouver! (CONTEST CLOSED)

I have seen the future for several readers and it includes a free movie! That film, of course, is Mike Cahill’s much buzzed sci-fi drama I Origins. I Origins opens in Toronto and Vancouver on July 25^th from Fox Searchlight Pictures, but if you want to attend a sneak peek in those cities, you are in luck! Answer the trivia below to enter!

  

From Page to Screen: Summer 'Movie Reads'

Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed in Wild.

I’m over a month late on delivering this list. I’ve just been too busy reading! 2014 has some great adaptations on the horizon if the novels I’ve been guzzling over the past few months are any indication. Page-to-screen junkies have mostly had to make do with teen-lit stuff over the past year, since the market for decent adult-fiction based films has been scarce of late; however, the latter half of 2014 looks promising, especially if we factor in non-fiction and, yes, dystopian YA stuff.

Contest: Win Run of Engagement Passes for 'Earth to Echo'! (CONTEST CLOSED)

School’s out for summer! That means it’s time to go to the movies! If you’re looking for an exciting sci-fi adventure to provide perfect summer escapism, then Earth to Echo is just the ticket. The film is currently in theatres from eOne Films, so if you want run of engagement passes to see Earth to Echo, answer the trivia below for your chance to win!

'Locke' Puts Hardy in the Driver Seat...

Locke

(UK/USA, 86 min.)

Written and directed by Steven Knight

Starring: Tom Hardy

Locke features a concept that works much better with Robert Redford on a boat. If All is Lost plays like a bravura solo act in which a seasoned sailor proves himself a master of the high seas, then Locke is a disappointingly gimmicky ruse in which an emerging star struggles to exceed the star vehicle. Tom Hardy fires on all cylinders as he spends eighty-odd minutes behind the wheel of a car in Locke, but this one man show chugs to the finish line. Locke’s solo act runs on fumes despite the driver’s best efforts.

'The Immigrant' and Lady Liberty

The Immigrant

(USA, 120 min.)

Dir. James Gray, Writ. James Gray, Rick Menello

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner

 Joaquin Phoenix and Marion Cotillard star in The Immigrant, an eOne Films release

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

-“The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus.

The Immigrant is in the midst of a theatrical run that opened in town of the Fourth of July. Independence Day seems like an ironically fitting day to amplify the resonance of this beautiful yet bleak picture from writer/director James Gray. The film begins and ends on Ellis Island in 1921, and this haunting tragedy gives a startling urgent tale of the fallacy of the American dream.

'Lost Stars' Shine in 'Begin Again'

Begin Again

(USA, 104 min.)

Written and directed by John Carney

Starring: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, James Corden, Catherine Keener.

Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley star in Begin Again,
an eOne Films release.

I’ll finally concede that there is something lacking in Anna Karenina: it’s a shame that Keira Knightley doesn’t sing. It turns out that the versatile Miss Knightley has a hidden talent. She has a lovely mellow coffee shop rock voice, and it’s a beautiful lead for the harmony of Begin Again.

Feature Films for 2014 Ottawa International Animation Festival

Estonia's Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: a Rapid Love Story

More programming news from the OttawaInternational Animation Festival! Following last week’s announcement of the ShortAnimation and Series for Kids Competition comes today’s release of the five feature films that will make up the feature animation category. The promising quintet of features includes two animated documentaries, Seth’s Dominion and Truth Has Fallen, and a range of world cinema from America, Estonia, France, and Brazil to right back home in Canada.

Screening in the OIAF Feature Animation programme are:

'Obvious Child' A Winning (and Relatable!) Rom-Com

Obvious Child

(USA, 84 min.)

Dir. Gillian Robespierre, Writ. Gillian Robespierre, Karen Main, Elizabeth Holm

Starring: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffman, Gabe Liedeman, Richard Kind, Polly Draper.

“There’s nothing on but romantic comedies,” says Max (Jake Lacy) whilst flipping through the movie listings during a sweet moment with Donna (Jenny Slate). Donna replies that she doesn’t really care for rom-coms. “I can’t relate to them,” she says.

Cancer Weepie Utterly Benign

The Fault in Our Stars

(USA, 126 min.)

Dir. Josh Boone, Writ. Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Nat Wolff, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe.

Critics and audiences everywhere proclaim The Fault in Our Stars a bona fide tearjerker. It’s the Love Story for a generation, says solid word of mouth as friends, writers, and everyone under the starry sky give stories of masses of teens flocking to the box office for this YA cancer weepie based on the bestselling novel by John Green. Having a good cry seems like a refreshing departure from a stream of catatonic dystopian pics cluttering the adolescent movie market, though, so good on The Fault in Our Stars for getting young audiences in tune with their emotions.

Happy Canada Day: Recommendations for Canada Day Viewing

Molly Parker and William Hurt in Rare Birds

Happy Canada Day! In celebration of July 1^st, here are some Canadian film recommendations to enjoy if you happy to get rained in and can’t make it to the fireworks!