3/30/2015
Canuck Classic 'The Luck of Ginger Coffey' Screens on 35mm
Canadian film fans in the National
Capital will want to check out Lost Dominion’ Screening Collective’s screening of The Luck of Ginger Coffey when it screens tomorrow night at The ByTowne in
a rare 35mm presentation of a hidden gem. Ginger
Coffey holds a place in Canadian film history as the 1964 winner for Best
Feature at the Canadian Film Awards and as one of the most significant early works
to start the conversation of what constitutes a “Canadian film” given its
Canadian source material, production company, and setting along with its
American director (Irvin Kershner, who went on to direct The Empire Strike Back) and foreign stars, most significantly
Robert Shaw.
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Classics
3/29/2015
Cinemalinks: Weekly Reads
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Lol, Furious 7 at the Oscars? |
3/28/2015
IFFO Review: 'Song of the Sea'
Song of the Sea
(Ireland/Luxembourg/Belgium/France/Denmark,
93 min.)
Dir. Tomm Moore, Writ. Will
Collins
Starring: Brendan Gleeson,
Fionnula Flanagan, David Rawle, Pat Shrott, Jon Kenny
Come explore the world of Cartoon
Saloon when the breathtaking animated feature Song of the Sea has its Ottawa premiere today at Irish Film
Festival Ottawa. The film carries a nomination from this year’s Oscars, but it
would have been a worthy winner. Song
is Cartoon Saloon’s latest animated feature following 2010’s equally beautiful The Secret of Kells, and if the
animation world worries about a dearth of classically-composed animation given the
uncertain forecast of Studio Ghibli, then Song
of the Sea shows that this Irish animation house could be the future of the
art form. It’s simply one of the enjoyable and most visually striking animated
films in some time.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Animation
RAFF Review: 'Patron Saint'
Patron Saint
(Canada, 71 min.)
Written and directed by Michael
Kainer
Various interviewees in the
documentary Patron Saint refer to
subject Dr. Janusz Dukszta as “vain.” Other interviewees call him “eccentric,”
“narcissistic,” “a force,” "a patron of the arts," and “a closet altruist.” A man such as Dr. Dukszta
embodies the facets of all these characteristics: when one has almost one
hundred portraits of oneself painted over fifty years, one needs to be a little
bit crazy, a little bit vain, and a little bit passionate about supporting the
arts.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Canadian Film,
Documentary,
RAFF
3/27/2015
Win Tickets to 'While We're Young' in Toronto and Vancouver! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Life goes by so fast! Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha) returns with While We’re Young, starring Ben Stiller
and Naomi Watts, in mature portrait of youth and marriage. The film opens beginning
April 3rd from Elevation Pictures, but if you want to attend a sneak
peek in Toronto or Vancouver, you are in luck! Answer the trivia below to win
tickets!
Labels:
Ben Stiller,
contests,
Frances Ha,
Naomi Watts,
Noah Baumbach,
While We're Young
RAFF Review: 'Cartoonists: Footsoldiers of Democracy'
Cartoonists: Footsoldiers of Democracy? (Caricaturists, fantassins de la
démocraties?)
(France,
106 min.)
Dir. Stéphanie Valloatto, Writ.
Radu Mihaileanu, Stéphanie Valloatto
The January 2015 murder of
satirical cartoonist Stéphane ‘Charb’ Charbonnier arguably makes Cartoonists: Footsoldiers of Democracy?
more relevant to audiences than it was when it premiered at Cannes back in
2014. #JeSuisCharlie might not be trending anymore now that the masses have
turned their attention to the latest cause, One Direction, but the outcry over
Charbonnier’s death and the deaths of his colleagues at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters makes this
documentary an urgent essay for anyone who cares about free speech.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Documentary
3/26/2015
Queen Liz & King John: Long May They Reign.
Queen & Country
(Ireland/France/Romania, 115
min.)
Written and directed by John
Boorman
Starring: Callum Turner, Caleb
Landry Jones, David Thewlis, Richard E. Grant, Tamsin Egerton, Brian F. O’Byrne.
Shortly after watching Queen & Country, I hit up the Google
to see the year in which Queen Elizabeth II became as Britain’s sovereign. By
some fortunate timing, the folks at The Telegraph had just posted a lengthy essay debating whether England should
through a roaring party to commemorate the Queen. It turns out that this year
marks a landmark for the Queen, for Liz seems poised to become the longest
reigning monarch in the nation’s history. Odds are she’ll make it since she’s
in excellent health.
Labels:
2015 Reviews
Irish Film Festival Ottawa Launches this Weekend!
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Song of the Sea |
Labels:
Ottawa Arts
3/25/2015
Reel Artists Film Fest Kicks Off with 'Beltracchi'
Beltracchi: The Art of
Forgery
(Germany, 93 min.)
Dir. Arne Birkenstock
“You don’t have to be a genius to
do a painting like that,” says painter Wolfgang Beltracchi as he observes one
of his own beautiful canvasses hanging on his studio wall. Beltracchi is a virtuoso with his paintbrush,
but he also happens to be a master forger. Anyone can paint a Max Ernst, he
implies as he looks upon the “Max Ernst” painting of his own creation. As for
whether Beltracchi is a painterly genius or a true artist is another matter,
though, as Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
paints an ingenious portrait of the way we perceive art. Beltracchi opens Toronto’s Reel Artists Film Festival on Thursday,
and it’s bound to stimulate a healthy debate over what constitutes “real art.” The
film provocatively asks if artistic genius resides in technique or in
inspiration.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Documentary,
RAFF
3/24/2015
Contest! Win Tickets to See 'Woman in Gold' Across Canada!
An unlikely pair changes history in the
true story of Woman in Gold, which is
the latest film from director Simon Curtis (My
Week with Marilyn). Woman in Gold makes its own kind of history
as it stars the unlikely pair of Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds as elderly Jewish refugee Maria Altmann and her keen young lawyer, Randy Schoneberg. Woman
in Gold opens in theatres on April 3 from +eOne Films, but if you want to
attend a sneak peek across Canada, you are in luck! Answer the trivia below for your chance to win tickets!
Labels:
contests,
Helen Mirren,
Ryan Reynolds,
Woman in Gold
3/23/2015
The Best Canadian Films of the Decade so Far
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Stories We Tell, Incendies, Mommy, and Barney's Version are some of Canada's best films. |
3/22/2015
Two Ottawa Projects Compete in CineCoup
The second year of CineCoup is underway! CineCoup,
the latest variation on crowdsourcing, draws audiences into the filmmaking
process from the beginning by inviting them to judge the films they’d most like
to see in theatres. The contest puts filmmakers through the gamut of the film
biz by challenging them to pre-production missions that pitch their projects to
the public. The winner gets up to one million in production financing and a
release in Cineplex theatres, and the added bonus of a ready-made audience
eager to see the film.
Labels:
Canadian Film,
CineCoup,
Ottawa Arts
3/21/2015
Oscar's Animated Shorts Come to Town!
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Feast, winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Short |
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Animation,
Shorts
3/20/2015
Sean Penn, Humanitarian Killing Machine
The Gunman
(Spain/UK/France 115 min.)
Dir. Pierre Morel, Writ. Don
MacPherson, Pete Travis, Sean Penn
Starring: Sean Penn, Idris Elba,
Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance, Jasmine Trinca, and Javier Bardem.
Sean Penn wades into Liam Neeson
territory in the ultraviolent new humanitarian revenge thriller and The Gunman. The humanitarian revenge
thriller is a strange genre. A do-gooder with a sniper and sweet biceps works
on wells as his day job and pumps lead into the machete-wielding and corporate
suits by night? That’s weird. A lack of genetic compatibility offers a least
one reason for which Craig Kielburger and Arnold Schwarzenegger will never have
a child.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Liam Neeson,
Sean Penn
3/19/2015
Echoing the Mockingjay
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
(USA, 119 min.)
Dir. Robert Schwentke, Writ.
Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo
James, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer.
It’s once more unto the breach
for Young Adult fiction. The Divergent
series continues with Insurgent,
which is a mostly satisfying second instalment of the series based on the books
by Veronica Roth. This film sometimes improves on its predecessor now that all
the exposition is out of the way—Divergent
lays a lot of groundwork—but the fast-paced Insurgent
requires full knowledge of the film that came before it. Brush up on why Tris
(Shailene Woodley) and company live in a world divided into Factions—Candor,
Erudite, Dauntless, Amity, and Abnegation—and you’ll be fine. Tris, a renegade
Divergent who embodies the qualities of multiple Factions, is poised to lead
the revolution against the oppressive forces of social determination.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Divergent,
Hunger Games,
Insurgent,
Kate Winslet,
Shailene Woodley
3/17/2015
Disney Magic Returns with a Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Cinderella
(USA, 105 min.)
Dir. Kenneth Branagh, Writ. Chris
Weitz
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Lily
James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi, Sophie McShera,
Holliday Grainger, Nonso Anozie
You know the story. Poor little
rich girl meets prince. Prince likes commoner. Pumpkin, mice, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, glass slipper, and
all that. Chaos ensues. And they live happily ever after.
Hot Docs Announces 2015 Line-up: Here's What's Playing on the Canadian Front
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Martin Chartrand in Finding Macpherson. Caroline Hayeur, courtesy of the NFB. |
The docs are in! The docs are in!
Hot Docs has announced the full line-up for the 2015 edition of the festival
and it includes a whopping 210 films from 45 countries. The festival opens with
the International Premiere of Tig by Kristina
Goolsby and Ashley York (way to support female filmmakers, Hot Docs!), which
chronicles comedian Tig Notaro, who made headlines in 2012 after she opened an
act with the line, “Good evening, I have cancer” which went viral just as her
life was heading into a tailspin. Other notable Hot Docs highlights include a conversation
with filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (National Gallery) and the addition of a new “Screen
on Screen” programme that offers docs about the filmmaking process. (How much
does everyone want to see Chuck Norris
Vs. Communism?)This series sounds like a great film buff’s side dish to the
“Next” programme (my favourite at the fest) that highlights arts and entertainment
and includes the latest film from 20 Feet
from Stardom director Morgan Neville. Hot Docs 2015 also includes a strong
Canadian front with films like OIAF winner Seth’sDominion and Sunday’s Jutra winner Finding
Macpherson repping the local scene along with new docs from William D.
MacGillivray and John Zaritsky. (Keep an eye on the upcoming Hot Docs issue of
POV for coverage on Seth’s Dominion, Finding Macpherson and A Different Drummer!)
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Documentary,
Hot Docs
3/16/2015
Win Tickets to see 'Danny Collins' Across Canada! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Al Pacino returns in Danny Collins, a story of second chances from the writer of Last Vegas and Crazy, Stupid, Love. Danny Collins opens in theatres on March
27 from +Elevation Pictures, but if you want to attend a sneak peek across
Canada, you are in luck! Answer the
trivia below for your chance to win tickets!
Labels:
Al Pacino,
Christopher Plummer,
contests
3/15/2015
'Mommy' Leads Winners at Quebec's Jutra Awards
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Mommy |
★Les gagnants!
Labels:
1987,
Canadian Film,
jutras,
Mommy,
Tu Dors Nicole,
Xavier Dolan
3/14/2015
Diverciné Review: 'The Narrow Frame of Midnight'
The Narrow Frame of
Midnight
(Morocco/UK/France, 93 min.)
Written and directed by Tala
Hadid
Starring:
Khalid Abdalla, Marie-Josée Croze
The Narrow Frame of Midnight comes to
the screen with considerable pedigree and pre-production laurels—writer/director
Tala Hadid’s breakout short Your Dark Hair Ihsan triumphed at
Berlin and won a student Oscar—and it has an air of visual poetry, but it
doesn’t quite deliver on its potential. It’s a beautiful film to look at and
some of the performances are fine, so The
Narrow Frame of Midnight doesn’t disappoint entirely as a feature dramatic
debut from a filmmaker of obvious talent. It’s a stunning and stirring film,
and obscure and frustrating one as well.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
CFI,
Divercine,
Ottawa Arts
3/13/2015
The Financial Angle
The Price We Pay
(Canada, 92 min.)
Dir. Harold Crooks
Docs about the plight of the ninety-nine
present occupy ample programming slots within the doc contingent of film
festivals these days. It's no wonder, since the Occupy Movement arguably
provides the strongest cultural and ideological undertaking of this generation.
The range of stories, theses, and arguments put forth in this class of
documentaries is proof alone how much the plight of the ninety-nine engages the
world.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Canadian Film,
Documentary,
TIFF CTT
Cinemalinks: Weekly Reads
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The Look of Silence |
Labels:
Cinemalinks,
Documentary,
Mad Men,
Oscars,
Wild
3/11/2015
Contest! Win Tickets to See 'The Gunman' Across Canada! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Is Sean Penn the next Liam Neeson? Penn
teams up with Taken director Pierre
Morel for the upcoming political action-thriller The Gunman, and the Oscar winner wants you to come along for the
ride! The Gunman opens in theatres March
20 from +Elevation Pictures , but if you want to attend a sneak peek across
Canada, you are in luck! Answer the
trivia below for your chance to win tickets!
Labels:
contests,
Sean Penn,
The Gunman
Coming Soon: In Case of No Emergency: The Films of Ruben Östlund
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Kristofer Hivju and Johannes Bah Kuhnke in Force MAjeure, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. |
Labels:
CFI,
Force Majeure,
Ottawa Arts
3/10/2015
Enjoy Another Stay at the Marigold!
The Second Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel
(UK/USA, 122 min.)
Dir. John Madden, Writ. Ol Parker
Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie
Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup, Tina
Desai, Diana Hardcastle, Lillete Dubey, Tamsin Greig, Shaza Latif with David
Strathairn and Richard Gere.
Judi Dench as Evelyn
Greenslade in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Laurie Sparham / Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Enjoy another trip to Jaipur as
the unlikeliest of sleeper hits returns in The
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It’s hard to imagine that a film with an
average age of 63 amongst its stars could be a major sequel to one of the
biggest box office surprises in recent years, but the second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel proves that even box office
clout applies to late bloomers. This delightful return to the Marigold Hotel
mostly lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor: like a trip back to a
favourite getaway, this holiday is only really missing the sparkly sense of surprise
that makes the first Marigold such a
winner. These old dogs can certainly teach the fledging teen-targeted
franchises some new tricks.
3/08/2015
TIRFF Review: Irish Shorts
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Analogue People in a Digital Age |
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Shorts
3/07/2015
Diverciné Review: 'Murder in Pacot'
Murder in Pacot (Meurtre à Pacot)
(Haiti/France/Norway, 130 min.)
Dir. Raoul Peck, Writ. Raoul
Peck, Lyonel Trouillot, Pascal Bonitzer
Starring: Alex Descas, Joy
Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, Thibault Vinçon, Lovely Kermonde Fifi.
Here we have a garden. A lush ground
surrounds a posh house, but the setting isn’t Paradise; it’s some time after
the fall as a man and a woman repair what’s left of their lives after the dust
settles. He could be Adam and she could be Eve—the audience never learns their
names. Their home, nestled in the posh Haitian neighbourhood of Pacot, barely
stands in the aftermath of the thunderous earthquake that shook the nation. Tension lingers, though, as if Murder in Pacot drops viewers into the eye of the storm and knows that the worst is yet to come.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
CFI,
Divercine,
Ottawa Arts
3/06/2015
TIRFF Review: 'Standby'
Standby
(Ireland, 79 min.)
Written and directed by Rob Burke
and Ronan Burke
Starring: Brian Gleeson, Jessica
Paré
Congrats to Megan Draper on
landing that leading role! Canada’s Mad
Men star Jessica Paré does her best singing since seducing all of Madison
Avenue with her smoky rendition of “Zou Bisou Bisou” as she takes the stage in
the charming Irish ditty Standby. Standby, which opens the Toronto Irish Film Festival
on Friday, March 6, takes audiences through a whirlwind one-nighter right in
the heart of Dublin. Paré stars as Alice, the long lost love of Irishman Alan
(Brian Gleeson, son of Brendan Gleeson), who sees her waltz back into his life
while he’s working the information desk at the Dublin airport on a ho-hum
Valentine’s Day. Alice is on standby—both literally and figuratively—as she
waits to return home to America, and the night offers the best chance to
revisit one connection before making another.
Labels:
2015 Reviews,
Jessica Pare
3/05/2015
Contest! Get Ready to Defy Reality with 'Insurgent'! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Are you ready to defy reality, Divergent fans? The Divergent series continues with Insurgent
as Shailene Woodley returns to the role of Tris in this exciting continuation
of the franchise. Insurgent opens in
theatres March 20 from eOne Films, but if you want a chance to catch a sneak
peek, you are in luck! Answer the trivia below for your chance to win tickets!
3/04/2015
The Valley Below or: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
The Valley Below
(Canada, 87 min.)
Written and directed by Kyle
Thomas
Starring: Stephen Bogaert, Kris Demeanor,
Mikaela Cochrane, Alejandro Rae, Joe Perry
Well, here’s an interesting
recipe. Take one film and divide it into four roughly equal parts. Give each
story a unique lead, but let the characters blend together while mixing in
different narratives of love and loss. Let it marinate in the dry room
temperature atmosphere of the Alberta badlands and season each of the respective
works with its own composer. Not any composer, mind you, but a musician whose
talent and voice is synonymous with the terrain that the dinosaurs once roamed.
Let it simmer.
3/03/2015
Canadian Society of Cinematographers Nominations
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Wet Bum |
Labels:
Canadian Film
3/02/2015
Third Time's a Charm for the Canadian Screen Awards
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Xavier Dolan poses with two of his four Canadian Screen Awards for Mommy. |
3/01/2015
'Mommy' Leads Canadian Screen Award Winners
![]() |
Anne Dorval in Mommy. |
Labels:
Canadian Film,
Canadian screen awards,
Maps to the Stars,
Mommy,
Pompeii
Cinemalinks: Weekly Reads
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The Birdman screenwriters at the Oscars |
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