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The Spotlight team wins Best Picture |
2/29/2016
'Spotlight' Wins: Oscar Race Ends on a Much-Needed High Note
Labels:
Bridge of Spies,
Brooklyn,
Kate Winslet,
Leonardo DiCaprio,
margot robbie,
Oscars,
Room,
Spotlight,
The Revenant
2/28/2016
Oscar Party Playlist (Plus Some Ideas for Oscar Noms!)
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The Retrosettes perform "You Got the Love" in Youth |
Labels:
Oscars
2/27/2016
Canuck Co-Pros 'Fatima', 'The Little Prince' Top César Awards
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Fatima |
Labels:
awards,
Canadian Film,
Fatima,
Little Prince
2/25/2016
Final Oscar Predictions: 'Fasten Your Seatbelts. It's Going to Be a Bumpy Night!'
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Anne Baxter, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, and George Sanders in 1950 Best Picture winner All About Eve. |
2/19/2016
BNFF Review: '2 Nights Till Morning'
2 Nights Till Morning
(Finland/Lithuania. 84 min.)
Written and directed by Mikko Kuparinen
Starring: Marie-Josée Croze, Mikko Nousianinen
Canada’s Marie-Josée Croze gives a captivating performance
in 2 Nights Till Morning. As
Caroline, the complicated workaholic who has a layover with destiny in this seductive Finnish-Lithuanian
co-pro, the actress delivers her best work since her Genie Award and Cannes
prize-winning performance in Oscar winner The
Barbarian Invasions. Croze finds a strong screen partner in Mikko Nousianinen
as Caroline flirts with the idea of making a connection with his Finnish DJ
Jaakko when they meet at a hotel bar in Vilnius, Lithuania. In the vein of
Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise
and Danièle Thompson’s Jet Lag, this
talky and mature two-hander offers a whirlwind romance for mature audiences.
It’s a wonderful, refreshing film driven by a pair of excellent performances.
'We of the Craft Are Crazy'
Touched with Fire
(USA, 107 min.)
Written and directed by Paul Dalio
Starring: Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby, Christine Lahti, Griffin
Dunne, Bruce Altman
“That’s what I call illuminating,” says Marco (Canadian
actor Luke Kirby) as he displays a portrait of a bipolar brain to Carla (Katie
Holmes), his partner-in-crime at the hospital. Marco and Carla are both bipolar
and this picture of a brain that shares their illness pops off the page with
its vibrant colours: blue, pink, violet, and red. The picture, an image from a
ho-hum medical book, speaks directly to the experience that Marco and Carla
seek to validate while escaping the treatment put open them by the doctors and
orderlies at the hospital. Marco, a rapper, and Carla, a poet, both have strong
artistic talents that hit their creative heights with the manic strokes of
their bipolar roller coasters. Art and madness is a long-reigning love affair,
but Touched with Fire shows that the
connection runs much deeper and is far more politically correct.
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Katie Holmes,
Luke Kirby,
Touched with Fire
2/18/2016
A Snake is One Slippery, Spectacular Creature
Embrace of the Serpent
(El
abrazo de la serpiente)
(Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina,
125 min.)
Dir. Ciro
Guerra, Writ. Ciro Guerra, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal
Starring: Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Anontio Bolivar,
Brionne Davis, Yauenkü Migue
A snake is one slippery, spectacular creature. Embrace of the Serpent is equally elusive. This Colombian odyssey
and nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in this year’s Oscar race refuses to
take a straight line. It’s as windy and slithery as a serpent and it speaks
with a forked tongue.
2/17/2016
The End is Nigh
End of Days, Inc.
(Canada, 83 min.)
Dir. Jennifer Liao, Writ. Christina Ray
Starring: Carolyne Maraghi, Mark O’Brien, Paulino Nunes,
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Janet Porter, Anna Ferguson, Yulia Petrauskas
What’s worse: living a boring 9 to 5 existence or going down
in the apocalypse? The end is nigh in the Canuck comedy End of Days, Inc., which puts a quartet of worker drones in the
hellish flames of a workplace that just might be run by Satan. The minions
of Godfrey Global close up shop on their last day of work, but they receive an
odd proposal from the boss Mr. Godfrey (Paulino Nunes) who insists they all
attend a farewell party to receive their final paychecks. Sometimes it’s best
to punch out and take a loss.
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Canadian Film
2/16/2016
BNFF Review: 'Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words'
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (Jag är Ingrid)
(Sweden, 114 min.)
Dir. Stig Björkman, Writ. Stig Björkman, Dominika
Daubenbüchel, Stina Gardell
Featuring: Alicia Vikander, Isabella Rossellini, Pia
Lindström
Meatballs, make-it-yourself furniture, dragon tattoos, and
Ace of Base are some of Sweden’s greatest cultural exports, but nothing from
the great Scandinavian country rivals the legacy of actress Ingrid Bergman. The
iconic star of films such as Casablanca,
Anastasia, and Autumn Sonata is best remembered as a classically composed actor
with a magnetic aura and an adaptable charm. Her charisma and grace resonate
strongly in romances like Casablanca,
thrillers like Notorious, and poetic
neo-realist dramas like Voyage to Italy.
She loved movies, and the movies loved her, as Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words recalls with a loving and candid
portrait of the late star.
2/15/2016
Memo to the Academy: For Your Consideration
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Cate Blanchett in Carol |
Labels:
Carol,
Cate Blanchett,
Documentary,
Mark Ruffalo,
Oscars,
Sicario,
Spotlight,
What Happened Miss Simone,
Youth
2/14/2016
Contest! Win Run of Engagement Passes for 'Touched with Fire'! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Katie Holmes and Canadian actor Luke Kirby bring an inspiring story to the
screen in Touched with Fire. A hit at
last year’s SXSW film festival, Touched
with Fire comes to Canadian theatres and VOD on Friday, February 19 from
Pacific Northwest Pictures, and lucky readers can win run of engagement passes
to see the film on the big screen! Answer the trivia below for your chance to
win passes!
Labels:
contest,
Katie Holmes,
Luke Kirby,
Touched with Fire
2/12/2016
Contest: Win Tickets to See 'London Has Fallen' Across Canada! (CONTEST CLOSED)
Big Ben is about to topple like a pile of Jenga blocks in London Has Fallen! London Has Fallen, the sequel to the 2013 hit Olympus Has Fallen, brings Gerard Butler back in action to protect
international leaders from terror. London
Has Fallen opens in theatres March 4th from VVS Films, but
readers across Canada may attend a sneak peek to see the film before it hits
theatres. Answer the trivia below for your chance to win tickets to London Has Fallen!
Labels:
contest,
gerard butler,
london has falling
The Ladies and the Tramp
Portrait of a Serial Monogamist
(Canada, 84 min.)
Written and directed by John Mitchell and Christina Zeidler
Starring: Diane Flacks, Carolyn Taylor, Vanessa Dunn, Gavin
Crawford, Caroline Gillis, Karen Robinson
We’ve all seen that guy, right? The one who won’t commit?
The dude who goes through girls as if they’re cold beers on a Saturday night?
Drink ’em, love ’em, dump ’em, and move on the next one. But what if this guy,
the one we’ve all been taught to distrust in romantic comedies, is
a girl? Is going through glasses of chardonnay any different from ploughing
through beers?
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Canadian Film
2/11/2016
Bright Nights: Baltic-Nordic Film Fest Returns to Ottawa
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Marie-Josée Croze and Mikko Nousianinen star in 2 Nights Till Morning. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Film Institute. |
Labels:
Bright Nights,
CFI,
Documentary,
Marie-Josee Croze,
Ottawa Arts
2/08/2016
PPZ's Blade Not as Sharp as Its Wit
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
(USA, 108 min.)
Written and directed by Burr Steers
Starring: Lily James, Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote, Ellie
Bamber, Douglas Booth, Jack Huston, Charles Dance, Lena Headley
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Bella Heathcote (left) and Lily James (right) in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an Entertainment One release. |
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single film in possession of a good zombie, must be in want of some gore.
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Adaptation,
jane austen
Contest! Win Tickets to See 'Race' Across Canada! (CONTEST CLOSED)
The race continues! Stephan James (Home Again) stars as in Race,
the incredible true story of runner Jesse Owens who defied Hitler and became an
icon by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. Race opens in theatres February 19 from eOne Films, but lucky
readers across Canada may win tickets to sneak peeks! Answer the
trivia below to win!
Labels:
Canadian Film,
contests,
Jason Sudeikis,
Race,
Stephan James
2/06/2016
Take 'My Wife', Please!
Your Money or Your Wife
(Canada, 75 min.)
Written and directed by Ian Macleod
Starring: Craig Brown, Meredith MacNeill, Annie Valentina,
Brian McWarren, Josh Macdonald
Lionel: “We’re like Canadian gentlemen robbers. Have you ever seen the movie Foolproof?”Annie: “I Love that movie.”Mike: “That movie’s crap. Canadian movies are garbage.”
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Canadian Film
2/05/2016
Hail, 'Caesar'!
Hail, Caesar!
(USA, 106 min.)
Written and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph
Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Alison Pill,
Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill.
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen are a curious pair. Two Hollywood
outsiders and kids from the indie crowd, they’ve built a canon of singular
films while rising in the ranks of critical esteem, festival circuit pedigree,
and Oscar-worthy laurels. They might have four Academy Awards to their names,
but they haven’t sold out or buckled to Hollywood. (Yes, they’ve done re-writes
for films like Unbroken and Bridge of Spies, but everyone needs to
eat.) The Coens, if anything, flip the bird to Hollywood the more it embraces
them: their comedy gets blacker, their violence gets bloodier, and their
philosophy gets denser. Filmmakers achieve a rare level of freedom and anonymity
when they’re as consistently good as the Coens are, and their latest film Hail, Caesar! is one wacky comedy that
throws pie all over Tinseltown’s face.
2/04/2016
New Trailer for Jean-Marc Vallée's 'Demolition'
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Jean-Marc Vallée and Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Demolition. VVS Films. |
Labels:
Demolition,
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Jean Marc Vallee,
TIFF
Contest! Win '99 Homes' on Blu-ray! (Contest Closed)
Catch one of 2015’s best performances when Michael
Shannon’s intense turn in 99 Homes
comes to home vid. After earning Best Supporting Actor nominations from the
Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics Choice Awards, plus a win from
the LA Film Critics, readers have another chance to catch this powerhouse performance.
(With great work by co-stars Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern as the cherry on
top.) 99 Homes comes to Blu-ray, DVD,
and Digital on Tuesday, February 9 from VVS Films,
and lucky readers have a chance to win a copy of the film on Blu-ray. Answer
the trivia below for your chance to win 99
Homes!
Labels:
99 Homes,
Andrew Garfield,
contests,
Laura Dern,
michael shannon
2/02/2016
Contest: Win Tickets to the Canadian Premiere of 'Race' in Toronto! (CONTEST CLOSED)
The race is on! Stephan James (Home Again) stars as in Race,
the incredible true story of runner Jesse Owens who defied Hitler and became an
icon by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. Race opens in theatres February 19 from eOne Films, but lucky
readers in Toronto may win tickets to the Canadian Premiere with stars Stephan
James, Jason Sudeikis, and other special guests in attendance! Answer the
trivia below to win!
Labels:
Canadian Film,
contests,
Jason Sudeikis,
Race,
Stephan James
2/01/2016
Oscar-Nominated Live Shorts Programme a Downer
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Ave Maria |
Labels:
2016 reviews,
Oscars,
Shorts
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