Never Let Me Go
The film starts as yet another English period piece set in a boarding school. Precocious children are playing, but when a ball rolls over the fence, they are prevented from recovering it. Outside the walls of the school, they are told, is a place full of danger they are not able to tread. When a […]
The Illusionist
It seems somewhat ridiculous, but THE ILLUSIONIST was my introduction to the work of Tati. A French artist that elevated the notion of what it was to be a silent clown in much the same way as Chaplin, his works are surreal, humorous and often sweet glimpses into the abnormality of normal events. This film […]
Jack Goes Boating
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut is a charming, incredibly sweet take on love in the big city. Drawn from a play, the films setting remains reasonably contained in scope, but never feels claustrophobic the way some transitions from stage to screen feel. The chemistry between Hoffman and the always fabulous Amy Ryan is a delight, […]
Black Swan
Owing more to Polanksi than Powell/Pressburger, BLACK SWAN is a sumptuous, at times raunchy, but completely intoxicating take on madness, lust, and the passion of dance. One key to appreciating the scope of Aronovky’s brashness in the film lies, I think, in how he chooses to display the credits at the end of the film. […]
The Legend of Beaver Dam
Screened before FUBAR II as a little “amuse bouche” to whet our appetites, BEAVER DAM is a little gem of film. A horror-musical, the film sets off the classic campfire spooky story, with “stumpy Sam” enlisted as the token scary guy of the tale. When Sam shows up and starts mauling the campers, the kids […]
Fubar II
When it first was announced that FUBAR II was going to open the 2010 Midnight Madness slate, I immediately thought it was a terrible idea. I’d not yet seen the original, but I knew it looked like little more than drunk prattling by a bunch of hicks from out west, a SPINAL TAP without good […]
Jing mo fung wan (Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen)
This whack of craziness from Andrew Lau includes some of the greatest genre collisions I’ve ever seen. Starting with a epic First World War set piece, we’re introduced to a band of Chinese heroes that use their chop-socky whims to overtake Germans, after the Europeans have (naturally) fled in a fit of cowardice. This first […]
Bad Faith
A women leaves work only to see a man bleeding to death in an alley way. As if in a trance, she approaches the blood, dipping her hands in the gore. The man is apparently the victim of the Bayonet Killer, a person that is serially hunting through the streets of Gothenberg. As bodies pile […]
Las Marimbas del Infierno (Marimbas from Hell)
I tried so hard to give this a chance, it sounded all so promising. A small, independent mockumentary about a musician that has lost everything save for his beloved instrument, which itself is under threat of repossession by some thugs. Quirky musical moments, joining a traditional instrument to a death Metal band all while exploring […]
Snabba Cash (Easy Money)
First of all, the title SNABBA CASH is just snappy and fun, pedestrian Swedish words made more quirky as heard by English ears. EASY MONEY, the official translation, does provide the requisite irony – nothing’s easy about getting cash in this world, particularly when you’re engaged in the often deadly game of pimping dope. This […]
The Town
A lot has happened to Ben Affleck since winning that Oscar for GOOD WILL HUNTING. Hollywood made an attempt at making him a old school action star, a romantic leading man, even tabloid fodder with the whole Lopez thing. In this latest chapter, Affleck has emerged as a respected filmmaker. After the success behind the […]
TIFF 2010
Welcome to our annual coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. The following breaks down some of the key elements of our coverage: Number of years TIFF has been going on: 35 Number of years we’ve covered TIFF online: 14 Number of films playing at the festival: 258 Number of films on our shortlist: 125 […]
A Beginner’s Guide to Endings
Have you heard the one about the neo-Nazi, the Cylon, and the Daily Show correspondent? The punchline is that in the end it’s all Mr. White’s fault. In this ensemble piece, we have a strange little morality tale involving people much better in their more famous rolls, but still pleasing enough to occupy 90 minutes […]
Daydream Nation
In this genre bending tale, Kat Denning plays a highschool girl that has moved in from out of town, only to find a school full of stoner rejects. Deciding to reinvent herself (basing her new persona on what she claims to be her idol, Monica Lewinsky) she seduces her hunk of an English teacher. To […]
Armadillo
It’s in his eyes that you see a glimpse of genuine shock and fear. This is not a fear brought on out of weakness; the wound is clearly painful enough to cause distress, but it is not life threatening, not so catastrophic as to cause the mind to distance itself from the gore. His eyes […]
Colin Geddes, MM Programmer on CKLN
Managed to capture this radio interview with Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes talking on CKLN radio. Highlights: All independent films (no Studio stuff) Confirmation of Elaine Page, Rainn Wilson, Liv Tyler, Woody Harelson, Ron Perleman, Josh Harnet, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and KEVIN BACON, and more. Demi Moore’s in Detroit. Introduction of the “Michael Jackson” […]
Last Night
In this sharp, well drawn drama, a married couple find themselves each confronted with private temptations.
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
Let me be blunt: Ong Bak 2 is an incoherent mess with a narrative that could be politely described as batshit confusing. Save for the title and the style of fighting, this film has nothing whatsoever to do with the first film (it takes places, weirdly, some 600 years before the first one). There were […]
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
The first reel of this film is shocking in its clinical accuracy – you see with silent determination two men execute what appears to be a perfect abduction. Textbook precision, from the plastic lined van to the ingenious unlocking of a door’s security chain (that one will haunt me for a while), you have at […]
Up In The Air
Take it from me, this Jason kid’s going places. Festival darling Reitman has crafted a mature, nuanced, funny film about frequent flyer points and corporate downsizing. Clooney is at the absolute top of his game here, with a mix of misplaced bravado and a quiet absurdity that he injects into every scene. The rest of […]
Wheat (Mai Tian)
Another dynastic Chinese historical epic gone awry – this one’s even worse than you might expect. Two “odd couple” warriors go AWOL in order to head home for the harvest. They find refuge in a town of the enemy that they have slaughtered, where the pretend to be not who they are. In this town […]
Valhalla Rising
A strange, somber “missionary tale” of sorts. A group of Vikings take a wrong turn and end up accidentally in the new world, where they’re met by unfriendly strangers. Set in the transitional times between pagan worship and burgeoning Christian movement, this is a dreamlike, misty affair. Mads Mikkelsen plays a savage, one eyed, taciturn […]
A Town Called Panic (Panique au village)
A crazy jumble of joy, Panic uses dollar store plastic toys, poorly stop motion animated, to tell a tale of, well, uh, stuff. The plot is a bit of a headscratcher, but we’ve got Horse, Cowboy, and Indian coming to save they day after the walls of their unbuilt house are being stollen by frogmen […]
Mr. Nobody
This film came out of nowhere for me and completely floored me. I was expecting just another sci-fi, time bending narrative, and instead was simply entranced by this engaging, original, provocative, downright stunning film from Van Dormael. It is a film with an unrelenting structure, bending time and our perception of it in delightful ways. […]
Hipsters
Described as Hairspray meets Swing Kids, Todorovksy has crafted an epic musical about Soviet era dissidents, kids that would flaunt conservatism to dress like crazy cats and dance to the pop music of their day. Superficially, this is a kids-against-the-system tale, but underlying it is a fairly sophisticated political message. Much more akin to Moulin […]
My Dog Tulip
Essentially a memoir about a man and his dog, this animated film is a quirky, charming feat. Narrated with gusto by Christopher Plummer, this is no hagiography of a fine specimen – tulip is a unwieldy bitch, and to the great consternation of her hapless owner, she gets into all sorts of trouble. The sketch […]
Reel Injun
Reel Injun does a decent job of contextualising the role of the “Injun”, or stereotypical Aboriginal North American, through the last century of cinema. Drawing interviews from the likes of Clint Eastwood, Adam Beech, and Sacheen Littlefeather (who talks, finally, about her Oscar moment), Diamond takes us on a road trip through America, seeking the […]
Deliver Us from Evil (Fri os fra det onde)
A strange, dark film about integration, racism, and the underlying current of small town evil (a theme, apparently, for this year’s fest). Things go awry after an accident causes the town folk to go on a rampage. Hicks assaulting a farmhouse lead to obvious comparisons to Straw Dogs, yet the film both lacks the visceral […]
Excited
Bruce Sweeney has crafted a cloying, repulsive film about premature ejaculation, smothering mothers, and golf in Vancouver. Canadian crap, an absolute embarrassment to our country’s cinema. Awful, terrible performances, sloppy direction, and yet another example of just how terrible a film of this ilk can be.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Well, you certainly can’t fault Nicholas Cage for not going full out in this role. Thankfully spared any connection to the former, abysmal Bad Lieutenant, Herzog traces the downfall of a good cop in antediluvian New Orleans. In the first moments of the film, we see Cage jump over a ledge into murky water. Causing […]