It should come as no surprise that even for the most stalwart of cinephiles there are always enormous holes in their film education. Sure, I may have seen both CRANK films, the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA film and a large portion of the works of Baz Lurhman, but before this latest round of Lightbox’s cinemateque retrospective, I’d [...]
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This January, a month traditionally reserved as a dumping ground for movies that neither fit in the mold for Awards season, nor are mainstream enough to be considered Summer blockbuster fare, have seen a few surprises show up. CHRONICLE joins the likes of WOMAN IN BLACK and THE GREY as a slightly offbeat, literate genre [...]
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What’s most frustrating about THE INKEEPERS is that it’s far less clever than the film tries desperately to be. With Ti West’s script (and direction, and editing, and production) we get a passable genre piece with illusions of grandeur. Mixing the matter-of-fact dialogue of PULP FICTION with a spookified hotel channeling every film that came [...]
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Let me state at the outset that RED TAILS will be seen as both a commercial and critical failure. It’s hard to see, despite the mass marketing blitz, how this film about the famed Tuskeegee airmen, the first black fighting air squadron in the US military, will manage even in this slow season to reap [...]
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There are few political figures as polarizing at Margaret Thatcher, leader of great Britain through a tumultuous decade that followed a sharp, shocking decline in the UKs economic and social fortunes. Any film that tackles her story is bound to be met with a great deal of skepticism, fearing either hatchet piece or hagiography. Gratefully, [...]
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Taking what first appears to be a left turn from his usual comfort zone (dry comedy usually doesn’t come first to mind), Roman Polanski brings us CARNAGE. It’s a dark, droll work, one based on a play originally written in French, playing (in translated form) for hundreds of performances on Broadway. I’m the first to [...]
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Growing up on a slew of Bond flicks, and reading the Bourne books at a relatively young age, my introduction to the world of the British spy trope was one of car chases, kinetic action and exotic locales. The tone presented in this film, clearly derived from the John le Carré’s source, seems a world [...]
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Following up on their recent success with the Lars Von Trier retrospective, TIFF Lightbox provides a similar overview of the career of another provocative and controversial filmmaker, Roman Polanski. Like Von Trier, it’s often difficult for many to separate the art from the life of the man, and few have lived a more colourful and [...]
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Once upon a time, way before there were the interwebs as we know them to be, there were a series of clipshows that’d play local arthouses. I remember sitting through 90 minutes of weird Japanese hottub-farting commercials, or clips of Scandavians learning English through the filthy lyrics of hardcore music on the radio. These were [...]
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Way back in 2008, I described director Steve McQueen’s HUNGER, starring Michael Fassbender, as “a study in meditation and ambivalence”. With this, his second film and second collaboration with the fantastically talented actor, McQueen turns his lens to a far more prosaic topic – loveless fucking. Not since Cronenberg’s 1996 film CRASH, also a film [...]
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Back in the spring of 1996 I had the opportunity to attend the Cannes Film Festival. The whole week was a whirlwind, my first real fest experience that involved a lack of sleep, running from screening to screening and seeing some of the best (and worst!) films that I’d ever experienced. ’96 was the year [...]
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There’s a scene early on in INNI where the members of Sigur Rós sit down to an interview at NPR. Asked if their music started out as something more conventional before it became experimental, the four of them stare at the off screen host, dumfounded. Describing their music is a fool’s errand, one even the [...]
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With THE LAST WALTZ, Martin Scorsese assembled some of the finest cinematographers in history and captured the epic last concert of The Band. He interspersed concert footage with behind-the-scenes interviews, crafting one of the finest documentations of that period of music. With SHINE A LIGHT, he brought 70mm IMAX production to a contemporary Rolling Stones [...]
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It all seemed so promising – a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese revolution that overthrew centuries of dynastic rule, coupled with the 100th film credited to international superstar Jackie Chan, and granted a budget that could see such a story being brought to the screen with sufficient pomp and scope. Why, then, [...]
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I was asked on the twitter today about what Criterion Blu-Ray a friend should buy. This got me thinking as to what are my favourite discs in the collection, which disc on DVD-only are must haves (or deserving of upgrade), and which discs that they formally had licensed in their Laserdisc days deserve to be [...]
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THE INTERRUPTERS is a poignant, engaging look at a group of Chicagoans looking to curb the violence plaguing their city. Tracing a year in the life of this group, the film details with stark clarity the lives of a community beset by ongoing cycles of retribution. We follow a group of “Interrupters”, former gang members [...]
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By almost any measure, this film should be terrible. Nothing much happens for an hour, then a bunch of guys get in a truck to make a delivery. Finally (spoiler), things go badly. And yet, almost despite itself, THE WAGES OF FEAR is one of the most tense, most accomplished thrillers ever put to film. [...]
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Growing up with THE MUPPET SHOW, the musical and comic stylings of Paul Williams were inescapable. I assume I saw him on the plethora of game shows and LOVE BOAT appearances he made, but it was this little mans turn with Kermit and friends, and his subsequent scoring of the first MUPPET MOVIE that ingrained [...]
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All the ingredients are there – a fascinating tale of a boy-King crowned in the midst of the last World War, forced to flee his country and live in exile, only to triumphantly return after the collapse of the Soviet Union to claim a democratically elected leadership position decades after he first held office. Unfortunately, [...]
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In this extremely well made documentary, Alex Gibney (here last year with the under-appreciated CLIENT 9) sets his sights on one of the more misunderstood characters of Canada’s game – the hockey enforcer. The film starts with a startling shot of a pair of ravaged hands, the kunckles obliterated, fingers skewed at odd angles. The [...]
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Leave it to Herzog to turn the debate about capital punishment on its head. Delving into the events of a brutal Texan homicide, he talks to the two men convicted of the crime, the families of the victims, and the law enforcement and legal personnel that arrested, convicted, and eventually put to death one of [...]
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Co-written, co-produced, and starring Glen Close, it’s hard to avoid feeling that ALBERT NOBBS is a mere vanity piece by the celebrated actress. It’s easy to dismiss the film as mere Oscar bait, a “showy” gender-bending presentation with the staged uglification that often bestows kudos upon actresses, be it in the form of distorted nose, [...]
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In the prologue to HEADSHOT we’re quickly introduced to our lead character, the camera floating as a first person shot. Wearing monk robes, the man walks into a compound, raises a gun, then… Black. Months later, he wakes up, only to have his life turned upside down, literally. Whether it’s a bullet in his head [...]
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KILLER JOE is a dark, vicious little character piece marking a return of sorts for William Friedkin. Sure, the director of EXORCIST and FRENCH CONNECTION made a couple decent films in the last four decades, but he’s hardly been able to make a real splash since. Essentially the film revolved around five players. Firt there’s [...]
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I admit upfront I had no hope for this film. I figured Spurlock would trot out his usual shtick, focusing more on himself than his subject, and engaging in a fatuous kind of culture tourism, diving deep into the belly of geekdom. Instead, A FAN’S HOPE is by far Spurlock’s most matured and compelling work [...]
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Yet another in a slew of Cancer-themed fest flicks, this one takes another take on the subject through the eyes of a talented yet troubled youth Donald (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) going through his own anger issues as he undergoes chemotherapy. Donald’s biggest concern is that he won’t die a virgin. Eliciting the assistance of a local [...]
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SUPERCLÀSICO is one of those real gems you get to experience at an international film festival – breezy, clever, beautifully crafted and performed, it’s a gem of a film that treats its audience with respect while being nothing short of enjoyable. The fact that it’s (co)written be the writer of one of my least favourite [...]
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KILL LIST is a strange, unsettling film. More character drama than straight out genre piece, the opening half owes more to Mike Leigh film than to Tobe Hooper. We’re introduced to Jay (Neil Maskell), a hitman that’s between jobs. After his last gig went awry (for reasons unclear at the beginning), he’s struggling to make [...]
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Another in a line of films this year that start with great flourish, yet can’t sustain ’till the end, THE AWAKENING is 4/5ths of a great, moody little piece with a tacked on conclusion that washes much of it away. When it’s good, however, the film is a lot of fun. Set in 1921, the [...]
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From about a minute into the film, Considine’s TYRANNOSAUR grabs you by the throat and never lets go. We follow Joseph, played by Scott thesp stalwart Peter Mullan, as he leaves a bar in a rage. Taking out his frustration on the first thing he can (the dog chained to his arm), we’re immediately disgusted [...]
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