Tagged: chapter5atthemovies

Toronto - What happens in that moment when you capture the eye of a complete stranger? In a fraction of second, it seems like the shields that separate the two of you are down; and your looking directly into the being of the other. Taking just such a moment and expanding what that might look like into a three and a half minute short-film is exactly what Arev Manoukian did with Nuit Blanche . As a result, he won top honours at LG's inaugural Life's Good FilmFest . In 2009, with the sponsorship of celebrity [...]

Toronto - Normally, we don't really do PSAs. However, since one of our own blog members is a budding film maker and Hot Docs is one of my favorite Toronto events of the year, I would like to take a few minutes to inform you that the application deadline for the Don Haig Award is fast approaching (January 29th). What is it, you ask? well, I took this from the hot docs site: documentary's Don Haig Award is presented annually to an emerging Canadian documentary filmmaker. The winner will receive a $20,000 cash prize [...]

Toronto - And you thought James Cameron was retiring. After the Abyss, everyone was hoping for him to direct another big blockbuster. Then came Terminator 2, and the expectation became higher. Titanic was a whooping 6 years after T2. And it has taken him 11 or 12 more years since Titanic to give us Avatar. And all of these movies were LONG - Titanic was 194 min, T2 weights in at 130 min or so, and Avatar is around 162 min. From this, it seems that he chooses to craft movies that prove a point or challenge himself, more so [...]

The Hague - You may have thought that my first post from The Netherlands would've been about something other than a Hollywood movie. Oh how wrong you were. Those of you who know me or who listened to the last Panic Manual podcast that I was on may know this already, but at the end of September I moved from Toronto to The Hague to head up the Panic Manual's new European Bureau, and also to work for a large international justice organization for six months. I haven't been to a concert here yet, even though Massive Attack [...]

Toronto - I'm not usually one to go to plays or musicals, usually that type of stuff is reserved for our resident theatre critic (and lover of the Sunparlour Players) Brian , however, he is off narrating court proceedings in the Hague, so it was time for me to big it up and step in. The musical I was going to see is called The Toxic Avenger , and it's based on a cult classic b movie of the same name from the 80s. The play is directed by a bunch of people I [...]

Toronto - Despite the audience chuckling under their coffee-breath at 10am, this movie is still quite the dysfunctional study and I don't think anyone walked out of Varsity cinema, stared at the sun, and said to themselves: "well, that was another artsy banality that I rather not have seen". Kudos to the director for not giving in and opening the trunk to let us see what's inside. Dogtooth ( Kynodontas ) is a glimpse into a dysfunctional family of 5 living on the outskirt an industrial city (somewhere in Greece?) The major malfunction: the parents. In trying to [...]

Toronto - The French are not linked to eccentricity without solid evidence. When the opening scene rolled for Micmacs, which is when Bazil's mom found out her husband was vaporized by a landmine, I could have bursted out laughing because the YELP she gave had no audio sense of shock or grief except that it was implied by context. It was this little, giddy yelp that you exhale after seeing a baby monkey being accidently thrown into a 12 diameter well from a 60 ft tall branch by its sibling, sort of saying: wow, it's just one of the ways [...]

Toronto - Dolphins? Check. Japanese fishermen? Check. Sushi? Check. Drum rolls... and cue Hemingway: He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air. It jumped again and again in the acrobatics of its fear... what an excellent fish dolphin is to eat cooked, and what a miserable fish raw. I will never go in a boat again without salt or limes... ... And cut. I made the unfortunate decision to have sushi on Cumberland just [...]

Toronto - Horror films usually don't pique an interest with me mostly because the script/screenplay themselves are usually the horror, not the action. But a friend mentioned the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and I just had to see several of these films. So... here are my two selections. There were other ones but I'll get to them in time. Dead Snow is a film from Norway. Modeled after every other teanage slasher flick, it starts out with 7 med-school friends taking a weekend vacation in a [...]

For all you digitsal photo/video junkies out there, check out the latest podcast from Red Giant Software ( Episode 22: Creating a Summer Blockbuster Film Look ). Hosted by Stu Maschwitz, this half hour video podcast takes you through the coloring techniques and theory used in Transformers , Terminator , Phelam 123 and Where The Wild Things Are. Even if you aren't into digital coloring techniques, the podcast will make you appreciate and look at your favourite summer movies differently. It is pretty amazing and funny how they alter the [...]

(Toronto) Happening alongside NXNE this week is the Worldwide Short Film Festival (June 16 - 21st). Want to feel snobby and actually know what film should win the Oscar in the short film category, then attend this festival. There are tones of programs to choose from, so go to the site and have a look around. Here are some quick recommendations: You Can't Take It With You - Official Selection #3 ROM, Wednesday, June 17 @ 4:30 ROM, Saturday, June 20 @ 2:30 This selection has [...]

Toronto - I'll be the first to confess, I was not sure what was the song that made James Blunt famous..at first, I thought it was 'Your body is a wonderland', then I thought it was the song from the movie Closer..finally I found out it was 'You're Beautiful'. Then to my surprise, I found out they were all different singers. What a revelation! The film " Till You're Told To Stop " is a documentary about the meteoric rise of the British singer songwriter, from his early days as a struggling musician to 2007, when he was [...]

Toronto - Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a documentary that focuses on ...the time Johnny Cash went to Folsom Prison for a concert. One of the most prominent events in career of the Man in Black, this film by Bestor Cram takes us back to the event with the stock footage, new photography and of course, interviews with the people involved. The documentary briefly takes a look at how Johnny Cash came to be and the circumstances that led to him playing at the prison, and then the effect that the concert had on the [...]

Toronto - God, this movie was so stupid, I feel dumber for having watched it. As you probably know by now, Fast and Furious is the 4th movie in the FNF installation - the twist this time is that this movie features all four of the original actors - Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. So I guess for all you fans of FNF 2 and FNF 3, you will be disappointed to find that there's no Tyrese or that kid from American Gothic. The plot of this is really irrelevant, as this movie is [...]

Here's why I disliked the movie: 1) some serious plot holes 2) crappy script 3) no reason to care about any characters including John Connor even though we've invested more in him than Heidi did on her boobs 4) Michael Ironside in a submarine I think they just told the wrong story. I thought this was going to be a dark, gritty post apocalyptic struggle where we see what happens after Judgement Day. Where we see John Connor leading the resistance against Skynet. I wanted it to [...]

J.J. Abrams's slick interpretation of the Star Trek franchise is this summer's first mega-hyped popcorn movie. You can tell because Burger King is selling their " collectible glasses " (which I have to admit I kind of want) and the trailer makes appearances multiple times during your average commercial break. I have to give the marketers at Paramount their due. The trailer that started popping up around late January / early February created major buzz unseen in a series that has been perma-dismissed as the originator of the worst kind of geek fandom: Trekdom. Nothing about "Trekkies" is [...]

A few things about being broke that I have noticed over the past few months 1. You will eat a three-year-old box of Kraft Dinner and you will enjoy it. 2. You will always find money for alcohol. 3. Being home beats the shit out of getting up and going to work. This movie, BROKE , was really good. It is a Canadian doc about an Edmonton pawnshop owner and the daily running of his business. They filmed it basically by putting a camera and sound guy [...]

I have a problem: I have trouble taking Russell Crowe seriously. It's not because he got in trouble for (allegedly) hitting a staff member at a hotel with a telephone, or because he has a silly rock band, or because he grows long flowing brown locks that I decry as goofy-looking but am secretly insanely jealous of. It's because of the South Park episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer," where the South Park kids are watching Russell Crowe's TV show where he travels the world, randomly beating the crap out of people. Similarly, I have trouble [...]

Toronto - Anyone who follows Asian cinema will know that the past few years has been a tremendous boon for the Korean movie industry. With their flair for melodramatics and a dose of humility, Korean movies have been conquering Asian theatres for years now. Movies like Sassy Girl , Oldboy and The Host are well known internationally and Korean movie stars now are starting to cross over to English cinema (like the dude in Speed Racer). Action Boys is a documentary following several stuntmen all the way from their early days in the [...]

Cat Ladies . The title says it all. This doc gives us the inside scoop on four crazy cat ladies. Well maybe they aren't all crazy, but they do all have issues. We all have problems in our lives. Some of us drink, some of us collect cats. What can you do? The four characters featured in this doc all have varying degrees of cat lady syndrome. The story follows a good arc, keeping you interested until the end and answering the questions in your head as they pop up. It [...]