Film Friday: A Reprise for Reprise

Slightly different beginning to our Film Friday today, because we’d like to highlight the fact that our favourite film in ages, Reprise (pictured above), was released on DVD this week. We really feel it should have been given the same kind of cinematic release it’s getting right now in the UK, rather than an astonishingly bare-bones DVD transfer with burned-in subtitles, but what are you going to do? You really have to see it anyway. It was one of our top picks from TIFF 2006, and is still as vital as ever (and Eye’s Jason Anderson agrees).

When it comes to the releases in theatres this week, Lust, Caution is hitting screens. We caught it at this year’s TIFF, but were deeply unimpressed thanks to (in our opinion) the spinelessness of Ang Lee’s directorial choices. Avoid it, unless you really, really want to see Tony Leung’s balls (it’s not worth it).

This week’s other festival refugee is the George Clooney vehicle Michael Clayton. The Star’s Geoff Pevere calls it "smart and entertaining."

The other films out this week are the kind that make us want to stab ourselves in the face repeatedly (The Heartbreak Kid, The Seeker and Feel the Noise). One reason to go out might be Wes Anderson’s latest, The Darjeeling Limited (as long as you watch the short online prequel Hotel Chevalier first) but that pretty much depends on how much you like Wes Anderson. Love him, but weren’t impressed with The Life Aquatic? Well, let’s blame that movie’s flaws on Noah Baumbach! Don’t like him at all? Er, miss this then. We’ll be checking it out as soon as we can, though.

This week in festivals: The Indie Can Film Festival and the Kino Art Festival. It’s also worth noting that the Goethe-Institut Toronto is presenting a series of six programs of early shorts and documentaries by Werner Herzog at Camera (1028 Queen West) from Monday to Wednesday at 7 p.m. On that Wednesday, too, The Fox Theatre will be showing the Herzog doc Little Dieter Needs To Fly at the same time in a strange, but pleasant, coincidence.