By Mathew Kumar

Today’s Listings:
2:30 p.m. – Not Quite Hollywood (AMC 7)
2:45 p.m. – Flame & Citron (Scotiabank 2)
3:15 p.m. – 24 City (pictured above; AMC 1)
3:30 p.m. – Vacation (AMC 3)
4:00 p.m. – Of Time and the City (AMC 2)
4:30 p.m. – Pontypool (Varsity 7)
5:30 p.m. – The Dungeon Masters (AMC 9)
8:30 p.m. – A Film With Me In It (AMC 7)
9:30 p.m. – Short Cuts Canada Programme 3 (AMC 3)
9:00 p.m. – The Brothers Bloom (Ryerson)
11:59 p.m. – The Burrowers (Ryerson)
After the jump, reviews for tonight’s screenings of A Film with Me in It, Short Cuts Canada Programme 3, The Brothers Bloom, and The Burrowers.

A Film With Me In It (Ian FitzGibbon)
A Film With Me In It is written by (and stars) actor Mark Doherty as a struggling actor called Mark who is writing a script. When you think of it like that, you might imagine this is a Charlie Kaufman-esque post-modern work, but it never seems to reach that far—it’s simply a farcical black comedy. Dylan Moran as Mark’s boozehound mate who only makes things worse is consistently funny (as Moran always is) despite the typecast, but it’s another film that struggles with the central problem of “why didn’t someone just call the police?” (see Deadgirl). Their bumbling attempts to fix things drag, but the ending is clever (and surprising) enough to elicit a belly laugh. Not a complete waste of time, but nothing special. 2.5/5
A Film with Me in It plays the AMC 7 at 8:30 p.m..

Short Cuts Canada Programme 3
Pat’s First Kiss (Pat Mills) – A cute little story about a disastrous first kiss told via voiceover with some supporting animation. The animation is strangely unique, too. 3.5/5
Forty Men for the Yukon (Tony Massil) – A short cinema vérité doc about the isolation of some old men stuck in a dead town in the Yukon. There is a warmth here, and it’s really worth seeing for one subject’s surprisingly constructed house. 3.5/5
Bedroom (Jordan Canning) – Can’t work out if this is supposed to be funny or not. A one-shot bedroom conversation between a couple in an unhappy marriage trying to work out their sexual desires, it’s realistic (even if the acting maybe feels a little forced) until the point near the end where the husband reveals his hilarious desires. Maybe it’s making the point that private desires can be funny but valid no matter what (we totally agree), but we still laughed for ages. If you go to a screening, let us know how the audience reacts. 2.5/5
Passage (pictured above; Karl Lemieux) – A very attractively shot film about a ecstasy-fuelled orgy on a road trip that, like every other sex party ever filmed, just leaves everyone really unhappy and awkward afterwards. The narrative is established well without the need for dialogue, and some shots (such as the external shots of their car driving under a heavy sky) are superb. 4/5
Sunday (Jaime M. Dagg) – This short, centering on an increasingly depressed boyfriend as he watches his relationship crumble, expresses the pain of losing someone very well indeed. It doesn’t pan out the way it seems like it’s going to, but the fantastical conclusion makes perfect sense. 4/5
Also playing as part of Short Cuts Canada Programme 3: Noon (Dan Popa) and Green Door (Semi Chellas). Short Cuts Canada Programme 3 plays AMC 3 at 9:30 p.m. and September 10th at 3:30 p.m..

The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
Whatever your feelings on director Rian Johnson’s debut, Brick, you’d have to admit surprise that his sophomore offering is a chunk of very Wes Andersony whimsy about a pair of con men brothers who take an awkward heiress on a trip through Europe as “one last job”. The film does keep the (at times) clumsy verbosity that marked Brick, but the strangest thing is that this is a film about con men that never tricks or twists on the viewer—it’s genuinely very straightforward and resolutely dull and disappointing by the time you get to the end. Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz have adorable chemistry and this buoys the middle section, plus there are some great comedic touches (normally in the background of shots), but this is a work without any spark. 2/5
The Brothers Bloom plays the Ryerson tonight at 9 p.m. and on September 12th at 12 p.m..

The Burrowers (JT Petty)
The Burrowers is a gorgeously shot take on the largely unexplored horror/western genre from JT Petty, director of one of our favorite Midnight Madnesses of past years, S&MAN. Dense with references to westerns of the John Ford era (particularly The Searchers), a group of ranchers search for the “Injuns” that kidnapped the women and children of a nearby farm and grotesquely disposed of the men—only to find that what they’re searching for may be a more terrible force in the west than even the morality-free cavalrymen that accompany them. Though it tends toward the slowness of a classic western rather than the tightness of a modern horror, the film spills over with atmosphere and has a pitch-perfect ending that will stay with you. Highly recommended. 4/5
The Burrowers plays the Ryerson tonight at midnight and the Scotiabank 4 on September 11th at 3:30 p.m.