It’s almost Christmas, and you know what that means: Chinatown. Well, okay, for most of you it probably means family togetherness and gifts and whatnot. But for those of us who aren’t involved in one-or-another variant of Christianity, and who don’t have a lot of family in town, what this holiday is, primarily, is a [...]

For a panel discussion between three authors on the topic of book-to-film adaptations, last night’s event at the International Festival of Authors had a surprising focus on the perils of a movie being too true to the novel. Moderated by Canada AM film critic Richard Crouse, the discussion included authors Russell Banks (Lost Memory of [...]

Because Toronto’s more movie obsessed than a Quentin Tarantino screenplay (yuk yuk), Torontoist brings you Now on Screen, a weekly roundup of new releases. Click on any film title for our review.     The InterruptersDIRECTED BY STEVE JAMES Showtimes     The Ides of MarchDIRECTED BY GEORGE CLOONEY Showtimes     Real SteelDIRECTED BY [...]

Last month, Blue Ice Film announced it would purchase the Bloor Cinema to serve as a permanent, year-round home for Hot Docs, the annual documentary festival. Hot Docs is planning to renovate the theatre, but they're attuned enough to their core audience—cinema nerds and Annex residents—to know that change might lead to backlash. And so Wednesday night, in the theatre, they held a community consultation session.

Bollywood is a mammoth of an industry that churns out around 800 films a year, but it’s no different than Hollywood, with a diverse array of films and an equally varied set of actors. Rather than offer a scoop-fest on all the stars slated to walk the green carpet, we thought we’d take a look at the leading male and female nominees at this year’s IIFA Awards.

Still from Ex-Sex. Much like Canada, short films can get a bad rap compared to their larger, more attention-grabbing full-length cousins. Our nation is often called the loft above the awesome house party that is the U.S. of A. The redheaded stepchild to the blond all-American jock. Like the brown smartie, Al Gore, or Clay [...]

We took Tommy Wiseau on a tour of downtown Toronto last week. Here he is at U of T, with a very important message. The Room has become this century’s most prominent (and maybe only) contribution to the genre of film known as “cult.” It had never dawned on me how apt a descriptor that [...]

Well, it’s almost Easter. And you know what that means! Time for the annual wash of Easter movies that crowd theatres each year, seizing on the swell of springtime Easter-mania we’ve all grown tired of. Oh, wait, that never happens. And except for movies about Jesus, there really aren’t that many Easter movies. Well, there are now, as Hop, um, hops into theatres. If bushy tailed kiddie movies aren’t for you, then there’s also an okay haunted-house movie by James Wan and some wartime flag-waving out of the Netherlands. Also opening at TIFF Bell Lightbox is Essential Killing, starring Vincent Gallo as a wandering Taliban trooper, which we reviewed during TIFF 2010.

Poster of the closing night film, F. W. Murnau’s Faust (1926). Image courtesy of the Toronto Silent Film Festival. It can be frustrating to try to preview a film festival without screeners. In the case of the Toronto Silent Film Festival though, it’s more than understandable. Every year, accessing silent films becomes increasingly difficult as [...]

Movies, movies, movies. It always seems like you’ve got too many movies! “Help me!” you’re probably saying. Well, that’s why we’re here. To help you. It’s a pretty okay week, except for the Bradley Cooper movie. Unspooling this week, we’ve got a pretty great Brontë sister, a disappointing (though still kind of funny) alien, and the Bradley Cooper movie. Also, we reviewed I Saw the Devil at TIFF, and said it was excellent. And we stand by that. It’s certainly better than the Bradley Cooper movie. In fact, it’s better than any Bradley Cooper movie. Or the best parts of every Bradley Cooper movie cut together into a narrative feature, Trail of the Pink Panther style.

Did you guys know they shoot movies in Toronto? It’s true! They shoot all kinds of movies. Big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, artful Canadian dramas, wistful indies, all sorts of stuff. And with the recent announcement that Toronto would be hosting its biggest-budgeted production to date, the forthcoming remake of the 1990 sci-fi epic Total Recall (starring [...]