Torontoist » “Snakes On”

Twin Showcases at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Herald Student Filmmakers

Kevin Scott — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:46 +0000

TIFF presents a night of films by directors who are still in high school or university.

It’s entirely possible that an early work by the next Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg will screen on Wednesday night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. With the 2013 Student Film Showcase featuring the best from post-secondary schools around the country and the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase kicking off the evening with Toronto-area high-school students’ films, the night will be a coming-out party for a new crop of talent. Judging by the polished creativity of some of the entries, it’s safe to say that young people are more prepared than ever to start telling stories on film from an early age.

CBC Music’s First-Ever Festival Will Be a CanCon Love-In

Chris Dart — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:30:30 +0000

The CBCMusic.ca Festival will feature Sloan, Kathleen Edwards, Of Monsters and Men, and roving appearances by Jian Gomeshi and Matt Galloway.

According to CBC’s Chris Boyce, the goal of this weekend’s CBCMusic.ca Festival is twofold. First and foremost, the CBC wants to celebrate Canadian music. Second, it wants to celebrate CBC Music, the broadcaster’s online music service, which launched a little over a year ago.

The Barber of Seville is Not the Sharpest Shave

Carly Maga — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:30:32 +0000

A reworked version of Beaumarchais' play makes for an uneven production, on now at Soulpepper Theatre.

In 1996, Theatre Columbus premiered playwright Michael O’Brien’s “freely adapted” take on the famous Beaumarchais play The Barber of Seville, which was written in 1775. O’Brien’s version mixed in music from the 1816 opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, as well as original tunes by composer John Millard. The adaptation also propelled the story forward a couple centuries, with pop culture references galore. With Theatre Columbus co-founder Leah Cherniak at the helm, the musical ended the season with six Dora Award nominations (it won three) and plenty of critical acclaim.

Seventeen years later, Soulpepper Theatre is remounting this zany reimagination of The Barber of Seville, updated once again by O’Brien, Millard, and Cherniak. But, for some reason—the change in decade, or company, or sense of humour—whatever had made the original so magical, has faded, save for a few key performances.

Quebec’s Distinct, London’s Not Green, And There’s A Snake in My Boots!

Christopher Bird — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:32:06 +0000

The House has overwhelmingly passed a motion recognizing Quebec as a nation within Canada. 15 Liberal MPs and Garth Turner voted against, although it probably would have been more if it had been a free vote for the Tories. Hey, remember when somebody, I forget who exactly but his name rhymed with “Even Carper”, promised that all votes in Parliament on non-budgetary matters would be free votes?
In other Parliamentary news, the Grits and the Bloc kept their seats in by-elections. Green Party leader Elizabeth May came in a reasonable second in the by-election for London North Centre, which, depending on your point of view, is either fantastic because the Greens have never done so well or terrible because this was a by-election where they could concentrate all their political power on one lousy riding and they still lost. Read the Torontoist interview with May here.
Next on the list of bad policy ideas imported from the United States: being unnecessarily paranoid about illegal immigrants.
Two homes in Toronto evacuated after a cobra gets lost somewhere in them. Also supposedly in the house: a badger and a mushroom. (Aren’t you glad I didn’t go for the tired Snakes On A Plane reference? We here at Torontoist like to switch it up on you now and then.)
And the OPP bust a raw-milk farmer. We are now all of us safe from the dangers of going on a three-year waiting list to drink unpasteurized milk. (Torontoist also thinks that Margaret Philp, the staffwriter at the Globe who covered this, must have greatly enjoyed writing the phrase “maverick dairy farmer.” Who wouldn’t want to be the bad boy of cow care?)

We’ll tell you where to Stick it!

Jill — Thu, 25 May 2006 04:01:00 +0000

What what? Gymnastics & hip hop? Someone released the all-girl sports & dancing movie of our 2006 dreams, and no one told us?
Fear not. We followed our favourite ass-kicking Toronto b-girl crew, Shebang! to Stick It, and we’re back to report that if you like movies like Bring it On or Bend it Like Beckham, you need to gather your entire all-female soccer team/sculls crew/precision skating line/ what have you and go see this one.
You’ll only find it in the suburbs but it is worth the RT to Eglinton Town Centre. It’s the brain child of the same woman behind Bring It On and this time around, it’s competitive judging standards that get nailed to the mat. Actual elite gymnasts handle the gymnastics. The choreography, music and camera work are tight, plus, Wei Wei does a headspin and baby freeze on the beam, courtesy of her stunt doppelganger, prodigy b-girl Shorty.
It’s interesting to note that when this movie didn’t get the distribution the filmmakers were looking for, they went indie and worked MySpace so well that the film opened to double it’s anticipated box office return. It’s no Snakes On A Plane, but gymnasts everywhere are flipping out over it.