Results tagged “algreentheatre”

Finally! We've been to a few disappointing Luminato displays of late, and a few disappointing "marquee" literary events, and so it is with great pleasure and relief that we can report that last week, both fiction lovers and Luminato-goers got exactly what they've been craving: well-executed programming that was as warm and inviting as it was ambitious. World Voices in Fiction brought four of the brightest new luminaries in contemporary fiction to the Al Green theatre Thursday night, to read from and discuss their recent works, and did so in a most satisfying fashion. The authors were brilliant and also, happily, comfortable in front of an audience. The space was welcoming and the pace relaxed, just right for a reading on a lazy summer night. (Organizers of all literary events take note: acoustics matter. So do lighting and sightlines. Please book your venues accordingly.) In short, it was just what a book-ish night should be.

Photo from Paetec Music Tour.

Without a doubt, this week we’d be letting cheapskate cinephiles down by failing to mention the CNISSU’s Free Friday Film of the week, which isn’t just one but three, starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex) with the remarkably hard-to-see The Monster Squad, followed by Toronto classic The Brood, and finished off with the excellent blaxploitation nonsense The Human Tornado, starring, of course, Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore). Check out the trailer, which is pretty much NSFW –- he uses an earthquake to make his milkshake!

Now in its 7th year, the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival opens tonight at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor W.) with the international premiere of the Kanakan Balintagos drama, Tuli. “The directors show a solid command of composition, lighting and pace”, commented Andrew Dowler in his review in last week’s NOW magazine.

2:30pm - Velvet Goldmine (Al Green Theatre)

6:00pm – The Fountain (Visa Screening Room (Elgin))

9:00pm – The White Planet (Cumberland 2)

9:00pm – Rescue Dawn (Ryerson Theatre)

What’s that you say? We didn’t manage to give you any picks for this Monday? Ahem, well, oops? Let’s pretend there wasn’t anything really on, eh? Not that we were too busy going to screenings to write about them or something. But if we were too busy going to see screenings instead, here are a few things we might have learned.

- Is Altoids behind what is rumoured to be the summer comedy of the summer? If not, the mint manufacturer's geekchic campaign of a few summer's back and Carrell's gradeschool portrait poster are a little too close for comfort. Which makes us wonder whether The 40 Year-Old Virgin will be better or worse than a curiously strong peppermint. Better we hope, and the reviews seem to give faith to that fragile hope.

The Last Mogul, the story of MGM's Lew Wasserman, or He Who Never Wrote Anything Down, opens today, and though the previews for this movie are absolutely horrendous (boring talking heads, worse music), we're inclined to say that we won't mind if it's a bit dry. Toast is a bit dry, and we eat it on a regular basis. But movie mogul machinations are something that we don't get to eat for breakfast every day.

The Al Green Theatre, a nice film space located in the Miles Nadal JCC (at Bloor and Spadina) will soon see greater usage as regular theatre. It's now going to be operated by Capri Releasing (or Capri Films), who say they will "program first-run, specialized films from leading distributors, and will also present special cinema programs with leading filmmakers and panels that feature experts on a wide range of cinematic subjects." The whole thing will see its launch with a week of free movies commencing July 8th with Canada-Israel-Germany co-production Metallic Blues. Why do we always refer to films as co-productions and not merely films? TOist cannot tell you, but free co-production movies are better than unfree co-production movies. This much we know.