Results tagged “cinemathequeontario”

This year's blockbuster season seems to have dragged on interminably already, but it's finally starting to look (tee hee) up, with the long-awaited release of Pixar's latest, Up, today. Their first in 3D, we've wondered if they've chosen such a vertically minded project because the form of 3D projection used tends to look better when things are moving up and down rather than horizontally; not that that would make that much difference to the quality of the film. Indeed, most of the reviews we've read barely mention it, with in particular NOW's Norm Wilner providing a deep look at the film that will disappoint anyone who was expecting some dumb fun or (at least) a break from the heartbreaking whimsy of WALL*E—"[Main character] Carl is a widower—and in a truly heartbreaking opening montage, we see how he ended up that way," he explains. "What distinguishes Up … is the fact that it never, ever forgets that Carl’s anger and misery come from a real, raw place of bereavement and helplessness."

We're all sick of "torture porn" by now—and just as sick of using the phrase—so the new remake of The Last House on the Left shouldn't even be worth mentioning as an "also playing…" in this column. Except we saw the trailer and—as much as we hate to say this—we were captivated.

Photo of Cinematheque Ontario's fall 2008 programme guide by Jonathan Goldsbie.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group's Cinematheque Ontario has been running for most of the month but begins to kick into high gear (er, if you can really call it that) tomorrow night with the first screening of Sokurov's most recent film Alexandra (pictured above) at 7 p.m. Films are often at their best when they relate to the world and situations that surround them, and Cinematheque Ontario senior programmer James Quandt wisely notes that the film "queries the Russian nation’s warring impulse in a time of resurgent militarism."

Thanks to YouTube, everyone is subjecting everyone else to their home movies and loving it, in stark contrast to how it used to be, when you had to watch the home movies of relatives you barely knew and grit your teeth the whole time. Still, if you've got any fond memories still trapped on celluloid (or even video), you can call the Film Reference Library (416-967-1517) before the end of the week to ask for an appointment for a free evaluation of your "treasured memories," including consideration for inclusion in the sixth annual Home Movie Day at Cinematheque Ontario on October 18. The screening runs from noon to 5 p.m. at Jackman Hall (317 Dundas Street West) and admission is free—but we do warn that old home movies, unlike YouTube, don't generally consist only of footage of cats hitting printers or puppies falling over.

So far, the summer weather's been anything but. Rain, rain, more rain... we haven't had to take one shower in two months! (Kidding. Don't make that face.) Still, that's no excuse to huddle at home: here are our top three no-poncho-required weekend activities.

It's the fourth of July weekend, and as a result Canada joins its southern neighbours in having very little new of note in cinemas—it's probably why Hancock, for example, started screening early. Although it's entirely possible that that was just a desperate attempt to avoid poor reviews doing too much damage. They're not quite as bad as we thought they might be, but the praise is very faint, with, for example, The Star's Peter Howell just about mustering the will to call it "worth seeing" but noting it is "rough around the edges."

Cinematheque Ontario usually has the monopoly on canonical cinematic summer fare in Toronto, as they spend two or three months unspooling a few dozen of the most famous films ever made. But this year the Bloor Cinema is giving them a run for their money, with an equally ambitious—yet markedly different—program of the greatest films of all time. Among the movies playing in 35 mm prints this July: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Goldfinger, Dr. No, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. Strangelove, Barton Fink, 12 Monkeys, Harold and Maude, E.T., Blade Runner, Amélie, City of Lost Children, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Independence Day, Jurassic Park, Labyrinth, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask, Vivre sa vie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Jules et Jim, Vertigo, Taxi Driver, and The Shining. Although you can pick out a few thematic threads (Lynch, Bond, etc.), it's really just a Good Movie Festival.

For some reason, this year we're already tired of the summer blockbuster schedule. It's only mid-June and we've already had multiple superhero movies, CGI films, and big-budget comedies. Maybe it's that desperate urge to not get killed by poor word-of-mouth that leads to another "must see!" movie every week until you can't remember the last film you were told was "must see!", but we're exhausted.

Well, we've listed the films that are showing at this week's NXNE festival, but we haven't particularly shown any opinion about which you should go and see. Until now! Our pick, above all, is Agile, Mobile, Hostile: A Year in the Life of Andre Williams, which plays the NFB Cinema at 1:15 p.m. this Saturday. Tim Perlich at NOW complains, "[directors] Matthies and Todd are unable to put [Williams's] sad current state in proper historical perspective," but we're still interested to see a film about Williams's current life. For a quick introduction to his work (and for some historical perspective), you couldn't do much better than checking out his song "Jail Bait." Pretty amazing—or amazingly offensive, depending on your point of view!

As we may have mentioned before, here at Torontoist we’re terrified of zombies—terrified! But yet we still love zombie films enough to not run out of the theatre screaming (usually). However, we’re not sure we could deal with the the Rolling Stones in IMAX, as seen in Martin Scorsese's concert film Shine a Light, released this week. A giant Mick Jagger looming over us, ready to eat our brains for sustenance! Horrifying! (We’ve been in trouble once before for saying someone looks like a zombie, but come on, you can’t argue with us here. The Rolling Stones look more like the walking dead than the Misfits have ever managed to.)

If there’s something that all critics know, it’s that it’s great fun to rip apart something that’s incredibly bad. Especially if you know the person who made it deserves it. So as a result there’s a regular bounty of great criticism thrown at Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 B.C. The guy has foisted some of the worst, laziest, most idiotic films on the public ever (his take on Godzilla should have had him tried in the Hague) and just the trailer of 10,000 B.C. seemed like it was intentionally trying to make us stupider.

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, to conclude our series, we look at the next immediate steps for rep cinema.

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the model used by Cinematheque Ontario.

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the fall of Festival Cinemas, which sparked fears that rep cinema would disappear from the city.

We managed to see Cloverfield a few weeks ago, and with the release of Diary of the Dead (above) this week, we have to say it's rather timely to discuss our opinion of it. As tired as this quote is, there's really no better way to describe Cloverfield than to take from Macbeth's famous soliloquy: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Hello, and welcome to another installment of everyone’s favourite film column in which the writer makes up their opinions on the weeks films largely based on what trailers they’ve seen on TV.

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about must be astonishingly terrible.

So, who else remembers that is simply reprehensible."

Films! Films films films films. Sometimes it’s hard to get this column started, so we just sit in front of a blank word document and type the word "films" until it doesn’t make any sense to us any more. But by then, we’ve got started typing, at least, and so we continue.

We’re going to take a break from our usual Torontoist style in this post because the passing of John Harkness, the film critic for Now magazine since its inception in 1981, is something that has particular importance for me. As the writer of Torontoist's weekly “Film Friday” column, which, as you know, very often quotes the reviews from local critics, I have probably quoted John Harkness more than anyone.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced their top ten Canadian features for 2007 last night, along with (for the first time) their top ten list of Canadian short films. The top ten Canadian features were: L’âge Des Ténèbres (Denys Arcand), Amal (Richie Mehta), Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil (Stéphane Lafleur), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), Fugitive Pieces (Jeremy Podeswa) , My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin), A Promise To The Dead: The Exile Journey Of Ariel...

Last week, we were told off a bit in the comments for being "down" on everything. We thought we’d do our best to be really positive this week, and then we realised how lame it is to force it, you know? The great news is we don’t actually have to force it, as this week sees the release of spins a massively interesting narrative: the tale of Steve Wiebe trying to be recognized as the world champion at classic 80s arcade title Donkey Kong.

Blade Runner is no longer showing at the Regent, which in many ways is lucky, as otherwise it was going to turn into a weekly, Rocky Horror Picture Show-style event for us—well, without all of that tedious audience interaction, which now we think about it, would make it not very like the Rocky Horror Picture Show at all. If you’re still hungry for more vintage Harrison Ford, though, they are showing Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Bloor this weekend. [edit: According to our comments, Blade Runner is apparently still showing at the Regent (we were under the impression it was a two week engagement) which means we may still turn it into a Rocky Horror Picture Show thing. Without all that Rocky Horror Picture Show.]

We don’t think we’ve ever lead with the same film two weeks in a row, but there’s a first time for everything. Did you get a chance to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut this week? We did. It was amazing. We really can’t think of a film we’d rather lead with (and there’s some good stuff this week). If you didn’t get a chance to see it, consider yourself massively lucky, because it’s still on at the Regent. Basically, you have to see it. It’s a cinema experience that you’ll regret missing for the rest of your life, probably.

Oh man! What a pickle. This week we have the release of one of our favourite films in ages, This is England, and one of our favourite films of all time, Blade Runner, in its super-special, Ridley Scott-approved final cut.

During TIFF we said, "if you’re as big a fan of Joy Division as Torontoist is, you’ll quickly come to terms with the fact that Control is simply one man’s interpretation of Deborah Curtis’s book Touching from a Distance, and your overall feelings will (probably) lie on how you feel about that interpretation," and we stand by that even now—despite the gorgeous cinematography, which remains the film’s strongest point, we still like 24 Hour Party People better (even though that’s really about Tony Wilson).

The After Dark Film Festival! Happening all week! The only film festival where Uwe bloody Boll could have his film accepted! We talked about it here! Check it out!

This week Torontoist decided to work out for itself exactly when The Simpsons was good. Because it’s just been so long, so depressingly long, since we’ve seen a episode that didn’t make us want to open a vein. Seriously. Using the powers of science (well, Wikipedia) we’ve decided it was good between seasons three and ten, peaking in (roughly) season seven.

Have you entered our Hot Rod competition yet, readers? It's still running. You probably should enter, as it’s the most exciting film you could see this week, in our humble opinion. We really like Andy Samberg, you see. It’s so rarely worth struggling through an episode of Saturday Night Live just to see him (he’s so often wasted) but Hot Rod could be good! It really could!