FILM: Andrew Fleming's 1999 comedy Dick is screening tonight as part of the Fido-sponsored Free Flicks series at the Harbourfront Centre. In case you don't know, the movie is about two teenage girls (played effortlessly by Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) hired as the official dog-walkers of President Richard Nixon, in an attempt to conceal their knowledge of the Watergate scandal. Except, funny! Sirius Stage at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West), 9 p.m.,......

You know what sucks? Burning significant quantities of helicopter fuel for the purpose of towing around an ad. You know what's cool? Seeing the Batman logo flying across the sky. Life is complicated sometimes. So, yes, The Dark Knight comes out today. Well, actually it came out about fourteen hours ago, with midnight screenings that we assume were packed, as the movie set a new Canadian record for advance ticket sales. It'll almost certainly......

Friday WORDS: The new season of the Toronto Poetry Slam kicks off Friday. Amateurs sign up half an hour before the show, and are given a chance to showcase their talents. Afterward, there will be a performance from musician Mark Berube and The Patriotic Few. For more information, check out the Toronto Poetry Slam website. The Drake Hotel Underground (1150 Queen Street West), 8 p.m. (sign-up at 7:30 p.m.), $5. MUSIC: Local musician Jennifer Castle......

Really we were. Between the alcohol and the giddiness and the fact that we couldn't think of anything intelligent to ask him about his new movie, Coopers' Camera, we opted instead to snap a few photos from afar. And then when we finally did work up the nerve to approach him, he had just left, leaving us with memories of Homer and Mr. T. Jones, along with countless other Canadian film industry and media......

WORDS: Dr. Steven B. Shubert is an Egyptologist. At U of T tonight, he will be giving a lecture called "The Greeks Rule! How the Greeks Shaped Our Perception of Ancient Egypt." The lecture is presented by The Society For the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, and explores the study of ancient Egypt as provided by Greek sources such as Herotodus, Diodorus, and Manetho. 323-4 Bancroft Avenue, 7:00 p.m., FREE for members of the SSEA,......

Reel Toronto is a look at Toronto's illustrious film history, during which our fair city has represented just about everywhere on earth. Yes, we're proud of our chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow––heck, Toronto even plays itself, every now and then. The Boondock Saints is a perfect example of the post-Tarantino school of filmmaking. It's got killing, cussing, and style to spare. Is it any good? Well, we'll leave......

FILM: Tonight, as part of Yonge and Dundas Square's summer film screenings, Baz Luhrmann's version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet will be showing. Spoiler alert: sad ending, apparently. Also, definitely check out the official website for the film, ostensibly made in 1996. Yonge and Dundas Square, 9:00 p.m., FREE. SPORTS: Over at BMO Field, Argentinian footballers Independiente are in town to play Toronto FC in an exhibition match. Can't find tickets (and don't feel......

It’s time to rev up film fest season again, folks. This week, Visa cardholders could purchase ticket packages in advance for the Toronto International Film Festival and, starting Monday, so can regular folk. A package of ten tickets will set you back around $170 including taxes and fees, or $17 per ticket. The good thing is that the ten-pack can be shared, so up to four tickets can be used from the pack per......

So this week Hellboy II comes out, and advance word has it that Guillermo del Toro has forgotten about creating three-dimensional characters and instead spent all of his time trying to dazzle us with special effects. Of course, you might remember a time in the sixties and seventies when three-dimensional characters were special effects—in which case you should get yourself down to the Fox Theatre to check out the 3D Film Festival. We're kind......

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......

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,......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. To obviously quote another film kind of about boxing, Cinderella Man coulda been a contender. We'll never know what gold (both......

Since an enlarged heart is such a dangerous medical condition, how on earth do Pixar get away with causing people's hearts to swell so much with each of their new releases? With Wall*E, the tale of a lonely little robot that falls in love, we're worried our chests will burst right there in the cinema! It just sounds too adorable. Critical response is (as to be expected) positive, though there is a dissenting opinion......

Photo of Ben Stein by Patrick Metzger. Just so you know, Torontoist did not ask Ben Stein to say "Bueller? Bueller?" for the tape recorder, and we'll go to the grave regretting that failure of courage. Nevertheless, we spent an interesting 20 minutes with the monotone lawyer/writer/economist/actor/game-show host when he was in town last week promoting his documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed which opens in Toronto this Friday. The film argues that scientists willing......

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. So, at least this week's big-budget attention-grabbers are The......

It's acclaimed, it's award-winning, it's drenched in blood, and it isn't modern art. It's Pakistan's first gore film and it's freaking out the squares in Toronto this week. Hell's Ground (Zibahkhana in Urdu) is June's selection for Rue Morgue Magazine's Cinemacabre series. The monthly event, held on the third Thursday of the month at the Bloor Cinema, features obscure horror films, both old and new, as well as the occasional premiere. Omar Khan's 2007......

We're a little under three months away from the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, which means it's about time to begin the constant buzz for the festival that many of you will find insufferable. The first announcement? That the festival is to open with the world premiere of Passchendaele, written, directed and produced by Paul Gross. Or "that guy out of Due South" if you're in the mood for a lazy short-hand. Only Gross's......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. "It's like a little slice of New Jersey" is probably not in the Mayfair's ad material. If you wanna take your......

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......

The TTC wants to get rid of adult tickets, using only tokens for adults to combat counterfeiters. In a move to placate ticket fans, Adam Giambrone promises to look into ways to create tokens that will be ruined when you forget to take them out of your pants and put them through the washing machine. Dalton McGuinty defended the tax incentives received by Young People Fucking yesterday, explaining that while certain people might be......

The Worldwide Short Film Festival opened last night so it's too late to call this a preview, but we wanted to make sure we'd seen as many of the programmes we could manage before we offered you any opinions on what to go and see (and what to avoid). After the jump, previews of official selections Crime & Punishment and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me; Japanese spotlight Genius Party; Celebrity Shorts;......

We wrote off Kung Fu Panda completely after watching our nine-millionth trailer for it—it was the one where Angelina Jolie's tiger shows Jack Black's panda such disdain that it all but guarantees a clichéed narrative in which she eventually admits grudging and then genuine respect. So what's the deal with the positive reviews? "It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s visually sumptuous—I’d even go so far as to call it the first non-Pixar effort to approach......

Luminato is upon us, fair citizens. If you're wondering what to do, what to see, or what's Luminato?, Torontoist is here to play festival guide. We've randomly drawn carefully chosen ten must-not-miss events: one for each day of the city's massive annual "arts and creativity" smorgasbord, which runs from June 6–15. Our staff's picks are after the jump.......

If you can complete that lyric, then you need to be at the Royal Cinema next Tuesday to unabashedly sing along to a special screening of The Sound of Music. The CBC is hosting the event to celebrate next weekend's debut of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, the new series that seeks to cast the lead role of Maria von Trapp in the upcoming staging of The Sound of Music, produced by......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. "It's okay, Mr. President. We'll make sure you're safe and then we'll get to the truck with the french fries." The......

Wow! Weird. Apparently we didn't review Mister Lonely, even though we saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Why didn't we? Who knows. Still, at least we get a chance to talk about it now, as it's getting released this week (well, in the Cumberland, anyway). Mister Lonely is a film…well, to be honest, it's two films. Cut into one, more or less randomly. One is the story of a lonely......

There is an English-language movie called Troll 2. It was neither made by people who speak English, nor contains trolls. Rather, the 1990 film is an Italian production (with an American cast) concerning vegetarian goblins whose consumption of humans is predicated upon first turning them into plants. Hence the line (the exact wording of which varies among sources), "She is becoming one with the vegetable world." If, after reading the preceding sentences you are......

What's better than sex? Maybe writing about sex. Sex and Our City is a special week-long series that looks for questions and answers about love and sex in our city. Photo by PPDigital. Ah, the second date: dinner and a movie. (First date involves, of course, a course of non-alcoholic beverages.) Choosing the right restaurant is a chance to demonstrate compatibility ("You love sushi? No way! I love sushi!") and the right flick can demonstrate......

We don't know what exactly spawned their big decision, but the big guys at the Toronto Cyclists Union sat down and decided they needed some kind of fundraiser. Bike-a-thon? Nope. Bikini car wash? Nope. Star-studded screening of Pee-wee's Big Adventure? Why not?! Love it or hate it, your childhood favourite (or most hated) flick will be showing at the Bloor Cinema, with homegrown indie darlings performing—Kevin Drew and Joel Gibb will be playing alongside......

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Suggestions for subjects welcome. Aron Tager has been a working actor for fifty-odd years, but the role that most often gets him stopped on the street is that of Dr. Vink in the early 90s kids scareshow Are You Afraid of the Dark? Though Tager doesn't have a......