Farley and University College, together at last. We at Reel Toronto sometimes feel bad prefacing our postings with disclaimers noting that most films made here aren't great films. After all, most of them have at least some redeeming quality. It's something you need to bear in mind when assessing the era in which the Chris Farley-David Spade combination was big at the box office. Tommy Boy is probably the funniest Farley flick, which might......

Yes, we're being very obvious by leading with Iron Man this week, considering that it's everywhere anyway as this year's first big "summer" blockbuster. However, and we have a feeling we might have mentioned this before, we're sold on any film that recognizes that a trademark way to make your hero look as awesome as possible is to have him walk towards the camera with his back to an explosion—like they don't even care!......

The Over The Top film festival opens tonight, and for many, the draw is going to be Crispin Glover, who is bringing the two completed films from his It trilogy to the Royal, starting on Friday night with What Is It? at 7:00 p.m. (followed by It is Fine! Everything is Fine on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.). They're $20 each, but it's particularly worth noting that the rest of the festival is far more......

Those who frequent the strip of downtown parkettes stretching from Dundonald to Charles Streets have been wondering what happened to the mysterious monument to "Barney." In autumn, the memorial stone went missing after having been damaged, but has now been reinstated onto its concrete base just off Gloucester Street in the Norman Jewison Parkette. But what's the story behind this odd little commemoration? It's actually a drinking fountain for dogs—not a grave marker—and was......

Like everyone else, we’ve been completely distracted with the TTC strike (and considering we can’t really get anywhere in the city as a result, we don’t have much else to do) so this unfortunately final Hot Docs update was a little delayed. Now that legislation is passed, however, maybe we might actually be able to get downtown tonight to see some of the final screenings! Here's hoping. Tonight: 4:30 p.m. – Jesus Loves You......

Now, we’d love to pointedly go on strike from this Hot Docs update, but, you know, there are possibly a few people out there who are reading it to help them pick what they’re going to see at Hot Docs, because they live downtown and within easy walking distance of one of the theatres. Or they’re willing to try and drive down (not that we’d brave it). As far as we know, everything's still......

Harold & Kumar are back! Oh glorious day—how on earth could we not lead with the return of this generation's most important stoners? Their original quest for White Castle burgers (which we've never tried, and still wonder about) was maybe a little patchy but (for some reason) completely rewatchable in the way the best quick-fire comedies are, and the results for Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay seem to promise a similar experience,......

Well, it’s Hot Docs' closing weekend, and we’re all running out of time to pack in some documentaries! So without furthur ado, here are today’s picks: 4:30 p.m. – Full Battle Rattle (ROM) 6:45 p.m. – The Fallen (Al Green) – Coverage of the Pasta de Conchos disaster (which cost 63 miners their lives) and the resulting fallout. 7:00 p.m. – Milošević on Trial (Royal) 7:15 p.m. – Bloody Cartoons (Innis Town Hall) 9:15......

Vesterbro (11:55 p.m., Bloor). A sort of cinéma vérité film that concentrates on the difficult relationship between two young Danes, this is another film that makes us think about the place of fiction in films today—not because it’s fictional in any way (other than the usual documentary contrivances), but because if someone asked us to see a film about two young people in Denmark falling in and out of love that had a script......

Reflections in the Hall of Mirrors: American Movies and the Politics of Idealism is a series of lectures at the Revue Cinema that will look at films made during past and present American presidencies that reflect the culture and politics of their time. The lectures will run monthly from April until November, with the first lecture scheduled for April 26 at 10:30 a.m on the Kennedy era. The Manchurian Candidate, about a soldier brainwashed by......

We're now over half-way through the festival, and the quality continues with today's picks: 1:30 p.m. – Second Skin (Isabel Bader) – Pictured above. 4:00 p.m. – The English Surgeon (Isabel Bader) 7:00 p.m. – FlicKeR (Royal) – A look at the life of Brion Gysin (friend of William S. Burroughs), who created the Dream Machine, a device intended to make you dream but that might just cause an epileptic fit. So! Caution if......

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. The two great Canadian heroes prep for an adventure, Shakespeare-style. Strange Brew is not a great film, but it sure is......

Shadow Of The Holy Book (4:00 p.m., Cumberland). So here's the deal. There's a weird dictatorship in central Asia called Turkmenistan. It was run until recently by Saparmurat Niyazov, who wrote a sort of religious text/propaganda piece called the Ruhnama that everyone in the country has to learn. And if you want to trade in the (oil and gas rich) country, translating the book into your own language guarantees big contracts, something the new......

Strike averted, so there’s no excuse to not get downtown and check out some of the offerings from Hot Docs tonight: 4:00 p.m. – Shot in Bombay (Cumberland) 7:00 p.m. – Carts Of Darkness (Royal) – The homeless teach us how to enjoy extreme sports on a budget—by chucking themselves down hills in grocery carts (pictured above). 7:15 p.m. – Be Like Others (Isabel Bader) – Sex change operations are legal in Iran? 7:15......

It might be your last day to get downtown on the TTC today (check our strike status!) so better make the most of it! Our picks from today’s Hot Docs flicks: 12:00 p.m. – Shock Waves (ROM) 1:30 p.m. – Recycle (Cumberland) 5:00 p.m. – Stepya (Innis Town Hall) – pictured above. 6:30 p.m. – Tiger Spirit ( Bloor) – Min Sook Lee returns to Korea to examine the continuing influence 50 years of......

It's Saturday, the weekend, and we're all basking in not only our free time but also our ability to get downtown on the TTC before it's stripped away from us (even though it's a last resort etc. etc.). So this weekend is obviously the best time to try and check out anything at Hot Docs, because who knows if you'll have any opportunity to for the rest of the festival if the strike drags......

In May 2006, artist/curator Jessica Rose and dancer/choreographer Jenn Goodwin were both working for the city, organizing Toronto's first Nuit Blanche. The pair began going on runs around City Hall on their lunch break to blow off steam. Since then, Rose and Goodwin have organized runs around various art centres around the city as The Movement Movement: a community art project where marathon meets performance. On Monday, April 21 at 8:00 p.m., The Movement......

Even with all the Hot Docs talk there's a good chance that you just don't like documentaries, preferring instead to stick to fiction. (Which is interesting, really. We were just reading a piece that was, er, reviewing the last season of Doctor Who, which discussed how long it took people to warm to the idea of "made-up stories.") So you'd probably be better served by some of the other films on offer this week......

Our (truncated) picks from this evening's Hot Docs delectables: 4:15 p.m. – Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Isabel Bader) 6:45 p.m. – Shock Waves (Al Green) – The fortunes of a radio station in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 7:00 p.m. – Ex-voto for Three Souls / Second Sight (Alliance Cumberland Cinemas) – Three Mexicans struggle for miracles in Ex-voto; A Scot talks of "ghost cars"(?) in Second Sight. 7:00 p.m. – Steypa (Royal)......

When we ran our Sprockets preview last week, we tried to give the piece a theme, and we couldn’t stick to it. In all honesty, we probably overstretched ourselves in trying to give a post on a children’s film festival a theme any grander than "children’s films," and when you get down to it, why bother? Trying to theme our introductory post to this year’s Hot Docs coverage, which will continue throughout the week,......

Read our Sprockets preview? Don’t have kids—or don’t care? Well, there’s… Not a great deal we can genuinely recommend instead, but there is some stuff. Obviously, the Images Festival continues, ending this Sunday night with the closing night gala Trading the Future at 7 p.m. Cinematheque Ontario is also running The Latest Wave: New Romanian Cinema, a retrospective of the latest hot films to come out of Romania to thundering critical acclaim and absolutely......

Initially our headline here probably makes absolutely no sense, because the Sprockets Film Festival is the Toronto International Film Festival for Children. In general, "movie theatres filled with children" aren’t anywhere you could take refuge from anything (other than possibly peace and quiet) but we’d like to spotlight some of the films that Sprockets is showing this year that deal with the refugee experience. After all, with over 50% of Toronto a visible "minority"......

Subway northbound from Eglinton station. Three girls on their way home from high school. One of them puzzles over a semi-cryptic movie ad she spots on the wall. Girl: "You do look fat in that, Sarah Marshall"? Is she related to Marshall McLuhan?......

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. Respect to Henry Rollins, but do you want him to be your doctor? We at Reel Toronto are always happy to......

The Over The Top Festival will play Toronto April 30th to May 4th (including special screenings of Crispin Hellion Glover’s What Is It? and It is Fine: Everything Is Fine!, and the musical portion of the event we've previously previewed) but in advance of that, the Over The Top Fest and The Royal Cinema are showing a special retrospective, The Films of John Paizs, this week. The retrospective features Paizs’s 1999 50s science fiction spoof......

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......

The sheer volume of free art film screenings in the city is enough to make even the most consummate buff's eyes glaze over, but this Thursday at DeLeon White Gallery, those same eyes might just pop out of their sockets. RATTLE A CAGE! part of "Salon Thursdays" at DWG, will present art films by artists—selections from those whose primary medium is not necessarily film. R. Bruce Elder, Angela Joose, renowned performance artist Istvan Kantor, and......

Well, it sure is classier than the Scotiabank. For one thing, the AMC Yonge & Dundas 24, opening today, isn't called the "Scotiabank." And its interior design scheme (seen above) is premised on the role that movies play in the popular imagination, rather than the role that you play in Taco Bell's quarterly profits. And the music selections playing in the lobby (Soundgarden, Nirvana, and The Who during Tuesday's press preview) don't seem to......

Well, there have been a lot of films made about the ongoing conflict in Iraq and its effect on soldiers, and here’s another one! Stop-Loss is probably the glossiest, most-Hollywood looking attempt so far (no mean feat, considering Paul Haggis has had a shot already) and it remains to be seen if anyone in America really wants to be reminded that its sending its army off to fight a war that the majority of......

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. Wherefore art thou (and thine career), Kenneth Johnson? In our very first Reel Toronto column, we established a core principle: Toronto's......