Results tagged “midnightmadness”

Dr. Steve Brule. Now, that name either fills you with joy, and probably running straight to YouTube, or it rings absolutely no bells at all. We mention him—John C. Reilly's character from Tim & Eric Awesome Show Good Job!—because he's pretty much the reason we rate Reilly so highly. Initially he was lumped in with the list of "people who have been in Paul Thomas Anderson films that we are ambivalent about," but Dr. Steve Brule is such work of comedic genius, he's on the list of "good guys" now.

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.]

It’s the final day of the festival, which is always rather maudlin one—although for those of us who try to cover it, the festival is largely a far too hectic, busy period of time, once things start to slow down the sudden lack of pressure is terribly deflating. Never mind—we’ll have some wrap up coverage for you next week. Tonight’s closing gala is Emotional Arithmetic, reviewed by Jonathan Goldsbie at the very beginning of our TIFF 2007 coverage. He called it a “highly-polished drama” but noted that it “plays out exactly as one would expect and is only rarely revelatory.” Head along to Roy Thompson Hall tonight to catch your last glimpse of the glamour and pageantry of the festival.

No Film Friday again today, as we’re still too busy with the festival A few of the films that played at the festival are out already, with Neil Jordan’s The Brave One, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises and Julie Taymor's Across the Universe all on general release. Not even new release Mr. Woodcock escapes a connection—it’s directed by Craig Gillespie, director of festival film Lars and the Real Girl.

Today’s Contest:

Today’s Contest:

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with the Toronto International Film Festival Group to run a contest each day until the end of the festival for tickets to next-day screenings.

Today’s Reviews:

Today’s Reviews:

Today's Review:

No Film Friday today as we’re too busy with the festival, but we can let you know that this week sees releases of some pretty decent-sounding films: 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot ‘Em Up and Hatchet. Er, and also The Brothers Solomon, starring Will Arnett and directed by Bob Odenkirk but apparently dire. Let's Go To Prison wasn't great either. Sob.

It begins! Tonight the Toronto International Film Festival opens officially with Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces, so if you want to start soaking up the atmosphere of the festival head down to Roy Thompson Hall before 8 p.m.

Well, this is it. The Toronto International Film Festival begins tomorrow, and this is the last of our previews, with coverage of Vanguard films Boy A (pictured above) and Help Me Eros from Jonathan Goldsbie and Mathew Kumar, and reviews of a selection of Short Cuts Canada shorts from Mathew Kumar (in which he has the audacity to hand out a 0/5).

Recently, Torontoist went canoeing in Algonquin Park (we got 34 mosquito bites). However, arguably the most amusing thing to happen during our entire trip was passing a billboard on our way into the park advertising a "Dock in a Box." We instantly became distracted by a lengthy fantasy that the company knew exactly what it was doing and included a YouTube video on its website about how it created the Dock in a Box (you know—"One, we cut a hole in the box; two, we put our tech in the box!"), but were recently disappointed to find that there’s nothing funny at all on the company website.

Well! Considering we got in so much trouble in the comments the last time we mentioned the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival 2007 in conjunction with zombies, we think this time we’re going to be really careful with what we say about the exciting news that George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead is to play this year’s Midnight Madness program. So all we'll say is that we think that’s going to be really good, and everyone involved in the production, even those who look like zombies, are truly beautiful and special people.

Cinematheque Ontario’s summer season begins tonight, and we’ve got one pair of tickets to give away to their opening night screening, the celebrated silent film classic Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans, argued to be one of the greatest films ever made by countless critics. It’s tonight at Jackman Hall at 6:30 p.m., so if you can make it and you’re randomly selected from the people who email us at contests@torontoist.com, we’ll notify you by 4:30 p.m. today that you’re the winner. (The contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.)

Goodness! This is a week stuffed with festivals (and, surprisingly, interesting general releases), and frankly, it’s time to pick sides.

9:00pm - Red Road (Varsity 8)

And so the penultimate day of the festival ends. To be honest, it really does almost feel like day nine was kind of the final day; certainly for press and industry, anyway. All of the press screenings end by the afternoon, and it’s the last day the press office and the video tape library are open all day. We had a fairly quiet day, filling in some films that we didn’t get a chance to see in the festival until now, before hitting the Peter Mettler Elsewhere event and the Midnight Madness. We heard that there was a Vice Magazine party on, but we also heard something ridiculous like it was held in an abandoned factory that was on fire.

4:45pm - Paperback Hero (Isabel Bader Theatre)

9:00pm - Exiled (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) - see our Day 7 coverage.

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

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

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

5:45pm – Programme 1 (Cumberland 3) – See our Short Cuts coverage. Featuring Ninth Street Chronicles and Patterns 2&3!

9:00pm – Rescue Dawn (Ryerson Theatre)

There are literally dozens of blogs covering the Festival this year, and while most of them are personal sites listing what movies they could or couldn't get into, a few stand out. Torontoist will do his best to roundup the blogosphere's TIFF coverage.

Well, with day one done and dusted, this morning perhaps many people will still be sleeping off the opening night party, but for others (not least the staff and volunteers) it been another early morning to get the festival up and running. This is the first full day of the festival and as such it’s heavy with films to join the rush queue for. Let’s see what we’d give that honor to.

We've finished up our TIFF Preview, so today we begin our daily coverage of the festival, beginning with this, our picks for the first day. Or as we should perhaps say, the first night, because the festival doesn’t really kick off until this evening, other than one screening (Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute, sneaking in early). It’s rather odd that the opening Gala isn’t literally the first film, but we guess that’s the way it is!

Our favourite programme of the festival, the Midnight Madness, has been announced by the Toronto International Film Festival Group surprisingly early, but, we suppose, that’s to stop the voracious barnacles of genre movie fans smashing the hull of the good ship Midnight Madness by trying find as many leaks as possible. We really enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean 2, can you tell?