Results tagged “reviews”

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

Soulpepper, that scrappy little theatre company from The Distillery, just released their 2008 schedule. If you haven't seen a Soulpepper play before, you've been missing out on some of the best theatre this city has to offer. This past season was one of Soulpepper’s greatest. Among other fantastic shows, the company put on an astounding rendition of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera and a hilarious staging of William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life. They also...

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:

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.

There are three interesting happenings in the local art scene right now. This evening Mercer Union presents new compositions by Stephen Parkinson, a local musician who creates "do-it-yourself situations...with various friends as performers, reacting to a variety of methods of prescription/notation, involving toy instruments, electronics, vintage turntables, field recordings, as well as more traditional musical instruments." Tonight's various friends include Martin Arnold, Allison Cameron, Eric Chenaux, Rob Clutton, Aimée Dawn Robinson, and Doug Tielli. The event begins at 9 p.m.

Torontoist has never seen an Alejandro Jodorowsky film! Should we be ashamed to admit that? Possibly. We are, however, not ashamed to say we love that crazy guy anyway. Who couldn’t love a guy who killed three hundred rabbits with karate chops for a scene in his most well known work (and occasionally screened by Reg Hartt’s Cineforum) El Topo? Torontoist suspect we’ve lost everyone who likes rabbits. Okay then, how about his plan to film Dune with Salvador Dali as the Emperor? No? Come on! Be honest. Lynch’s version was rubbish.

Last night, at The Worldwide Short Film Festival, Torontoist was lucky enough to catch Scene not Herd, a collection of 16 music videos assembled by journalist Sandy Hunter. Both the music and the quality and uniqueness of the submissions was absolutely incredible. There were a few big names (Sigur Ros, Bright Eyes, The Go! Team, Death From Above 1979, Ladytron, and The Darkness), but plenty of lesser-known gems as well - just the right mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar.

promises to do for 1970s porncapades what Morgan Spurlock did for McDonalds - reveal the obvious, and make big waves. Still, when the big waves involve highbrow analyses of Ms. Linda Lovelace's particular powers (by the likes of Erica Jong, Dennis Hopper and Jon Waters), how could it but make for an interesting movie? Ebert spices up his review with some cute little factlets about the U.S. Presidential Porn commissions, saying that while most people remember that the Reagan presidential commissions deemed porn harmful, that was only done in response to a 1970 panel that found porn was not linked to any particularly anti-social behaviour.

As Norrie Epstein has written, Shakespeare’s romances are tragedies played in reversed. "The Winter’s Tale opens," she notes, "with a husband’s jealousy and a dead wife, and it ends with their reunion, as if Shakespeare had decided to write an Othello in which Desdemona wakes up unharmed." Hmm… Maybe it’s more of an Easter play, now, come to think of it.