Results tagged “theroyal”

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.

Hello! Although you probably didn’t notice, this Torontoist writer was away for a week, and as a result we failed to do something very important. Specifically, to congratulate Norm Wilner on becoming NOW’s senior film critic. We're not doing this just because we know Wilner keeps an eye on Torontoist to see if he gets a mention, but because we like his work so much that we can’t think of anyone better to step into John Harkness’s (non-literal) shoes.

The coolest movie opening this week is Be Kind Rewind, which is a treasure trove of Things White People Like, as it stars Jack Black and his black friend played by Mos Def, and is directed by Michel Gondry, and has lots of irony, seeing as how it is about a couple of people who erase all the videotapes in their video store and then make their own mocking versions of the movies they erased. In all seriousness, though, it looks pretty funny, so possibly people who are not white will like it as well!

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.

It’s a strange, perhaps undesirable, thing to admit to, but Torontoist spends a lot of time thinking about R. Kelly. Generally it comes down to one core question that we just can’t answer (nor do we think we ever will): Is R. Kelly a genius or a lunatic? Here is a man who has produced some of the most pitch-perfect songs in the sickeningly syrupy ballad category (including possibly the pinnacle, Michael Jackson’s "You are Not Alone") but recently released Double Up, an album that is either the most astonishingly insightful work of parody, damning the entire current culture of hip-hop and R&B, or the drivelings of a man with the attention span of a dog in an exploding fireworks factory.

The Royal Ontario Museum didn’t know what to expect when it began organizing its new exhibit, Canada Collects: Treasures from Across the Nation (October 6–January 6). Where usually a curator arranges carefully selected artifacts into an intellectual framework that brings out their larger meaning, for this exhibit, the ROM invited institutions and private collectors from across the country to contribute an object of their own choosing. With over 70 items from 50 contributing institutions and collectors, it is the most complicated exhibit the ROM has undertaken, and the only time these items will be displayed together.

The grand dame of Toronto's performing arts venues, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, celebrates its 100th birthday tomorrow. To mark the event, the Mirvishes have organized a free open house from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., during which you can go on a self-guided backstage tour, eat free grub at the BBQ in front of the theatre (weather permitting), or catch a tribute performance from the original members of the 1969 Canadian cast of Hair. (No word on whether they'll get naked onstage again.)

Stage Struck: 100 Years At The Royal Alex, a free exhibition commemorating the Royal Alexandra Theatre's centennial, opened yesterday at the Toronto Reference Library. Torontoist was at the opening to oggle at the rare playbills, posters and other paraphernalia that would make any theatre geek weak in the knees.

This year, Hot Docs honours Toronto-based film maker Kevin McMahon with its Focus On retrospective. McMahon, whose films are noted for being playfully intellectual, accepts the accolade in that same spirit. "Geoff Pevere said to me, 'a retrospective—now you have to die.'" says the director, "So I'm focusing on the mid-career part."

Interesting and depressing news today in the Toronto Star, with the revelation that there are no plans to release the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres in Canada. Why is that, hmm? The article states (quite correctly) that it’s one of the most popular shows on The Detour on Teletoon (where you can watch it at 10:15 p.m. weeknights) so why they’re not giving it at least a limited release here confounds us.

Celia Franca, Photo: Janine; Karen Kain, Celia Franca and Veronica Tennant, Photo: Bruce Zinger; Celia Franca in Lilac Garden, Photo: Ken Bell

Let’s start with something everyone likes: free films! Yes, the U of T’s Cinema Studies Student Union has revealed the new Free Friday Films line-up, starting tonight with Atom Egoyan’s Exotica. Next week is Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and Feb. 23 features a Cult Night triple-bill, with Monster Squad, The Brood, and The Human Tornado all showing. Screenings are at Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.

The big news this week involves a beloved elder statesman of cinema, whose name begins with R, that is finally reappearing after a heartbreaking absence and an uncertain future. We talk, of course, about the return of, yes… Rocky Balboa!

Has it been 10 years already? Making its final stop on its Canadian tour, Resfest touches down at the newly named Theatre D (formerly The Royal) on College starting this Thursday November 30. Running all weekend, with some 100 works in 15 different programs, Resfest continues its mandate to showcase eclectic international shorts with a mix of live action, animation, motion graphics and documentary.

Yes, a few weeks after our initial confusion over the Toronto International Latin Film Festival at the Royal Cinema, it's confirmed: The Royal Cinema (at 608 College St.) is re-opening its doors officially on December 15th, with the exclusive Toronto engagement of Monkey Warfare. Now, although we didn't like Monkey Warfare much (if at all), this is only good news. The aim of the new Royal cinema is in line with the other Theatre D Digital cinemas; as a post-production facility, but also for use for exhibitions, film festivals and special events.

What do you think of Vice Magazine, readers? Do you like it or hate it?

Our friends over at The Royal Sarcophagus Society are throwing one of their big events of the year on Friday. Join them for their fourth annual autumnal soiree Dia De Los Muertos, from 8pm to 2am at DeLeon White Gallery, 1139 College St. The night promises art, music, magic, tequila, dancing, piñatas and loads of other good stuff. There will be live performances by Kevin Quain, Mysterion the Mindreader, The Porcelain Doll, and others. It’s $10 for RSS members and $15 for the public. Tickets are available at the door, but Torontoist and the RSS have teamed up for a contest to celebrate the occasion.

Amidst the car horns and national flags in Little Italy yesterday evening, a long line-up formed in front of The Royal for its would-be last film, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” . The screening was supposed to start at 9pm but it wasn’t until 9:30pm that the thank-yous to the staff began and one of the current owners confirmed that the theatre will be reborn sometime in the future. As an extra treat, the projectionist showed a Three Stooges short before finally playing the opening overture to Kubrick’s film. Sometime around midnight, the theatre shut its doors for the last time, albeit temporarily.

Well, though he’s been away, this Torontoist certainly missed Toronto. And his feet are a size 11 Ron but nice try. But honestly folks, what has happened to our town since we’ve been gone? The Royal, the Revue, and the Kingsway closing down? Are you kidding us? This is a serious problem. Not only is it probably going to kill off (or at least make it difficult for) many of the small festivals that make this a continually interesting city to live in as a movie goer, it’s also going to basically make Kung Fu Friday, which was moved from the Royal to the Revue a while back and recently has been very well attended, completely unviable.

Torontoist heard through the grapevine that three Festival Cinemas were going to be closing down. The rumour was confirmed by the Star this morning. The Fox, the Royal and the Revue will be closed by June according to their story. With the Uptown being torn down and the fate of the Metro up in the air Toronto's old-time movie houses are more threatened than a baby seal in Newfoundland. (too soon?)

Equal Voice honored Flora MacDonald yesterday at The Royal York Hotel and we were there, applauding wildly between forkfuls of white chocolate-cranberry cake. Equal Voice, a multi-partisan group working to get more women involved in government, awarded the first Canadian female Secretary of State for External Affairs (and one of the first female foreign ministers anywhere in the world!) an EVE award to recognize her pioneering efforts to further women in politics. Hearing stories about frequently being mistaken for a secretary on Parliament Hill or being asked by world officials if she could "wait in the room with the other women"(!), we tip our hats to this tough grand dame for always sticking to her guns and helping to pave the way.

For those that wished we had given them the heads up about bicycle polo last time, our coconut is poised at an upward-loping angle as we communicate the following news to you: Due to overwhelmingly chipper reception, bicycle polo is back. The Royal Society of Adventurology, with pinkies raised and mallets in hand, requests your presence at their Sunday match. 2 pm.

We'd seen the posters around town for the 'Royal Society of Adventurology,' and wondered who or what was beyond the rarefied dandy invitation to engage in a spot of bicycle polo on a balmy Sunday aft. We still don't know from whence these dandies materialized, but never before have we so enjoyed an hour in Trinity Bellwoods.

"So I said to myself, 'If they can do it with a photograph, why can't I do it with a bar of chocolate?'" - Willy Wonka

Origninal Soundtrack, that assumption proves only half right.

Odds are good you've read William T. Vollmann only in short form, in periodicals; if you head down to your nearest bookstore and look, between Voltaire and Vonnegut, for any of the Sacramento-based scribe's big fat tomes, you'd be lucky to dig even a single one up. Yet Vollmann is pretty much the most prolific writer around these days. Since the age of 28 (he's 45), the man has churned (absolutely churned) out works left and right. Thick slabs of historical fiction (an as-yet unfinished septology called Seven Dreams, which takes to task contemporary notions of the inevitability of progress). Short stories. Travel writing. Vast novels about San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin district (The Royal Family - an uncompromisingly bleak, Burroughs-esque vision). A six-volume, 3300-page history of violence (Rising Up, Rising Down)

In this issue, our crack musical theatre reporter, C. Andrew Courtice, ventures deep into the theatre district, and unearths the following: