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......

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the worst trailer we’ve ever seen on TV. It’s absolutely meaningless. It explains nothing about the (surely) threadbare plot of......

So, who else remembers that Rambo III was about Rambo going to Afghanistan to help the Taliban, huh? We do (and apparently the Sun’s Jim Slotek does too). It’s rather a shame that Sylvester Stallone hasn’t seen fit to continue from that point and deal with the consequences of the conflict, instead jumping straight to Burma/Myanmar for, as far as the reviews tell us, an absolute ton of incredibly graphic (and meaningless) violence. Eye’s......

The TTC says that they plan to improve service on the 501 Queen streetcar route, which has been the object of much complaint over unpredictable service and frequent delays. The good news story here is that National Geographic recently declared the route one of the top ten streetcar trips in the world, so next time you're standing out in the freezing sleet desperately scanning the horizon for a glimpse of that red rocket, make......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. LAist listed a top ten list of sorts: things they hope not to see in Los Angeles in 2008. (One example, pictured above). Shanghaiist was surprised to learn that "godless," "atheist," and "commie" China is soon going......

Photos by Paul Terefenko. Tomorrow eve is New Year's and the clock is ticking. Still stuck for party plans? Torontoist counts down the top ten ways to kiss off 2007.......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others.Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish......

We’re going to take a break from our usual Torontoist style in this post because the passing of John Harkness, the film critic for Now magazine since its inception in 1981, is something that has particular importance for me. As the writer of Torontoist's weekly “Film Friday” column, which, as you know, very often quotes the reviews from local critics, I have probably quoted John Harkness more than anyone. There’s a funny story in this,......

The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced their top ten Canadian features for 2007 last night, along with (for the first time) their top ten list of Canadian short films. The top ten Canadian features were: L’âge Des Ténèbres (Denys Arcand), Amal (Richie Mehta), Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil (Stéphane Lafleur), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), Fugitive Pieces (Jeremy Podeswa) , My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin), A Promise To The Dead: The Exile Journey Of Ariel......

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......

One of the greatest collaborations in Canadian musical history is coming to an end tomorrow night at Massey Hall. The Rheostatics are bidding farewell to bassist Tim Vesely, who is leaving the band to spend more time with his young family and dedicate more energy to his side project, The Violet Archers. The break-up is amicable. Well, as amicable as these things can be. Custody of the Tarleks has yet to be determined. Current......

The CouchSurfing Project has nothing to do with The Beach Boys or crowd surfing on a futon (although that must be fun) and has everything to do with traveling the world by the seat of a couch -- someone else's, that is. CouchSurfing.com is where couch surfers hook up with couch owners for a place to crash for a night or two for free at their travel destination. They can browse though the database......

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......

Noël Mitrani is the director of Sur La Trace D’Igor Rizzi, which premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006, winning the CityTV Award for Best Canadian First Feature. The film, in which Jean-Marc Thomas (Laurent Lucas), a former European soccer player, wanders the streets Montreal before falling into petty crime while grieving his dead lover, was reviewed positively by Torontoist before the festival, and now plays as part of Canada’s Top......

Our title this week of course refers to Catch and Release, a film which has been so endlessly trailered on TV (and we don’t even watch that much) that Torontoist feels like we could recite the whole bloody film right now. “The man I was going to marry is dead! I’m sitting wearing my wedding dress and moping – it’s a girl thing! Kevin Smith is fat and talentless, but friends with Ben Affleck......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

If you're one of those people who doesn't hit the snooze button until five minutes before you actually have to leave for work, you might have caught an interesting announcement this morning on that venerable Canadian news/pap institution known as Canada AM: CTV News has chosen its top ten news stories of 2006. Yes, an "esteemed panel of Canadian journalists," which apparently is CTV's euphemism for their own senior staff, chose ten stories from throughout......

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! Who can’t wait, huh? Rocky! In what is essentially Rocky VI! He’s going to like, slur incoherently, punch big bits of meat, look confused, and probably get a total doing off his opponent! Opens this......

It's about time that Toronto started a feud with a major American city, and we think that Los Angeles, California has gotten off easy for far too long. The over-the-top Hollywood sign compared to our noble and restrained skyline; their smaller phallic symbol compared to our much, much bigger one; their cloud of smog compared to our green bins and green thumbs; their palm trees compared to our pine ones. So we were thinking,......

We already mentioned it in our news round-up but we thought we’d share with you this lovely picture of the assembled filmmakers and cast of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2006. Held at the Revival nightclub on College St. (as last year) By the Toronto International Film Festival Group, the event was hosted by Sylvie Moreau and, (yes!) Dave Foley, who were actually excellent hosts that seemed to have a good understanding of the......

Subscribers to the magazine “Travel & Leisure” have chosen their top ten destination cities in North America for 2006, and although 4 Canadian cities made the list, Toronto wasn’t one of them. Scenic Vancouver and Victoria, and quaint and historic Montreal and Quebec City all proved more popular than Toronto in this year's survey. Apparently, a little thing called the world’s tallest free-standing structure doesn’t mean much to Travel & Leisure readers. No Canadian cities......

A quick update to an old story before we get onto all the new releases that are going to make us as depressed as ever – Remember You, Me and Dupree? We hypothesised that movie-execs came up with the title “while explaining what was going to happen during some sick, cocaine fuelled orgy”. Turns out we were right, as long as during the sick, cocaine fuelled orgy was to the tune of Steely Dan’s Cousin......

With all your usual movie news outlets having gone crazy for Sundance, here at Torontoist we’ve gone crazy for C.R.A.Z.Y, Jean-Marc Vallee’s coming-of-age-when-you’re-gay- and-you-think-your-dad-is awesome-but- won’t-be-down-with-that flick, being shown tonight as part of Cinematheque Ontario’s Canada’s Top Ten programme (8:45pm, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas West). The showing is preceded at 6:30pm by a fascinating panel – Pop Culture as History/History as Pop Culture, featuring Atom Egoyan (of Canada’s Top Ten......

In the year that the popularity of the ringtone might have outweighed the popularity of the single, Toronto-I-S-T comes up with the top ten songs that mattered in 2005. 1. Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley - "Welcome to Jamrock" Called "the reggae song of the decade" by the New York Times, "Welcome to Jamrock" is the cross-over hit that shouldn't be: Unlike his contemporaries, Marley the youngest didn't have to employ an RnB hook from Beyonce......

This week in film we come to you first of all with news from the last week in film (uh…) Most of which we slightly embarrassingly forgot to mention, as it’s all good stuff. First up, if you happen to know any filmmakers (or budding ones) who are also children somewhere between grade 3 and 12, submissions for this coming April’s Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers’ Showcase, part of the Sprockets Children's Film Festival, are......

It's Friday, it's raining, and (as we mentioned earlier) we're easily entertained. And our new favourite toy is that nifty thing that tells us what people are searching for that brings them to us (we're easily impressed by this stuff - after all, we still think the fax machine is magic). Here are the top ten most amusing (and alarming) searches of the week: 1. contortion 2. balling paint 3. sexy bowling 4. bums......

The Economist Intelligence Unit posted the results of their 'Most Liveable Cities' survey, and though Vancouver, Melbourne and Perth scooped top berth, Toronto made the top ten and garnered a 9th place finish. None too shabby considering our town's seemingly endless flow of mishap and bad luck of late. CBC Unplugged describes these rankings as less about most good, and more about least bad("the honour is based in large part on an absence of......

In what appeared to be a blind stab at modern fashion, some dude came to last night's Arcade Fire show in a full business suit. From the looks of it, this young man had misinterpreted the tie and blazer w/ jeans trend for all out formal attire. After a few head shakes, Torontoist was quick to remember that he once wore his jeans backwards in grade 6, mimicking his favourite popular musicians at the time.......

You’ve heard it here before.  You’ve read it in the New York Times and Spin magazine and countless other publications.  Montreal is where it’s at and the Arcade Fire is THE Canadian band.  Why even bother to offer an adjective, there’s just too many too choose from.  The critically-and-David Bowie-acclaimed Arcade Fire is “Canada’s most intriguing rock band,” as declared by this week’s Time Magazine’s Canadian Edition, on newsstands now. Laura Blue and Hugh Porter......

As part of his current "image building" tour of the East, gonzo Alberta Premier Ralph Klein stated he would not propose a smoking ban in Alberta. When further questioned about his views on cigarettes, Ralph "the Dean" Klein said that people who smoke are "stupid." If Klein's analysis seems presumptive and flawed, that's because it is. Using the Socratic Method, and the information that Klein himself is a long-time smoker, Torontoist is able to assert......