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Film Friday: The Bloor Seems All Powerful, but is the Royal Back in Action?
Let’s start with the film festivals for a change, huh? Most intriguing has to be the Toronto International Latin Film Festival, because it’s… on at the Royal Cinema? Que El?
It’s interesting to see the old girl is in use again; until now we haven’t heard anything about it, and don’t even know if it’s been renovated yet. Maybe?
The film festival starts tonight at 7pm with the Chilean film For Rent, and runs until the 21st including documentary Loving Maradona; animation The Dog, the General and the Birds; and closes with romantic soccer comedy Romeo and Juliet get Married.
The Estonian Documentary Film Festival starts tomorrow at Tartu College (310 Bloor W) and runs until the 20th, and while the scope sounds pretty small there is some interesting stuff, including Wounds of Afghanistan, which explores the conscription of Estonian men into the Soviet army during the war in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, the Cuban Cinema Film Festival begins at the Royal Ontario Museum, and it also runs until the 20th. All screenings are free, and it includes screenings of Suite Habana and Three Times Two.
And of course, we’d be at real remiss if we were to forget Darryl’s Hard Liquor And Porn Film Festival, at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor W.) Saturday night at 9pm, which includes a Bill Plympton short (Krazy Kock) and the icky Ukranian flick Shameless.
In fact, the Bloor is chock a block with interesting stuff this week. Though it’s not billed as a festival, the Japanese consulate is running a selection of free movies on Sunday, starting with Home of Acorns at 2:30pm before Ping Pong Bath Station at 5pm, and ending with Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself at 7:30pm.
On Tuesday, the Bloor is blessed with a visit from Kenneth Anger, with a retrospective of his work and a screening of Anger Me, Elio Gelmini’s documentary on the man himself. Torontoist knows Kenneth Anger best from his lurid novelisation of the Misfits song, Hollywood Babylon [This is a joke, our friendly neigbourhood pedants], and though we’ve heard the documentary isn’t that great (“essentially an extended interview” is what NOW’s Glenn Sumi had to say) the evening is sure to be enlightening.
And that’s not all, either; read on for The Queen, Infamous, and more.
We’ll talk about the ImagineNATIVE festival next week, so we’ll take a short moment to let you know that Cinematheque Ontario continues this week with more Warhol (The Velvet Underground And Nico: A Symphony Of Sound, tomorrow night at 10:30pm) and Gilliam (Time Bandits on Monday at 8:45pm). We’re going to give some fuller coverage to Inextingushable Fire, their Vietnam season, though, so keep your eyes open for it.
So that’s rather a lot of stuff, and we haven’t even got to this weeks releases yet! There’s The Queen, about, you know, the Queen (and apparently very good; Eye’s Adam Nayman gives it a glowing review) and Man of the Year, a film about another kind undemocratically elected state figure head (ooh, edgy.) Here’s Adam Nayman again, because this quote is too good to pass up – “At this point, the director [Barry Levinson] couldn’t find the nation’s pulse with one of those Hulkamaniac foam fingers.”
Infamous is the other film about Truman Capote. Everyone is saying how much better Toby Jones is as Capote over Phillip Seymour Hoffman (“Toby Jones is sublimated in his character in a way more satisfying”, Eye’s Liz Clayton; “Jones, for his part, delivers a far more convincing impression of the real Capote”, Glenn Sumi), which would probably annoy Hoffy if he hadn’t already picked up a best actor Oscar for his portrayal. D’oh, eh? Who was supposed to know someone better would come along?
There’s also American Hardcore, a documentary covering early 80’s hardcore music (“Hot footage of Black Flag, Minor Threat and Bad Brains in their prime”, says Eye’s Jason Anderson) and Mutual Appreciation, Andrew Bujalski’s latest, is playing (where else?) at the Bloor. “A charming and witty low-budget look at post-university angst and awkwardness” is Glenn Sumi’s take.