news
Film Friday: I Know Robot Karate
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!
Also opening this week: Vantage Point, which is more or less like Rashomon except with lots more explosions and terrorists and a shadowy conspiracy and also Forest Whitaker. (Forest Whitaker, we are told, is not the one exploding. Which is too bad, because that would be kind of cool to see.)
Charlie Bartlett is getting a lot of flak for imitating portions of (depending on who’s complaining) Rushmore, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and/or Pump Up The Volume. Adam Nayman at Eye hated it with burning fiery passion. But it does star Robert Downey Jr. as a drunk, and for that sort of ballsy move, it’s probably worthy of consideration.
Caramel (“it’s like Beauty Shop, but in Lebanon”) starts its exclusive run at the Cumberland. Critics are divided on this one to an extent, with some saying it’s a touching portrayal of female life in an unfamiliar setting, and others saying “it’s like Beauty Shop, but in Lebanon.”
Notable at the reps this week: the Bloor is screening Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade back-to-back twice this week, and has a Bogart night next Thursday with Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. The Royal spends the week screening a pair of cool-looking war documentaries: War Dance and Taxi To The Dark Side.
Finally, CINSSU’s Free Friday Films this week presents a troika of cult awesomeness: Labyrinth, The Thing, and The Warriors. David Bowie, shapechanging monster things in the Antarctic and an unstoppable gangbanger army all in one night? We can dig it.