Media Impact
We’ve all discovered favourite songs from movie soundtracks. And sometimes, that is what movies are all about – discovering something new; shedding light on a subject you didn’t know anything about prior to watching the film, and shedding that light in a way that captivates you into wanting to know more. It’s been said all month here at Toronto Film Scene, but there are few things more powerful than putting film and music together. Whether you’re hearing a musician for the first time, or rediscovering a long forgotten favourite, their music and personas are made that much better through the...
For years now, television has been somewhat of a safe haven for gay actors and characters. From Ellen Degeneres in The Ellen Show and Sean Hayes in Will & Grace, Jesse Tyler Ferguson in Modern Family to Chris Colfer in Glee, gay actors have represented gay characters with depth and honesty. There have also been a number of gay actors playing straight characters without anyone batting an eyelash, like Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother, Jim Parsons in The Big Bang Theory, and Zachary Quinto in American Horror Story. So, what about the movies? I’m afraid things aren’t so easy in Hollywood. Think about it. How many out...
Oh Ken Burns, how I loathe, ye. For over 30 years, you’ve been painting American history with a saccharine brush and I’m beginning to wonder when our collective teeth are finally going to rot and fall out from the over-consumption of your sugar. You, sir, are just as toxic as high-fructose corn syrup and making our brains as obese as our bodies. If you, Canadian reader, think that seems a little harsh, I urge you to stop and think about it for a moment. Did you see The Civil War? I did. As an adolescent in the American South at...
Have you heard of War Witch, the French Canadian film directed by Kim Nguyen that’s up for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film this year? I hadn’t, I’m not gonna lie. Until it was nominated. Even if I had, I would have had a heck of a time trying to find a theatre that would play it, since, barring a film festival or two, it hasn’t actually hit theatres outside of Québec. Unfortunately this is no anomaly for French-Canadian films. The past two Oscar-nominated Canadian films, Monsieur Lazhar and Incendies, both ran in Québec for months until they...
Certain phrases strike terror into the hearts of movie lovers the world over. Perhaps it’s lines like ‘from the producers of…’, meaning that they couldn’t get the director of that movie you loved, but they did get the producers. Maybe just seeing someone’s name on a poster is enough to send you screaming from the room. The one that always bothers me is ‘From the beloved children’s classic…’ This seems like it’s just setting you up for disappointment, and many times that’s the result. This month, we’re going to take a look at some of the worst adaptations in the...
Taking on a subject as broad and multifaceted as queer Asian cinema is a tricky thing. The national cinemas of Asia are as diverse as the cultures themselves – what shocks in Japan might not raise an eyebrow in Thailand, and what’s considered controversial or appropriate for the screen also differs dramatically. Sexuality and identity are deeply individual but also inexorably tied to culture and context. The relationship a nation’s filmmakers have to queer themes and the way those films are received at home and abroad is also extremely varied. Hong Kong’s best known queer film is undoubtedly Wong Kar-wai’s...
For better or for worse, the horror genre has been slapped with the reputation that it is somehow a “low” form of art, or that it is even thoroughly artless, which is perhaps why you often overhear surprised remarks that a certain horror film is “smart” (gosh, wow!). Among the Jasons, Freddies, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, and, well… more Jasons (and his mom) of the late 1970s and 1980s, David Cronenberg somehow managed to marry a remarkably intellectual and allegorical approach to horror with enough blood, guts, creatures, and screams to play with the best of ‘em (see, for example, the...
Each month, Media Impact will look at how a certain film or aspect of the industry and how it affects our daily existence. Since it’s September (or as we like to call it, TIFF-tember) TFS looks at what a film festival debut can do for a film’s future. Any cinephile worth his or her salt can easily identify the signifier that a film has played at a film festival. The infamous festival laurel leaves (pictured above) can appear on posters, DVD covers and in trailers and are usually meant as an indication that the film already has elite status,...
