Independent & Repertory
If someone asked me to define yoga, my response would be that it’s a form of exercise involving stretching your body into impossibly difficult positions. In other words, something that I probably couldn’t do without hurting myself. Thanks to Planet Yoga, opening Friday, May 4, 2012 at AMC Yonge & Dundas, I have a greater understanding of yoga as not only a form of physical exercise, but one of a spiritual nature as well. Directed by Carlos Ferrand, Planet Yoga takes the viewer on a journey from yoga’s eastern beginnings to its impact in western culture and the various forms...
Nobody would ever mistake me for someone who is fashion forward, unless jeans and a t-shirt is the latest trend. Thankfully designer Bruno Ierullo, the focus of director Jesse Mann‘s documentary Material Success, has better taste than I do. Having its North American theatrical premiere at Projection Booth Cinema, Material Success follows Bruno for the two months leading up to his first fashion show in Toronto in 2009. You don’t have to be a fan of the fashion world to enjoy the film. You only have to be a person full of passion for any field that you may enjoy:...
Based on actual events, mainly focused on the Wushe Incident, Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale is a bloody depiction of the battles between the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan and the Japanese who had taken their land. Written and directed by Wei Te-Sheng, the film follows the life of Mouna Rudo (Lin Ching-Tai), the chief of Mahebu village and one of the Seediq tribes. After the sacred lands of the aboriginal are taken by the Japanese, they are forced to live within the new communities the Japanese build. For 25 years, the aboriginal people appear to live peacefully in their...
In the past, most stories about famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson have focused on his mysterious death. In the documentary West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson, directors Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont bring us a deeper look at his life. West Wind begins with the early life of Tom Thomson, a relatively shy, nature loving child, and follows him until his untimely death at the age of 39. While his work is widely recognized and respected (he’s even been called the Canadian Van Gogh), Thomson didn’t really begin painting until his later years, and his art wasn’t truly appreciated until after...
Director Kang Je-kyu‘s epic war drama, My Way, is a visually stunning film. Filled with scene after scene of enormous battles, rivaling the largest Hollywood productions, the action is almost non-stop. It’s unfortunate that the story seems to suffer as a result. The film opens with a young aristocrat named Hasegawa Tatsuo (Joe Odagiri) moving to his family’s farm in Korea. There he meets Kim Jun-shik (Jang Dong-gun), whose family works on the farm. Both kids dream of becoming marathon runners, eventually becoming bitter rivals as they grow up. This rivalry follows them as they both begin fighting for the Japanese in...
In the 1996 film Hard Core Logo, the titular band reunites for the first time in five years to do a benefit concert for frontman Joe Dick’s idol, Bucky Haight, who has been shot by a fan and is about to lose his legs. Things seem to be moving in a positive direction for the troubled group, but it becomes obvious that the band’s demons are never far from the surface. Bruce McDonald captures the journey across the country in this Canadian classic mockumentary. In the film’s sequel, Hard Core Logo 2, Bruce has found fame and fortune after the fictional...
The modeling industry is frequently on the receiving end of a lot of abuse, and rightfully so. It’s a world full of unrealistic expectations and ideas about beauty. A place where very young girls are constantly told they’re not good enough, thin enough, or pretty enough. Diving right into this world is the new documentary Girl Model. Directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, the film looks at the flow of models from Russia into Japan by following 13-year-old model Nadya Vall and scout Ashley Arbaugh. It’s a revealing look at broken dreams and unfulfilled promises that left me feeling a...
Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship understands that it can take a tremendous amount of work to maintain. What happens when a couple begins looking outside of their marriage for intimacy is the story behind writer and director Charles Wahl‘s film, Webdultery. Fred (Anthony Cortese) and Deb (Christine Tizzard) are married and raising a son. Their relationship has suffered as the pressures of every day life intrude on their once happy marriage. Both of them have been speaking to anonymous strangers online, leading Fred and Deb to explore dating sites. Will their infidelity cause them to realize what...
At the film’s start, a children’s choir performs a haunting rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag.” Bullying has at some point affected everyone, whether you were a perpetrator, victim or bystander. It’s something so ingrained in our culture that most people don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop it. We’ve all heard the cliché responses to incidences of bullying: “Boys will be boys” or “They’re just being kids.” But the rise of suicides in the under-20 demographic illustrates this is no longer an acceptable response – not that it ever should have been tolerated. Bully is a powerful megaphone amplifying...
The Vanishing Spring Light is the first of four films documenting the vanishing ways of West Street in Dujiangyan, a World Cultural Heritage Site in China. Director Xun Yu spent over two years filming the inhabitants of West Street before it was demolished in 2011, and as a document of their lives, the film succeeds very well. However, coming in at just under two hours running time, the film has a bit of a pacing problem which unfortunately took away from my overall interest in the material....
Writer and director Darrell Wasyk‘s film, The Girl in the White Coat, takes the classic tale The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol and brings it into modern day Montreal. Pascale Montpetit plays Elise, a middle-aged woman struggling to survive with her minimum wage job. The apartment she lives in is barely heated, and she’s having difficulty keeping up with the payments for the retirement home that her father lives in. The only possession she owns is a white coat that was a gift from her father. When Elise decides to get her coat repaired it sets off a chain of events...
You can’t go home again may be the perfect way to describe Lovers In A Dangerous Time. The idea of recapturing the emotion of youth is the last thing we all have to give up to enter adulthood. Of course, this doesn’t always happen when we actually become adults, and this is the idea that Lovers In A Dangerous Time explores. Written, directed, and starring May Charters and Mark Hug, the film follows the lives of Allison (May Charters) and Todd (Mark Hug) as they get reacquainted at their ten year high school reunion. Friends since childhood, they’ve drifted apart...
