Reviews
Mirror Mirror is the latest adaptation of ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarves’, taking a comedic approach to the classic tale. It’s definitely cheerier and geared towards a younger audience than the soon-to-be-released Snow White and the Huntsman. After Snow White’s (Lily Collins) father (Sean Bean) died, The Queen (Julia Roberts) took charge of the land and all merriment ceased. She kept Snow prisoner in the castle while squandering the kingdom into bankruptcy. Her only relief can be to marry a rich bachelor, who must make a choice between the now rebelling Snow White and the highly manipulative queen. This is...
After being placed on the US terror watch list for five years in 2005, director Thomas Selin Wallner decided to create The Guantanamo Trap. The documentary follows the lives of four people who have a unique connection with Guantanamo Bay denention camp: Murat Kurnaz was detained at Guantanamo from 2001 until 2006; Diane Beaver worked as a lawyer for the US Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps; Matt Diaz was a navy lawyer working at Guantanamo until he copied a list of detainees and mailed it to a human rights organization; and finally, there’s Gonzalo Boyle, a Spanish prosecutor attempting to...
Once upon a time there was such a thing as a blockbuster. Now I don’t mean the $200 million weekends with little follow up or cultural memory that we have today. No, I mean the whole package with a song playing on endless loop on the radio, a dynamite soundtrack and score (one of each) that you had to have, useless tie-in books that only fed the hype, an official toy line, some kind of fast food meal and posters literally everywhere. By the time you got into the theatre there you were worked into such a frenzy that the...
When this film opened the Midnight Madness program at TIFF this year, it was obvious that it had to be attention-grabbing and preferably like nothing you’ve ever seen. There is no doubt The Raid is that film. To say it’s an action flick doesn’t do the breakneck fight sequences justice; it’s so much more than that. Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim) and his SWAT team have been ordered to infiltrate a notorious drug dealer’s stronghold; both police and rival gangs have failed in the past, but this time is supposed to be different. Rama (Iko Uwais), a rookie on the force,...
In Paul Weitz’s Being Flynn, Robert De Niro plays author-turned-NYC-cabbie Jonathan Flynn, a drunk whose delusions of artistic grandeur involve carrying around a publishing house rejection letter that refers to him as a “virtuoso”. Jonathan’s son, Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) is also trying to write, but he’s just at the beginning of his path to artistic fulfillment (and, perhaps, the same substance abuse issues his father also suffers from). When son and long-estranged father find themselves unexpectedly uniting, they’re forced to come to terms with their estrangement, and the passing of Nick’s mother Jody (Julianne Moore) – a family Jonathan...
The Alberta tar sands are a highly controversial project already, but now, a proposed pipeline threatens to cut right through the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. This has the potential to destroy a beautiful environment that is home to the spirit bear. SpOIL follows The International League of Conservation Photographers as they travel to British Columbia to aid the Gitga’at first nation people in an attempt to bring awareness about the rainforest to the public. From the moment the film starts, the viewer is treated to breathtaking shots of the forest and wildlife that make up the Great Bear...
The ‘21 Jump Street’ movie decides to go in the opposite direction of its predecessor to present a straight up comedy – and it’s probably the best decision they made. Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) were mortal enemies in high school. Fast forward seven years and they’re both applying for the police academy. They call a truce, agreeing to help each other out and become best buds in the process. Based solely on their youthful features, they’re recruited to the newly resurrected Jump Street program and sent undercover to infiltrate a high school drug ring. As Jenko establishes...
King of Devil’s Island was one of the great successes of Norwegian cinema last year. Reform and boarding schools are often depicted as a centre for corruption and abuse because the victims are children discarded by society. What makes this film more disturbing is it’s based on true events. It’s about a student revolt in 1915 that changed the way troubled adolescents would be viewed and treated in the generations that followed in Scandinavia. At 17, Erling (Benjamin Helstad) was renamed C19 and deposited at the Bastøy Boys Home correctional facility. Olav (Trond Nilssen), or C1, is the leader in...
Genesis P-Orridge has always been on the cutting edge. His bands COUM Transmissions (1969-1976), Throbbing Gristle (1975-1981), and Psychic TV (1981 to the present) were innovators in the use of musical “cut-ups,” influential in everything from the punk scene to industrial music. This film isn’t about music though. The documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye is love story, but unlike any love story you’ve ever heard of. This love story is on the cutting edge — literally. Genesis met the love of his life, Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer), in the early 1990s. They were soon married and in 2000 started...
Off World is a beautiful film, well, that is except for the story. With no insurance and no help from the government, the film crew, lead by Mateo Guez, was off to the Phillipines for 14 weeks to a place called Smokey Mountain. Originally planned as a 7 minute documentary funded by the Ontario Arts Council, Guez was inspired to do a full feature, no matter how much it put him in debt. Smokey Mountain is a literal mountain built of garbage that expands farther than what you can possible picture in your mind right now. a A village of...
On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Tohoku coastal region in Japan. Director Stu Levy, an American living in Tokyo, immediately set out to volunteer. Over a six-week period, Levy alternated between filming and offering his help as a volunteer. Over 50 hours of footage was edited down to make the 97 minute documentary Pray For Japan. On March 14, 2012, the film will have a one day charity screening at AMC Yonge & Dundas 24 at 7:00 pm. Pray For Japan covers four different areas throughout the film. Family, school, volunteers, and shelter. By...
