Archive for July, 2010

  • 30 Jul

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    Weekend Entertainment – Original Psycho Trailer

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    Not much to say other than we need more trailers done like this now days.

  • 30 Jul

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    Weekend of Trash III

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    TrashVHS

    With my wife-to-be over in her home country of Finland for a week I took it upon myself to get the boys round for another one of our regular ‘trashathons’ last weekend (check out my previous write ups here and here). For the uninitiated (or those who can’t be bothered to look up those two links) these weekends involve pulling out our lowest budgeted, most breast, explosion and blood filled crappy VHS and bargain-basement DVD’s we can find and subjecting ourselves to their ‘pleasures’ for two nights and a morning. We usually squeeze in a couple of classier modern genre films too that haven’t received the widest of releases.

    This weekend really delivered the goods I must say. There were no straight up classics, but pretty much all of them did exactly what they said on the tin, which is more than can be said for a lot of exploitation flicks – most make better trailers than they do films.

    As usual don’t take the star ratings too seriously – I’m generally going on entertainment value over quality.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 30 Jul

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    Talk Amoungst Yourselves (in color)

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  • 30 Jul

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    Shinsedai 2010 – The Water Magician

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    At the tender age of 22, Takako Irie was already a power player in the Japanese film industry. Impressive for anyone, but triply so considering that she was able to do this as a young woman in 1933 Japan. She created her own production company and struck out into the world of independent film with Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Water Magician as one of her first projects. She not only produced, but also took on its main starring role. Hearing these details in the introductory comments before its screening at this year’s Shinsedai Cinema Festival provided some additional information as to why a silent film from a noted master of the artform managed to sneak into this year’s lineup. After all, it’s not really the first thing you think of to program in a festival dedicated to new Japanese films by young filmmakers (the term Shinsedai actually means “new generation”). One assumed the film was being screened simply because the opportunity was there – and if you could add on live musical accompaniment, why would you not? Especially when the music is by experimental Toronto band Vowls and the space within which they would perform it is the lovely confines (acoustically friendly ones at that) of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.

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  • 29 Jul

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    Cinecast Episode 176 – Planes, Trains and Lobotimobiles

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    A casual show today. We have a new guest, Laura-Jane, for regular listeners of the show that would be Kurt’s wife who digs on all things popcorn and blow-em-up action cinema, who comes in to talk a little Salt and a little Knight and Day (Note that there are SPOILERS! for both). Andrew tries to pin down the near-universal love for The Kids Are All Right. We talk some off-the-beaten path Japanese cinema, with the soon-to-be-Criterioned Hausu as well as stop-motion-animator Kihachiro Kawamoto and his wonderfully dark fairy tales. There is quite a bit of a Tom Hardy love-in, as Andrew finally caught up with Nicholas Winding Refn’s Bronson and, complete with an ignorant viewpoint on Reaganomics, there is some Louie Malle documentary talk, albeit we cannot agree how to pronounce his name. And another round of Dirty Harry sequels. Sit back and relax, this one is tres informelle.

    As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

    Cinecast Episode 176 [ 2:12:00 | 95.4 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup
    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_176.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_176-alt.mp3

     
     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
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  • 29 Jul

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    Miike in Venice with 13 Assassins

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    13_Assassins

    Ultra prolific and very difficult to pin down auteur Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer, Happiness of the Katakuris, The Bird People of China) has not quite been putting out the films at the same pace as he was a decade ago, but they have gotten a little bit bigger and more polished. And judging by the above still, that is the case here, as Miike’s latest, 13 Assassins, looks to be a glossy kinetic epic. A sort of Japanese ‘The Dirty (bakers) Dozen.’ The film stars Kurosawa regular Kôji Yakusho (Cure, Babel, University of Laughs) and is playing In Competition at the Venice Film Festival. Maybe it will show at TIFF too.

    Esteemed samurai Shinzaemon Shimada is secretly commissioned to terminate the evil Lord Naritsugu after his bloody rise to power. Assembling an elite group of samurai, Shinzaemon plots to ambush the Lord on his annual journey home from Edo. The courageous samurai know it’s a suicide mission because the Lord is closely protected by a deadly entourage led by Shinzaemon’s nemesis, the ruthless Hanbei. To capture Lord Naritsugu, Shinzaemon and his skilled samurai transform a mountain village into an intricate death trap. But when the Lord finally arrives, the assassins discover they are outnumbered fifteen to one. The day has come for our 13 fearless assassins to face death in a monumental battle of fiery explosions, showers of arrows and bloody showdowns of clashing swords.

    The teaser is tucked under the seat.

    **UPDATED WITH THE COMPLETE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP**
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  • 29 Jul

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    Review: Wild Grass

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    Director: Alain Resnais
    Writers: Alex Reval, Laurent Herbiet, from the novel L’Incident by Christian Gailly
    Producer: Jean-Louis Livi
    Starring: André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Michel Vuillermoz, Anne Consigny, Edouard Baer
    MPAA Rating: PG
    Running time: 104 min.

    Leading up to the writing of this review, I have enjoyed a strangely consuming relationship with Left Bank legend Alain Resnais’ latest film Wild Grass – the kind of relationship you experience when your imagination has been ensnared by a film that you long to see, but can’t. In this case, it has been over a year since Wild Grass screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and only recently has the film been released theatrically in Toronto. Initially, the plot description for it grabbed my interest, helped along considerably by a stunningly colorful still image. Both were provided by Film Comment in its 2009 Cannes summary; since then, the magazine has heaped praise upon the film, particularly through not one, but two feature pieces (an extended review and an interview with Resnais) by Amy Taubin over the past year, each adorned with more enticingly beautiful stills. While I’m a self-proclaimed French New Wave fanatic, I haven’t even seen that many of Resnais’ films – in truth, only Hiroshima, Mon Amour, during my undergraduate years at the University of Toronto. Yet there was something about Wild Grass, its whimsical premise and its imagery that made me want to see it. Just recently, I finally got my wish.

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  • 29 Jul

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    Toronto After Dark Preview

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    In 15 days I will be on my way to Toronto once again. This time for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. TADFF is in its 5th year or presenting fun, scary, exciting genre films to Toronto and visitors. The last I went was in 2007 and it was a blast. It was the first film festival I ever attended, and so it feels good to be returning after a three year absence. While I get a big kick out of seeing the films with the audience at the Bloor it really is the whole experience of heading to Toronto, seeing the sights, watching the movies and hanging out in the bar with movie fans that make TADFF so much fun.

    This year there is a wide mix of films from the horror comedy style (The Last Lovecraft, Doghouse, Robogeisha) to the more scary, and more suited to my tastes horror films (The Last Exorcism, Phobia 2 (Kurt’s Review), Cargo, Heartless) plus a couple of interesting looking cult films (All About Evil, Highschool). I also get a chance to see Centurion, Evil in the time of Heroes, Alien Vs Ninja and Black Death after missing it at Fantasia this year. The I Spit on Your Grave remake may bring a bit of the (‘why are you showing Rape as entertainment’) controversy to the festival that hung over the film in Montreal. The final night is a one two punch of Rubber (Kurt’s Review) and The Human Centipede (Andrew’s Review).

    If you do not have any plans for mid-August (13th – 20th) I suggest taking some time off and coming on out to Toronto to see some fun movies and have a great time at one of Torontos more intimate festivals.

    I have included the links and trailers to each each of the movie below the seat.

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  • 29 Jul

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    Review: GET LOW

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    getlow_01

    You are pretty much guaranteed quality in a Robert Duvall performance, any Robert Duvall performance, whether it is small cameo support (From The Conversation to The Road) or the lead in an intimate drama or even a Civil War epic. He is, simply put, one of the great actors of all time – one who can do both larger-than-life screen demolishing performances and quiet, subtle acting with his eyes alone. Yet about once every decade he really brings something special to the table; a particularly memorable character, a very intense performance. In the 1960s, his feature film debut, he plays the haunted and pale Boo Radley in To Kill A Mocking Bird; in the 1970s he immortalized his love for the smell of napalm in the morning as a general who like to surf and plays Wagner when going into battle; in the 1980s he plays a quiet, down-on-his-luck country singer who does odd jobs for room and board while trying to put his life back together; and in the 1990s his turn as the bombastic Apostle E.F. might just be the best single performance of that decade. Get Low is with little doubt his performance of this decade, something that embodies all of those characters mentioned above, yet is its own multi-layered beast. The film itself maybe be accessible and easily digestible stuff, I am not sure that the world actually needs a warm and fuzzy inversion of Billy Wilder’s Ace in The Hole, but the Duvall performance is the thing. And it certainly does not hurt that his supporting thespians are Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray.

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  • 28 Jul

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    Hit or Miss: Jim Jarmusch

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    [This is the first in what is to be an ongoing series of posts demarcating the highlight and lowlight of a particular theme, body of work, or significant category of film. Feel free to offer alternative suggestions in the comment section]

    HIT: Mystery Train
     
     

    Yokohama Mystery Train

    Mystery Train, more so than the meta-mash-up, Limits of Control, best captures the Jarmuschian universe. The movie is unmistakably auteur, the kitsch set design, lived-in locations, chaptering of short segments intersecting around a common motif, and, most importantly, the hipster deadpan that hangs drolly like a cigarette from Jun’s permanent scowl. Here we see Memphis as a decaying memorial to the spirit of all things Elvis, with three groups of characters finding refuge in a low-rate hotel night clerked by none other than Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Like Tarantino’s films, Mystery Train revels in creating a cinematic universe with its Memphis, every billboard, and poster carefully alluding to its own alternate reality. This in addition to the use of three stories told out of sequence and choice pop culture references peppering the script make Mystery Train a clear precursor, if not inspiration for, Pulp Fiction (the similarities are almost unmissable). With the exception maybe of Limits of Control, Mystery Train is Jarmusch’s most visually sumptuous outing, the neon Memphis nights bursting with colour (not to mention Hawkins’ fire engine red suit). The choice of actors is also top-notch, the comedic beats hit more from expression than dialogue, particularly with the ‘Far From Yokohama’ segment where the actors playing Jun and Mitsuko are damn near vaudevillian in their delivery. Mystery Train is the perfect culmination of all that is great in Jarmusch’s work; if an auteur is always redoing the same film, this is where he nails it.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Jul

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    Maury Chaykin @61

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    Maury

     
    Blindness was probably the last film that I saw Maury Chaykin in. The prolific character actor passed away (on his birthday) at 61 in Toronto yesterday. But Chaykin was one of those ubiquitous faces in both Canadian cinema (Whale Music, Exotica, The Adjuster) as well as slimy-oily types in Hollywood Blockbusters (The Mask of Zorro, Devil in a Blue Dress, Dances With Wolves.) I will always remember him best in a small, but excellent role as the gossipy but clueless innkeeper in The Sweet Hereafter who can spew venom about all the things going on around town, but is completely unaware that his wife is in a lengthy ongoing affair with another man. And that often sums up the signature Chaykin role, in the film for a few minutes, but a lasting impression is formed, even as he often played to type. Chaykin was not very old, but had been battling kidney troubles for some time. He will be sorely missed, although many local admirers of his work can say goodbye in their own fashion as two of his recent films (Casino Jack and Barney’s Version) will be unspooling at TIFF in the fall.

    More on Chaykin here and here and here.

  • 27 Jul

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    Never Let Me Go One Sheet

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    Never Let Me Go

     
    Because it is making its debut at TIFF in September, and it is one of my most anticipated films of the year, and this is a very, very handsome one-sheet: Please enjoy. That is all. (Oh, and we posted the trailer for Never Let Me Go a while ago.)
     
     

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