Archive for the ‘Canadian Film’ Category

  • 28 Jun

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    DVD Review: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

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    Rush Poster

    Director: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Global Metal, Iron Maiden: Flight 666)
    MPAA Rating: NR
    Running time: 117 min.

    (4/5)

    As someone who grew up with a father who loves rock music, I was introduced to Rush at an early age. I always loved the music but over the years my taste shifted and with it my love affair with some bands while others took a foothold in the pantheon. Rush never quite entered that level of rock god status for me but they’ve always been a band I liked and then Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen came along.

    Rush Movie StillOver the last few years the pair have become synonymous with rock documentaries from heavy metal in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey to fandom (Global Metal (review)) and most recently bringing to the screen Iron Maiden: Flight 666. With their eye turned home, their latest takes on Canadian legends Rush and the result is the unforgettable tribute Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.

    Dunn and McFadyen begin with the band’s early heavy metal days as high-school entertainers and follows through on their long career of change and discovery. Using archival footage and in depth interviews with band members Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, we follow Rush as they grow from bar band to global superstars and the road isn’t always easy. There are insights into the early days of touring, the difficulties of being a band with substance (the making of “2112” was particularly eye opening to me), and the constant struggle to be the best musicians they can be while still being true to the music. Rush is a band that made a conscious effort never to “sell out” and their ever changing sound goes a long way to support that.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 15 Jun

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    Guy Maddin’s KEYHOLE

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    Way back in 2008, Guy Maddin offered a prelude peak in collaboration with collage artists at his new feature film, Keyhole. Apropos, considering the directors peculiar (and magnificent) style of filmmaking. Well, more details (thanks Marina and Monika!) have surfaced as the production heats up in Winnipeg, the key revelation is his wonderful cast: Jason Patric, Udo Kier, Kevin McDonald and Isabella Rossellini.

    It is about bloody time that Udo Kier and Guy Maddin worked together. Yummy!


    A gangster (Jason Patric) returns home after a long absence toting a drowned girl, who has mysteriously returned to life, and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son. His odyssey is through his own house one room at a time until he arrives in the boudoir of his wife (Isabella Rossellini.)

    All the details can be found here, at the Winnipeg Free Press.

  • 27 May

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    After the Credits Episode 85 – Interview with “Black Field” director Danishka Esterhazy

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    Interview with "Black Field" director Danishka Esterhazy [ 21:04 | 19.29 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup


    To download show directly, paste this link into your downloader:
    http://www.rowthree.com/audio/AfterTheCredits-Episode85.mp3

    Marina speaks with Black Field (review) director Danishka Esterhazy.

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    We can also be contacted via email – marina@rowthree.com!

    Show Notes:

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  • 18 May

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    A Third (International) Trailer for SPLICE

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    We cannot stop talking about Vincenzo Natali’s wonderful genetic engineering genre-mash Splice. If you are already sold on the film, then I suggest you actually skip this new, international trailer. I say this because the trailer is almost the entire movie in miniature. But for those who want to have a visual and narrative arc of the movie, here you go. Obviously the powers that be are finding their sea-legs in how to sell this little savvy genre picture. The film lies somewhere between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and David Cronenberg’s The Fly with maybe just a hint of E.T. And this trailer does the job of getting this across. I cannot wait to watch this one again, come June 4th.

    Splice goes into wide release very soon, June 4th to be exact.

    BONUS: the release version is apparently uncensored version from the one I caught last September (My Review) .

    The new trailer is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Apr

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    A second trailer for Vincenzo Natali’s SPLICE

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    While none of the distributions houses has been putting posters out (there are a few sparse festival one-sheets, but they are not very elaborate, here comes a second trailer for Canadian genetic engineering genre-mash Splice.

    Much better than the first trailer (here) this one forgoes the jump scares and gets more into the relationship, implications of letting loose a new species which is a collection of a lot of different spare parts. Frankenstein’s monster anyone? Well this is the 21st century version. And she is both more deadly and more cute.

    Splice drops into wide release (!) in June.

    BONUS: the release version is apparently uncensored version from the one I caught last September (My Review) .

    The new trailer is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 08 Apr

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    First trailer for Sook-Yin Lee’s “Year of the Carnivore”

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    Year of the Carnivore Movie Still

    If you watched any Canadian television in the 90s, you’ve probably heard of Sook-Yin Lee. The West Coast artist/musician/vj/dj has been in the limelight for years with stints both in front and behind the camera but her first full length feature is really getting her a lot of attention.

    Year of the Carnivore has been making its way through the festival circuit since it first played TIFF last year and gaining a bit of love. It’s a quirky story of a girl in search of romance or more accurately, trying to find herself (and her sex life). It’s an unabashed story of women’s sexuality and for that, I give it props even if it did rub me the wrong way (my review from VFF expands on my thoughts). It’s a troubled film and one with a tad too much quirk for my liking but it’s impossible to fully hate a film when it features such a great performance from Cristin Milioti; she’s just too charming to dislike.

    Big kudos to QE for the hookup on the trailer which pretty much captures the wackyness of the feature; it’s a pretty good indicator on what you can expect. The film will open in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal on June 18th.

    NSFW trailer tucked under the seats.
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 06 Apr

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    Love At The Twilight Motel

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    With the 2010 Hot Docs Film Festival quickly approaching, I was going over some of the screenings I attended from last year’s festival – two of which made my Top 10 of the year. A day after doing this, I was thrilled to see that one of those two – Alison Rose’s Love At The Twilight Motel – will screen again in Toronto this month. The film is dedicated to portraits of 7 different people who frequent the hourly-rated motels on a specific strip in Miami (there are around 20 such motels on that single street). Not only are these people fascinating and their stories revealed in surprising increments, but the entire film looks gorgeous as it mixes Miami street scenes with wonderfully framed interior shots from the interviews.

    This film absolutely deserves as much support as possible, has received excellent praise from local Toronto press (The Globe And Mail, Now Magazine, Exclaim.ca) and has also won the Best Documentary Award at the 2010 Female Eye Film Festival. If you’re at all interested in compelling yet flawed characters and good storytelling, I strongly encourage you to try to make it to one of the Toronto screenings (dates and times below) or, if that’s not exactly “convenient” for you since you don’t live anywhere near Toronto, at least keep watch for it at your local theatre or as a future DVD release.

    Here’s a full 3:44 clip from the film:

     

     

    The film screens at The Royal (608 College St. West) on April 10th & 11th and then again at Revue Cinema on April 14th & 15th (400 Roncesvalles Ave.). All start times are 7:00PM. Since director Alison Rose is a local Toronto filmmaker, she will be in attendance for each of the screenings.

    A full review of the film I wrote from last year’s Hot Docs Film Festival is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Mar

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    I Killed My Mother and Polytechnique Big Jutra Award Winners

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    The Jutra Awards, Quebec’s version of the Oscars which specifically honor Quebecois films, gave out its honors last night, and two Row Three favorites took home several of the top prizes.

    Writer/director/actor Xavier Dolan’s electrifying debut film I Killed My Mother (J’ai tue ma mère) took home awards for Best Picture, Screenplay (which Dolan wrote at age 17), and Actress for Anne Dorval, playing Dolan’s mother in the film. A tender, edgy, arty film that’s surprisingly mature considering Dolan’s age, I Killed My Mother was the standout of the AFI Film Festival for me (my review), and ended up as my second favorite film of the year.

    Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve’s stark Polytechnique took home five awards, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Maxim Gaudette), Best Photography, Best Sound, and Best Editing. The film tells with devastating beauty and pain of the 1989 Montreal shooting at the École Polytechnique, where a student entered the school and coldly lined up women along a wall to shoot them. I have not seen it myself, but Marina’s review is full of praise for Villeneuve’s treatment of the tragic material.

    Interestingly, both of these films make good use of black & white; Polytechnique is shot entirely in black & white, while I Killed My Mother uses it for specific sequences of the main character’s intercut narration. I always love me some black & white cinematography, and it’s good to see Quebecois filmmakers using it to such good effect, and turning out such great films in general. I will definitely be trying to see Polytechnique soon, and recommend any opportunity to check out I Killed My Mother.

    hat tip Toronto Sun

  • 18 Mar

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    FWC’s DVD Club: Denys Arcand Double Bill

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    FWC DVD Club LogoAn Oscar winner, a man of keen social observation and sense of humor and a Canadian icon, Denys Arcand has been a force in French Canadian cinema since the early 60s. I first caught wind of the director when, in my teens, I saw Jésus de Montréal, a film which stuck with me for months after seeing it and likely one of the first films I saw that made me think of movies and simply more than entertainment. Over the years I’ve caught up with much of the director’s filmography and it looks like the time has come to re-visit two classics.

    The March and April selection for the FWC DVD Club selection is a double bill of Arcand films, a pairing of two classics. 1986′s The Decline of the American Empire introduced us to a group of academics living in Montreal, giving us a look at the complicated lives of people with too much time and money on their hands. Affairs, petty concerns, gossip – it’s all here boiled down to the basics. It’s absurd – that’s the point. In 2003, Arcand followed up the film by revisiting the group 17 years later when one of the group members is diagnosed with a fatal disease. The Oscar winning film is touching and bitingly funny, a combination which Arcand has mastered.

    If you’ve yet to see them, now’s your chance to catch up with a couple of modern classics. To join in on the discussion, head over to the forum.

    Trailers for both films tucked under the seats!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 01 Mar

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    Trailer & Poster Premiere for Kris Booth’s At Home, By Myself… With You

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    Film festivals can be both places of discovery and catch up. VIFF runs so late in the year that it’s usually the place where local film lovers catch up on the best of the fests from the year but once in a while you get a premiere or the discovery of a little film that blows your socks off. Enter At Home, By Myself… with You (review).

    Kris Booth’s full length debut stars Kristin Booth as Romy, an endlessly humorous and infectious character who also happens to be a complete shut in who hasn’t left her home in six years. Enter Aaron Abrams as Guy, the boy who shows up one day, living across the hall and the catalyst that eventually breaks Romy from her four walled existence.

    At Home, By Myself… with You is charming, fun and the kind of romantic comedy I love to cheer for: one with tons of heart that doesn’t feel like it came out of the pre-manufactured box. Not too surprising, the shiny trailer displays some of the fun quirk I loved so much.

    At Home, By Myself… with You opens in Toronto on Friday, March 5th (details here).

    Trailer under the seats!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 01 Mar

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    Genie Award Nominees Revealed

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    Genie Awards 2010The Genie Awards may not exactly be the Oscars but Canada’s awards to celebrate the best of Canadian films has been having a filed day the last few years. In the past, it’s always been difficult, and a little sad, to study the list only to find you’ve never heard of, never mind seen, a large portion of the films listed but last year the Genies unveiled a great list of films which really marked what 2009 could have in store.

    The year has come and gone and a huge number of the films listed in this year’s awards are not only great, a few are down right spectacular. And that’s only for 2009. Some of the 2010 films have already appeared through festivals late in the year and are scheduled for release later this year and if the few I’ve seen are any indication, we’re in for a spectacular year in Canadian film.

    Denis Villeneuve’s brilliant Polytechnique (review) leads the pack with 11 nominations while Bruce McDonald’s crowd pleasing Pontypool (review) walks away with three. But that’s just the top of the barrel because also included are Charles Officer’s gorgeous Nurse.Fighter.Boy, the French Canadian fantasy Babine, Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow, Kari Skogland’s 50 Dead Men Walking (review) and even love for the crimminaly overlooked coming of age tale Victoria Day. All in all, a spectacular year.

    The Genies will be handed out in Toronto on April 12th in a show hosted by the great Gordon Pinsent and Tatiana Maslany.

    BEST MOTION PICTURE / MEILLEUR FILM
    3 SAISONS – Maude Bouchard, Jim Donovan, Sandy Martinez, Bruno Rosato
    BEFORE TOMORROW – Stéphane Rituit
    FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING – Shawn Williamson, Stephen Hegyes, Peter La Terriere, Kari Skogland
    NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY – Ingrid Veninger
    POLYTECHNIQUE – Maxime Rémillard, Don Carmody

    ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION / MEILLEURE RÉALISATION
    MARIE-HÉLÈNE COUSINEAU, MADELINE PIUJUQ IVALU – Before Tomorrow
    KARI SKOGLAND – Fifty Dead Men Walking
    CHARLES OFFICER – NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY
    DENIS VILLENEUVE – Polytechnique
    BRUCE MCDONALD – Pontypool

    ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY / MEILLEUR SCÉNARIO
    ATOM EGOYAN – Adoration
    ÉMILE GAUDREAULT, IAN LAUZON – De père en flic / Father and Guns
    CHARLES OFFICER, INGRID VENINGER – NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY
    JACQUES DAVIDTS – Polytechnique
    DAVID BEZMOZGIS – Victoria Day

    ADAPTED SCREENPLAY / MEILLEURE ADAPTATION
    MARIE-HÉLÈNE COUSINEAU, SUSAN AVINGAQ, MADELINE PIUJUQ IVALU – Before Tomorrow
    KARI SKOGLAND – Fifty Dead Men Walking
    TONY BURGESS – Pontypool

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Nov

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    AFI Fest 2009: I Killed My Mother

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    Director: Xavier Dolan
    Screenplay: Xavier Dolan
    Producers: Xavier Dolan
    Starring: Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clement, François Arnaud
    Year: 2009
    Country: Canada
    Running time: 100min.

    (4.5/5)

     

    I‘ve put off writing about my favorite film of the festival because honestly, I don’t know how to put a film that is so personal, introspective, and yet explosive into words. But I also don’t want to just let it fade away without talking about it. The fact that it’s a first feature written, directed by, and starring a 19-year-old (a fact I did not realize until after I saw it and was blown away) only makes it more amazing without in any way qualifying the praise the film deserves.

    i_killed_my_mother_001.jpgIn the highly autobiographical story, Xavier Dolan plays his alter-ego Hubert, a 16-year-old French Canadian boy whose relationship with his mother is strained, to say the least – to the point that when a school assignment requires him to talk about his mother’s occupation, he tries to get around it by telling his teacher that his mother is dead. This could be the start of just another teenage rebellion story, and superficially, it sort of is. In black and white intercuts, Hubert explains to his camcorder that he can’t manage to really love his mother the way he knows he should, even though he cares about her the way he’d care about any other human being. Other times he acknowledges that most everyone goes through some stage of hatred for their mother, but that his is different. So far, so emo. But there’s a quality of thoughtfulness and depth in the way these intercut scenes interact with the actual scenes between Hubert and his mother Chantale that transcends surface description.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

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