Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

  • 10 Aug

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    There is a Fubar 2? That and more Canadian Cinema at TIFF.

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    Michael Dowse and those crazy Calgarian’s who love to Giv’R are going to open the Midnight Program at TIFF this year with (I am guessing from the above picture) their adventures in the Alberta Tar Sands. If you missed the original Canadian cult-classic faux documentary, Fubar, do yourself a favour and seek it out on DVD or Netflix.

    Fubar 2, according to the filmmakers blog, is getting some sort of limited Canadian release in October if you miss it in Toronto with 1300 crazy film nuts in Hogtown in September.

    Lots more Canadian releases including new films from Denis Villeneuve, Bruce McDonald, Xavier Dolan, Sturla Gunnarsson, Carl Bessai and a host of other fresh and veteran canadian filmmakers were also announced this morning. The press releases are tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 09 Jun

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    Cinecast Episode 170 – There is Smelting

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    A lengthy show this week, mainly due to Kurt finally fulfilling his promise to Andrew to start watching TVs LOST. If you are bored to tears by Lost talk, skip the first half hour of the show. If you are a fan or aficionado, there is a newbies (Spoilerific) take on the first (and a bit of the second) Season. The main review, and a wonderful three-way discussion is had, is Vincenzo Natali’s Splice. There is lots of love for the Cronenbergian slash Frankenstein’s Monster type tale, but also some criticisms. Matt managed to catch up with Get Him To The Greek and offers his thoughts, wherein a Rose Byrne love-in ensues (who knew she was Aussie?) Kurt caught an advance screening of Sundance winner Winter’s Bone and agrees that it completely lives up to the hype (John Hawkes and Jennifer Lawrence are both revelations). Finally, Matt teases Andrew and Kurt with some thoughts on Mr. T and welding montages in the new A-Team movie. Andrew espouses on his theory why Pixar’s Up is a lot like Death Proof and there is some tangenting on Jackie Brown. DVD picks and much, much more.

    As always, feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

    Cinecast Episode 170 [ 2:46:33 | 95.3 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_170.mp3

     
     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
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  • 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..

  • 10 Mar

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    Contest: Win Passes to the Canada International Film Festival! [Vancouver]

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    Canada International Film FestivalWith the Olympics over, it seems as thought Vancouver, the city as a whole, is sobering up. Once we get there, in another week or so, we’ll be looking for something fun to do and what better than curling up with some great films at a great venue?

    The Canada International Film Festival kicks off on March 19th and for three days, they’ll have on display a huge array of short films with a spattering of documentaries and feature films from around the world.

    The festival, which is calling the Edgewater Casino home for the weekend, is offering up some great films and to one lucky reader, an opportunity to take in a few films in style. The organizers have graciously given us a double pass to any of the screenings taking place over the weekend. Aside from taking in some great films, you won’t be waiting in line and fighting people off for that primo seat. The lucky winner will be given access to the VIP seating area which features the best view along with the most comfortable seating as the VIP area features some plush seating. Not too shabby!

    Considering we’re all still in detox, we’ll make the entry process easy. Simply email your name to marina@rowthree.com. That’s it.

    One entry per person. Contest closes on Wednesday, March 17th at noon and the winner will be drawn that afternoon and contacted via email with details on picking up their prize!

    Good luck everyone and don’t forget to check out the line-up of events!

  • 03 Mar

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    14 Karats

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    Gold

     

    For some reason or other, of late I’ve been thinking about Gold. Not the colour, but the precious metal used for things like jewelry, crowns and the occasional medal (like, say, 14 of them). Not sure why – maybe it’s due to the fast approaching Oscars and their little gold statues or because of those who seek to invest heavily in the yellowish ore due to the economy. Whatever the case, it’s been on my mind for about the last 2 and a half weeks or so.

    So in honour of that most malleable of metals, here’s a list of 14 films (hmmm, there’s that number again…) that are centered around good old atomic number 79:


    Barbary-Coast Bunny


    (1956 – Chuck Jones)

    As fine as the rest of these films are, this is likely my favourite of the bunch. One of the classic Warner Brothers Looney Tunes, it’s Bugs Bunny at his best. Perhaps not as visually beautiful as some of their shorts or as inventive as the all-time classic Duck Amuck, but it’s filled with Bugs’ pithy comments, witty retorts and sly efforts to get his revenge.

    » 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..

  • 11 Feb

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    Shorts Program: Nuit Blanche

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    “Shorts Program” is a semi-regular column highlighting a short film that is well worth your time. If you have a short film you would like to share, drop us a line at marina@rowthree.com.

    Nuit Blanche Still

    It’s been a great year for Spy Films. First one of their directors is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (that would be Vancouver’s own Neill Blomkamp and District 9) and now another of their Canadian directors is making some splashes of his own.

    Ontario director Arev Manoukian has been getting a lot of attention lately. His interactive commercial for Nokia won him acclaim and was a Cannes Cyber Lions and One Show finalist and the director’s most recent project, a short film titled Nuit Blanche, recently won the LG Life’s Good FilmFest and a grand prize of $100,000. I’ve not seen any of the other films in competition but seeing Manoukian’s film, it’s not surprising that he took home the top prize. In a few short minutes and with nothing more than two characters and some music, he creates a gorgeous moment of fantasy and romance. A perfect treat for Valentine’s Day.

    Film tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 26 Jan

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    Bookmarks for January 25-26

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    You can now take a look at RowThree’s bookmarks at any time of your choosing simply by clicking the “delicious” button to your left. It looks remarkably similar to this:

  • 02 Nov

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    DVD Review: Passchendaele

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    PasschendaeleMoviePoster

    Directors: Paul Gross (Men With Brooms)
    Screenplay: Paul Gross
    Producer: Niv Fichman
    Starring: Alex Arsenault, Meredith Bailey, Gil Bellows, Don Bland, David Brown, Tom Carey, Jason Cermak, Ryan Cowie, Ross Crockett
    MPAA Rating: 14A
    Running time: 114 min.

    (3.5/5)

    The first time I really took notice of Paul Gross was with the release of the curling comedy Men with Brooms. Through the film itself isn’t particularly memorable or stand out, the fact that Gross had starred, directed and managed to get funding to make an unlikely Canadian comedy tickled me pink. Since then, Gross has re-emerged in front of the camera on numerous occasions but this marks his return behind the camera.

    PasschendaeleMovieStill2In 2008, after years of hard work and a budget which marks the film as the most expensive Canadian production ever, Passchendaele premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Partly inspired by his grandfather’s war experience, it’s the story of one’s man’s war, a story which is as concerned with personal drama as it is with fighting.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 Oct

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    Review: Pontypool

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    [A review for one of our favorite films around these parts surfaces again as the Flyway Film Festival gets underway]

    pontypool-bloodsheetNow that Don LaFontaine is narrating trailers for the big guy in heaven, I would like to nominate actor Stephen McHattie as the logical successor to the phrase, “In a World, where…” Bruce McDonald’s latest film takes the omnipresent zombie subgenre and turns it on its ear (literally). Yes, ladies and gents, this is the first ‘talk radio’ zombie picture, a film in which so little is actually shown on screen, the viewer is left questioning (for much of the films runtime) whether or not the attacks are even real. Violence and intestine pulling gore are replaced with a plethora of science fiction and social ideas which are very much to the pictures benefit. Like Vincenzo Natali’s single room sci-fi/horror picture Cube, keeping the visuals to a minimum lets the minds eye soar with the strange questions and possibilities raised here. What communication mechanisms case raving mobs to spontaneously form? What is the difference between hearing and understanding? Is language itself a virus? Can talk radio save the world or is it really the pestilence? That the titular Pontypool (besides being a small Ontario town, is itself an interesting linguistic confection) wears its brains on its sleeve, in no way makes it less of a thriller, or for that matter, a great actor showcase (McHattie tears up the screen). Bruce McDonald and screenwriter Tony Burgess surprisingly inject a lot of playfulness along the way. As genre flicks go, Pontypool is the full package deal.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Sep

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    Giant One Eyed Creature Attacks Earth!

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    Following up on Andrew’s find of the gorgeous Antichrist (our review) poster from yesterday, one I’m trying to purchase without having to cut off a leg to pay for the shipping, I bring you something equally awesome if entirely different.

    This year, the National Film Board is celebrating 70 years of film making and though they’re celebrating, so are other Canadian film companies including Eye Steel Film, a company who has collaborated with the NFB to produce some fantastic films including Up the Yangtze and RiP! A Remix Manifesto (our review). The good folks there have unveiled a poster they have created to celebrate the NFB and it’s pretty awesome, in a 50s, monster movie sort of way.

    EyeSteel_NFB

  • 26 Aug

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    Bookmarks for August 25th through August 26th

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    What we’ve been reading – August 25th through August 26th:

    • Comparing Anna Faris to Maria Falconetti
      Yes, someone has the balls to put SMILEY FACE and THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC in the same sentence. On comparing close-ups.
    • Jason Anderson (Toronto’s EYE WEEKLY) on Polytechnique
      Given that it’s the first major Canadian feature to portray what is perhaps this country’s most horrific — and divisive — tragedy, Polytechnique will inevitably fail to satisfy every viewer’s demands. And since it’s also a black-and-white, obliquely structured and platitude-free 77-minute movie that is ultimately less about the causes or circumstances of that tragedy than the challenges of living with its legacy, it’s bound to infuriate a portion of its audience, too.
    • The crazy return of Cap’n Video – Beauty Day
      I've seen huge chunks of Beauty Day dailies and it is pretty amazing stuff. This article is a profile of the subject of the upcoming documentary feature of friend of RowThree and occasional cinecast guest Jay Cheel (The Documentary Blog, Film Junk, The MovieClub Podcast)

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