Having its premiere at TIFF today, is this delightful Canadian film that definitely enjoys itself. Pat Mills is a triple threat in the film, writing, directing and starring as David Gold, a former child star, with a drinking problem, a rent problem, an employment problem, and a little denial about his sexuality. With no…
Category: Film Festivals
Like the Wind (2013) – Marco S. Puccioni
Having its Canadian Premiere screening this evening at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, is this drama featuring a strong performance by Valeria Golino as Armida Misere, and of Italy’s first female prison governors. Told through a series of flashbacks, the film starts with a tragedy, and shows how it impacts the rest of Misere’s life,…
Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2014: The First Snowfall (Andrea Segre)
Screening this evening at 6:30 at the Lightbox is this gentle drama filmed on location in gorgeous Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy. Dani (Jean-Christope Folly) is a refugee from Togo, flawed and broken, he is trying to hold his own life together, and cannot even bear to look at his baby daughter, because all he sees…
Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2014: The Best Offer – Giuseppe Tornatore
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival got underway on Thursday with the latest effort from Italian maestro, Giuseppe Tornatore, known for the beautiful works Malena, Cinema Paradiso, Legend of 1900. Each film enchants, and enthralls, taking you into their world, and wrapping you up in not only in the beauty the of the world, but in…
ICFF – Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2014
Toronto is a truly fortunate when it comes to the film industry. There are times when it seems you can’t turn around in this city without striding onto a film location, or finding out there is a film festival of some for or another being held. I LOVE IT! Starting today and running through to…
Hot Docs 2014: The Condemned (Nick Read)
Screening one final time today, is this harrowing look inside a Russian maximum security prison, housing 260 murderers. Set in a forest the size of Germany (!), that takes seven hours to reach from the nearest city, this prison, Penal Colony No. 56, is the modern gulag, and for the first time, a documentary crew…
Hot Docs 2014: An Honest Liar (Justin Weinstein & Tyler Measom)
Put this one at the top of your list of films to check out today! With one last screening at the Lightbox at 6:30 this brilliant film is nothing short of engaging, powerful, funny, and heartfelt. I went into this one almost blind, knowing that it was about a former stage magician and escape artist,…
Hot Docs 2014: Super Duper Alice Cooper (Reginald Harkema, Scot McFadyen & Sam Dunn)
In case you’ve missed it at it’s two amazing screenings already, this doc-opera screens one last time this morning at 11 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. My first introduction to Alice Copper came early in life, through his appearance on (surprise, surprise) The Muppets. I liked the music I heard, but didn’t get a…
Hot Docs 2014: Kung Fu Elliot (Matthew Bauckman & Jaret Belliveau)
Screening for the final time toady at the Scotiabank Theatre at 9:30 is this highly entertaining, often funny, film about no-budget movies, bad acting, ‘good’ kung fu, and lies. In Moncton, New Brunswick, we are introduced to Elliot Scott and his girlfriend Linda. Elliot’s only desire is to be Canada’s kung fu star, like his heroes…
Hot Docs 2014: Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo (John Zaritsky)
As part of the retrospective on John Zaritsky, the Canadian Documentarian, there were screenings of some of his films, and I was fortunate enough to make it in to a presentation of his 1994 film, Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo. This film is stunning and heartbreaking, though age hasn’t necessarily been kind to the format…
