year : 2018 151 results

#TIFF2018: Skipping the lineups

Movies: #TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival Our correspondent finds ways to see all the Donald Trump-themed films he wants, and with no waiting required By Jay Stone (September 8, 2018) TORONTO — Today we invoked another Toronto film festival rule for the retired critic, which is that we don’t stand in line for anything. This is partly because life is too short, and partly because you might not get in anyway and so you’ve used up some of your precious remaining minutes idly shifting from one leg to the other, indulging in the futile hope of getting a seat that will probably be in the front row, and standing behind people who talk in bored nasal voices about their film festival experiences. One tries not to listen, but one is human, after all, and one is in danger of grinding away all the remaining enamel on one’s teeth. The downside of this guideline is that one doesn’t get to see a lot of movies that everyone else is dying to see, which is perhaps not ...

TIFF 2018: Wandering in and out of this and that

Movies: #TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival In which our retired film critic decides at the last minute what he wants to see and discovers he's chosen an eight-hour epic. By Jay Stone (September 7, 2018) TORONTO — So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past, or, in the case of the Toronto film festival, ceaselessly into the next lineup. People who come to film festivals to scout movies for other festivals, or who own theatres and are looking for something to show in them, move through Toronto’s cinemas like sharks, dipping their fins, as it were, into this auditorium and that. In a few minutes they can decide whether what they’re watching is worth the acquisition. Then it’s off to feed in the next hunting ground. Film critics, on the other hand, are expected to do some research, make a schedule, and head off to the likely movies. You stick it out because you might be interviewing the stars, or the director, and they might ...

Canadian film goes full frontal in Toronto

Movies: #TIFF18, The Toronto International Film Festival This year’s lineup of Canadian film at TIFF represents more than a handful of familiar faces, it’s a coming-of-age moment for the whole industry.

#TIFF18 Top Ten to look for at a theatre near you

Movies: #TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival On his 25th anniversary of covering the Toronto film festival, a critic decides he is ready for the quieter side of cinema.
3Score

Disobedience is an uncertain love story

Movie Review: Disobedience An art photographer and an Orthodox Jewish wife re-ignite a forbidden passion in a romance that never quite finds its footing

Folking things up made for summer’s bright spot

Music: The Vancouver Folk Festival 2018 We celebrate the summer that was with a fond look back at what proved to be the highlight of Vancouver's smokiest season ever: A fully reinvented Folk Music Festival featuring acts that rocked, rattled and rolled young and old alike. By Rod Mickleburgh The line-up was skimpier than past years. Sunday clashed with the final of a riveting, month-long World Cup and the sun was hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum, but once again, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival cast its magic over me and thousands of other attendees with its annual mix of good vibes, a setting to die for and outstanding music. Even at my increasingly creaky and cranky advanced age, I found myself dancing, most notably at a wonderful, spirited workshop jam session involving Little Miss Higgins, Les Poules à Collin and Petunia & the Vipers. Thankfully, there were no cameras in sight, and the young people politely refrained from giggling. There were other highlights: ...
2.5Score

Kin can’t make good from a wonderfully bad Franco

Movie review: Kin The Baker boys' debut feature may not be fabulous, but somewhere in this wannabe young adult franchise lies a message about the power of guns, and how it transforms one’s place in the American social order.
3.5Score

Juliet, Naked strips romance down to nagging self-doubt

Movie review: Juliet, Naked Director Jesse Peretz brings alt-rock authenticity to Nick Hornby’s story of a singer-songwriter who fell off the map, only to be rediscovered by the long-suffering partner of an obsessive fan. Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd offer pure performance, but it’s Rose Byrne’s quiet navigation of personal desire that redeems the ego-fest.
3 Score

Papillon escapes a gritty chrysalis with little flutter

Movie review: Papillon Charlie Hunnam looks a little like the late Steve McQueen, which makes comparisons to the 1973 Frank Schaffner classic harder to ignore, and Hunnam’s task all the more challenging as he’s forced to escape an island of fortified expectations.
3.5Score

Skate Kitchen slices, dices dude culture

Movie Review: Skate Kitchen Crystal Moselle’s follow-up to The Wolfpack returns the viewer to the margins of New York City, this time in fictional form as we hook up with some real-life skateboarders who kick-flip chick stereotype.