David Bezmozgis dives into Russian diaspora
Interview: David Bezmozgis on Natasha
The Toronto-based writer-director grew up in a community of Russian Jews who left the Soviet Union, but decades later he says the "Russian immigrant experience" has become more difficult to define -- yet far more interesting to explore through drama
By Katherine Monk
The “immigrant experience” is a phrase that’s been getting a lot of media mileage in the wake of Syria’s collapse and continuing mass displacement due to climate change, but as a phrase, it’s generic.
It assumes all immigrants share a similar reality: a sense of exile and limited expression until assimilation takes hold. Toronto author and filmmaker David Bezmozgis thinks the North American “immigrant community” deserves better than a broad label between quotation marks, so he wrote a short story called Natasha, originally published in Harper’s before appearing in a bound collection in 2004.
A Lolita-like yarn about a sexy young Russian girl who moves ...
Nadia Litz and Jai West dig deep in The People Garden
People: Interview - Nadia Litz and Jai West on The People Garden
The former actor and first-time feature director says she wanted to create a female character in her 20s who could ride a wave of emotional ambiguity to escape the warm, fuzzy, vulnerable and typically banal female box
By Katherine Monk
VANCOUVER, BC – Ambiguity isn’t a topic that generally lends itself to passion, yet a recent sit-down with director-writer Nadia Litz and actor Jai West reveals a mental desire to resist closure that’s near obsessive.
“Oh man. Ambiguity is the whole thing…” says Litz. “It’s everything. It’s the theme of the film: that there is no black and white conclusion to anything. It’s what relationships are. It’s what life is. It’s what death is.”
When Litz talks about “the whole thing,” she’s talking about The People Garden, her debut feature starring West, Pamela Anderson and Dree Hemingway (daughter of Mariel Hemingway, niece of the late Margaux). ...
A Hologram for the King an empty projection
Movie review: A Hologram for the King
Tom Hanks's latest feels like a collection of the beloved actor's greatest hits all rolled into one big lump of fish-out-of-water comedy that flops around on deck for the duration
Hello, My Name is Doris – the Exploress
Movie Review: Hello, My Name is Doris
Sally Field finds fertile terrain as an eccentric hoarder in Hello, My Name is Doris, a feel-good romantic comedy aimed at menopausal women that's appealing to all
New look suits The Jungle Book
Movie Review: The Jungle Book
Director Jon Favreau uses state of the art digital technology to animate Rudyard Kipling's story of an orphan boy raised by wolves, and in the process, exhumes the dark heart of a child's version of Apocalypse Now
Keeping it All in The Clan
Movie review: El Clan
The true story of Argentina's infamous Puccio family hits the big screen with a bloodsplatter and a killer soundtrack, making for a seductively distracting descent into Hell
4DX – Butt-tingle Part Deux?
News: Movie Exhibition
Cineplex Entertainment announces partnership to bring 4DX, a new, immersive viewing technology that features mists, smells and moving seats to downtown Toronto
April 12, 2016 - TORONTO - If you’re old enough to remember the Odorama of John Waters’s Polyester and the butt-rumble of Midway’s Sensurround, you’ve been waiting a long time for the second generation of full cinematic immersion. But according to Cineplex Entertainment, it’s coming to Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas this summer.
The metro Toronto multiplex is slated to open the first 4DX auditorium in Canada, and for those unfamiliar with the new technology, think theme park: Moving seats that roll and tilt with the action, misting effects, vibration and strobe lights. Plus, odor emanating from the seat in front of you — that isn’t the result of popcorn and pop consumption from your seat mate.
Currently installed in more than 230 locations around the world, 4DX includes over 20 ...
Truth Forced Stars to See the Light
People: Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen on I Saw the Light
The good lord was willing and the creek didn't rise, but taking on the challenge of playing Hank Williams, the American icon who gave a nation its own lonesome sound, gave Tom Hiddleston and co-star Elizabeth Olsen a fresh lesson in authenticity
By Katherine Monk
TORONTO – “Last time I checked, I wasn’t born in Asgard,” says Tom Hiddleston. Indeed, the English actor was born in Westminster, the central chunk of London, a far cry from the celestial birthplace of Norse gods such as Odin, Thor and Loki, the latter representing Hiddleston’s ticket to the Hollywood big-time.
In 2011, Hiddleston played the bitter little brother to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in the continuing Marvel franchise, bringing true gravitas and drama to the comic book universe and causing a gravitational bend to the spotlight’s beam. Hiddleston went toe-to-toe with Anthony Hopkins and Robert Downey Jr. in Thor, but that same year ...
