Fun and free films at the Royal!
The European Film Festival has hit Toronto, bringing with it a slew of absolutely amazing and FREE films to The Royal Cinema. It all actually starts on Thursday night with the Czech film The Karamazovs (2008). Following which, Friday night brings a double bill starting with the Slovakian dark romance Half-Life at 6:00pm and ending with the muchly hyped french film A Prophet at 8:30 PM, which premiered early this year at the Toronto After Dark Festival.
If you are already going to be at …

And so the White Night returns! For those of you who don’t know, this weekend marks the 3rd Nuit Blanche in Toronto. Nuit Blanche is a festival of contemporary art which has been going on annually across Europe since the late 90s. Since 2006, we here in Toronto have had the privilege of joining in on its festivities, and as someone who has gone every year I’ve got to say it is one hell of a night. In the past I have witnessed such things as full scale zombie walks, …

It’s the greatest fucking movie of all time. It’s that simple. Citizen Kane was a joke, 8 ½ was shallow, Star Wars had crappy effects, and 400 Blows was child’s play. You will laugh. You will cry. You will ponder the meaning of life and love. You will throw spoons at the screen and cry for Denny. Nothing I can say will do this film justice. You just have to see The Room (2003).

Placing itself somewhere between soft-core porn and foreign melodrama, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is all the right …

The 420 Film Festival!

The Bloor Cinema keeps the awesomeness coming from the After Dark Film Festival last weekend with the 420 Film Festival this weekend. It all kicks off Saturday night at 9:20 with a new Canadian 20 minute long Silent Marijuana Western, scored with some funky vintage reefer tunes.  Following this there is a 1915 silent comedy (15 mins), then a 1909 “drug drama” (10 minutes), Bambi vs Godzilla (2 mins), many more random shorts and a performance by The 420 Band. In all, almost an hour and …

A quick review for what could truly turn out to be one of the most magical tales in film of the year.  Spike Jonze is directing a live-action, full-length edition of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” (opening October 16th).
Adding icing to this already-frosty cake is that Yeah Yeah Yeahs front-woman Karen O. is producing the soundtrack to the film with a massive cadre of collaborators she’s dubbed “The Kids”.  A posse that includes the likes of Deerhunters‘ Bradford Cox, Raconteurs/Dead Weather’s Dean Ferita and Jack Lawerence, Aaron Hemphill …

This is, my friends, is a documentary to bring music fans together.  In what is no doubt bound to be a very curious and entertaining piece of documentary entertainment, three icons of rock music for their own generations come together for a summit of insight and knowledge to share, collect, and pass on their knowledge from one mind to the other, allowing us as the audience a glimpse of the process.
Buzz about this film has been flitting about since it’s concept was announced some months ago.  In their own words, …