music of the moment : Stars Window Bird
Stuck on the wall
The note that you left
I wait and stop for the moment
Your reckless heart you know you got it
Into the past, I try to sort it
Sort it
Out of the fog
STUCK Stuart Gordon English
***½
7/10
Stuart Gordon is best known for Re-Animator and other H.P. Lovecraft adaptations made in collaboration with Brian Yuzna. However, his most recent projects – such as Edmond, which was based on a David Mamet play – have been a departure from that repertoire but still confront the fears and anxieties provoked by great horror. Stuck continues this trend. Technically, this isn’t a horror film, but its themes are scarier that anything featuring zombies or chainsaws. Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a compassionate young retirement-home caregiver in line for a promotion. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a victim of the downsized economy, out-of-work and newly homeless. Their worlds crash together when Brandi, driving home from a club after too many drinks and pills, accidentally hits Tom, the impact smashing his body head-first through her car’s windshield. - TIFF / Cast: Stephen Rea, Mena Suvari, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard, John Dunsworth [18+]
YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING – Ypf / Y.P.F. Martin Gero English
***½
7/10
YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING is a smart and fast-paced comedy which intertwines the stories of five twenty-something prototypical couples over the course of one evening. As the night proceeds, they discover that casual sex is far more complicated than they imagine. The film showcases some of Canada's brightest young talent. Martin Gero and his friend and co-writer Aaron Abrams wrote the scripts in about 6 months, sending each other versions via email. The movie was shot in 5 bedrooms. - TIFF / Cast: Diora Baird, Carly Pope, Callum Blue, Sonja Bennett, Kristin Booth, Josh Cooke, Josh Dean, Peter Oldring [18+]
SILENT LIGHT – Stellet Licht / Luz Silenciosa (sub'd) Carlos Reygadas Spanish Plautdietsch
***
5.8/10
Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize for 2007, the film tells of Johan, a married North Mexican Mennonite who falls in love with another woman. - TIFF / Cast: Elisabeth Fehr, Cornelio Wall Fehr, Jacobo Klassen, Miriam Toews, Maria Pankratz, Peter Wall [18+]
HERE IS WHAT IS Adam Vollick Daniel Lanois Adam Samuels English
***
6.5/10
Filmmaker Adam Vollick follows music industry icon Daniel Lanois around the recording studio, unveiling some of the mysteries of the studio as a creative space. From a session in Morocco with U2 and Brian Eno, to Garth Hudson at the piano in Toronto, HERE IS WHAT IS reveals the psychological process behind the making of records. - TIFF / Cast: Daniel Lanois, U2, Brian Eno, Garth Hudson [18+]
NOCES DE PAPIER / 1989
– Paper Wedding (sub'd) Michel Brault French
***½
6.7/10
Tells the deeply affecting story of Claire (Geneviève Bujold), a jaded literature professor who agrees to a sham wedding with Pablo, an illegal immigrant from Chile, so he can remain in Canada. Over time, Claire and Pablo come to know each other and develop genuine affection for one another. - TIFF / Cast: Manuel Aranguiz, Dorothée Berryman, Geneviève Bujold, Monique Lepage, Jean Mathieu [18+]
POOR BOY'S GAME Clement Virgo English
***
6.5/10
After nine years in prison for having brutally beaten a young man, Donnie Rose (Rossif Sutherland) is released from jail a changed man, only to find the violent, racist place he came from is no different. At the other end of the city, the black community is bent on revenge. Ossie Paris (Flex Alexander) has been chosen to see that justice is done, challenging Donnie to a showdown in the boxing ring. Particularly bent on revenge, George Carvey (Danny Glover), the father of Donnie's victim, begins to reconsider when he realizes that he and Donnie both want to leave the past behind. - TIFF / Cast: Danny Glover, Rossif Sutherland, Flex Alexander, Greg Bryk, Laura Regan, Tonya Lee Williams
ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES – Days Of Darkness / Age Of Ignorance (sub'd) Denys Arcand French
***
6/10
Fantasy meets reality in L'ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES (DAYS OF DARKNESS), the latest film by Denys Arcand, director of the Academy Award-winning LES INVASIONS BARBARES. Jean-Marc (Marc Labrèche) wrestles with the quiet frustrations of his mundane modern-day life. In his dreams, Jean-Marc is a successful author, a star of the stage and screen, a knight in shining armor who has women falling at his feet and into his bed. But in reality he is a nobody - a clock-punching civil servant, insignificant to his workaholic wife, a failed father and closet smoker. Stuck between his dreamland and reality, Jean-Marc's struggles to find the place where he truly belongs. - TIFF / Cast: Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger, Sylvie Léonard, Caroline Néron, Rufus Wainwright, Macha Grenon, Emma De Caunes [18+] GALA-ROY VISA-ELGIN
ENTRE LA MER ET L'EAU DOUCE / 1967
– Drifting Upstream / Between The Sea And Soft Water (sub'd) Michel Brault French
***
6/10
Brault's first fiction feature film about the trials of a man (played by well-known musician Claude Gauthier) who leaves his small village to fulfill his dream of becoming a folk singer in Montreal. Geneviève Bujold stars as his girlfriend in the city. The film captures all the elements of popular culture that had emerged at the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in 1960 and a culture that played a key role in developing Quebecois' awareness of their unique identity. As a genuine collective creation, Entre la mer et l’eau douce crystallizes – better than any other film of the era – all the elements of popular culture in Quebec that had emerged since the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Followed by La Lutte. - TIFF / Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Robert Charlebois, Claude Gauthier, Paul Gauthier, Pauline Julien B&W [18+]
ALL HAT Leonard Farlinger English
?
Fresh out of prison, ex-ballplayer Ray Dokes (Luke Kirby) returns home to outwit a corrupt and wealthy thoroughbred owner in his attempts to take over a slew of local farms and build a golf resort. Based on Brad Smith's country noir novel, Leonard Farlinger's second feature film boasts an all star cast featuring a musical score by legendary guitarist Bill Frisell. - TIFF / Cast: Luke Kirby, Rachael Leigh Cook, David Alplay, Lisa Ray, Keith Carradine, Noam Jenkins, Gary Farmer [18+]
NIGHTWATCHING Peter Greenaway English
***
5.5/10
The year 1642 marks the turning point in the life of the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, transforming him from a wealthy respected celebrity into a discredited pauper. At the insistence of his pregnant wife Saskia, Rembrandt (Martin Freeman, BREAKING AND ENTERING) has reluctantly agreed to paint the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait, a portrait that would become his most celebrated painting - The Nightwatch. Going about his work, Rembrandt discovers that there is conspiracy afoot after a man is shot dead during routine musket practice. Determined to bring these conspiracies to light, the artist builds his accusation meticulously in the form of the commissioned painting itself, simultaneously uncovering a seamy and hypocritical side to Dutch Society in the Golden Age. - TIFF / Cast: Martin Freeman, Emily Holmes, Michael Teigen [18+] VISA-ELGIN
CLOSING THE RING Richard Attenborough English
?
Richard Attenborough (GANDHI) helms a deeply moving love story, beautifully interwoven between present day and the Second World War. In CLOSING THE RING the wild and beautiful Ethel is courted by three friends, in Jack, Chuck and Teddy, all of whom, unsurprisingly, are smitten with her. But it is Teddy who becomes Ethel's husband. When the three friends must leave for the war in Europe, Ethel gives Teddy a gold ring as her promise of their eternal love. - TIFF / Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Mischa Barton, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite, David Alpay [18+] GALA-ROY VISA-ELGIN
JUST BURIED – Pushing Up Daisies Chaz Thorne English
?
A dark comedy about greed, sex and death. Oliver (Jay Baruchel) inherits his estranged father's funeral parlour on the verge of bankruptcy. Soon, his uneventful life becomes increasingly complicated when he takes a drunken drive with mortician Roberta (Rose Byrne) and hits a hiker. - TIFF / Cast: Jay Baruchel, Rose Byrne, Graham Greene, Nigel Bennett [18+]
NORMAL Carl Bessai English
?
The latest feature from acclaimed Canadian writer/director Carl Bessai (UNNATURAL AND ACCIDENTAL, SEVERED, LOLA) follows the lives of three unrelated characters as they search for closure following the tragic death of a young man. Catherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), the boy's mother, continues to grieve for her son to the detriment of her relationship with the rest of her family. Walt (Callum Keith Rennie) tries to find redemption by caring for his autistic brother, while Jordie (Kevin Zegers), a sensitive teenager who made the wrong choice on the wrong night, can't seem to stop his life from nose-diving out of control. - TIFF / Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Callum Keith Rennie, Kevin Zegers [18+]
STONE ANGEL Kari Skogland English
?
Based on the legendary novel by Margaret Laurence, THE STONE ANGEL sees heroine Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn) come to terms with the decisions she has made over 90 years of an unconventional life. As she nears the end of her days, Hagar reflects on the life she has led, the men she has loved and lost, and the sons she has estranged. - TIFF / Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Christine Horne, Dylan Baker, Cole Hauser, Ellen Page, Sheila McCarthy, Kevin Zegers [18+]
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