Complete Directorial Works of Cassavetes
John Cassavetes’ greatest legacy to film, besides his acting, will be his contribution to writing and directing. His cinema verité style of filmmaking gave his films a sense of reality – a style very much against the grain of Hollywood film. His entire directorial works will be shown at Cinema du Parc from July 31st … Continue reading
DVD Releases for the Week of Jul. 28, 2009
Sita Sings the Blues is what happens when you mix the Hindu tale of Ramayana and 1920s-style jazz. This animated film has been gathering much buzz from film festivals across the world (including a Canadian premiere in Montréal last year), and is also online under a Creative Commons license. This means you can check it out on … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Review: Breathless
South Korean film has had a strong presence at this year’s Fantasia, with many debut efforts by new voices of the dwindling ‘new wave’ movement. But even iconic filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s latest, Thirst, has failed to excite in the same way as the pioneer films. Yang Ik-June’s Breathless (Ddongpari) is the sole exception. It is … Continue reading
Harry Potter takes a breather
Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) There aren’t many sure things when we talk about sequels in franchises. More often than not, they fail to deliver on the hype or lose the magic of the first. The Harry Potter films, however, are a sure thing. Like its predecessors, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Advance Review: My Dear Enemy
Playing this Friday, July 24th and Monday, July 27th, the Canadian premiere of My Dear Enemy (Meotjin haru) is not likely to strike a chord with the usual Fantasia audience member. The reason is not because it is a lousy film – far from it: Lee Yoon-ki’s fourth feature is a slow-paced but surprisingly heart-warming little … Continue reading
DVD Releases for the Week of Jul. 21, 2009
Canadian productions often have to rely on smart scripting if they are to find success as films. So when Bruce McDonald set out to make a zombie film, the usual budgetary constraints meant there was no way he could pull of a gorefest on the same scale as Dawn of the Dead. Instead, Pontypool has been … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Review: The Chaser
First-time writer/director Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser (Chugyeogja) is another entry in the ‘new wave’ of South Korean films, most notably amongst its more violent contributors such as Park Chan-wook. Far from Oldboy, The Chaser is more like Na Hong-jin’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a film that relied too heavily on coincidence and cliché. Worse, its … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Review: The Clone Returns Home
Like the various incarnations of clones that follow the death of the film’s protagonist, Kanji Nakajima’s The Clone Returns Home feels soulless, an empty shell where ideas thrive but without enough substance to impact the genre. Nakajima, like Asimov or Tarkovsky, is interested in questions of ethics and philosophy: do clones contain but the resonance of … Continue reading
Fantasia Film Festival 2009 Preview Part 2
The genre film festival enters its second week. With strong ticket sales, great audience feedback and an increasing number of potentially hot films, Fantasia 2009 keeps the throttle at full. Check out some recommended screenings from Wednesday to Sunday on my Midnight Poutine preview post. The fine specimen on the right is Fantasia stage technician, … Continue reading
DVD Releases for the Week of Jul. 14, 2009
Hot from its free streaming run on theauteurs.com, the classic 1989 documentary of the Apollo space missions is coming to DVD thanks to Criterion Collection. For All Mankind compiled all the best images and sounds from multiple space flight missions in order to create what remains to this day the most sensorial historical record of … Continue reading
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