film

Films in Brief: 4/18/14

It’s been a busy week with all of us gearing up for our massive Hot Docs coverage, but here’s a look at what else is playing on local screens this week that we haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, including the Disneynature documentary Bears, the romantic drama The Face of Love, the Canadian teen road flick Hold Fast, the psychological thriller Stress Position, the literary minded Meetings with a Young Poet, and the ballet documentary Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq.

Transcendence Review

Transcendence is so universally awful and painful to sit through that it becomes the rare kind of film where partway through you keep questioning if it’s worse than other similarly abysmal misfires.

Trailer Park Boys: Don’t Legalize It Review

Although they’ve become ubiquitous Can-con icons who have several times before threatened to walk away from their drug addled alter egos, the dudes in The Trailer Park Boys prove there’s still plenty of silliness, swish, and piss left in the tank for their third big screen outing, Don’t Legalize It.

Small Time Review

Small Time is by no means a perfect film, but it gives enough of a fresh spin on a traditional sort of coming of age story thanks to some excellent performances from some consistently underrated actors.

Video Interview: The Trailer Park Boys

We sit down with The Trailer Park Boys before the release of their latest film tomorrow to talk about the downfalls of the piss game, how hard it is to quit drinking swish, why Ricky should run for the mayor of Toronto, and why Lahey's still a fuck after all these years.

A Haunted House 2 Review

All things considered equally, Marlon Wayans’ megahit follow-up A Haunted House 2 isn’t as bad as some critics are secretly dreading it would be. It’s definitely not a major piece of cinema or anything that will ever be heralded as being notable in the history of parody flicks, but at least it has jokes and it aims for a higher targets than its predecessor did.

Hail Review

Hail is a purposefully uneasy and gorgeous looking and sounding story of one man trying to adjust to life outside of prison. It’s as emotionally charged and lyrical as a love poem and as raw as the coldest of winter evenings. It's one of the best Australian films of the new century and it's playing in Toronto for one night only.

Journey to the West Review

While it’s fun in spots and director Stephen Chow is bringing a great amount of his trademark ambition and imagination, Journey to the West is an ungainly and strangely distancing mess.

Oculus Review

Oculus is a smart, well acted, and deeply scary film that never treats the audience for a horror film like brain dead zombies who just want a gory, lazy geek show with a bunch of loud noises, whip pans, and smash cuts.

Rio 2 Review

The appeal of Rio 2 to adults will be quite minimal since it’s designed and calculated to be the best possible babysitter for undiscriminating tykes who have never seen any movies outside of the first Rio.

Draft Day Review

Although a bit over directed and having precious little clue how an NFL franchise is actually run, Draft Day remains a largely entertaining sports comedy designed specifically for people who hate sports comedies.

Interview: Mike Flanagan

We catch up with Oculus director Mike Flanagan to talk about adapting his own short to feature length, why it’s hard to pitch a movie about a killer mirror, how his lead actors went to great lengths to research their roles for a simple genre film, and how he kind of nerded out working with cast members from Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica.

Interview: Carlos Saldanha

We talk to Rio 2 director Carlos Saldanha about how the sequel came together, presenting ecological messages to children, the sounds and colour of Rio, and the creation of one of the most memorable character of the year that he thinks deserves a lot more credit (and rightfully so).

The Raid 2 Review

Fans of Gareth Evans’ previous bone crunching, face bashing, knife twisting, Indonesian action masterpiece The Raid will probably adore the fact that the ass kicking stakes have been raised considerably for the sequel. But hopefully they also appreciate the extra added effort to make a sequel that’s actually worth talking about beyond just the action sequences.