Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Review
While it boasts an outstanding leading performance from Idris Elba as late South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela, Justin Chadwick's Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is overlong and lacks focus.
film
This Week at the Bloor 12/23/13
The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema closes out their programming year with the stunning and thoughtful Expedition to the End of the World and the problematic Maidentrip. We also look at a bunch of special screenings happening over the holiday season, including the quadruple-feature of holiday classics going down today!
Blu-Ray Round-Up: 12/23/13
We close out the year with a final Blu-Ray column looking at The Great Muppet Caper (one of the greatest comedies of all time), why Bill Murray never cared for Scrooged (even though its awesome), the 50th anniversary of Mary Poppins, and the home video debuts of The Lone Ranger and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
The 25 Best Films of 2013
Our Film and Performing Arts Editor counts down what he thinks are the 25 best films of 2013.
Good Vibrations Review
The maddeningly cliched Good Vibrations is all surface gloss; the cinematic punk rock equivalent of a Good Charlotte album.
Haunter Review
Did you know Splice and Cube director Vincenzo Natali had a new film coming out this week? Neither did we until 10pm on the Wednesday night before it was due to be released. And that's probably for good reason, since the dull and ponderous Haunter does the filmmaker and his star (Abigail Breslin) absolutely no favours.
Nicky’s Family Review
Nicky's Family is a doc that should appeal to WWII buffs who like more than a simple regurgitation of facts and crave more personal recreations that tells of the exploits of British stockbroker who ended up saving 669 Jewish children from occupied Czechoslovakia.
American Hustle Review
A solid, throwback long con period piece with an all star A-list cast, David O. Russell’s American Hustle assuredly isn’t one of the best films of the year like many year end critical organizations and best-of lists are positioning it to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. It’s easy to recommend, well acted, and fun to watch, and I really don’t have many problems with it outside of maybe not fully being able to understand or buy into the hype surrounding it.
Inside Llewyn Davis Review
Directors Joel and Ethan Coen and actor Oscar Isaac work together in the 1960s New York folk music scene set Inside Llewyn Davis to craft one of the most emotionally affecting works to date in a fictionalized tale of a talented obstinate that feels as powerful as the best non-fiction.
Walking With Dinosaurs 3D Review
Every problem with Walking With Dinosaurs 3D could be solved by simply firing every single person who wasn’t an animator and turning it into a silent film.
Her Review
Her is nothing short of astonishing: a brainy science fiction yarn set in a not too distant future that also functions as an off kilter, but never ironic, creepy, or off putting modern romance. It’s a reflection of narcissism, consumerism, and most importantly alienation in our modern digital world. It's also the best movie of the year.
Exit Elena & Soft in the Head Reviews
The guys behind MDFF return to Double Double Land in Toronto tonight for a free screening of a pair of films from Brooklyn microbudget filmmaker Nathan Silver.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Review
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is to Anchorman what Ghostbusters 2 was to Ghostbusters. It’s an inferior, but lighthearted and often very funny retread of ground that had been previously covered much better in the original. Sure, it’s often hilarious (in the first half, anyway) and the cast jumps back into their roles quite nicely, but is it a good movie? Nope.
TFCA Announces 2013 Film Award Winners
The Toronto Film Critics Association have announced Inside Llewyn Davis as their pick for best film of the year and announced their three finalists for Best Canadian Feature to be announced in January, Here's a look at all of the winner's from this year's voting.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug isn’t necessarily better or worse than its predecessor, but more like an inverse of all of An Unexpected Journey’s positives and negatives. Instead of an opening hour that sets things up in excruciating detail and a final two hours of exciting story, Smaug has a pretty entertaining, fast paced and swiftly moving opening 100 minutes before giving into repetitive indulgence that exists for no reason except to drag the story out over three movies.
