October 30, 2009
Amreeka (2009) dir Cherian Dabis
Starring: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat
**1/2
A Sundance and Cannes success, this multi-pronged international co-production indie has seen great success in a very competitive market. The title which means, simply America in Arabic, reflects the real life internal and external conflicts of writer/director Cherian Dabis, who as a second generation American in her youth, felt lost with a national identity split between her American home and her Arabic roots. Dabis’ makes up for manipulative and contrived conflict with a palpable emotional honesty and cinematic integrity. Read the rest of this entry »
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2009, Arabic, Drama, English | 
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Posted by Alan Bacchus
October 3, 2009
Clubland (2009) dir. Eric Geringas
Documentary
***
Every year at this time much is made of the annual Queen’s Homecoming extravaganza when thousands of students descend on the campus and carouse in the streets intoxicated like typical restless youths. The student arrests, minor scuffling, skirmishes, and general public disturbance of this weekend always seems to spark nationwide debate. Well in Toronto, this happens every Friday and Saturday, in the city’s notorious ‘Entertainment District’ – 1.4 square KM area in the heart of the city where nightly 50,000 young people inhabit 60 nightclubs for four hours and then emerge into the streets after last call for even more drunken rowdiness. Read the rest of this entry »
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2009, Documentary, English, Eric Geringas, Hot Docs 2009, TV | 
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Posted by Alan Bacchus
September 9, 2009
Happy Birthday to Me (1981) dir. J. Lee Thompson
Starring: Melissa Sue Anderson, Tracey E. Bregman, Lawrence Dane, Glenn Ford
**1/2
Revived from Anchor Bay comes this forgotten-about entry in the golden era of early 80’s Canadian tax shelter cinema – an era which produced numerous genre knock-offs of American films. While ‘Happy Birthday to Me’ is no classic and barely a cult film, it’s not embarrassing and worth a look for fans of slasher cinema. Read the rest of this entry »
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1980's, English, Horror | 
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Posted by Alan Bacchus
September 9, 2009
You Might As Well Live (2009) dir. Simon Ennis
Starring: Joshua Peace, Michael Madsen, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Clark Johnson
***
Guest review by Reece Crothers
Some films are just destined to become cult classics. I’m putting my money on Simon Ennis’ hilarious “You Might As Well Live” to join the rank and file of other Canadian comedies to achieve that status, from “Strange Brew” and “Highway 61″ through “Trailer Park Boys” and “FUBAR”, the latter of which is all the more appropriate here as that film’s director, Michael Dowse serves as executive producer. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Alan Bacchus
July 10, 2009
Hank and Mike (2008) dir. Matthiew Klinck
Starring: Paulo Mancini, Thomas Michael
**
‘Hank and Mike’ was perhaps meant to be the ‘Bad Santa’ of Easter films, a foul-mouthed, irresponsible raunch comedy about two costumed Easter Bunnies who, after being fired, attempt to integrate themselves back into regular working society. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Alan Bacchus
June 23, 2009
Next Floor (2008) dir. Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Jean Marchand, Mathieu Handfield, Emmanuel Schwartz, Sébastien René
****
Though only 11mins, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Next Floor’ stands tall as a magnificent visually stunning allegory to class struggle told with a wickedly dark sense of humour. Villeneuve channels the absurd and surreal metaphors of Luis Bunuel with the visually grandness of Terry Gilliam to create a unique artistic masterpiece.”Next Floor” has been gathering awards at various festivals since last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and this week opened the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 2008, Comedy, Denis Villeneuve, Drama, Experimental, Shorts, WSFF 2009 | Permalink
Posted by Alan Bacchus
June 15, 2009
A number fun, creepy and gory shorts from this year’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. Look out for many of these filmmakers to bring their unique visions in the feature medium very soon
The Intruder (dir. Mikael Rudolph Kruezriegler)
USA
A simple unemcumbered story about an intruder in a woman’s home. As her daughter combs the house searching out the weird noises, the camera moves fluidly around, following her slow movements. Some custimary terror techniques, following her flashlight, framing her reflections in mirrors, and shadows passing in front of the camera make us jump. There’s not much of a story, but as exercise in style, it’s an impressive moody effort. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Shorts, WSFF 2009 | Permalink
Posted by Alan Bacchus
