2009’s Ten Best and Five Worst Films (So Far) We’re technically over halfway through 2009, but a disproportionately large number of great films tend to spring up in the latter months of the year, so let’s call it halfway for the sake of our collective sanity. It hasn’t been a terrific year for filmgoing so …
Inglourious Basterds Directed by Quentin Tarantino Normally I approach a new Tarantino film with caution because more often than not, due to his fame and talent, his movies are severely hyped in the months leading up to their release; they are promoted with so much zeal and accompanied by so many industry buzz-words that I …
Undertones: Volume 4 Jim Jarmusch’s transcendental western, Dead Man (1995), is the tale of a spiritual and physical journey taken by an ordinary man named William Blake (Johnny Depp) sometime in the later part of the 19th century. Travelling to a frontier town called Machine, Blake hopes to be given a job as an accountant …
I Sell The Dead Directed by Glenn McQuaid When January rolled around, I was all ready to throw in the towel and declare 2009 a wash for movies in general. I’ll tell you what, though. I continue to be surprised by some of this year’s offerings and some of last year’s that are finally making …
Funny People Directed by Judd Apatow Creating a hero has been easy for Judd Apatow; whether you’re a 40-year old man who has never had sex or a 20-something freeloader accidentally knocking up a girl during a one night stand, you best be sure these people will rise to the occasion. The hero in Apatow’s …
Rosarigasinos (Gangs of Rosario) Directed by Rodrigo Grande “We’re still the same assholes.” Old habits die hard in Rodrigo Grande’s Rosarigasinos, a crafty little tale of rebirth and revenge. Imagine being separated from the world for 30 years. Imagine everything you once knew as life switched, grew, disappeared, died, or just simply changed, while you …
The director of several well-received horror films (Habit, The Last Winter) and producer of many others, Larry Fessenden has also made scores of appearances in mainstream films from the likes of Kelly Reichardt and Neil Jordan. Simon sat down with him at a bar here in Montreal to discuss his latest producing and acting gigs, …
In 1964, while the rest of the world was watching Mary Poppins take school kids on acid trips, Brazil was thrilling to the exploits of Coffin Joe, a character mixing the best parts of Anton LaVey, Count Dracula, and a homeless old man. Considered Brazil’s first horror film, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul was …
My Dear Enemy Directed by Lee Yoon-ki Furthering a developing hypothesis that South Koreans are launching a charm offensive against all hallowed Western film archetypes, the splendid My Dear Enemy, a spiritual kin to last year’s Adrift in Tokyo (from Japan), contains elements of the road movie, the romantic comedy, and Woody Allen-style light observational …
Coffin Joe. For Brazil, nothing personified horror quite like him. He’s a deceptively simple villain. He’s doesn’t drink blood, he’s not undead, he has no magic powers. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about him. Nothing. He is just an undertaker in a top hat and cape with extremely long fingernails. What strikes fear into the …
Ricky D interviewed director Barbara Bell on the subject of her new feature doc, Graphic Sexual Horror, which is making its debut at the Fantasia Film Fest here in Montreal. Horror explores the world of online hardcore bondage porn, with a focus on a specific, controversial site called Insex, and its founder, who goes by …
Smash Cut, about a B-movie director who begins killing people to improve the realism of his special effects, is the type of film that gives cult film fans fever dreams, full of porn stars and blood spatter and everything else that Pat Robertson thinks causes hurricanes. Starring adult film actress Sasha Grey, Last House on …
Life Is Hot In Cracktown Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo *** ½ Writer and director Buddy Giovinazzo has successfully adapted his collection of the 1992 short stories into a full-length feature film. Similar to Magnolia, Giovinazzo’s movie intercuts between four groups of people who all reside in the same ghetto overrun by crime, drug abuse and …
Sound on Sight co-host Al Kratina is covering Fantasia for the Montreal Gazette’s Cine Files blog. Read an excerpt below. Black Directed by Pierre Laffargue It must be difficult to do anything original with the urban crime drama, since most of the more familiar tropes have migrated from gritty 1970s cult films to G Unit …
Orphan Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra When you see a major studio’s logo in front of a horror film, you’re generally in for one of three things: neutered PG-13 dreck (The Uninvited); crass torture porn (Captivity); or an unspeakably generic slasher (the Friday the 13th reboot). Not only that, but all three forms are burdened by …
Crush and Blush Directed by Lee Kyoung-mi * 1/2 Lee-Kyoung-mi’s first feature tries too hard to be the “polar opposite” of a romantic comedy. The story of a male teacher being stalked by a former pupil who has now become a teacher herself in order to be closer to him to attract his attention simply …
Friday July 10th marked the North American premiere of Thirst at Fantasia, Park Chan-Wook’s latest effort. Mostly known for his Vengeance Trilogy, Park has created a movie that is even more stylistically polished than his previous films, if you can believe that. Thirst is immaculately shot and cleverly punctuated with scenes that would easily offend …
A Heaven of Horror Sergio Bizzio’s Animalada (2001) What is the greatest love story ever told? Is it the one where dad delivered a pizza to the girl next door only to then realize he had been living next door to the love of his life without even knowing it? Or, maybe it’s the story …
(500) Days of Summer Directed by Marc Webb (500) Days of Summer begs you to love it. Its marketing campaign has been so tirelessly micromanaged, its leads are so adorable, its namechecks of generic pseudo-outré touchstones (Belle and Sebastian, The Smiths, The Seventh Seal, turn-of-the-century architecture) so artfully placed, that its many gimmicks actually wind …
Originally Posted in Creative Loafing. 2009 is already halfway over, and the fall movie season (with all the originality and Oscar-bait it has to offer) is just around the corner. What follows is my list of the 25 films I’m most interested in seeing in the second half of 2009. Read all the way to …
Dread Directed by Anthony DiBlasi Clive Barker has a less than sterling record when it comes to having compelling films made from his novels and short stories, and Anthony DiBlasi’s Dread, despite some appealing performances and at least one sequence of pin-drop anxiety, isn’t able to buck the trend. Ultimately, a series of questionable screenplay …
Dead Snow Directed by Tommy Wirkola Written by Tommy Wirkola and Stig Frode Henriksen 2009, Norway Norway is known for a couple of things. The Fjords, Vikings and a wave of satanic arson and murder in the early 90’s that propelled black metal from its status as low-fi extreme metal to the most abrasive, evil music …
Must Love Death Directed by Andreas Schaap *** The first feature by director Andreas Schaap has had made some big impressions amongst Fantasia movie-goers. Clearly one of the more surprising and original films of the festival, it blends two seemingly opposite genres, the romantic comedy and extreme horror. These are the horror films one expects …