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 …

The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled more major components of its 2009 lineup, as today organizers have announced the documentary films, the popular Midnight Madness series and Wavelengths, the festival’s “moving art” program. This is the section of the fest dedicated to horror, sci-fi and cult cinema and everything else we here at Sound …

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 …

New cast in Kervorkian film: The cast of the new film about the high profile doctor, Dr. Jack Kervorkian,  who fought “…to establish the right to die for terminally ill patients…” has announced an expansion of its cast.  The made-for-TV film is entitled “You Don’t Know Jack,” and it will be directed by Barry Levinson.  …

Variety reports that Cate Blanchett is set to star as Lady Edwina Mountbatten in Joe Wright’s Indian Summer.  The film will follow the critical events during India’s Independence from England.  Lord Mountbatten (with Edwina in tow) is sent to oversee the transfer of power to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the summer of …

 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 …

Fantasia’s Short Film Highlights Just at this year’s Fantasia Film Fest sees its features splaying out far from the realm of hardcore genre flicks into other realms, its local shorts, presented in two different categories (Courts Métrages Québécois and Courts Métrages Québécois DIY) display a wide range of genre, approach, form and subject matter, fromt …

Far from being one-dimensional, South Korean cinema is recognized for tackling every possible genre with intelligence and success. The industry continues to prove itself as a cradle of creativity as confirmed by the numerous selections and awards garnered by South Korean movies on the international circuit this year. Hailing from The Land of the Morning …

(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 …

The Just for Laughs Film Festival, in collaboration with SCENE™, has just announced the jury members who will be selecting winners of the short film prizes for its 13th edition taking place in Montreal, from July 16 to 26. This year’s jury will be made up of 5 members of the entertainment industry, including David …

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 …

Undertones: Volume 3 From the beginning of cinema theatre owners tried a variety of methods in which to add sound to film. Initially the reasons for the addition of sound varied from people being weirded out by seeing mute folks onscreen to utilizing it as a means in which to mask the noise made by …

Originally Posted in Creative Loafing Tampa. Very few filmmakers are known for their casting power. Woody Allen may be one of the best. He is always great at getting Hollywood’s biggest movie stars and the latest indie up and comers into his films (and with perfect timing). He worked with Sally Hawkins and Samantha Morton right …

Brüno Directed by Larry Charles It’s hard to root against Sacha Baron Cohen. In the summer of The Hangover, a mildly funny film undercut by some unseemly homophobia and an over-reliance on comfy frat-boy humor, he’s got the gall to unleash not only the season’s most outlandish comedy, but most likely the most audacious film …

Fantasia Film Festival 2009 – World Premiere Must Love Death Directed by Andreas Schaap Offhand, it’s difficult to think of another film that features both a “meet cute” and a nail gun, but in his first feature, Andreas Schaap manages to unite the two. Must Love Death, for better or worse, belongs to a genre …

Body Count: Volume 13 Horror has seen its fair share of hacks. The genre may not necessarily have its roots in exploitation, but it didn’t take hucksters long to figure out that you can make a simultaneously schlocky and profitable movie on whatever currency happens to be jingling around in your pocket. So for all …