Films

It was 2004 and I was fifteen years old when I read Charles R. Cross’ Heavier than Heaven. I remember finishing the last chapters, sprawled on the floor of my family’s cottage as I cried so hard I started to dry heave. At the time I was unaware of the controversy that surrounded the adaptation, both in how Cross took liberties in certain facts (some information was later disproved, or at least not substantiated) and the decision he made to create what was ultimately a fictional take on Kurt’s final days up until the point he killed himself. Like many teenager before and since, Kurt Cobain represented a romantic and ultimately tragic figure to look up to – for better or for worse.

Presented in the Bright Future Premieres programme section of IFFR 2015 as one of the nominees for the FIPRESCI prize of the festival, The Man in the Wall is a tense, excellently paced psychological drama with fleshed out characters that seem pulled on-screen directly from life itself. Although purportedly not (auto)biographical, the story nonetheless feels very personal.

Canadian cinema seems endlessly intertwined with the fringe appeal of horror genre. The first boom of horror happened in the 1970s when Canada’s tax policy allowed producers to take a fee of production costs before the film earned back its production costs (which is not allowed in the States), driving many low quality projects into theatres. Horror was always a safe bet because it was particularly cheap to make, and if they happened to land on a success the return on the investment would generally be a lot higher than for more “prestige” pictures. As that tax-shelter eventually closed up, there still remained a rather strong legacy of horror in Canadian cinema and to this day Canadian horror leans towards the adventurous and the innovative.

The dark unforgiving waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the St. Lawrence river provide the backdrop to Les Loups, a beautifully crafted melodrama. Set in a small island Quebec town during the spring thaw, a stranger arrives during the height of the controversial seal hunts. Vibrant and mysterious, many suspect that Elie, the young woman from Montreal, is not who she says and is likely a reporter or an activist bent on portraying the townsfolk in a bad light.

Miraculum Written by Gabriel Sabourin Directed by Daniel Grou Canada, 2014 Daniel Grou (affectionately known as Podz by the Quebec public) got his start in television, directing a number of very successful shows for Radio-Canada, the national channel. In 2010 he made his cinematic debut with two films and has since been working exclusively for …

Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of

Directed by Stephen Kijak

USA, 2015

At the height of their face The Backstreet Boys represented with their harmonious voices and cherub good looks a newfound idealism in the American landscape. Not without talent, their selling point as much their image as their sound: they were chosen to be branded. Offering context to the tumultuous early years and how their experienced shaped their identity and worth over the years, the new documentary Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of documents the production of a new album from the former boy group.

Editor Jim Casey has parsed through the history of cinematic visual effects to create a short and sensory overloading video of it’s history. Beginning with photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s pre-cinamatic photography of a horse galloping up to the present day, the video is not only valuable as a fascinating document of evolving techniques but a representation …

FRONTIÈRES International Co-Production Market has announced it’s official selection for it’s return to this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Frontieres is the first and only co-production market to connect North America and Europe in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. The initiative began in 2012 with 14 projects selected including works by Aaron …

Among the most sumptuous of Walt Disney’s films, Sleeping Beauty’s enduring legacy is largely due to its incredible art design and complete creative vision. In production for nearly 10 years, the film was very costly and represented the end of an era for Disney hand-drawn animation. Though collaboration is key in most Disney productions, Sleeping Beauty …

Our Sunhi, the newest film from Hong Sang-Soo, is enamoured with interconnected romances and the mysteries of affection. A charming and patient comedy, the film excels at presenting the trials and tribulations of desire, offering a rewarding and funny take on the mysteries of love. Though there is nothing exceptional about the title character, Sunhi, she captures the elusive affections of three friends.

Tsai Ming-Liang has built a reputation for himself as one of the foremost artists of contemporary cinema. His work is often lauded for its challenging ideas, careful pacing, and incredible compositional sense. His newest film Stray Dogs (rumoured to be his last) is about an alcoholic father and his two children struggling to survive in Taipei. Blending stark realism with elements of fantasy and absurdity, there is little doubt that this is one of the most unique films of the year, offering a singular vision of the world.

Borne out of the current economic crisis, Bluebird is set in an obscure and isolated logging town in Maine. Coated in snow that seems to be barely ever cleared, there is a lingering fear that the mill will close and the town will fade even deeper into the past. Lost in the rituals of daily life, it is only through accidental tragedy that a true sense of malaise and hopelessness comes rising from below the surface.

The 42nd Edition of Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema is just days away and the weight of an incredibly diverse and exciting program can intimidate even the most weathered cineaste. Combining the very best of big name and upcoming filmmakers, the festival has built its reputation on giving attention to groundbreaking and avant-garde cinema. Though sometimes …

Camille Claudel 1915 is a 3-day portrait of great sculptress Camille Claudel and her life in an institution. A rarity in art history, Claudel found success during her lifetime and was often exhibited alongside male contemporaries.

Deconstructing Harry Written by Woody Allen Directed by Woody Allen USA, 1997 Like many Woody Allen protagonists, Harry Block is neurotic, damaged, and unhappy. Plagued with writer’s block and haunted by a string of failed relationships, Harry is searching for inspiration and meaning in his life. As he faces the fact that his ex-girlfriend is …

The Killing of America is an impassioned and emotional showcase of violence in America from the period of the early 1960s into the early 1980s. Resting on the thesis that the society quickly devolved into increasingly acts of senseless violence, the film utilizes rare and disturbing footage of both familiar and unfamiliar events. Rift with a somewhat confused ideology, the film nonetheless packs a punch and suggests where many others haven’t that access to guns are part of the problem, an issue that continues to be debated within American society to this day. Is this little more than a parade of greatest hits for snuff fans or does it reaches deeper, revealing darker truths and realities that we are unwilling or unable to face.

In a profile by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for the New York Times, Max Brooks, author of both World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, is apparently quite serious about the zombie apocalypse. I have little doubt that Max Brooks is an intelligent man, and behind his facade of anxiety and fear, I think he has …

The Bling Ring Written and Directed by Sofia Coppola USA, 2013 Her career was born in the excesses of the 1990s and Sofia Coppola’s career trajectory has brought her through one of the worst economic crisis’ in recent history and a period of social seriousness that she seems quite frankly out of step with. In …

What value does fiction have in the interpretation of a historical event? This question can become central to the reception and understanding of historical films and has taken on important resonance in past years in regards to films like Ben Affleck’s Argo or Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. These films are not documentaries; however they …

This week’s UK release of the critically roasted Blood – a new thriller starring Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham (filmed, incidentally, in my home town) and the significantly more well-received Stone Roses documentary Made of Stone directed by Shane Meadows – who is usually known for his rough and realistic portrayals of working-class misery – …

Marketing plays an enormous part in our preconceptions of a film. Posters, trailers, merchandise and most of all, word-of-mouth, can create a distorted idea in our minds about a production we’ve never even seen, and in some cases alter our decisions regarding whether to watch it or not. We rely on the actors we see …

You might be asking yourself what’s the purpose of a list like this? Is there really that large of a body of work dealing with the brave men in blue who trench through neighborhood lawns, dodging the near death encounters with Chihuahuas and lonely old people? Well there probably isn’t. In fact, most of the …

Runner-up: 11) Idiocracy (2006) I initially felt iffy about including Idiocracy on this list, but the more I thought about it critically, and as a work of science fiction, the more I felt it appropriate.  Still, I’m only listing it as the runner-up.  Created by Mike Judge of many other comedic successes, this time travel …