Atlantic Film Festival

[image-1] Sean Flinn wrote about The Myth of the American Sleepover here, the new film by writer/director David Robert Mitchell. To his deft assessment I’ll just add that the picture has a bit of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides in its DNA, which should give you even more motivation to see this film. Bathed in the golden glow of a certain kind of nostalgia, it’s a treat. My favourite moment: when Scott comes clean to the Abbey twins about why he’s in Ann Arbour. Saying someone made a great first movie is such a backhanded

So I’m an hour home from the latest Mike Leigh film, Another Year. Leigh’s films always leave me in a place in my head that is both sober and buzzy. This film, like the others I’ve seen, has given me a lot to think about: the nature of happiness; the nature of anxiety and disquiet; what luck has to do with it all. Another symptom of Mike Leigh: that brain burn you get from the veritable tidal wave of familiar faces in his film. Two hours of ‘Hey! It’s that guy!’ I’ve been home for an hour and I’ve spent

I’ve seen a few movies I’ve really enjoyed at this, the 30th edition of the AFF, but with a couple of days left I don’t think I’m going to find anything to compare to Barney’s Version. The adaptation of the Mordecai Richler novel, directed by Richard J. Lewis is a delight. In Barney Panofsky, Paul Giamatti finds his quintessential character. We meet the shlubby, curmudgeonly Montreal television producer in relative old age (with old-man makeup not quite working, but whatever). He’s drinking heavily, divorced and reminiscing. Turns out in the ‘70s he lived the wild, bohemian life in Rome, where

Just in from the kind folks at the AFF: An additional screening of The Corridor has been scheduled for this evening at 7:10pm at the Empire Park Lane Theatres. Tickets are available now and can be purchased at the Park Lane Box Office.

[image-1] If there’s a consistent pattern in American remakes of international genre pictures its how the remake makes the implicit explicit. The relationship with the audience is a different beast on this side of whichever pond, there’s less trust. I say that with Let Me In in mind, which I enjoyed but I didn’t like as much as Matt Semansky seemed to (please see his post from earlier today). The American remake of the brilliant Swedish film Let The Right One In, about the 12-year-old vampire girl “who’s been 12 for a long time” hits all the emotional notes of

Gordon Pinsent has one of those voices you’d love to have reading your kids (or you) bedtime stories. Deep, gentle and soulful, a warm fireplace of a vocal that’s enjoyable just to bask in. I had the pleasure of basking in Pinsent-glow this afternoon. The Newfoundland-born actor is in town to introduce tonight’s screening of Away From Her (7:10, Park Lane 4), the 2006 film by Sarah Polley about a marriage ripped apart by Alzheimer’s and the opening of old wounds. Pinsent strikes a gently powerful pose “It’s a special piece, as I look back now,” said Pinsent of the

Director Evan Kelly confirmed what I’d suspected and mused on here at the Haliwood Insider AFF coverage, that they were indeed burning the midnight oil to get The Corridor ready for the premiere screening Wednesday night at Park Lane. The good news—for me, anyway—is that I was able to see a print complete with special […]

If you’re looking for a reason to stay up late on a school night, you could definitely do worse than tomorrow’s midnight screening of Fubar II at the Oxford Theatre. Terry and Dean, the most lovable hosers since Bob and Doug McKenzie, are back in Michael Dowse’s sequel to his 2002 faux-documentary hit. The Deaner […]