Long before Robert Eggers shot his Oscar-nominated odyssey The Lighthouse in Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia’s film industry was a siren. We’ve been making movies worth watching—and talking about—for years, and nothing, not even an unprecedented pandemic, is going to hold us back. Want proof? Three made-in-NS movies are showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, […]
TIFF
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Twelve wild ways to spend St. Patrick’s weekend
As always, click each event title for full details, and happy weekend-ing! 12 The King’s Chorus Chichester Psalms Sunday A rare chance to hear Leonard Bernstein’s 1965 classic live. 11 Saint Paddy’s Dance Friday A totally twee way to be Irish for a day? Celebrate at an old-fashioned community dance. 10 St. Patrick’s Day Mega-Puketacular […]
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TIFF Days 1-2
This is at least my 10th TIFF. I use the festival as a yardstick, ie “I saw that two TIFFs ago” which often happens with “new” releases—they skip a whole calendar year and then everyone’s talking about an old movie. I’ve learned to let things go, like defining the festival you’ve had by the final […]
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Halifax stop-motion heading to TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is just around the corner, and local filmmaker Tim Tracey is gearing up to premiere his second stop-motion movie, DataMine, in the 6ix on September 14. The animated film is about privacy and surveillance in the digital age, striking a chord with Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel 1984. […]
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Cape Breton feature Werewolf to premiere at TIFF
A feature film by Cape Breton filmmaker Ashley McKenzie, and producer Nelson MacDonald will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the fest announced this morning. Werewolf, is McKenzie’s first feature and was shot entirely in and around New Waterford, the filmmakers’ hometown. MacDonald, Werewolf’s producer says he and McKenzie wanted […]
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AFF Reviews: The Lobster, Room
Movie reviewers everywhere are loving The Lobster, the first English-language film by Greek director, Yorgos Lanthimos. The absurdist comedic satire is set in a UK near-dystopia where it’s illegal to be single. So when David (Colin Farrell) gets dumped, he’s immediately transferred to this freak-show singles hotel where he has 45 days to find a mate or […]
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TIFF Day 5 & 6
Finally I can say I’ve seen Room, probably the festival’s favourite and a Canadian co-production of all things. Starring Brie Larson as a woman who was kidnapped at 17 and has been kept in a 10 x 10 shed for seven years as a mostly unseen man’s sex slave. The son from that union is […]
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TIFF Day 3 & 4
The Australian director Gillian Armstrong—lady directors are nearly a casual occurrence here, it’s great—presents an odd hybrid of documentary with Women He’s Undressed, about the openly gay costume designer Orry-Kelly, who won multiple Oscars in the Golden Age (including for Some Like it Hot and An American in Paris) and banged Cary Grant when he […]
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TIFF Day 1 & 2
Always happy to be back for a week at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre, looming above John Street with its escalator to the sky and wildly variant air-conditioning levels. Catherine Hardwicke came out swinging with 2003’s thirteen, a gritty coming-of-age story starring Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed that went from Sundance sensation to Academy Award nomination […]
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TIFF Days 4-6
Due to last year’s Meryl Streep Incident, in which she did not show up for the press conference to August: Osage County (I am reasonably sure, based on her zero promotion for it, she hated that movie), I kept my expecations low for This Is Where I Leave You, an OKfamily drama starring some of […]
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TIFF Day 3
My alarm goes off way too early for a heat-exhausted Saturday. I know I want to see Men, Women & Children because it’s the new Jason Reitman, but I don’t know anything else. (I made a list of 37 movies I wanted to see before I left, based on directors, actors, Halifax availability and This […]
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TIFF Day Two
“It’s supposed to be the hottest it’s been since 1943 today,” says my courteous host as I’m packing my bag for the day. I sigh, throw a second shirt in and trudge out the door. My first doc of the week is Maura Strauch’s Sunshine Superman, which gathers amazing footage from the ’70s and ’80s […]
