Halifax is oddly sweltering at 9am. I run into a friend descending the Citadel steps while dragging my suitcase to the airport bus stop. “”Walking across the Commons was like crossing the Rubicon,” he said. In Toronto the weather is totally fine. Every year is a crapshoot—sometimes it’s 38, one year I had to buy […]
TIFF
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF views, reviews, overviews
REVIEWS TOO LONG FOR TWITTER BUT NOT REALLY THAT LONG BECAUSE YOU DON’T CARE YET Gravity There’s no sound in space and I have no words to justify this beautiful epic thriller starring Sandra Bullock in one of the key roles of her lifetime. Read more when it opens in October. Enough Said Nicole Holofcener […]
Posted inArts + Music
Blackbird takes TIFF
Local filmmaker Jason Buxton’s dark drama Blackbird, took home TIFF’s prestigious best debut Canadian feature prize, sharing the win with Brandon “son of David” Cronenberg, who won for Antiviral. Buxton and Cronenberg each take a cash prize of $15,000. Go team Blackbird! We knew you could do it. Read more about Buxton’s film here and […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF update one
Hello friends, how was all your rain? We got that here in Toronto first thing Saturday, a record-setting torrential downpour that soaked both my shoes first thing in the morning and gave me some nice blisters for the rest of the festival. Any-y-way!. Here’s what’s been happening at TIFF: MAJOR VS. MAJOR: So you know […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hot TIFF
High fives all around for the local filmmakers taking their babies to the glittery Toronto International Film Fest. Namely, Ashley MacKenzie‘s When You Sleep (MacKenzie was also accepted to TIFF’s intensive four-day artistic development program, Talent Lab), Mike Clattenburg‘s Crackin’ Down Hard, Jason Buxton‘s Blackbird and Jason Eisener‘s offering in The ABCs of Death. May […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF Day 05: Michelle Williams vs. Michelle Williams
I was very excited for my 9:30 screening this morning, the latest from Kelly Reichardt, who made the minimalist-but-affecting Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. Meek’s Cutoff is her third film, and second starring Michelle Williams, and she goes back to frontier times, following three couples who’ve been promised great things await them in the […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF Day 04: Scandals, girlfriends, artists
I am feeling oddly disconnected from people during this festival, which happens when you spend your days in a box watching projections. I had a couple polite conversations early on, but I haven’t made any festival friends or even gotten worked up about trying to meet particular writers like I normally do. Ah well. At […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF Day 03: Franco, Tamblyn, Holly from The Office
TT Today began by sharing air with one Amber Tamblyn, who I consider the best American actress under 30. She was not the main event, however—that would be living performance art project James Franco, who stars in 127 Hours, Danny Boyle’s follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire, in which a man becomes trapped under a boulder while […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF Day 02: The worst movie of the festival
TT It’s Kind of a Funny Story: Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, stars Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifinakis and Emma Roberts at the Ryerson Saturday night. For the second day running, I was stuck in an unfortunate pattern of meh to great in regards to film quality—great if you’re home on the couch, less so […]
Posted inArts + Music
TIFF Day 01: Woody Allen needs to take a break
Reece Thompson, Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas at the Ryerson Theatre on Friday (TT) Who’s got two thumbs and hates change? [crickets] But seriously you guys, with the opening of the new TIFF Lightbox on King Street, the festival’s entire nucleus has shifted down from Yorkville to the Entertainment District. While I am enjoying hanging out in that part of town, the thing about the Varsity—the main press venue for the last five years I’ve been coming here—is that it is atop a building that houses two coffee shops, a grocery store, Shoppers, an LCBO and a Chapters in which to
