Forward: NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU was brought to the Toronto International Film Festival as a work in progress. Please take my thoughts below with a grain of salt since the film is incomplete.They say there are a million stories to be told in the city that never sleeps, and here we stand witness to…
TIFF Reaction: YOUSSOU NDOUR – I BRING WHAT I LOVE
Every once in a while, you have to go in blind. At the risk of sounding culturally sheltered, I knew precious little about Youssou Ndour before this afternoon. To be specific, I knew his name, and that he was a world renowned tenor. That’s it – I couldn’t tell you where he was from, couldn’t…
TIFF Reaction: IT MIGHT GET LOUD
Back when this selection was first announced as being part of TIFF ’08, I had one immediate thought: “I’m there!”. For those of you who don’t know me, if there’s anything I love as much as movies, it’s music. And when you cue up songs by U2, The White Stripes, and Led Zeppelin, you are…
TIFF Reaction: $9.99
Beginning my 2008 TIFF screenings with $9.99 felt a little like going to a buffet dinner and heading straight for the dessert cart. Not that I’d ever talk someone out of such a decision. The movie is a stop-motion animated film about the inhabitants of an Australian apartment building. The place they all call home…
Reaction: JOY DIVISION
What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday, I sat down to watch Anton Corbijn’s CONTROL knowing precious little about Joy Division. This week, I went with friends to watch the documentary JOY DIVISION ( * * 1/2 ), and felt like somewhat of a seasoned expert as I watched much of the same material…
Reaction: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
No red carpet in sight…lots of tickets available…programmers getting into the Anti-Piracy-“Yarrrrgh“. It must be day ten. With day ten, come the leftovers. The good-looking, under-delivering films that end off this front-end-loaded festival. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen a handful of good movies on the last day (IN AMERICA, THE COOLER, WHEN THE LEVEES…
Reaction: AMAZING JOURNEY – THE STORY OF THE WHO
After a while, you need to reset. After a string of exposing yourself to all sorts of new information, you find yourself needing to go back to something familiar to cleanse the palette, to take some comfort and digest everything you’ve just consumed. In this respect, AMAZING JOURNEY – THE STORY OF THE WHO (…