January Film Listing

In the latest issue of Cinema Scope (N. 45) Adam Nayman has his first cover article and it is on Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg (for his review, go here), which opens January 21st at The Royal (608 College St. West). While his class In Nayman’s terms recommences Monday January 17th at 7PM and that is at the Miles Nadal JCC (750 Spadina Avenue). I recommend to go to both. This is the second time, at least since I moved to Toronto, that Cinema Scope used its cover article to feature a film distributed by filmswelike, the first being Uncle Boonmee, while I now anticipate their most recent acquisition Thom Andersen’s Get Out of the Car. One thing that I like about the magazine are the movies Mark Peranson highlights, whether it is Andrei Ujica’s Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu that premiered at Cannes, Gianfranco Rosi’s El Sicario Room 164 that premiered at Venice, or Tony Scott’s Unstoppable that is now playing at the multiplexes. I eagerly anticipate seeing them at the first chance I get. Anyways, great issue (thanks Andrew for hooking me up with a copy).

Just to reiterate, the raison d'être of Toronto Film Review is as an outlet for me to take a movie or book and to use the post as an excuse to watch more movies and do a literature review for the purpose to have a better understanding of the subject at hand as well as improving my capability to articulate myself on that subject. I also want to provide something new and highlight a film that might go under-the-radar especially in the context of the Toronto film community. The 180° has a couple of good writers, and to name two: Noah Cowan and Andrea Picard. While I look towards the big film criticism magazines for contemporary movie reviews, so magazines like 24 Images, Cinema Scope, Cineaste, Film Comment, Cahiers du Cinema and Positif. Whichever one I have at hand. So I try to avoid writing about whatever is already adequately covered. Now that I work at the shop, I will use that as an opportunity to focus more on book reviews in the format of The New York Review of Books and two projects that are currently in the works is a film review of Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void and, hopefully, a book review of James Quandt’s Apichatpong (hey Film Reference Library, how about you open your screening rooms so that I can finally watch Joe's The Adventure of Iron Pussy). After that, I would really like to write something on the new Catherine Martin film, which is part of Canada’s Top Ten.

What else is there to see? Godard’s Film Socialisme, Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light, the Bertolucci movies, the Spanish experimental cinema, Chaplin and Pickford, whatever Essential Cinema is left, and, of course, James Quandt’s Hollywood classics. Non-Lightbox movies includes Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, Mike Leigh’s Another Year, and Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist. Also, the Bloor is playing The Mouth of the Wolf. And for a very special treat on December 28th there will be a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Olga Korper Gallery (17 Morrow Avenue), which is running until January 15th.
***** City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard, 2010)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** The Mouth of the Wolf (Pietro Marcello, 2009)
*** (A Must-See)


***** True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010)
** (Worth Seeing)


***** Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1993)
** (Worth-Seeing)


***** Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)
*** (A Must-See)


***** Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926)
*** (A Must-See)


***** The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)
*** (A Must-See)


***** Breathless (Yang Ik-Joon, 2009)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** Partner (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1968)
*** (A Must-See)


***** Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010) * Director in attendance
*** (A Must-See)


***** Curling (Denis Côté, 2010) * Director in attendance
**** (Masterpiece)


***** Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964)
**** (Masterpiece) Early Monthly Segments


***** Trois temps après la mort d'Anna (Catherine Martin, 2010)
*** (A Must-See) Director in attendance


***** Nostalgia for the light (Patricio Guzmán, 2010)
*** (A Must See)


***** ATTENBERG (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010)
** (Worth Seeing)


***** The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector (Vikram Jayanti, 2009)
**** (Masterpiece)


***** The Robber (Benjamin Heisenberg, 2010)
** (Worth-Seeing)


***** Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009)
*** (A Must-See)

Toronto December Film Listings

In December the Lightbox has some pretty cool stuff playing like the Exclusive Engagements of Margarethe von Trotta’s Vision, Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D, Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void and Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme. There are going to be double-billed Tim Burton films with movies that inspired them or share similar characteristics and though I do not think they are all perfect match-ups, I am still really looking forward to see some of the accompanying titles as they are by some fun auteurs like Mankiewicz, Harryhausen, Wood, Tashlin and Waters. The Jafar Panahi retrospective is topical as the Irainian director has been recently released from political imprisonment. The Essential Cinema series is coming to a close and, thankfully, next up is Chaplin. Elsewhere, I am curious to see what Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck does in his second film, the big-budget and all-star cast The Tourist. The Bloor Cinema and the Japan Foundation are programing a few Japanese films. The Toronto Film Society has a musical and holiday double-bill on December 6th and 12th. And, the Pleasure Dome’s fall programs last screening is on December 4th.

I am sure I missed a few things but that is it for now. In the following space I will be adding the titles alongside a generic one-out-of-four star rating to the films I actually see.
*****Big Fish (Tim Burton, 2003)
** (Worth Seeing)

*****Corpse Bride (Tim Burton & Mike Johnson, 2005)
* (Has redeeming facets)

*****Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton, 2007)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****The Mirror (Jafar Panahi, 1997)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****Bride of the Monster (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1955)
** (Worth-Seeing)

*****2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
**** (Masterpiece) Essential Cinema # 26

*****Early Monthly Segments In tribute to Will Munro


*****Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)
*** (A-Must-See)

*****Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
** (Worth-Seeing)

*****Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
**** (Masterpiece)

Toronto November Film Listings (New Mandate)

Since my move to Toronto I had to reconsider the mandate and title of Ottawa Film Review. Now that I am a Toronto resident, I decided to change the title to Ottawa-Toronto Film Review. I would have removed the Ottawa- from the title except that would force me to change the url, which would cause major revamping. Maybe one day… Anyways, what can be expected from Ottawa-Toronto Film Review in the next while? I want to change my traditional monthly film listings from a mere listing to a written paragraph format (see below). Ideas for pieces that I have been ruminating: (1) Write a piece on two films from the Toronto-based production company MDFF; Kazik Radwanski’s Green Crayons and Antoine Bourges’ Woman Waiting; both films premiered at the TIFF 2010 Short Cuts Canada. (2) Finish reading James Quandt’s (the senior programmer of the TIFF Cinematheque) book on the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen; 2009) in the hopes of writing a book review. And, (3) see more Zacharias Kunuk’s films that are available to view at the Isuma Productions website. I will just be doing generic posts with all the screenings I see and an arbitrary star ranking, and I hope it is clear, this website prides itself on the longer pieces, the criticism and the reporting, and not on the minor viewing acknowledgements.


At the Toronto Film Society on Monday November 15th at 7:30PM there is a double-bill that consists of Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (1949) and Martin Ritt’s Edge of the City (1957). The Toronto experimental film collective Pleasure Dome is having a few screenings in November. I will keep seeing all the TIFF Essential Cinema films that I have yet too see and others that I want to re-see; so far I have seen eighty-four out of one-hundred and I hope to do a personal top ten afterwards. There are a few Exclusive Engagements that I want to see; Le Pere de mes enfants, The Light Thief, and I Wish I Knew. On Friday November 5th the Bloor Cinema will have a free screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with the director Edgar Wright in attendance. Later on in the month at the Bloor Cinema there will be screenings of Small Change (Nov. 7th – 9th) and Blow Out (Nov. 25th, 9:30PM). I have also discovered the 18th annual rendezvous with madness film festival (Nov. 5th -13th), which has some interesting titles like Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor (Nov. 6th; 8:30PM) and William D. MacGilivray’s The Man of a Thousand Songs (Nov. 13th; 8PM). As well there is the 14th annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival; I particularly look forward to see Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok’s 70s kung-fu ode Gallants (7PM; Bloor Cinema); the directors will be in attendance and afterwards there is the opening night gala party at the Century Room (free with a screening stub). Yeah and finally I will go see any cool-looking new releases; right now I want to see Stephen Frear’s Tamara Drew. - David Davidson

*****Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954) Essential Cinema # 63
*** (A Must-See)

*****Winnebago Man (Ben Steinbauer, 2009)
* (Has redeeming facets)

*****Singin' In The Rain(Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952) Essential Cinema # 62
**** (Masterpiece)

*****Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968) Essential Cinema # 68
*** (A Must-See)

*****Le père de mes enfants (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2009)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Good Neighbours (Jacob Tierney, 2010) *Director in attendance.
** (Worth Seeing)

*****Tamara Drew (Stephen Frears, 2010)
** (Worth Seeing)

*****Recent Video by Gary Kibbins *Director in attendance. Pleasure Dome
7 Questions About Bicycles (2009) & The Unlucky Sailor (9 Unread Chapters of Finnegans Wake) (2010)

*****Gallants (Clement Cheng & Chi-kin Kwok, 2010) *Clement Cheng in attendance.
** (Worth Seeing) Reel Asian

*****A Film For Ollie Gilbert (Scott Cudmore, 2010) *Director in attendance.
** (Worth Seeing) 107 Shaw Gallery

*****I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke, 2010)
*** (A Must-See)

*****The Land Left Behind (Juan Camilo Sarmiento, 2010) *Director in attendance.
*** (A Must-See) aluCine

*****Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
*** (A Must-See) Essential Cinema # 61

*****Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda,1962)
**** (Masterpiece) Essential Cinema # 96

*****Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990) *Director in attendance.
*** (A Must-See)

*****Barbed Wire Dolls (Jess Franco, 1975)
** (Worth Seeing)

*****Kings of Pastry (Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, 2009)
** (Worth Seeing)

*****The Light Thief(Aktan Arym Kubat, 2010)
*** (A Must-See)

*****The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
*** (A Must-See) Essential Cinema # 91

*****Dust in the Wind ( Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1986)
**** (Masterpiece) Essential Cinema # 69

*****Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
*** (A Must-See)