movie reviews Playing this week How to find a listing
Movie listings are comprehensive and organized alphabetically. Listings include name of film, director’s name in brackets, a review, running time and a rating. Reviews are by Norman Wilner (NW), Susan G. Cole (SGC), Glenn Sumi (GS), Andrew Dowler (AD) and Radheyan Simonpillai (RS) unless otherwise specified. The rating system is as follows: NNNNN Top 10 of the year NNNN Honourable mention NNN Entertaining NN Mediocre N Bomb
Ñ= Critics’ pick (highly recommended)
Movie theatres are listed at the end and can be cross-referenced to our film times on page 88.
ABDUCTION (John Singleton) proves were-
wolf boy Taylor Lautner won’t have much of a career after the sun sets on Twilight. He plays Nathan, a reckless teen who finds his own picture on a missing persons website. Suffering from a Bourne-like identity crisis, he has to find out the truth by beating it out of the CIA and some black ops coverts. The plot is preposterous and the screenplay could induce an earache (with the exception of a killer line about Facebook). The veteran cast of faded stars (Maria Bello, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina) camp it up and dial down their performances so as not to make Lautner look bad. All Abduction needs is a couple of Wayans brothers and it could be a parody of itself. 106 min. N (RS) Coliseum Scarborough, Interchange 30
ANONYMOUS (Roland Emmerich) 130 min.
See review, page 78. N (GS) Opens Oct 28 at Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Yonge, Kennedy Commons 20, Queensway, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24.
ATLAS SHRUGGED: PART 1 (Paul Johansson) 97 min. See Also Opening, page 83. Opens Oct 28 at Yonge & Dundas 24.
BENDA BILILI! (Renaud Barret, Florent de La Tullaye) is an uplifting music doc that follows a ragtag band of Congolese paraplegic musicians and their new recruit, Roger, a skeletal-looking kid who produces reverberating sounds from an instrument he made from a milk can, an arched stick of wood and a wire. Although the filmmakers intervene in the story, plucking Roger from the mean streets and introducing him to the Staff Benda Bilili band, and focus more on rehearsals and recording sessions than on the characters, it doesn’t matter since the music speaks volumes about who they are and where they come from. When Staff sing about sleeping on cardboard while they dream about one day buying mattresses, Roger’s milk can and band leader Ricky’s beaten guitar and soulful voice make their humble hopes come alive. Subtitled. 85 min. NNN (RS) TIFF Bell Lightbox THE BIG YEAR (David Frankel) turns Mark
Obmascik’s non-fiction narrative about competitive American birders trying to spot the most species in a calendar year into a comedy about cuddly eccentrics who bond over their shared passion. It feels wobbly and forced, but every now and then the gimmicks are put aside so that the actors can treat their characters as actual human beings. Jack Black and Steve Martin, as a retired corporate shark determined to devote himself to birding, build a lovely and genuine friendship, and each actor has scenes with another co-star (JoBeth Wil-
liams for Martin, Brian Dennehy and Dianne Wiest for Black) that add further depth to our understanding of his character. But every scene with Owen Wilson’s vain contractor who’ll do almost anything to hold on to his record feels like it belongs in a broader movie. 100 min. NNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Canada Square, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Yonge, Interchange 30, Kennedy Commons 20, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity
Flick Finder
NOW picks your kind of movie COMEDY
DRAMEDY
ACTION
HORROR
THE BIG YEAR
50/50
REAL STEEL
THE THING
BREAKAWAY (Robert Lieberman) is one of
the most environmentally friendly movies you’ll see this year: all it does is recycle material from Bend It Like Beckham, Score: A Hockey Musical and Russell Peters’s decadeold comedy routines. Writer Vinay Virmani stars as Rajveer, a young Sikh who, despite his father’s annoyance, forms his own hockey team of guys who sport turbans instead of helmets. He makes a charming lead opposite Camilla Belle as his fetching love interest. However, the pandering film seems more intent on stuffing itself with clichés and unnecessary cameos (seriously, what are Drake and Ludacris doing here?) than creating something genuine. 100 min. NN (RS) Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Grande Yonge, Interchange 30, Queensway, Yonge & Dundas 24
ñBUCK
(Cindy Meehl) 88 min. See review, page 82. NNNN (NW) Opens Oct 28 at Carlton Cinema.
ñCIRCUMSTANCE
(Maryam Keshavarz) tracks two teenage girls (Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy) struggling with Iran’s social strictures and a fundamentalist brother as they embark on a sexual relationship. Director Keshavarz expertly evokes Tehran’s dance club underground – hear great Iranian hip-hop – where the young women and their friends find fleeting freedom. A sequence in which an Iranian American helps them dub the film Milk ingeniously encapsulates Circumstance’s pro-sex themes. Brian Rigney Hubbard’s cinematography give the film an airy feeling at the beginning but grows increasingly claustrophobic. Look for Toronto theatre director Soheil Parsa, terrific as a father of one of the girls, desperately trying to keep his family from crumbling. Winner of the Audience Choice award at Sundance. Subtitled. 105 min. NNNN (SGC) Carlton Cinema, Empire Theatres at Empress
Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson team up in this pic inspired by Mark Obmascik’s nonfiction story about three birdwatchers who get a tad obsessive about their hobby.
Joseph GordonLevitt plays a journalist diagnosed with cancer whose best friend (Seth Rogen) provides some very weird moral support. Serious subject, fascinating approach.
Walk, Regent Theatre
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH (Lu Chuan)
ñ
recreates the siege of Nanking, a sixweek period in late 1937 and early 1938 when the Japanese army sealed off the city and began a campaign of sanctioned terror, slaughtering an estimated 300,000 civilians and raping tens of thousands of women. A few characters come into focus: a Chinese soldier (Liu Ye) defeated by overwhelming numbers; a Japanese soldier (Hideo Nakaizumi) who seems like a decent man on the wrong side of history; a Chinese bureaucrat (Wei Fan) who thinks his position as a German envoy’s secretary will keep his family safe. Steven Spielberg’s unblinking Schindler’s List seems to be director Lu’s touchstone; he also shoots in black and white, with a largely handheld camera. The difference is that Spielberg ultimately believes in the human spirit. Lu has no such illusions, and by the end of his film neither will you. Subtitled. 135 min. NNNN (NW) Projection Booth
Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and impressive newcomer Dakota Goyo star in this familiar but exciting pic about a boxer-turnedrobot-promoter who’s put in charge of a son he barely knows.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and others get out the flamethrowers while trying to figure out who’s a monster in this worthy prequel to the chilly 1982 John Carpenter classic.
CONTAGION (Steven Soderbergh) is a disease procedural about the Center for Disease Control’s response to the outbreak of an unknown virus with the potential to kill millions. Soderbergh keeps the action zipping along like a thriller with short, sharp scenes, purely visual storytelling and liberal use of pounding music. 105 min. NNN (AD) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Queensway, Yonge & Dundas 24
ñCRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.
(Glenn Ficarra, John Requa) does for the rom-com genre what directors Ficarra and Requa’s I Love You Phillip Morris did for the caper picture, revitalizing a well-worn formula with intelligence, charm and clever storytelling. Steve Carell fleshes out his 40-Year-Old Virgin haplessness nicely, but it’s Ryan Gosling’s blossoming romance with savvy young lawyer Emma Stone that gives the movie its best moments. 118 min. NNNN (NW)
INTERNATIONAL DIASPORA FILM FESTIVAL 11 An Evening with Deepa Mehta (free admission) Deepa will attend the screening of her BOLLYWOOD-HOLLYWOOD Tuesday, 1 November, 8:30 PM, Innis Town Hall Toronto Premiere of award winning DAVID Followed by panel “Can Muslims and Jews ever be Friends (Again)? Wednesday, 2 November, 7 PM, Innis Town Hall Canadian Premieres from Holland and Mexico: KOFTA and LESSONS FOR ZAFIRAH Thursday, 3 November, 7 & 9 PM, Innis Town Hall
diasporafilmfest.com International Diaspora Film Festival 2011 Follow us on @diasporafest
Renowned scholar, Dr. Ella Shohat will talk after screening of FORGET BAGHDAD (free screening) Thursday, 3 November, 6 PM, Carlton Cinema FOR TICKET RESERVATION EMAIL INFO@DIASPORAFILMFEST.COM
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to any film (including opening and closing) at nowtoronto.com 84
OCTOBER 27 - NOVEMBER 2 2011 NOW