Ayoade fills The Double with tiny, perfect comic vignettes and terrific cameos by virtually everyone with whom he’s ever worked. Paddy Considine has never been better. 93 min. NNNN (NW) Carlton Cinema, TIFF Bell Lightbox
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) 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 53.
Begin Again (John Carney) 104 min. See review, page 47. NN (RS) Opens Jul 11 at Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24 Belle (Amma Asante) spins the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, daughter of an 18th century British naval officer and an African slave, into a historical biopic that aspires to more complexity than its lavish costume-drama packaging will allow. 104 min. NNN (NW) Canada Square, Kingsway Theatre Blended (Frank Coraci) re-teams Adam
Sandler with his Wedding Singer co-star Drew Barrymore as single parents saddled together with their broods on a South African safari. Unfunny scenes about horny rhinos and wild ostrich rodeos ensue. 117 min. N (RS) Colossus, Yonge & Dundas 24
Ryan White) follows the court case ñ mounted by two couples to overturn Cali-
fornia’s law banning gay marriage. It’s an absorbing lesson in how to win an important political case. The plaintiffs are white and unthreatening, and the word “queer” is never uttered... but that’s kinda the point. The film fascinates in part because the legal team behind the couples included Republican stalwart Ted Olson and Democrat David Boies, who had squared off in the famous Bush vs. Gore case, the 2000 battle over the Florida recount. Here they’re warm and toasty together and passionately committed to a progressive cause. Also strange is the pathetically weak argument mounted by gay marriage opponents. But in the end, the unlikely bromance between Boies and Olson is eclipsed by the couples’ deep love. That’s why you’ll be reaching for the kleenex. 112 min. NNNN (SGC) Carlton Cinema
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt
Reeves) 130 min. See Also Opening, page 48. Opens Jul 11 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Docks Lakeview Drive-In, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24
Deliver Us From Evil (Scott Derrickson)
is a souped-up reworking of The Exorcist starring Eric Bana as Bronx cop Ralph Sarchie, a combination of Father Karras and Lt. Kinderman who comes to believe a demonic force is responsible for a string of domestic incidents. Director and co-writer Derrickson, who made The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, is on familiar ground here, and one gets the sense that’s why he was hired – he knows the rhythms of false scares and creepy jump shocks, which is basically all a movie like this requires. Well, that and a creepy heavy; English actor Sean Harris (Red Riding, Harry Brown) fills that purpose nicely. Composed almost entirely of scenes in which characters walk into dark rooms waiting to be freaked out – punctuated by the occasional snappy line reading from sidekick Joel McHale – it’s this summer’s answer to The Conjuring. And it will make millions. Some subtitles. 115 min. NN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity
Doc of the Dead (Alexandre Philippe) 81
min. See review, page 48. NNN (NW) Opens Jul 11 at Yonge & Dundas 24
ñThe Double
(Richard Ayoade) is based on the Dostoevsky story about a meek office drone unhinged by the arrival of a successful, articulate man who looks exactly like him – but Ayoade’s follow-up to Submarine owes an equal debt to the collected works of Franz Kafka, Terry Gilliam and Roman Polanski. Still, The Double finds its own bizarre tone about 15 minutes in and never looks back. Arch, weird and very, very funny, it’s like watching an entire Bulgarian film festival in a single sitting. Jesse Eisenberg’s dual performance plays like a solo show of his breakout film Roger Dodger, and Mia Wasikowska – who seems to be everywhere this year - is nicely spiky as a coworker who becomes the object of both men’s affection. Clearly aware that this is his one shot to tell this sort of story,
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman) is a surprisingly playful mashup of Groundhog Day and Aliens, with Tom Cruise as a cowardly warrior who’s killed battling an ET invasion in France, only to find himself reliving the events leading up to his death over and over, often alongside a veteran of a previous battle (Emily Blunt) who’s oddly sympathetic to his plight. Using Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s graphic novel All You Need Is Kill as a springboard, Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) and his screenwriters have devised an epic-ish SF actioner that’s also refreshingly self-aware, using its rewind-repeat narrative to layer in subtle character beats, cle ver plot twists and at least one brilliant running gag. Cruise is solid, Blunt is great, Brendan Gleeson turns up as a pissy general, and Bill Paxton is basically Ned Ryerson in military fatigues. What else do you want from a summer movie? 113 min. NNNN (NW) Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, Yonge & Dundas 24
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Fading Gigolo (John Turturro) stars Woody Allen as Murray, pimp to part-time flower arranger Fioravante (director Turturro). It’s an homage to Allen’s films, with its jazz-based soundtrack, offbeat Jewish humour and the requisite an ick factor, thanks to a borderline offensive set-up between working boy Fioravante and an Orthodox Jewish widow (Vanessa Paradis). But who could believe Sharon Stone and Sofía Vergara couldn’t get a threesome together without paying a male third party? 98 min. NN (SGC) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Varsity
Jesse Eisenberg delivers twice the fun in The Double, a smart adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novella. Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24
ñFinding Vivian Maier
tween a 12-year-old girl (Florencia Bado) and fugitive Nazi Josef Mengele (Álex Brendemühl) in Patagonia circa 1960. It plays like a finely rendered short story, forgoing jolts for a long, unpleasant shiver of understanding. Subtitled. 90 min. NNNN (NW) Kingsway Theatre
(John Maloof, Charlie Siskel) sifts through some of the 100,000 photographs shot by nanny and compulsive hoarder Vivian Gerontophilia (Bruce LaBruce) follows Maier, constructing a compelling portrait Lake (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie), a young man of a mysterious artist who refused to be who’s hung a poster of Gandhi on his bedseen. Unknown to the world until coroom wall to inspire idealism but also a director Maloof happened to acquire her hard-on. This may not be so shocking for negatives at auction, her raw, poetic those familiar with Canadian filmmaker street photography conveys a distinctive LaBruce. The queer provocateur tackles a view of the everyday. She may still be ennew taboo in this coming-of-ager that reigmatic, but thanks to this consistently volves around Lake’s thing for seniors. If intriguing doc, she and her work form a his romance with 81-year-old Mr. Peabody fascinating picture. 83 min. NNNN (RS) (Walter Borden) initially seems like an atKingsway Theatre B:3.833” tempt to needle conservatives, LaBruce The German Doctor (Lucía surprises with a warmth and tenderness Puenzo) is an appropriately creepy T:3.833” – and quite a bit of humour – that carries what-if drama about an encounter becontinued on page 50 œ S:3.833”
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See the sequel of the remake of the sequel at Toronto’s 31 movie theatres.
ñThe Fault in Our Stars
(Josh Boone) is a faithful and heartwrenching adaptation of John Green’s bestseller about the star-crossed romance between teen cancer survivors Hazel (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus (Ansel Elgort). Writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who brought a quiet dignity to the young characters in The Spectacular Now, which also starred Woodley, capture the clear-eyed, bittersweet tone of the book, and even the voice-over narration isn’t over-used. Director Boone paces the film beautifully and gets inspired performances by his cast, which includes Laura Dern and Sam Trammell as Hazel’s parents, and Willem Dafoe as a crusty alcoholic author. The two young stars have a lovely chemistry. Elgort sells the idealized Gus with a magnetic charm and soulful vulnerability, and Woodley never tries to make Hazel lovable or even attractive, which of course makes her both. Bring kleenex. 125 min. NNNN (GS) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum NOW july 10-16 2014
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The Case Against 8 (Ben Cotner,
(Jon Favreau) hangs its drama on a social-media premise that’s a little on the cutesy side. Writer/director/ star Favreau plays a celebrity chef who picks a Twitter fight with a restaurant critic (Oliver Platt) that ends up torching his career, forcing him to start over in a food truck with his son (Emjay Anthony) and best pal (John Leguizamo). It’s 20 minutes too long and a hair too manipulative, but Favreau is intent on delivering such a pleasurable little movie that it almost seems unfair to hold his excesses against him – and you wouldn’t want him to cut the cameos from his Marvel buddies. Bonus points for the exquisite food prep sequences, the most convincing I’ve seen in years; even vegans are likely to leave the theatre craving a Cuban sandwich. 115 min. NNNN (NW) Canada Square, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Kingsway Theatre, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24
(Dave Green) updates E.T. for a new generation of kids, compressing the narrative of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic into one overnight adventure, as three Nevada buddies (Teo Halm, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Reese C. Hartwig) investigate some weird cellphone interference to distract themselves from an impending separation and wind up encountering an alien. It’s presented as found footage, which lets Earth To Echo play as homage rather than rip-off, much as Cloverfield and Chronicle revitalized their own chosen genres. And it fosters an intimacy between the characters that grows richer the more time we spend with them. We see the subtle ways they’re unsettled when they’re joined by a schoolmate (Ella Wahlestedt) who’s easily the smartest person in the picture. Family movies aren’t usually this clever. Don’t miss out. 91 min. NNNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24
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Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam) stars Hadewych Minis as the wife of an upwardly mobile, detestable, self-important bigot (Jeroen Perceval). She invites the enigmatic title character – whose Mansonlike charisma conceals satanic powers – into her perfect home only to become an unwitting participant in its destruction. Van Warmerdam uses the elusive Borgman (creepily embodied by the nimble Jan Bijvoet) as the catalyst in his allegorical indictment of the Dutch ruling class. Deftly moving from cutting-edge black humour to blatant evil, this boisterous satire is marred only by a heavy-handed endgame. Subtitled. 113 min. NNN (PE) Kingsway Theatre
ñChef
ñEarth to Echo