Film Reviews

Mr. Bean meets Amelie; the story of a cheerful, mildly awkward 30-something woman living in London.

Poppy is a primary school teacher with an outlook on life so sweet and positive, she makes the Care Bears seem cynical. What makes this film palatable is watching Poppy deal with mean spirited characters in horribly awkward situations with a huge grin plastered across her face. Happy-go-lucky is not a great film by any means, but if there’s one thing we can all get out of it – you can’t make everybody happy, but sometimes a smile is contagious. ASTRID

A period film about the Duchess of Devonshire and her marriage to the Duke.

Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley deliver solid performances as the Duke and
Duchess of Devonshire.  The plot centers around Georgianna, a soon-to-be Duchess, who is married off as a teen to a man of great wealth and social standing.  Living in a loveless marriage at a time when it was legal for a man to beat his wife
with a stick (provided it was no thicker than his thumb), the Duchess is forced to put up with her husband’s infidelity while at the same time, yearning to experience true love.  The film masterfully captures the mise-en-scene of decadent upper class England in the late 18th Century. From costumes to set design, The Duchess is a feast for the eyes and a must-see for all lovers of period films, fashionistas, and history buffs. ASTRID

Middle aged people go a little nutty, and the Coen Brothers manage to highlight the most mock worthy of eccentricities through a star studded cast and a killer script.

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is reluctantly canned from his CIA post and so as a back up plan embarks on writing his memoirs, much to the chagrin of tight lipped oppressive wife Katie (Tilda Swinton). Soft headed, peppy fitness instructors, Linda and Chad (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) think they’ve stumbled upon a political coup when they find a disc containing excerpts from an assumed CIA agent, but in this case ex-CIA, unhappily married, angry heavy drinker Cox. Things get more hysterically complicated when nymphomaniac and twitchy ex security agent Harry (George Clooney) falls into the web of idioctic spy activity that consumes both the real CIA, Russian embassy and Hard Bodies Fitness gym. The film takes a couple scenes to pull the entire upside down charade together, but the dialogue is Coen brother genius and it’s an amusing treat to see slick celebrities Pitt and Clooney take on eccentric quirky characters that fall far from an acceptable IQ level of intelligence. Clever, funny and exciting to watch. JM 

A gangster movie, a history lesson, and a crash course in European Cinema all in one.

In the illustrious tradition of European cinema, Il Divo is a movie that will have film professors the world over cheering in the aisles. Powerful performances, intriguing, kinetic camera work, and sumptuous set design with a pain-staking eye for detail make this tale of Italian politics one for the ages. Il Divo is the story of Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo), an Italian politician with a seemingly unbreakable hold on the country’s government, and the scandal that eventually broke him. This is a gangster movie, a history lesson, and a crash course in European Cinema, all in one. Bring your thinking cap, because the roster of crooks, politicians, loyal wives, scheming lawyers, hitmen and mafia bosses is enough to make your head spin, but it’s worth it to keep up. Servillo’s performance as Andreotti is incredible. Plagued by headaches and a bizarre physicality, the most powerful man in Italy  seems at once a prisoner in his own body and the master of an entire country’s fate. Violent, artistic, and human, this movie’s place in film history is guaranteed. Directed by Paolo Sorrentino. HC  

Lewis Henderson is an overweight computer programmer who in the wake of Y2K escalates his internet porn addiction to actually fucking computer hard drives. 

Y2K was a whacked time period. Fueled by a media circus, the modern world faced impending technological doom, some of us stocked up on water and canned goods whereas Lewis Henderson started to drill holes into hard drives, and line with bubble paper and lubricant and screw. Ewww, but this is the kind of gross-out that will make you LOL. However, beyond the perverse material and awkward office politics that emerge from computers being raped, Control Alt Delete examines the loneliness and despair that often follows a secret fetish. Led by Director Cameron Labine, this cast of newcomers – including lead role Lewis played by Labine’s brother Tyler, create the most accurate of demented office relationships and we will not be surprised if Control Alt Delete gains cult following amongst computer geeks and far beyond. It is refreshing to see a Canadian film that is not about Quebec politics, morbid death and/or snowed in sluggish drama. Bring on the kink! JM 

Based on a true story, a little girl born with black skin into a white family, is forced to deal with complicated inequality in a very unforgiving 1955 South Africa. 

It’s difficult to believe society could ever be so cruel to alienate an innocent little girl into feeling inadequate and further, self loathing and dirty, because of the colour of her skin. Taken from a very unique perspective SKIN is based on the real life story of Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) who through some rare genetic chance is born with dark skin and black features from white parents. The film begins with a political battle between Sandra’s father, protective yet typically close minded Afrikaner, and the asinine beuracratic government  over the status of little Sandra’s skin; white versus black; which would in turn cast her entire future. SKIN offers a distinct point of view that would offer a persuasive case to the most racist of individuals over the lunacy of inequality based on skin colour. Growing into a self aware young woman Sandra falls for a black man and is not only legally punished but ostracized from her family. Struggle for acceptance in the black community takes on another set of challenges. From 1955 to the first free elections in 1994, this film does a superb job at showing both sides of the story in this very dark and disgusting era of apartheid. A compelling and stomach churning journey told through the story of a girl who could never fit any mould and had to depend on her own tenacity to push through a world that would not accept her. JM 

Girl loves dog, dog gets lost, girl looks for dog – and looks for dog, and looks for dog. 

Those of you who have been fortunate to own a pet, will know how special that relationship is, as you will also be familiar with the absolute fear and panic that kicks in if you have ever lost that pet; nearly every other desperate street post sign in my neighbourhood looking for Fluffy or Max can attest to this fact. Wendy (Michelle Williams) plays a down and out young woman who seems to have lost everything but her crappy ass car and loveable pup Lucy. Heading to Alaska for much needed work, Lucy is stolen from the outside of a supermarket and the rest of the film is one frustrating dilemma after the next in pursuit to find her. It goes something like this – “LUCY? LUCY? LUCY?”. Williams plays the part of distressed dog owner with conviction, but one has to ask, why did this seem like a good idea to make into a film? The brief moments of happiness are conveyed with a monotonous tune that Williams hums. Taking place in a somewhat desolate and suffering town that has lost its mill, the story's high point is at the beginning when Lucy fetches a stick successfully. Both Williams and dog do a good job at portraying sadness. JM 

Astra Taylor set out to make a film about philosophers walking and talking, and that is exactly what this is.

Reserved for a patient audience, EXAMINED LIFE is a series of eight philosophers walking in different directions talking about various theories; the meaning of life, the non-meaning of life, mass consumption, responsibilities of  a global citizen, responsibilities of a democratic system, what it means to go for a walk if you are in a wheelchair and much more. She makes a strong case concerning the importance of constantly questioning one’s surroundings and common practices. An impressive and diversified group of theorists include Cornel West, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Avital Ronell, and their ideas certainly warrant attention but it feels like a video that would play in a third year philosophy class at UofT versus a public screening for movie lovers. I commend Taylor for embarking on such a sophisticated piece of work but worry that the way it is delivered is too academic for the medium she has chosen. However, if it finds itself a place for young students with a hunger for intellectual stimulation, then it has a solid purpose and an important one. JM 

by Haley Cullingham
A hilarious and bizarrely offbeat high-school comedy that has it in for Tucson, Arizona, Hamlet II is a hybrid of Get Over It, Dangerous Minds, and Napoleon Dynamite. It's completely strange, following a roller-skating (lost his license in a DUI, you see) high school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) as he attempts to save his drama program with theatrical remakes of Hollywood movies. That is, until a pint-sized school newspaper drama critic suggests he try some new material. He takes the advice to heart and spends 47 hours locked in his study in the home he shares with his margarita-drinking wife and their roommate Gary (David Arquette), crafting his masterpiece: a time-travelling, group sex heavy sequel to Hamlet which culminates in the sequined musical masterpiece Rock Me, Sexy Jesus. What follows is betrayal, censorship, rebellion, and acid trips. The drama geeks team up with the inner-city kids (forced to take drama due to school budget cuts), the ACLU (represented by a snappy blonde ball-busting Amy Poehler ) and some party promoters who are at Burning Man, and create an underground theatre production for the ages. I can't stress enough how extremely strange this movie is, but it's strange in the most fantastic of ways. Bake some pot brownies before you go, and ask yourself: What Would Sexy Jesus Do?

by Carys

What is it about drug movies that are so fascinating? What weird dark corner of the human psyche sends us to the video store to buy M & Ms and popcorn, and spend 3 hours on a basement futon watching someone else's track marks, vomit-fests, and hallucinations?

Drug movies are, almost as a rule, some of the worst to watch when you're stoned. They do, however, offer insight into a world that, for most of us, is cloaked in mystery. And a new perspective is never a bad thing. So, while they may veer towards the dark and disturbing, these chronicles of drug addiction also offer up beautiful filmmaking, intriguing stories, and a cache of plot points slightly off the beaten track of mainstream hollywood. This selection of films captures addictions new and old, to heroin, cocaine, pot, speed, alcohol and even milk. Watch, learn, and wonder.  

CHOOSE LIFE! 

Trainspotting

-“Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?” Watch Sick Boy and Renton struggle to quit, and remember: there is nothing more terrifying then watching a ceiling-baby when you're high.  

Blow

-After seeing his father go bankrupt George Jung vows to become rich, he does so by bringing cocaine to America. Based on a true story, and starring Johnny Depp.  

Traffic

- A conservative American politician fights against drugs and realizes his teenage daughter is an addict. WHAT NOW, White-Collar?  

Scarface

-Cuban refugee, Tony Montana, hero of dorm-room posters everywhere, builds a drug empire in Miama. As his business grows so do his ego and paranoia. Bonus points from any guy in your life for suggesting this flick.  

Requiem for a Dream

-Four characters get hooked on heroin, cocaine and speed, each addiction starts with something as simple as taking diet pills to fit into that perfect red dress. 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

-Hunter S. Thompson’s roadtrip across America in search of the “American dream.” (Sidenote: what is it about Johnny Depp and drug movies?) His lawyer, copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, and a scourge of bats accompany him in his red convertible. 

Narc

-The murder of an undercover narcotics officer goes cold and a cop, who’s a recovered drug addict, is put on the case.  

A Clockwork Orange

-So maybe a drug of choice is milk but you and your droogs will be tripping over the plot and dialogue. 

Rules of Attraction

-A drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate; what a love triangle.  

Saving Grace

-When Grace’s husband dies and leaves her in debt the widow turns to something she’s always been good at: gardening. Only this time, she’s growing pot. The precursor to a certain Mrs. Botwin?