Film Reviews

A lonely Parisian woman comes to terms with her isolation and anxieties during a long summer vacation.

In May of 2011, Neil Young drove a 1956 Crown Victoria from his idyllic hometown of Omemee, Ontario to downtown Toronto's iconic Massey Hall where he intimately performed the last two nights of his solo world tour. Along the drive, Young recounted insightful and introspective stories from his youth to filmmaker Jonathan Demme. Through the tunes and the tales, Demme portrays a personal, retrospective look into the heart and soul of the artist.

A criminal comes to town in order to kill Billy Chong over a past dispute. But instead of getting his own hands dirty, he hires a Taoist wizard to animate some zombies to do the job for him. The plan goes horribly awry, and the bad guy ends up getting killed in his own trap. This pisses off the villain's spirit and he forces the priest to reincarnate him - only they can't find a suitable body. Meanwhile, an undead fiend of sorts comes to town to kill Billy's father over some other past dispute. This is where all of Billy's kung fu training comes in handy, and he manages to kill the attacker. With this, the other bad guy finally has a body to use, but the reincarnation goes wrong and the corpse is reborn as a vampire.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in one of the famous Korean "Spartakiads". The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal, like a typical life as seen "through the looking glass".

City of God – 10 Years Later investigates what happened to the actors who took part in the award-winning film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. This documentary shows what City of God’s worldwide success meant to their lives. Were the actors prepared for the film’s success? Did the social background of some of them prove stronger than the opportunity that came their way?

The powers of good are pitted against the forces of evil as the Duc de Richelieu wrestles with the charming but deadly Satanist, Mocata, for the soul of his friend. Mocata has the knowledge and the power to summon the forces of darkness and, as the Duc de Richelieu and his friends remain within the protected pentacle, they are subjected to ever-increasing horror until thundering hooves herald the arrival of the Angel of Death.

A young student falls into a hopeless romantic attraction to an invalid girl whom he can only see from afar.

A beautiful woman who lives on an island with her abusive husband, entices a young man into a murder-for-money plot.

Dylan Moran, star of Black Books, Shaun of the Dead and Run Fat Boy Run is about to spread a little happiness with a brand new live DVD for 2011. Ageing, religion, kids and relationships intertwine with the general absurdities of life. Searing observations and sumptuous imagery, painted across a large fraying canvas with cruel, curmudgeonly 'Moranesque' brush strokes are all delivered with Dylan's renowned, shambolic charm… Simply unmissable.

This anthology film from Étaix’s peak period presents four comic episodes with an accent on the pitfalls of modern life: (1) a scary vampire novel keeps a man awake, (2) a moviegoer’s attempts to find a seat give way to an onslaught of absurd ads, (3) noise and pollution send a man to the doctor’s, (4) a hunter disrupts a rural idyll. In French with English subtitles. (Martin Rubin, Gene Siskel Film Center)

The streets of the Bronx are owned by 60’s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

A stranger and a bandit seek out a trio of playing cards that will lead them to hidden treasure.

Black Sheep (original title: Schwarze Schafe) is a german/swiss black and white movie. It's separated into five episodes, which tell stories of the Berlin city life. A hopeless impostor. An East German couple who dreams of the big money. Three Turkish teenagers who do everything to have sex. Two hapless Satanists. And gay boys who dream of a better world. An anarchist, humorous black comedy about life in Berlin.

An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with un-attentive parents and bullies at school.

Artie and Diane agree to look after their three grandkids when their type-A helicopter parents need to leave town for work. Problems arise when the kids' 21st-century behavior collides with Artie and Diane's old-school methods.