Posted on September 30, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
At the end of a bleak road in Death Valley – itself one of the most inhospitable places on Earth – Monty Brannigan lives life as a gloriously unique individual. A Buddhist with a history of violence, an artistic savant who creates sculptures reminiscent of Henry Moore, a widower whose wife was shot in a […]
Posted on September 29, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
“Unmade in China” is a brilliant documentary about how the Chinese government turned a decent film into a terrible film. It’s not new turf, but it’s rarely covered better than this often absurd examination of what happens when a mild mannered American director tries to make a movie in China. Both the film and the […]
Posted on September 29, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Gil Kofman is some sort of genius. The director of The Memory Thief makes two appearances at the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF), first as the protagonist in a documentary about making a film in China (Unmade in China); the second, with a showing of his cut of that film, Case Sensitive. Without giving too […]
Posted on September 28, 2012
By Mike Ross
Film, Front Slider
What we have in “A Band of Rogues” and “Mariachi Gringo” may be a recurrent theme at the 2012 Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) – gringos messing around where they don’t belong. These two films are similar on the surface. A Band of Rogues deals with a young American musician with prescription drug issues, who […]
Posted on September 28, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Happy Family breaks the fourth wall constantly, with characters talking to the screen. It’s done in the same lighthearted vein as in the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but is wonderfully off-the-wall and part of why this Italian film is so funny. Well, that and the writing, which is brilliant: touching, thoughtful, poignant, almost never […]
Posted on September 26, 2012
By Mike Ross
Film, The Latest
We have waited a long time – maybe too long – for the Edmonton premiere of The Man That Got Away, the latest film by Trevor Anderson. And now that it’s finally making its public debut at the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) this weekend, the local filmmaker isn’t even going to be here. At […]
Posted on September 26, 2012
By Barry Hammond
Film, Front Slider, Music
When Ken Burns’ 10 part series on the history of jazz premiered in 2001, you can just imagine German filmmaker Stefan Immler watching the segments on New York, Chicago, St. Louis, or Kansas city in his new home-town and screaming, “Hey! What about Washington, D.C.?!” He’d have a point – and makes it beautifully in […]
Posted on September 25, 2012
By Mike Ross
Film, The Latest
For instant drama, you can hardly do better than an orphaned child-cruel stepparent scenario. Ask Disney. Becoming Redwood – the gala opening film at the Edmonton International Film Festival – offers more insight than the usual stories of this sort, into parenthood, into how kids cope with parents who split up, and into the nature […]
Posted on September 24, 2012
By Mike Ross
Film, The Latest
At the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) we can focus on the films instead of being distracted by all the Hollywood celebrities who aren’t coming. Neither Johnny Depp nor Wynona Rider will be here. Gwyneth Paltrow won’t be making it. TMZ crews will not be stalking the lobby of the Empire City Centre 9 Cinemas, […]
Posted on September 19, 2012
By Barry Hammond
Film, Front Slider
Some films hang uneasily in the mind long after you watch them, tugging at your preconceptions and knee-jerk reactions and forcing you to re-evaluate them for months or even years afterwards. “The Redemption of General Butt Naked” is such a film. It opens Friday at Metro Cinema at the Garneau. As the title suggests, this […]
Posted on September 7, 2012
By Barry Hammond
Film, The Latest
If you like the idea of cast and crew working together to make a film unique in both story and performances, you’re not going to find one much better than “Your Sister’s Sister,” starting at the Metro Cinema this weekend. It’s that ensemble spirit, the honesty and sincerity of the performances, and the refusal of […]
Posted on August 30, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Legend of a Warrior, a new National Film Board-supported documentary that premieres Friday at Metro Cinema, is ostensibly about a son trying to learn more about his father, a world-famous Martial Arts instructor based in Edmonton. But it goes beyond any preconceptions its viewers might have about a stereotypical tale of a driven father neglecting […]
