CANADIAN FILM FEST PRESENTS . . .
A patriotic showcase of movie talent in new features, docs and shorts plus a host of panels, parties and other special events at the Royal
Canadian Film Fest: Canada’s filmmakers need all the love and support they can possibly get, which is why it’s so great that the Canadian Film Fest is back for another patriotic display of often underappreciated movie talent.
The annual showcase of new features, docs and shorts — plus panels, parties and other special events, too — runs Wednesday to April 2 at the Royal.
Local writer-director Jeremy LaLonde snags the opening-night slot with his third feature How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town, a comedy that — true to its title — concerns a group of would-be swingers who don’t know the first thing about throwing a quality sex party.
Jewel Staite ( Battlestar Galactica), Katharine Isabelle ( Ginger Snaps) and Ennis Esmer ( The Listener) all get in on the action in Lalonde’s farce, which recently earned a warm reception at Slamdance.
One of that film’s stars — Winnipeg-bred, Toronto-based actor and writer Jonas Chernick — gets some more screen time at the CFF in Borealis, a comedy-drama that Chernick also wrote and produced with his directing partner Sean Garrity.
Chernick plays Jonah, a compulsive gambler who runs into trouble with Kevin Pollak as an affable but still plenty dangerous gangster. Rather than face the gangster’s wrath, Jonah skips town with his teenage daughter.
None too happy about the situation with her dad or her own failing vision, she’s played by Joey King of Fargo and this summer’s Independence Day sequel.
An engaging road movie that may be less racy than the same team’s 2012 breakout My Awkward Sexual Adventure but boasts the same amount of charm, Borealis makes its Toronto premiere on Thursday.
More picks from the CFF in next week’s Projections.
TIFF Kids for Easter weekend TIFF Kids doesn’t actually launch until April 8, but the fest takes advantage of the Easter weekend school break to get a jump on things with daytime offerings on Friday and Monday.
The lineup includes Miniscule: Valley of the Lost Ants, a recent 3D animated feature from France about tiny insects battling for supremacy over a box of sugar cubes. Avatar’s Sam Worthington stars in Paper Planes, an Australian family drama that enjoyed a warm reception at TIFF 2014. Two more highlights are the Reel Rascals and Give & Get programs of well-loved short films from festivals past.
SOMM: Into the Bottle Oenophiles always love an excuse to congregate and they get a good one when the Bloor hosts a special wine-enhanced event on Thursday.
The sommelier and co-owner of local restaurants Cava and Chabrol, Niall McCotter, curates the wine tasting that precedes SOMM: Into the Bottle, director Jason Wise’s sequel to his doc hit about the world of wine and the people who tell you all about it while hovering over you in restaurants.
Jesus Christ Superstar No less than Atom Egoyan considers Jesus Christ Superstar to be a “definite contender for my desertisland film.” That — and the fact that it’s Easter weekend — is surely reason enough for the Royal to present a limited run of Norman Jewison’s well-loved 1973 screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock musical about Jesus and Judas. It plays on four very holy occasions Saturday to Monday.
Rocco and His Brothers A stormy 1960 melodrama about a poor Sicilian clan at war with itself, Rocco and His Brothers had a massive influence on everything from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets to James Gray’s The Yards. Francis Ford Coppola loved it so much, he asked its music composer Nino Rota to work on The Godfather, too. A newly restored version is a big highlight of TIFF Cinematheque’s winter pro- gram of special screenings — Luchino Visconti’s classic plays the Lightbox on Saturday and Sunday.
East Jerusalem West Jerusalem Co-produced by Steve Earle, East Jerusalem West Jerusalem documents singer-songwriter David Broza’s extraordinary effort to unite musicians from all over the Holy City for a very special recording session in 2013. Broza will be on hand to present the film and perform a short set on Tuesday in a presentation by the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Music on Film program at the Bloor.
In brief William Friedkin’s rarely bettered 1971 crime pic The French Connection plays the Lightbox on Friday.
The Bloor treats moviegoers to a music-heavy weekend that includes a Shadow Cast performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday and the Radiohead doc Meeting People is Easy on Saturday.
Producer Rachael Horovitz joins Books on Film host Eleanor Wachtel to talk about the making of Moneyball at the Lightbox on Monday.
A gritty addiction drama that caused a stir at what was still the Festival of Festivals in 1990, Darrell Wasyk’s H plays a free screening for TIFF’s Canadian Open Vault at the Lightbox on Tuesday.
The Royal’s Ladies of Burlesque series presents Nicholas Ray’s racy 1958 flick Party Girl and a live burlesque performance on Tuesday.
Local Beatles scholar Peter Hemmingsen shares his expertise at a 35 mm screening of How I Won the War — John Lennon’s sole non-FabFour film with director Richard Lester — on Thursday at the Revue. jandersonesque@gmail.com