Category Archives: TIFF

Toronto International Film Festival

JCVD

JCVD (2008, Director: Mabrouk El Mechri): At just 47 years-old, Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) is looking really old and tired. He’s a fading action hero like Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal. What could be a better way to get back … Continue reading

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Country Wedding (Sveitabrúðkaup)

Country Wedding (Sveitabrúðkaup) (2008, Director: Valdís Óskarsdóttir): For a country of just 300,000 souls, Iceland has a remarkably creative and productive population. It’s practically crawling with artists, musicians and filmmakers and normally we get a good selection of Icelandic films … Continue reading

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Examined Life

Examined Life (2008, Director: Astra Taylor): This documentary takes philosophy to the streets as filmmaker Astra Taylor conducts interviews with nine prominent thinkers in decidedly non-academic settings. Most entertaining is Cornel West, perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual, who rhapsodizes about … Continue reading

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Le Silence de Lorna

Le Silence de Lorna (2008, Directors: Jean Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne): Sadly, once again I come to the work of acclaimed filmmakers with no previous experience of their work. The Dardenne brothers have been mining their own seam for … Continue reading

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TIFF 2008: Early Picks

As always, here is a list of the films I’ve requested tickets for. Depending on how the ticket lottery goes, I could get anywhere from none to all of these. Disturbing news this year: “donors” to the new Bell Lightbox … Continue reading

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