"Whispers that the latest from Winnipeg's favourite son had been rebuffed at European festivals before landing on Toronto's doorstep engender a suspicion towards it, as if it's typically Maddinesque gestures were just that: typical, tired, by the numbers." John Semley in Cinema Scope: "Granted, Maddin is once again working through his favorite hang-ups here: memory, family, and odes to forgotten film genres so consigned to oblivion that they never existed at all (in this case the Joycean gangster-haunted house picture). But Maddin finds new footing here, and his best leading man since Careful's Kyle McCulloch in Jason Patric, whose classic, rock-jawed good looks and tendency to play the silliness and surrealism totally straight, as if he's just happy for the job, make Keyhole feel like considerably more than another exercise in Maddinalia."
James Rocchi for the Playlist: "Maddin's usual fondness for the (soap) operatic and the melodramatic are both in play here,...
James Rocchi for the Playlist: "Maddin's usual fondness for the (soap) operatic and the melodramatic are both in play here,...
- 9/12/2011
- MUBI
For their 5th annual event, which is set to run Sept. 8-11, the Sydney Underground Film Festival is looking a little more demented than ever. And that’s saying a lot for this scrappy, still relatively young fest, which typically offers ample twisted cinematic offerings.
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
- 8/9/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Hey, Happy! is the 2001 feature film debut of Winnipeg filmmaker Noam Gonick. It was the opening night film of the 2001 New York Underground Film Festival.
Described as an “astro camp” comedy, the movie follows the exploits of Sabu (Jérémie Yuen), the DJ of an outdoor rave party, who hopes to land his 2,000th male conquest before the impending end of the world. The object of Sabu’s desire is Happy (Craig Aftanis), a simpleton who communicates with aliens through the radio he hangs around his neck at all times.
However, hoping to get to Happy before Sabu can is Spanky (Clayton Godson), an evil, rage-filled hairdresser.
The actor Clayton Godson is more popularly known as Lexi Tronic, the transsexual star of Kink, a Canadian documentary TV series. Tronic also starred in the explicit Guy Maddin short film The Little White Cloud That Cried.
Meanwhile, Gonick also directed the profile piece Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight.
Described as an “astro camp” comedy, the movie follows the exploits of Sabu (Jérémie Yuen), the DJ of an outdoor rave party, who hopes to land his 2,000th male conquest before the impending end of the world. The object of Sabu’s desire is Happy (Craig Aftanis), a simpleton who communicates with aliens through the radio he hangs around his neck at all times.
However, hoping to get to Happy before Sabu can is Spanky (Clayton Godson), an evil, rage-filled hairdresser.
The actor Clayton Godson is more popularly known as Lexi Tronic, the transsexual star of Kink, a Canadian documentary TV series. Tronic also starred in the explicit Guy Maddin short film The Little White Cloud That Cried.
Meanwhile, Gonick also directed the profile piece Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight.
- 6/5/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Every year 'round about this time the Toronto International Film Festival Group announces their selections as Canada's Top Ten Feature Films and Short Films. Selected by a jury of industry professionals it's general a pretty good guide for what's happening here in any given year.
This year's selections were announced today and while I personally consider the absence of Jacob Tierney's Good Neighbours to be a significant omission it's pretty hard to argue with the titles that are actually in there. The films selected will all screen at the Tiff Bell Lightbox beginning in January. Here's the full announcement:
Toronto -- Tiff revealed the top 10 best features and top 10 best short films of 2010 this evening at the 10th annual Canada's Top Ten industry event, hosted by Peter Keleghan and Leah Pinsent. Established in 2001, Canada's Top Ten celebrates excellence in Canadian cinema and raises public awareness of Canadian achievements in film.
This year's selections were announced today and while I personally consider the absence of Jacob Tierney's Good Neighbours to be a significant omission it's pretty hard to argue with the titles that are actually in there. The films selected will all screen at the Tiff Bell Lightbox beginning in January. Here's the full announcement:
Toronto -- Tiff revealed the top 10 best features and top 10 best short films of 2010 this evening at the 10th annual Canada's Top Ten industry event, hosted by Peter Keleghan and Leah Pinsent. Established in 2001, Canada's Top Ten celebrates excellence in Canadian cinema and raises public awareness of Canadian achievements in film.
- 12/15/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The 39th annual Festival du Nouveau Cinema is set to run in Montreal on Oct 13-24. But, within the overall, massive festival is the Fnc Lab, the avant-garde and experimental section that will be having screenings and live film performances every night on Oct. 14-22.
This year, the Fnc Lab is showcasing two retrospectives; plus, a short film program of strictly 16mm films, films from the Korean Jeonju Digital Project, four feature-length projects and several special one-of-a-kind performances.
The retrospectives are of two key American women experimental filmmakers. First, in conjunction with the Double Negative Collective, the fest presents a career overview of Chick Strand, the eminent ethnographic filmmaker who sadly passed away last year at the age of 77.
Then, there’s also a retrospective of playful avant-garde filmmaker Marie Losier, who is well known for her collaborations with and film portraits of key underground figures like George Kuchar, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge.
This year, the Fnc Lab is showcasing two retrospectives; plus, a short film program of strictly 16mm films, films from the Korean Jeonju Digital Project, four feature-length projects and several special one-of-a-kind performances.
The retrospectives are of two key American women experimental filmmakers. First, in conjunction with the Double Negative Collective, the fest presents a career overview of Chick Strand, the eminent ethnographic filmmaker who sadly passed away last year at the age of 77.
Then, there’s also a retrospective of playful avant-garde filmmaker Marie Losier, who is well known for her collaborations with and film portraits of key underground figures like George Kuchar, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge.
- 10/6/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Last we heard from the wildly unique Guy Maddin, he was shocking small theaters will his risque short The Little White Cloud That Cried, made in honor of underground filmmaker Jack Smith. The last time we got a feature, however, it was the partially autobiographical, docufantasia homage to his hometown, My Winnipeg, two years ago.
But get ready, Maddin fans -- it's time for his next feature-length film. As he told us from Tiff last fall, he's been working on a "kind of Internet, interactive choose-your-own adventure movie labyrinth" called Keyhole. Now he's finally ready to make it, with a cast that intermingles old-school Maddin collaborators with new (and very surprising) names, and it's not a story completely of his own creation. It's his take on Homer's Ulysses. Intrigued? Hit the jump for all of the juicy details.
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Independent, Casting, Home Entertainment
Continue reading Guy Maddin...
But get ready, Maddin fans -- it's time for his next feature-length film. As he told us from Tiff last fall, he's been working on a "kind of Internet, interactive choose-your-own adventure movie labyrinth" called Keyhole. Now he's finally ready to make it, with a cast that intermingles old-school Maddin collaborators with new (and very surprising) names, and it's not a story completely of his own creation. It's his take on Homer's Ulysses. Intrigued? Hit the jump for all of the juicy details.
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Independent, Casting, Home Entertainment
Continue reading Guy Maddin...
- 6/15/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
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