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Filled with spectacular art direction and ever-clever writing, Up tells the story of elderly balloon vendor Walter Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), who decides to fulfill a life-long promise to his late wife, Ellie, by embarking on the adventure they never managed to take together. (In a dialogue-free sequence...
It’s two years later (in movie time) and Larry Daley (Ben Stiller, deadpan and befuddled in the perfect way) has abandoned his security gig at NYC’s Museum of Natural History to run an invention empire. He’s rich, he’s successful… but is he happy? Doesn’t seem so. When a number...
As the closing credits rolled on director Ron Howard’s follow-up/prequel to The Da Vinci Code, my movie-going pal leaned over to me, pointed at the screen and said, “Know what its new title should be? Angels & Dramamine.” Because, folks, the biggest sin committed in this film about the...
My day nine was actually day ten of HotDocs. As mentioned in my previous entry, I didn’t see any films yesterday due to rain. And I almost didn’t see any today because a migraine hit me out of nowhere this morning. But the massive amounts of caffeine and pain...
There comes a point in every film festival when I hit a wall. I get drowsy at screenings and “rest my eyes” from time to time, my patience is whittled away to nothing and I start counting how many films I left before I can officially stop. At HotDocs...
I have to start by saying that I continue to be impressed with how well HotDocs runs, how well-attended all its screenings are, and how accessible it is to the public. This is what a film festival should be. Plus, its program book – which of the exact same...
I ended day five of the fest with a full-pie movie, and that’s exactly how I started day six. Rough Aunties (8/8), directed by Kim Longinotto (Sisters in Law, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go), is a powerful, inspirational and profoundly moving look at the courageous, tireless women of...
Here’s what I love most about having a HotDocs media pass: it allows me to make changes to my film-going schedule on the fly. If I need to rearrange my films at the last minute, I can. And that’s incredibly helpful. Such was the case yesterday, when I arrived...
To borrow from the standard-issue introduction at every HotDocs screening, I have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of: the comments feature on these entries is a little wonky. We’re aware of the problem and are working to resolve it. Apparently, trying multiple times might get it...
Sometimes I actually impress myself with my inadvertent thematic programming when I select my screenings at a film festival. For this year’s HotDocs fest, I made up my to-see list weeks ago and my process is thus: 1) I go through the program and write down the titles of...
Attending HotDocs can be an emotionally exhausting experience. Sure, there are documentaries that make you laugh or make you think, but a fair number of the films on the docket will probably make you cry at least once. Such was the case for me yesterday. Honestly, it’s only been...
Chronicling, as the title makes clear, the “origins” of Logan/Wolverine and his long-standing love/hate relationship with his increasingly ferocious brother, Victor “Sabretooth” Creed (Liev Schreiber), the film covers all the mythological bases. How the fellas came to discover their abilities. What they did with them from the 1840s through...
