Anne Brodie Israeli actress Hadas Yaron plays an inhibited and closeted Hasidic Jew in Maxime Giroux’s powerful drama Félix et Meira. Yaron came from her native Israel to Montreal to shoot in minus 30 degree temperatures but that didn’t shut down her enthusiasm for the project. She plays Meira, an Hasidic Jew under the control of her
Why bother reviewing a film that will be reviewed by tens of thousands of professional and homegrown reviewers, bloggers and film fans? Why bother when reviews have been out for days, despite embargos and tweeted right after the private screening? Because I have an axe to grind that’s why. CGI is still way off being
The Bells was a band known for signature vocal harmonies and the hit songs “White Dove” and “Stay Awhile”. In 1965 South African sisters Jackie and Anne Ralph were performing with their trio in small town Quebec when they first laid eyes on Cliff Edwards and his band. The electricity was palpable. The girl’s manager
Ex Machina is a film for our times. It’s a cautionary tale about the potential future trajectory of artificial intelligence and our fear of it. Computers and robots are facts of life today, but their level of sophistication in 2015 may seem awfully primitive in the future as AI gains more and more footholds. It
Writer director Andrew Cividino’s coming-of-age film Sleeping Giant has just been announced as Canada’s first feature film entry in competition at the Cannes Film Festival next month. It is part of Semaine de la Critique, the Directors’ Fortnight, competing for the prestigious Camera D’Or award. Sleeping Giant, made for just $60,000 was inspired by Cividino’s’
Sam Heughan, one of Scotland’s most popular leading men, is Jamie Fraser an 18th century Scottish Laird in the dynamic, addictive sci-fi adventure series Outlander. The story follows Claire (Caitriona Balfe) a 20th century English nurse who time travels back to Fraser’s world and begins to find her place there with the help of Laird
Filmmaker Matt Sadowski and his leading man Dov Tiefenbach took on the conventional romantic comedy and all its artifice and won with the independent Canadian feature Pretend We’re Kissing. Set proudly in Toronto, Tiefenbach brilliantly takes on the role of a reserved and socially phobic man who hopes to finally make a match with a
John Boorman’s beloved 1987 World War II film Hope and Glory was based on his own experiences as a young boy in London. His alter ego Bill Rohan’s most memorable scene was shouting for joy when Hitler bombs his school, ensuring time off. Now flash forward to 1952 where Boorman picks up Bill’s life as
Scott Speedman grew up around Ontario’s Muskoka Lakes and Georgian Bay, a vacation getaway landscape that is part of the Canadian Shield. It holds a special place in his heart. So shooting October Gale on Lake Joseph was something special. Speedman returned home to star in October Gale, a romantic thriller about a man who
The 12th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival unveils eight films at Lightbox which will provoke, anger and make us think. Its focus is international human rights abuses and those who fight them through the powerful medium of documentary films. Canada, Indonesia, Sudan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Palestine, Guatemala, the United States and Hungary are