First up is a 6 minute animated film, Bruce Alcock’s Vive la rose.  Next is Pis nous autres dans tout ça? (So, Where Do We Fit In?), Andréanne Germain’s film about what happens when a couple of people wave Franco-Ontarians flags around on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City during St. Jean-Baptiste celebrations.  The last film in the program will be Le chœur d’une culture (Together in Harmony) by Marie-France Guerette.  Described as ‘poignant and charming’, this film is about an Edmonton-based choir invited to participate in Quebec City’s 400th anniversary.

So if you’re interested, head on down to the Mediatheque (150 John St @ Richmond) this Wednesday March 10th at 6:30pm. Films will be screened in French with English subtitles.  For more information, please visit the NFB website.

Related posts:

1. Pleasure Dome Presents Canadian Premiere of Erin Cosgrove’s “What Manner of Person Art Thou?”
2. Nordic Nights: Icelandic film at the NFB
3. NFB Short Films – Slap ‘n’ Tickle

First, to the hosts. I love both Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, although Martin a little more, but I felt their material was a little under rehearsed. They felt really wooden at times and the jokes were very hit and miss. While sometimes they had me in stitches, other times I just waited for the next punchline. And where did they go? They kind of disappeared in the last hour of the broadcast. By the time they came out to end the show with the dazed and elated Kathryn Bigelow, I had almost completely forgotten they were there.  Sadly, while I adored the opening musical number, all it did was make me wonder why Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t hosting. ‘Cause that is a great idea. Get on that Academy. Also, Robin Williams is an Oscar winner, so who says stand-up comedians can’t win Oscars?

The presenters and winners were all lovely, but few of them gave the emotion packed speeches that we’ve seen in other years. Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges had wonderful speeches, but Bridges did go on a bit and I kind of stopped listening at the end there. Which reminds me, usually the last award given before Director/Picture is Best Actor, why switch it up this year? Expected length of speech?

I think it’s sad that Meryl Streep has become a punchline, but I’m glad that Meryl is such a wonderful person that she can take a joke. Throwing her head back and laughing her way through jokes from, well, almost everyone, she is the picture of grace. Her work is incredible, she’s a generous, down to earth woman and she has a sense of humor. Can’t really ask for more than that. Would be very nice to see her win though…. Maybe a “Winner Emeritus” category where she gets an honorary every year? Just a thought.

While we’re on the topic of honourary awards I thought that the decision to move the Oscars that honour lifetime achievements and bodies of work were left to another event was excellent. Frankly, this was always the part of the show that made me realize just how late it was and just how much I had to get up for work the next day. It gave me time to get a drink or a snack or pet the cat or… well, anything other than listen to the momentum killing speech from someone who I really should respect, but with all that adrenaline pumping through my veins from whtaever the last award was, I could barely be compelled to care. And I should care! Most of the honorees are foundation filmmakers. People who have created new ways of making or looking at films, or putting in performance after performance to bring acting to a new standard. So I’m glad they moved this to a night where the winners can be legitimately honoured and hang with the people who they have affected the most — their peers. Also, I thought the show ran much more smoothly without.

I’m glad we went back to the innovation from last year with respect to having a peer get up and talk about the person and the performance of each Best Actor and Actress nominee. I really liked this least year and I’m glad it continued. I think it brings us all a little closer to the night itself. Hollywood can recognize itself, but for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe film, it gives us a peek into the relationships in the industry that we don’t normally get outside of DVD commentaries and even then we have no visual reference. That said, what the hell was with the opening of the broadcast with all the nominees on the stage? Why only acting? It was such a non-sequitur that it left the audience scratching its head well into the fabulous song and dance number opening. Seriously. What?

The tributes confused me quite a bit. Why a random tribute to horror? Because of the achievement award for Roger Corman? If so, it needed a little more to connect the two. Now, there are few filmmakers I love more than John Hughes, but why did he rank his own memorial over others who passed away this year? It’s possible that they were attempting to show that his passing marked the end of an era and wanted to acknowledge the impact he had on a whole generation, but…. wtf? Again I thought it needed a few more threads to draw it together for the viewer.

While were on the topic of wtf, what was with the “I’m the blue wire” interpretive urban dance number for the best scores? It was very lovely, but had… nothing to do with anything. This was the momentum killer I used to hit the bathroom and refill my drinks during this year’s broadcast. Maybe a rethink next year?

All in all, this year’s Oscars left me disappointed, with one exception — Kathryn Bigelow won both Best Director and Best Picture, something few people thought she could do. I threw down the gauntlet early last year by declaring The Hurt Lockerto be the best film of the year in the summer. And I didn’t see anything in the remaining months of the year that changed my mind. In The Hurt Locker, I think that Bigelow did what few other war films in recent memory have done — she made a point beyond “war is bad”. She put a face on the conflict and its long term effects on the people involved, but she didn’t hit you in the face with it. The Hurt Locker is a movie that I can literally watch end on end and still find something new to love. In short, it was my Best Picture pic from very early on. Despite that, I didn’t think she could beat the juggernaut of the money behind Avatar, but I’ve never been happier to be wrong. Now a lot will be made in coming days about her gender, but please, let’s not make it about that. Let’s instead make it about her talent. She wants it that way, so I think we should all go along. Bottom line: she made the better movie this year. It didn’t have anything to do with her ovaries.

So the Oscars are over for another year. Time to get back on the horse and start looking for the jewels of this year so we can do it all again.

Related posts:

1. The 2010 Academy Awards; Avatar Hurting from The Hurt Locker
2. 2010 Canadian Music Week Film Festival
3. DVD Tuesday – January 26, 2010

There was no doubt that the critics were rooting for The Hurt Locker all the way. Aside from all the hurting and locking, the night seemed to prove successful in many other aspects. For one, well, technically two, both hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin laughed their way into the hearts of millions. There was no doubt that Martin was a trained veteran on the Kodak stage when standing beside a nervous Baldwin, but both hosts prove to have learned something from their flick It’s Complicated. Although the chemistry between the two was ignited thanks to the chemistry of the incredible Meryl Streep the highlight of the hosting is undoubtly awarded to a small but ingenious spoof of the year’s sleeper hit Paranormal Activity; where the two comedians give their rendition of the scariest night of their lives sharing a hotel bed together (I swear my father peed his pants during this part).

My Favorite Speech(es)

Just because this year was one of the few years in most recent memory where the Oscars failed to connect with me on an emotional level, the best speeches of the night for me were the most emotional ones. Ironically enough, the two best speeches of the night came from the two winners of Precious; both Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Actress and first time screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher. Fletcher, who through all the beautiful and equally disturbing dialogue in Precious, was shooting blanks on stage, thanking in the most sincere and humble way his family, brother, father, mother. On the ther hand, the confident and bold Mo’Nique swayed on stage to say perhaps the bravest and raw words in acceptance speech history, “I want to thank the Academy, for proving that awards can be about the performance, and not the politics.” But then again, this was before Sandra Bullock won her Oscar for Best Actress in the The Blind Side. Way to send mix messages Academy!

Sweetest Short Speech

This year the Academy was so intent to shortening the speeches to the winners, that they offered a new backstage “Thank-You Cam”. Although many of the winners, especially the actors, were able to give full-length versions of their speeches on stage, the simplest and most memorable words came from Singer/Song-Writer Ryan Bingham who quickly shouted, “Hunny, I love you more than rainbows”. Ahhhhhhhh.

Best Unexpected Speech

The Academy did this montage that usually winners of the ’shorts’ categories go on to do bigger, brighter things within Hollywood, and they may be right. But the best unexpected speech came from French Oscar Winner Nicolas Schmerkin for his animated hyper-violent short, Logorama. “…no logos were harmed in the making of the project. It took, like, six years to make this 16 minutes, so I hope to come back here with a long feature film, in about 36 years.”

Best On-Stage Moment

Hands down, the best moment on-stage came when Ben Stiller showed up as a Na’vi. His tail was shaking frivilously around stage, only later to be seen attached to a fishing rod. He noted that he had Spock ears signed by Leonard Nimoy, but felt it would be too nerdy. I would have paid to see Jim Carrey and Stiller do an on-stage Na’vi tag-team parody. That reminds me, where is Jim Carrey?

Best Montage

I’m not sure what messages the Academy was trying to say with thier tribute to horror montage, nor did I get why a scene from Twilight was in the montage. And since when did John Hughes win an award for solo-montage of the year? Why was he not featured at the end of all the other deceased performers?

Humanitarian Award of the Night

Well, it seemed as though everyone who got on that stage was the most polite celebrity ever to grace the Oscar stage. From the humble and down-to-Earth Jeff Bridges…finally.

Most Nervous on Stage Winner

Christoph Waltz will join in the small list of ultimate villians along side Javier Bardem, Anthony Hopkins and Heath Ledger for his portryal of Col. Hans Landa SS. But seeing him accept his Oscar on-stage, to a group of peers who are fairly new, was quite refreshing. Seeing a man accept an award for portraying on of the most cynical men on screen shake his knees when looking at George Clooney in the face was quite amusing.   

Most Bodacious Oscar Bod

Rachael McAdams. Demi Moore. Vera Farmiga. Jennifer Lopez. Kate Winslet. Gerard Butler. Bradley Cooper. Carey Mulligan. Zooey Saldana. Amanda Seyfried. Tom Ford. Collin Farrell. Barbera Streisand. I don’t need to pick one, do I?

Best Pre-E-Bay Oscar Statuette Sale

I am not sure if they are really bad ornaments to keep in your house, but seemed that three-time Costume Design winner Sandy Powell really hated winning her third little gold naked man. She seemed even bothered to be up there.

Most Awkward/Weirdest Oscar Moment of All-Time

When Producer/Director Roger Ross Williams was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject for his film Music By Prudence, i don’t think he thought he would be up-staged by…WHO WAS THAT? Throughout her whole acceptance speech, Williams was looking with the same eyes as Col. Hans Landa, we knew what he wanted to do. But he kept his cool and thanked…well, just thanked.

Biggest Upset

The Foreign Language film was considered a lock-down for months now, either finding a winner in France with Un Prophete, or The White Ribbon, but when the winner was Argentina’s own The Secret in Their Eyes, not even the cameramen wanted to get a close up of Haneke’s reaction.

Here is a full list of the year’s nominee’s and winners for the night. All the winners are in Bold and Italics.

BEST PICTURE
An Education
A Serious Man
District 9
Up
Up in the Air
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
The Blind Side

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Matt Damon (Invictus)

BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sibide (Precious)
Helen Mirren (The Last Station)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mo’Nique (Precious)
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Up
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Coraline
The Secret of Kells
The Princess and the Frog

BEST ART DIRECTION
Avatar
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
The Young Victoria
Nine
Sherlock Holmes

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Young Victoria
Bright Star
Coco avant Chanel
Nine
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Burma Vj
Which Way Home

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Last Truck: The Closing of GM Plant
The Last Campaign of Gvernor Booth GardnerSendak
Rabbit a la Berlin
Music by Prudence
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

BEST EDITING
The Hurt Locker
Avatar
District 9
Precious
Inglourious Basterds

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The White Ribbon (Germany)
A Prophet (France)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Ajami (Isreal)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Argentina)

BEST MAKEUP
The Young Victoria
Il Divo
Star Trek

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Michael Giacchino (Up)
James Horner (Avatar)
Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders (The Hurt Locker)
Hans Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes)
Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Take it All” (Nine)
“The Weary Kind” (Crazy Heart)
“Almost There” (The Princess & the Frog)
“Down in New Orleans” (The Princess & the Frog)
“Loin de Paname” (Paris 36)

BEST  EDITING
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Avatar
Up
Inglourious Basterds

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Avatar
Transformers 2
Inglourious Basterds

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar
Star Trek
District 9

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Up in the Air
An Education
Precious
District 9
In the Loop

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up
The Messenger

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Door
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Kavi
Instead of Abracadabra

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
French Roast
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Overall, The 82nd Academy Awards kept momentum and locked its way into cinematic history. It may have hurt some Na’vi’s on the way, but the awards proved to many that sometimes, the little guys get breaks too. Plus, I am sure no one wanted to hear Cameron’s revised “I’m the King of the world…scratch that…Universe” speech.

Related posts:

1. “Well, the time has come,”: Oscar 2010
2. Becel “Heart” Short Film and Contest
3. DVD Tuesdays – January 12, 2010

Fitzgibbon’s work can be situated within the tenuous 1970s category of structuralist filmmaking; this is  a movement with many branches and aims, but perhaps the most consistent thing that can be said is that these films want to test out, play with, expose, and maybe even defeat the materiality of film and video. The unique capability of recorded moving images to capture time and represent its duration is put on centre stage here. The films test one’s patience at times, sure, but that’s exactly what they’re meant to do, and their valuable contribution to the tradition of the  avant-garde cannot be overestimated. In a daily existence of being spoon-fed easily digestible visual media, sometimes it can be refreshing to pause and contemplate the beautiful banality of duration itself.

Fitzgibbon studied and worked with experimental film giant Stan Brakhage, but her work stands on its own as a contribution to the modernist minimalism of the day. All the films to be screened at the Cinematheque were produced during an intensive and prolific period between 1973 and 1975, and now the newly restored 16mm prints are touring Canada and the United States along with Fitzgibbon and preservationist Sandra Gibson. The artist’s work is often described as “meticulous” and almost “mathematical” in its effort to push the limits of an audience’s perception and a medium’s capabilities. If you’re up for testing out your perceptive mechanisms, Fitzgibbon’s work is sure to throw you a challenge or two.

This screening is co-presented by The International Experimental Media Congress. Click here for details about time, location, prices, and to read more about Fitzgibbon’s work.

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Zombie films are a varied bunch, but you can usually count on a few common factors: they are always gory, excessive, unbelievable yet predictable, kind of hilarious, usually pretty damn cheap, and a lot of fun if you’re surrounded by friends and snacks. Chris Alexander knows all about the history of gore and horror cinema, so if you want a quick and introductory lecture on Zombies 101, then the bi-monthly Film School Confidential Screenings are just what you need.

Twice a month, the Bloor Cinema screens overlooked low-budget B-movies, usually ones belonging to what are considered the ‘low’ genres (a.k.a. the ‘fun’ ones: horror, gore, etc.) Film critic and radio personality Chris Alexander presents the films with an informative lecture of the kind you won’t get in any actual classroom (and you can keep the exorbitant tuition fee in your pocket). This month kicks off with controversial Italian zombie flick Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981) on Thursday the 11th from  director Andrea Bianchi. A note: this film is particularly heavy on the stomach-churning visuals, so don’t say you weren’t warned. An unlucky professor wakes up a crypt of sleeping, rotting zombies and, well, you can just imagine what kind of flesh-eating adventures follow. BTW, the zombies groan and their victims whimper in Italian with English subtitles.

Visit the Bloor Cinema’s website for a more detailed description of the film and to watch the (hilarious and disgusting) trailer. And, here is some more info about Chis Alexander, a walking human encyclopedia of B-movie info.

Related posts:

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2. Nordic Nights: Icelandic film at the NFB
3. Toronto Zombie Short Film Festival

Heroes — Director Ryan Keller has created a series of shorts based on Second City sketches. As mentioned in my last post about World of Comedy, they’re very reminiscent of the early days of SNL. This short was about a group of coworkers who all vehemently hate their supervisor, even though he seems to be a reasonable guy. As the plots to kill him evolve the audience begins to wonder if they’re going to go through with it. Laugh out loud funny for anyone who has ever worked in an office.

Ha! Noel! (Oh! Tannenbaum!) — A short about a couple who are dressing their Christmas tree… or are they? It’s a very short film that bends your perception of the holidays.

True Beauty This Night — This short was excellent — and my favorite of this program. It opens on a guy standing in front of a pay phone trying to get the courage to make a phone call. When they guy waiting for the phone behind him forces his hand, we get the sense that this isn’t a regular date. A twist on a chance meeting love-at-first-sight encounter that will leave you giggling long after you see it. It’s very charming and uplifting, even though it’s really a star-crossed-lovers crime story.

Labrats — This was the feature film of the program. Labrats is the story of a group of men who are all a little down on their luck — but not very down on their luck — so they decide to commit a crime that will leave them all sitting high on the hog for the rest of their lives. They decide to kidnap some laboratory mice from a research facility where one of them works. This facility has been working with/on these mice for 10 years and the guys wager that they’ll pay anything to get back that much research. But they have a contingency plan, too. They’ve invited a film crew along to chronicle the caper, thinking that if the heist goes wrong, they can sell the feature film and still be rich. As is normally the case with these sorts of films, nothing goes entirely to plan and each character’s true nature begins to show itself with each passing folly.

This is the kind of crime movie where the brutality and loathsome characters make it hard to love, but the overall craziness somehow endears you to the film and it weedles its way into your heart. Each of the characters is more than a little annoying and for a large part of the movie you really do want them to get caught so you can move on to something else. By the end, however, you’ve seen who they all really are — warts and all — and you want them to succeed. There’s also a mice subplot that is pretty hysterical. Brilliant editing on the mice. Brilliant.

It’s a very good little movie that requires some patience on the viewer’s part, but rewards it in the end. I highly recommend it to fans of either funny crime movies or British comedy. This film had its World Premiere at the World of Comedy Film Festival, so look for it soon on the festival circuit.

Find out more about the film at their website.

Related posts:

1. Review: World of Comedy Festival Animation & Other Wonders
2. World of Comedy Film Festival begins Friday
3. NFB Short Films – Slap ‘n’ Tickle

Shaun the Sheep: Double Trouble, Two’s Company, Ewe’ve Been Framed and In the Dog House — Shaun the Sheep is a stop-motion animation show in the style of Wallace and Gromit. There were four very charming shorts from this series peppered throughout the program. In the first, Double Trouble, Shaun the Sheep finds some vegetables that resemble the farmer. He puts them on and raids the house – hilarity ensues. In Two’s Company, a very pretty lady sheep falls off a truck. While Bitzer, the sheepdog, runs off to tell the driver he has lost one of his herd, Shaun is busily falling in love. A very sweet short with some great laughs and a neat gag at the end. Ewe’ve Been Framed finds the farmer with smashed glasses, thanks to a joke played by Shaun. The joke turns out to be on our little sheep friend when Shaun and Bitzer must help him do all his chores for the day. This was a funny short that also had a sweet ending. It gave the viewer an insight into the community on the farm. Excellent for an animated short that has almost no verbalization. Last, but not least, In the Dog House built on that sense of community when the farmer drives over Bitzer’s doghouse and then builds him a terrible replacement. Shaun takes it upon himself to enlist the rest of the farm to make sure their trusty friend has a good place to sleep.

The Shaun the Sheep shorts were initially my least favorite part of the shorts program, since they didn’t seem to quite fit with the overall tone of the program, but once I had a little while to reflect on it, I realized that they were some of my favorites of the day.

Lovesick Fool — A very interesting short about a man who seems to be unlucky in love. Sadly, his luck seems to come from his own inability to relate to the other sex. He is awkward and misinterprets the situation. A fun short of mixed media and excellent sound editing, I recommend this short as a funny look at one man’s experience of trying to find someone to go out with him, let alone love.

FOT – The Next Big Thing — This is a story of one of those guys with British accents who is always grandstanding and making themselves seem better than everyone else, when really everyone just wishes they would stop talking. It was very well done and the animation was excellent, but the short fully succeeded in its pursuit of annoying the snot out of me. At first it was amusing, then it was a little annoying, then it was unpleasant. In short (no pun intended!), it’s a great short that achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

Ant & Len — Odd, but funny, little short about two alien-type creatures who are… simple. The red one tries to eat his foot and succeeds, while the blueish green one has to entice him back out of his implosion by enticing him with (paper) boobs. This is a very short short, only a minute and forty-five seconds, but it was a very funny and endearing. I would totally watch more of these shorts and I recommend trying to find this one.

Daisy at the Beach — Cute short about a hippo at the beach who can’t manage on her hammock. Once she manages it, she discovers a different problem. Reminiscent of early Pixar.

There Once Was — This was an incredible set of three shorts in mixed media. These were beautiful and amusing shorts about life’s little truths. Find these somewhere, anywhere, since this is the kind of short where you’re doing yourself a disservice not seeing. So awesome!

Western Spaghetti — If the last short wasn’t incredible enough, this short completely blew me away — and garnered more than a few laughs from the audience. This is a stop-motion short about making spaghetti with “western” style objects. Rubick’s Cubes are cut into smaller pieces. Post-its as butter. Pick up sticks and rubber bands. Brilliant, brilliant short. Go to the interwebs and find it right now.

Horn Dog — A Bill Plympton short about a dog who can’t let himself fall in love because every time he gets close he imagines the worst. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s his own worst enemy. Bill Plympton never does bad work, so check this one out when you can. Besides, he very clearly understands the mind of the small dog.

Audition — A monkey auditions for Hamlet. another short, short but one well worth seeing. This one still makes me giggle when I think about it.

Cat Eats Dog –  This is a short about a professor who gets sucked into going to try to find a dog for a sexy student who offers “anything” to the man who can get her “little dog” back, but doesn’t realize he’s likely to find ruin before the dog. This one didn’t really speak to me, but it doesn’t mean it’s not your cup of tea.

King Jeff — This was my favorite of the lot (although Western Speaghetti runs a very, very close second). King Jeff is a man who believes that he is a king. I mean he lives it. Through his eyes, a grimy city is a beautiful kingdom filled with stone towers and damsels in distress. While out at his local toy store (weapons dealer, blacksmith, whatever King Jeff believes he is) Jeff runs into his arch nemesis. A battle ensues, but the winner is not who you would expect. This short is quaint and enjoyable because it never wavers from the belief that every thing Jeff sees is true and, in doing so, makes it utterly ridiculous without ever making fun of Jeff himself. An excellent film for the geek in us all.

Zero Gravity — This was an interesting short. I think my expectations of it held me back from truly enjoying it in the moment because it was in a comedy festival. On the one hand, it’s certainly absurd. On the other hand, it’s a very deeply sweet short about the simple things in life. After his mother dies, Toniet hides in the house for many, many days. Eventually having to venture out for food he is brought into the confidences of a secret society of housewives who are the powers behind the world. Despite all of this, our grief stricken central character just wants some fish stew, not world domination. I would check this short out because it’s certainly beautiful, but dno’t expect comedy. Just go in with a blank slate and you’ll enjoy it.

Robots — The only local short in the bunch. Toronto represent! Two robots whose sole purpose is to sort screws begin to go a little off program. This short film came out of a Second City sketch. Director Ryan Keller has been working with the cast of Second City to create some short films that are a showcase for the incredible work they do, but also maintain the intention of the original sketch. This short reminded me of old Saturday Night Live — back in the days of Gilda radner, Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd and the rest of the gang. I’m not sure that’s what they were going for, but it sure was close. Funny and sweet the short really hit home with the audience.

All in all the Animation and Other Wonders program at World of Comedy Film Festival was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon — even if the sun seemed more enticing.

Related posts:

1. Review: World of Comedy Festival Short Appetizers and a Feature Chaser
2. World of Comedy Film Festival begins Friday
3. NFB Short Films – Slap ‘n’ Tickle

At Home is a small, sweet movie, filmed entirely in one woman’s apartment, and relying on the talents of its actors to carry it.  It centres on a young woman with a lot of phobias; lobsters, kissing, storms, and opening boxes.  In fact, Romy (Kristen Booth) hasn’t left her apartment in years.  She relies on her UPS delivery man, best friend Erin (Shauna MacDonald), and neighbour Bessie (Rosemary Dunsmore) to help her get the things she needs, and more importantly open the boxes of stuff that she’s ordered.

Romy’s life begins to unravel when Bessie dies unexpectedly and her nephew (Aaron Abrams) moves in to clear out her apartment.  I won’t spoil the rest of it for you, but suffice it to say, this new neighbour makes Romy question a lot of things about her life, her future, and her phobias.

The addition of Gordon Pinsent’s narration is spot-on (I kind of want him to narrate my life), but after it’s great opening sequence, the first 15 minutes are a bit slow.  However, director Booth quickly picks up the pace, the humour, and adds a little more emotional depth to the characters, and I quickly forgot about the slightly lacklustre beginning.  As the film progresses, the characters feel less and less like caricatures, and more like people.

This is a sweet movie, charming and slightly goofy, filled with solid acting performances, especially those of Booth and Abrams.  Also notable were Shauna MacDonald as Erin and Raoul Bhaneja as Waylon (who, the last time I saw him, was singing some jazzy blues at The Silver Dollar Room – the man can sing).

Basically, I smiled most of the way through it (and with most Romantic Comedies, I’m either bored or groaning aloud).  It’s only playing this week at The Royal, so check out their website for showtimes.

Related posts:

1. Review: Leap Year
2. Review: It’s Complicated
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The films to be screened will change every week – but that just adds a bit of mystery.  Like a grab bag of cinema.  The Cineforum website has an interesting write up on 3D technology, and apparently Reg Hartt has a good number of books on the subject in his collection that you can peruse.

Screenings will be held at 9pm every Monday in March (8, 15, 22, and 29) at 463 Bathurst St.  Check out the Cineforum website for more information.

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Jeune Cinéma will feature 8 films all focused on the theme of youth and heroism; the films range in ratings from G (General) to PG (Parental Guidance Advised) and 14A (Adult Accompaniment Under-14). Topics and themes vary, from a Belgian-French co-production about a teacher who takes her students hostage (Skirt Day) to the English-Canadian premiere of renowned Greek-born French director Costa-Gavras’ new drama Eden is West, which tells the story of an illegal immigrant aiming for Paris and the many misadventures that befall him on his way.

The School Program offers screenings at the Bloor at 11:30 a.m., presumably so teachers can incorporate the film-going excursion into the school day. What could possibly be cuter than Little Nicholas (dir: Laurent Tirard)? A young boy overhears his parents talking about a new baby in the family and begins to entertain all sorts of hallucinatory paranoid visions about being displaced and forgotten; a familiar story told with a colourful twist.

Click here to visit the official Cinéfranco website, where you can find info on tickets and screening times, as well as detailed descriptions of all the films and links to their trailers. If you would like to bring a class to a screening in the School Program, contact the festival for a special reservation. You can also find details about the festival’s main program on the website, which starts on March 26th. Parents, guardians, and teachers: visit the Ontario Film Review Board for more detailed information about film ratings and content guidelines.

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