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Robert Englund, Ellen Page, And A Carradine!! It's The Kingston Canadian Film Festival!!
Merrick here...
The Canadian sent in this report from the Kingston Canadian Film Festival - an all-Canadian fest that recently concluded. One of the movies has Robert Englund in it - which automatically bumps it up on the Coolometer.
Here's The Canadian...
I just spent the last weekend at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, and thought Ain’t it Cool would be interested in some of these reviews. This is the only exclusively Canadian content film festival in the world, and they get some pretty big contenders. This was my second year in attendance, and overall I wasn’t as impressed with the offerings as I was last year, but I did manage to see a few gems; here is a short list/review of everything I saw (in chronological order):
All Hat
Since this was the first one I saw, it’s a little bit fuzzier in my head. I remember liking it, but hoping that wouldn’t be the best film I would see at the festival. The film features a number of Canadian actors that people see in everything but don’t really remember where they saw them before, like Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) and Stephen McHattie (300).
Luke Kirby plays Ray Dokes, an ex-con who returns to his rural Ontario life after two years in prison. When he gets back he finds that the rich son-of-a-bitch who sent him to prison is up to all kinds of crazy shenanigans, trying to buy up the farm land of his mentor Pete (played by my favourite actor who always plays the same character, Keith Carradine), and his former girlfriend. The film follows Dokes as he tries to get retribution for his jail time, and help the people in his community with an innovative plan that involves stealing a million dollar racehorse called Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
Carradine is definitely the highlight of the movie, followed by Rachel Leigh Cook who plays a spunky alcoholic jockey. The low point is definitely the villain Sonny Stanton, played by Noam Jenkins (Saw III). He is fine whenever he is sleazy, but anytime Jenkins has to show any other emotion it falls flat. The one-note of sleaze gets a little bit tiresome after a while and the character comes across as too cartoonish.
This is a pretty typical Canadian film, with clever dialogue, set in a distinctively Canadian setting and dealing with distinctively Canadian issues, but every one really can enjoy it. The movie probably won’t have a theatrical release, but keep your eyes open for it on DVD. It’s actually pretty hilarious at times, a good ol’lighthearted romp.
The Tracey Fragments
This has been in limited release in Canada for a while now, but you folks down south have to wait until May to catch this in theatres. This film is a little bit harder to assess than All Hat. Bruce MacDonald (Hard Core Logo) is probably my favourite Canadian director, but I really have no idea what to think of this movie. The two people I was with liked it a whole lot more than me, they said I couldn’t really understand it as much because I had never been a 15-year-old girl.
It features Canadian du jour Ellen Page as Tracey, a fucked-up girl looking for her lost brother resulting in a crazy and terrible journey around Winnipeg. To be honest, the plot doesn’t really matter than much, what makes this movie unique is the visual style. This is the first movie ever (at least according to imdb) to be entirely composed of Mondrian multi-frames. At first I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sit through an hour and a half of this, but it blends in really well with what is happening on screen. Whenever Tracey is going through something especially stressful, the amount of frames on the screen increases, in times of calm, it tends to be one or two.
What bothered me about the film was just the character/angst of the Tracey. This isn’t really a justification for why this movie is bad, I just don’t like angsty characters. Poor Ellen Page is made to say some really terrible lines, but I think she pulls it off nicely—for the most part. This is a movie you really have to make your own call on. If you think you can handle lots of angst and frames, go for it. One thing that should be mentioned, Broken Social Scenes’ score is awesome.
Amal
Amal ended up winning the People’s Choice Award at this year’s festival. It was good, but not entirely my sort of thing. The story is set in India and focuses on an autorickshaw driver for whom the film is named. The plot sounds weak and derivative when you describe it, but it’s more complex and intricate than I will make it seem. Amal drives a crotchety old man who turns out to be a multi-millionaire. This man dies and ends up giving his entire fortune and hotel empire to Amal, instead of his sons. Needless to say, the sons are quite upset about this. Anyway, the basic plot follows the lawyers search all over New Delhi for this autorickshaw driver named Amal switching from that to Amal’s day-to-day life as an honest nice guy. It’s a well-made movie and features Rupinder Nagra in the title role and Indian superstar Naseeruddin Shah as the old man. I didn’t really have any problems with it, it’s heartwarming and sweet and it’s got a really spectacular ending. It’s just a nice movie, and that’s that.
Bluff
I was expecting more from this movie. Quebec cinema tends to be of a higher caliber than the rest of Canada’s, they have a very dedicated film industry. Bluff has a nifty premise, set in a house that is about to be demolished, the film gives us a story for each of the tenants to have lived there over the past ten years. What was wrong with it? Well, maybe I don’t get Quebecois humour, but it just wasn’t that funny, and it was really, really trying to be. Most of the tenants are pretty interesting, but there are one or two that don’t seem as thought out as the others. Other than the premise, there isn’t much that stood out for me.
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Pure geek fare, as you can probably gather from the title. Practical special effects, an ass-kicking main character and Robert Englund, really what more can you ask for? This is just a gore-fest in the same vein as Slither with gross out deaths and tongue-in-cheek humour. The story follows Jack—our lead—an orphan whose parents and sister were killed by a random monster in the forest during a camping trip. “Everything changed that day,” jump forward 20 years, and Jack is an adult with serious rage issues, an irritating girlfriend and taking night school chemistry classes against his will. The teacher of this class is none other than Freddy himself, Robert Englund.
Needless to say, some shit goes down, monsters start attacking his classmates and it’s up to Jack to sort of everything out. Best part of this film is hands-down Robert Englund. He really puts his all into the role. The worst part is probably the character of Jack, he’s a little bit too much of an asshole to be likable, but that’s fine, we don’t really need to like characters to be entertained by their ass-kicking. The special effects are great, it’s nice to see more practical stuff like this. If I were to have one complaint about the make-up it’s that the monsters look way too much like something out of Buffy. The plot, being set in a school, is also fairly similar to Buffy...hey, it even has slayer in the title. I got pretty much everything I wanted from this movie, and the audience really seemed to eat it up, cheering at all the right moments.
Anyway, that’s all I saw this year. I missed out on some good ones, like Emotional Arithmetic, what will probably end up being this year’s Away From Her. Anyway, I hope you found this useful.
I hate coming up with internet names, but if you use this just call me The Canadian.
All Hat
Since this was the first one I saw, it’s a little bit fuzzier in my head. I remember liking it, but hoping that wouldn’t be the best film I would see at the festival. The film features a number of Canadian actors that people see in everything but don’t really remember where they saw them before, like Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) and Stephen McHattie (300).
Luke Kirby plays Ray Dokes, an ex-con who returns to his rural Ontario life after two years in prison. When he gets back he finds that the rich son-of-a-bitch who sent him to prison is up to all kinds of crazy shenanigans, trying to buy up the farm land of his mentor Pete (played by my favourite actor who always plays the same character, Keith Carradine), and his former girlfriend. The film follows Dokes as he tries to get retribution for his jail time, and help the people in his community with an innovative plan that involves stealing a million dollar racehorse called Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
Carradine is definitely the highlight of the movie, followed by Rachel Leigh Cook who plays a spunky alcoholic jockey. The low point is definitely the villain Sonny Stanton, played by Noam Jenkins (Saw III). He is fine whenever he is sleazy, but anytime Jenkins has to show any other emotion it falls flat. The one-note of sleaze gets a little bit tiresome after a while and the character comes across as too cartoonish.
This is a pretty typical Canadian film, with clever dialogue, set in a distinctively Canadian setting and dealing with distinctively Canadian issues, but every one really can enjoy it. The movie probably won’t have a theatrical release, but keep your eyes open for it on DVD. It’s actually pretty hilarious at times, a good ol’lighthearted romp.
The Tracey Fragments
This has been in limited release in Canada for a while now, but you folks down south have to wait until May to catch this in theatres. This film is a little bit harder to assess than All Hat. Bruce MacDonald (Hard Core Logo) is probably my favourite Canadian director, but I really have no idea what to think of this movie. The two people I was with liked it a whole lot more than me, they said I couldn’t really understand it as much because I had never been a 15-year-old girl.
It features Canadian du jour Ellen Page as Tracey, a fucked-up girl looking for her lost brother resulting in a crazy and terrible journey around Winnipeg. To be honest, the plot doesn’t really matter than much, what makes this movie unique is the visual style. This is the first movie ever (at least according to imdb) to be entirely composed of Mondrian multi-frames. At first I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sit through an hour and a half of this, but it blends in really well with what is happening on screen. Whenever Tracey is going through something especially stressful, the amount of frames on the screen increases, in times of calm, it tends to be one or two.
What bothered me about the film was just the character/angst of the Tracey. This isn’t really a justification for why this movie is bad, I just don’t like angsty characters. Poor Ellen Page is made to say some really terrible lines, but I think she pulls it off nicely—for the most part. This is a movie you really have to make your own call on. If you think you can handle lots of angst and frames, go for it. One thing that should be mentioned, Broken Social Scenes’ score is awesome.
Amal
Amal ended up winning the People’s Choice Award at this year’s festival. It was good, but not entirely my sort of thing. The story is set in India and focuses on an autorickshaw driver for whom the film is named. The plot sounds weak and derivative when you describe it, but it’s more complex and intricate than I will make it seem. Amal drives a crotchety old man who turns out to be a multi-millionaire. This man dies and ends up giving his entire fortune and hotel empire to Amal, instead of his sons. Needless to say, the sons are quite upset about this. Anyway, the basic plot follows the lawyers search all over New Delhi for this autorickshaw driver named Amal switching from that to Amal’s day-to-day life as an honest nice guy. It’s a well-made movie and features Rupinder Nagra in the title role and Indian superstar Naseeruddin Shah as the old man. I didn’t really have any problems with it, it’s heartwarming and sweet and it’s got a really spectacular ending. It’s just a nice movie, and that’s that.
Bluff
I was expecting more from this movie. Quebec cinema tends to be of a higher caliber than the rest of Canada’s, they have a very dedicated film industry. Bluff has a nifty premise, set in a house that is about to be demolished, the film gives us a story for each of the tenants to have lived there over the past ten years. What was wrong with it? Well, maybe I don’t get Quebecois humour, but it just wasn’t that funny, and it was really, really trying to be. Most of the tenants are pretty interesting, but there are one or two that don’t seem as thought out as the others. Other than the premise, there isn’t much that stood out for me.
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Pure geek fare, as you can probably gather from the title. Practical special effects, an ass-kicking main character and Robert Englund, really what more can you ask for? This is just a gore-fest in the same vein as Slither with gross out deaths and tongue-in-cheek humour. The story follows Jack—our lead—an orphan whose parents and sister were killed by a random monster in the forest during a camping trip. “Everything changed that day,” jump forward 20 years, and Jack is an adult with serious rage issues, an irritating girlfriend and taking night school chemistry classes against his will. The teacher of this class is none other than Freddy himself, Robert Englund.
Needless to say, some shit goes down, monsters start attacking his classmates and it’s up to Jack to sort of everything out. Best part of this film is hands-down Robert Englund. He really puts his all into the role. The worst part is probably the character of Jack, he’s a little bit too much of an asshole to be likable, but that’s fine, we don’t really need to like characters to be entertained by their ass-kicking. The special effects are great, it’s nice to see more practical stuff like this. If I were to have one complaint about the make-up it’s that the monsters look way too much like something out of Buffy. The plot, being set in a school, is also fairly similar to Buffy...hey, it even has slayer in the title. I got pretty much everything I wanted from this movie, and the audience really seemed to eat it up, cheering at all the right moments.
Anyway, that’s all I saw this year. I missed out on some good ones, like Emotional Arithmetic, what will probably end up being this year’s Away From Her. Anyway, I hope you found this useful.
I hate coming up with internet names, but if you use this just call me The Canadian.
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...but I wish somebody would cast him in a "serious" movie. I just can't stand him in horrormovies anymore.
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Missed it again
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I lived there for 7 years and I'm not going back anytime soon. The film festival was always a joke, but I was always amazed that they even managed to have one...made me think they were trying too hard to be a more important city. Freddy Kreuger rules.
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i actually worked there, and i can't disagree with any of the above statements. but I hear the NFB shorts were good at least.
Carradine rules, but unless you're a hardcore fan I wouldn't recommend All Hat, and Amal was ok. -
there was a whole article and interview with robert when he was here filming. sounded like a cool idea but of course its canadian so i was worried but from the footage i've seen, it doesnt look nearly as cheap as i figured it would due to our amazing movie effects.
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frontenac county, represent!
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...but they have tons of prisoners!
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Saturday Night Live was horrid (not that it's half watchable anyway) with Ellen Page hosting last week. GD is she annoying. I still refer to her as the X-Men girl because that's the only movie I've seen her in. I don't dare watch Juno.
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Hey Merrick, your source is seriously misinformed. Probably a Queens U student so it's not surprising. There are a great number of Canadian festivals restricted to Canuck produced films.
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You are a knob. Nothing more need be said.
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That type of story has been done over and over, I was wronged by a rich bastard and sent to prison, I get out of prison and get revenge on rich bastard. Que credits
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I know I'm anal, but still upset about Freddy. Recasting the man's most significant contribution to film history (don't agree? ask New Line what they think) kinda pops my bubble a bit...
I understand they want to relaunch the franchise, but what's the cost of relaunching the franchise to a generation of attention-deficit cynics? Is trashing the history of some fine films worth a few quick bucks??
http://tinyurl.com/2qdpmv -
oh, fuck you.
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http://www.brookstreetpictures.com/jackbrooks/trailer/index.html
This flick looks badass. -
...I can say that Canadian film is seldom great but it's not from a lack of talent, just a lack of money. Luckily that's been improving, but as a kid the Canadian movies I remember hearing about or seeing were Slapshot and Strange Brew - and both were crap (though at the time they seemed so cool, LOL).
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Mar 06, 2008 8:58:47 PM CST
"we don’t really need to like characters to be entertained by th
by neosamurai85
I'm running a blank on an example that actually supports this claim. Anyone?
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Was the rest of the quote. Stupid cut off subject lines.
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Shouldn't it be between the Toronto and Montreal film festivals?
See what I'm doing there?
I'm making some kind of temporal/spatial switcheroo, a play on the geographical location of Kingston.
Sheer posting brilliance!
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