Film Fan Fridays for Friday February 4, 2011

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday February 4, 2011! It's a bit of a manic week with lots of special screenings, the beginnings of festival (in February no less, burr!!) but also we have the excitement of the Genie Nominations with Barney's Version and Incendies both as top contenders and both still in theatres to boot! Plus we have more Canadian film hitting the big screen and our regular wide releases. It's one full week!

In limited release this week we have two Canadian releases including the very compelling looking Oliver Sherman (check out the trailer - it looks fantastic) that I know is going on my to see list, we also have the documentary Turning 32 which is a follow up doc by directors Robbie Hart and Luc Côté meet five people they originally interviewed 16 years ago for the television series Turning 16. Fascinating. We also have several international films opening at TIFF Lightbox this week including the Italy/Brazil co-pro Birdwatchers / La terra degli uomini rossi the pseudo documentary The Time That Remains and the Thursday February 3, 2011 release of based on the true story of a robber/marathon runner The Robber / Der Räuber.

In wide release this week we have three releases, and two are close to horror-feeling films, first with The Roommate starring Leighton Meester (Country Strong), Alyson Michalka and Cam Gigandet (Twilight, Burlesque) which feels like Single White Female dorm-style, and keeping it very contained is the action-adventure gone wrong cave diving style with Sanctum which I know I won't be able to resist (although hopefully I'll resist seeing it in 3D). Sanctum stars Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield & Ioan Gruffudd. Last up for wide releases is What Women Want / Wo Zhi Nu Ren Xin aka I Know a Woman's Heart is a remake of the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want and although the topic doesn't grab me I'm impressed that this Chinese version stars phenemonial actors of Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs, Warlords, The / Tau ming chong) and Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, Curse of the Golden Flower / Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia).

Have a great weekend!

Shannon

Special Screenings

Back to the 80's at TIFF Lightbox
Saturday afternoons are 80's noons at TIFF Lightbox delving into all-time favourite titles from your favourite mullet decade, from scifi to fantasy the line up includes Back to the Future, Krull, The Last Starfighter and The Princess Bride. Programmed by Todd Brown, Founder of Twitch Film
This weeks 80s selection is: Goonies planing Saturday February 5, 2011 at 2pm.

Thorne: Scaredy Cat & Sleepyhead
This UK TV series hits the big screen and it took me ages to figure out what this was, but it's a 2-parter with 3 episodes each. Thorne: Sleepyhead (First 3 episodes) stars Natascha McElhone, Sara Lloyd-Gregory, Aisling Loftus and Thorne: Scaredy Cat (second 3 episodes) stars David Morrissey, Sandra Oh, Aidan Gillen, Eddie Marsan. The two programs are playing one after each other this week on a daily basis at AMC Yonge & Dundas.
More info at the Sky1 Website, Thorne Wikipedia Page plus IMDb Page for Sleephyhead, IMDb Page for Scaredy Cat

Festival Watch

Cuban Film Festival
February 4 - 5, 2011 at The Royal in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Great Digital Film Festival 2011
A selection of classic, cult and popular film shown in digital or High Definition
Titles include: Alien, Aliens, Predators, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Usual Suspects, Dirty Dancing & more
February 4 - 10, 2011 in Toronto as well across Canada in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver

The Found Footage Film Festival
February 4, 2011 at The Bloor in in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Thursday February 3, 2011 Releases

Robber, The / Der Räuber
Dir: Benjamin Heisenberg (Sleeper, At the Lake)
Cast: Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz, Florian Wotruba
Germany/Austria
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Friday February 4, 2011 Releases

Birdwatchers / La terra degli uomini rossi
Dir: Marco Bechis (Sons and Daughters, Garage Olimpo)
Cast: Claudio Santamaria, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Chiara Caselli, Pedro Abrísio da Silva, Matheus Nachtergaele
Italy/Brazil
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Oliver Sherman
Dir: Ryan Redford - feature film directorial debut
Cast: Garret Dillahunt, Molly Parker, Donal Logue
Canada
Limited Release
See more info at Telefilm, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Roommate
Dir: Christian E. Christiansen (Zoomers, Crying for Love)
Cast: Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Aly Michalka, Danneel Harris, Frances Fisher, Billy Zane, Nina Dobrev
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Sanctum
Dir: Alister Grierson (Kokoda)
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson, Dan Wyllie
USA/Australia
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Time that Remains
Writer/Dir: Elia Suleiman (Cyber Palestine, Chronicle of a Disappearance)
Cast: Ali Suliman, Elia Suleiman, Saleh Bakri, Amer Hlehel
UK/Italy/Belgium/France
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Turning 32
Dir: Robbie Hart & Luc Côté ("Turning 16")
Documentary
Canada
Limited Release
See more info at the NFB website, No IMDb Page, Trailer

What Women Want / Wo Zhi Nu Ren Xin
Dir: Daming Chen (The Dreams of Jinsha, One Foot Off the Ground)
Cast: Andy Lau, Gong Li, Daming Chen, Osric Chau
China
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of February 4, 2011**