Film Fan Fridays for Friday March 25, 2011

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday March 25, 2011! Another huge week of releases with 11 films hitting theatres and 2 festivals making waves, and lots of CanCon kicking around and taking names. Wow. Busy times.

In limited release this week we start with the Thursday March 24, 2011 release of the amazing and inspiring documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls on the lesbian, yodeling, twin sister singing act Lynda and Jools Topp and believe you-me, if you get a chance see this documentary because it's fantastic and I've kept it close to my heart ever since seeing it almost a year ago. Completely inspiring. Keeping it musical, and documentary to boot we have Music from the Big House from director Bruce McDonald (Trigger, Pontypool). We also have limited releases of the romance/drama Certified Copy / Copie conforme starring Juliet Binoche, an Israel sport comedy about sumo wrestlers A Matter of Size, Algerian historical drama Outside the Law / Hors-la-loi, 70's set crime film White Irish Drinkers and sport/inspiration Win Win from director Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent). Holy moly. What a week!

In wide release this week we have lots of extremeness, starting with the release of Hobo with a Shotgun from Treevenge director Jason Eisener and starring Rutger Hauer (Ladyhawke) as a hobo... with a shotgun. And continuing the extremeness with Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch which I'm continuing to be cautiously curious and it looks stylistically great but strongly has a vibe of that reminds me of female character in gaming worlds that women don't play (action-style butt kicking .... stocking & pigtails!), but I'll be happy to champion it if it's awesome and Zack Snyder has surprized me in the past with Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole & 300. We also have two sequels in release with West is West (sequel to the 1999 film East is East) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules (sequel to 2010 Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

Have a great weekend!

Shannon

Festival Watch

Cinéfranco
14th Annual Celebration of International Francophone Cinema
March 25 - April 3, 2011 at TIFF Lightbox Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto Silent Film Festival
March 30 - April 7, 2011 at various locations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Thursday March 24, 2011 Release

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
Dir: Leanne Pooley
Documentary
New Zealand
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Friday March 25, 2011 Releases

Certified Copy / Copie conforme
Writer/Dir: Abbas Kiarostami (The Wind Will Carry Us, Through the Olive Trees)
Cast: Juliette Binoche, William Shimell
France/Italy/Belgium
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules
Dir: David Bowers (Astro Boy)
Cast: Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick, Rachael Harris, Robert Capron, Steve Zahn
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Hobo with a Shotgun
Dir: Jason Eisener (Treevenge)
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Gregory Smith, Robb Wells, Molly Dunsworth
Canada/USA
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

A Matter of Size
Dir: Sharon Maymon & Erez Tadmor (Strangers)
Cast: Itzik Cohen, Dvir Benedek, Alon Dahan, Shmhulik Cohen
Israel/France/Germany
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Music from the Big House
Dir: Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo, Trigger, Pontypool)
Documentary
Canada/USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Outside the Law / Hors-la-loi
Writer/Dir: Rachid Bouchareb (London River, Indigènes)
Cast: Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila
France/Algeria/Belgium
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Sucker Punch
Dir: Zack Snyder (Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, 300)
Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn, Oscar Isaac
USA/Canada
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

West is West
Dir: Andy DeEmmony
Cast: Aqib Khan, Om Puri, Linda Bassett
UK
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

White Irish Drinkers
Writer/Dir: John Gray (The Glimmer Man)
Cast: Nick Thurston, Geoffrey Wigdor, Stephen Lang, Karen Allen, Peter Riegert, Leslie Murphy
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page, Trailer

Win Win
Dir: Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent)
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Melanie Lynskey, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of March 25, 2011**