There’s a distinct lack of new major-label entertainment on our screens this week as the studios give their big American Thanksgiving releases one more week to play out, but there’s plenty of stuff going on in the margins if you’re looking for an offbeat diversion.
For starters, there’s the Monsters and Martians Fest at the Projection Booth East. Running through Sunday, it’s an indie sci-fi festival with a focus on modest budgets and major ambitions. Saturday night’s double-bill of The Call Of Cthulhu and The Whisperer In Darkness – two H.P. Lovecraft adaptations produced in the style of the era in which Lovecraft wrote his original stories – is of particular note, but I’m also intrigued by Alter Egos, a superhero comedy starring Ginger Snaps’ Kris Lemche and My Suicide’s Brooke Nevin.
On Monday, TIFF Bell Lightbox gooses its ongoing Designing 007 exhibition with a visit from Bond veteran John Glen, who worked on the series as a second-unit director and editor before taking the directorial reins for the entirety of the 80s. Glen will be sitting down for an In Conversation With … session at 7 pm, and introducing a screening of Octopussy at 9 pm. He’s a fascinating guy; check back on Monday to read my interview with him.
On Wednesday, the ongoing Packaged Goods series returns to the Lightbox for a roundup of the year’s best commercials and music videos; yes, it’s all stuff you can find online with a little digging, but there’s something to be said for watching this stuff on a big screen with other humans. And really, the full-length version of that Fleet Foxes video just isn’t the same on a tablet.
If you’re too high-minded to imagine paying to watch advertising, though, there’s something at the Royal that might be more to your liking. The folks at The Seventh Art podcast are launching a new series that brings filmmakers into town to screen and discuss their work, and they’re starting with Whit Stillman, who’ll be presenting Metropolitan at 7 pm Wednesday and The Last Days Of Disco at 7 pm Thursday. (Tickets are available here.)
I’m a big fan of Stillman’s – our conversation about Damsels In Distress at TIFF last year was one of the highlights of my festival – and I can’t endorse these events strongly enough. He makes smart movies about silly people, and if you’ve only seen these movies at home, you have no idea how pleasurable it is to hear the dialogue crackle through a crowd. Oh, and if you do go, ask Stillman what it’s going to take to wrangle a Blu-ray release of Barcelona. It really is his most prescient picture.
For starters, there’s the Monsters and Martians Fest at the Projection Booth East. Running through Sunday, it’s an indie sci-fi festival with a focus on modest budgets and major ambitions. Saturday night’s double-bill of The Call Of Cthulhu and The Whisperer In Darkness – two H.P. Lovecraft adaptations produced in the style of the era in which Lovecraft wrote his original stories – is of particular note, but I’m also intrigued by Alter Egos, a superhero comedy starring Ginger Snaps’ Kris Lemche and My Suicide’s Brooke Nevin.
On Monday, TIFF Bell Lightbox gooses its ongoing Designing 007 exhibition with a visit from Bond veteran John Glen, who worked on the series as a second-unit director and editor before taking the directorial reins for the entirety of the 80s. Glen will be sitting down for an In Conversation With … session at 7 pm, and introducing a screening of Octopussy at 9 pm. He’s a fascinating guy; check back on Monday to read my interview with him.
On Wednesday, the ongoing Packaged Goods series returns to the Lightbox for a roundup of the year’s best commercials and music videos; yes, it’s all stuff you can find online with a little digging, but there’s something to be said for watching this stuff on a big screen with other humans. And really, the full-length version of that Fleet Foxes video just isn’t the same on a tablet.
If you’re too high-minded to imagine paying to watch advertising, though, there’s something at the Royal that might be more to your liking. The folks at The Seventh Art podcast are launching a new series that brings filmmakers into town to screen and discuss their work, and they’re starting with Whit Stillman, who’ll be presenting Metropolitan at 7 pm Wednesday and The Last Days Of Disco at 7 pm Thursday. (Tickets are available here.)
I’m a big fan of Stillman’s – our conversation about Damsels In Distress at TIFF last year was one of the highlights of my festival – and I can’t endorse these events strongly enough. He makes smart movies about silly people, and if you’ve only seen these movies at home, you have no idea how pleasurable it is to hear the dialogue crackle through a crowd. Oh, and if you do go, ask Stillman what it’s going to take to wrangle a Blu-ray release of Barcelona. It really is his most prescient picture.
• Dec 7, 2012 at 04:13 PM
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