VIFF 2012 Wrap-Up: All Apologies, A Mere Life, and In the Name of Love

Emily Tang's beautiful, smart, and moving Perfect Life is not only one of my favorite VIFF films of 2008, but one of my favorite films period (I don't keep a list, I just know that the memorable ones must... More »

By Teresa Nieman

VIFF12 Interview: THE UNLIKELY GIRL Director Wei Ling Chang and Star Shane Lynch are Quite the Pair

There's a flurry of excitement in the room where I am about to speak with director Wei Ling Chang about her first feature, The Unlikely Girl, a few hours prior to its world premier at the Vancouver Film Festival. Chang's... More »

By Rachel Fox

VIFF 2012 Interview: Director Andy Keen on New Tragically Hip Documentary BOBCAYGEON

The Tragically Hip are the biggest Canadian band that - for those who live beyond the great white north's borders - you have probably never heard of. Currently riding their third decade of domestic domination, The Hip (as they are... More »

By Rachel Fox

VIFF 2012 Review: IF IT'S NOT NOW, THEN WHEN

The world can be a dull and sullen place. Movies of the mainstream variety offer an easy if not cathartic diversion from the humdrum with momentary distractions full of thrills, horrors and laughs where things happen for a reason. Festival... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Dispatch: THE CAPSULE, A STORY FOR THE MODLINS, And MORNING OF ST ANTHONY'S DAY

Though Athina Rachel Tsangari's short film The Capsule played third after two others, I'm reviewing it first as it was the title with which the other two were programmed (i.e. you show up to see a showing of The... More »

By Teresa Nieman

VIFF 2012 Review: MCDULL, THE PORK OF MUSIC Is A Worthy Continuation Of The Franchise

McDull, a little pig with a big heart, comes from a long line of adorable yet pointed social commentary created by writer Brian Tse and cartoonist Alice Mak over the past 20 years. A little too plump and not too... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Interview: Rob Stewart on REVOLUTION and his Plan to Save Humans From Extinction

With his last feature, 2007's Sharkwater, marine biologist Rob Stewart managed to help save the world, one shark fin at a time. He is now back with a new documentary, Revolution, aimed at saving a different species - humans. Revolution... More »

By Rachel Fox

VIFF 2012 Review: A WEREWOLF BOY Is Mainstream Melodrama

Who is Jo Sung-hee? Judging this young director by his first two feature film may be a lot like pinning down a psychological profile on Dr. Henry Jekyll. Jo's first feature, End of Animal (2010), was a very idiosyncratic quasi-religious... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Review PEOPLE'S PARK Is A Single Take Marvel

As if making a contradictory study to the more politically motivated documentaries made in and about China, J.P. Sniadecki and Libbie Dina Cohn turn an observational eye on the more prosaic aspects of the country. The duo stakes out a... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Review: THE COMEDY Is Hilarious, Transgressive, Brilliant, and Most People Will Find It Unwatchable

I've never set foot in Vancouver, but I did see The Comedy at BAMcinemaFest back in June. That's right, I saw it before it was cool. And since there's no full review of the film in the Twitch archive, it... More »

By Joshua Chaplinsky

VIFF 2012 Dispatch: NAMELESS GANGSTER, TWO JACKS, and STARLET

I would pretty much watch any film starring Choi Min-sik at this point, and his towering performance as a befuddled civil worker who weasels and networks his way to the top of the crime underworld in Busan is reason enough... More »

By Teresa Nieman

VIFF 2012 Review: BEAUTIFUL 2012 Is A Rare, Successful Omnibus

Rarely do omnibus films work. They either have too many films to differentiate one from the other (like another VIFF entry this year 10+10) or the quality of the films is so uneven that even the good segments are not... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Review: A FISH Is A Complex Riddle

Park Hong-min's debut feature, modest as it might seem on the edges, boasts a striking visual presence right from the first frame. We see a stationary shot of a road with cars buzzing by as if we are standing on... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Review: WHEN NIGHT FALLS Is A Poetic Protest

On July 1, 2008, just a mere month before the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics, a 28-year-old man named Yang Jia charged into a police station in Shanghai with Molotov cocktails and a knife, killing six and wounding four... More »

By Kathie Smith

VIFF 2012 Dispatch: SLEEPLESS NIGHT and SORRY, I AM SO SORRY

Korean filmmaker Jang Kun-jae (whose Eighteen won the Dragons & Tigers award, VIFF's prize for new Asian directors, in 2009) delivers a heartfelt, sweet, genuine, yet never cloying portrayal of an average married couple in Sleepless Night. Essentially a series... More »

By Teresa Nieman

Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

China Beat: What did China See in IRON MAN 3?

Much has already been written, both on these pages and many others, about the landmark Hollywood-China co-production that is Marvel and DMG Entertainment's Iron Man 3. The film, directed by Shane Black, is the third solo outing for Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, and has proved a phenomenal success around... More »

FEAR & LOATHING AT CANNES, PART 2: I'M IN LOVE WITH EVERYBODY'S GIRL

CHAPTER 4: THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANNA KARINA AND BUTT PLUGSI'm sitting outside at a small Café that my editor told me to meet him at. I'm a 10 minute walk from the Marche Du Film convention hall and I'm still waiting for my editor to arrive so he take guide... More »

CINEMA HOLOCAUST ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA, PART 1: THOSE GOD DAMN FILM BLOGGERS

MIKE'S JOURNAL. MAY 13. MORNINGI wake up sometime around five AM. My flight to France doesn't leave until five PM. I should be there for security check in sometime around 3PM. There is no reason for me to be up this early but I'm feeling anxious. I have an itch... More »

FEAR & LOATHING AT CANNES, PART 1: A MAN'S HANDSHAKE SAYS EVERYTHING

CHAPTER ONE: THE BIGGER THE SIDEBURNS, THE BIGGER THE ASSHOLE. I've hit the big time now. I've finally made it. I'm in like Flint from here on out. I'm boarding a plane to France where I'll be attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.No more unpaid blogging from... More »

Destroy All Monsters: Leo DiCaprio and the Myth of the Chick Flick

I have a running argument about whether or not movie box office is a zero-sum game. I tend to attack film earning potential from the "mother of two" perspective - which is that while yes, it's nice to believe that if a film is good it has a theoretically unlimited... More »