Ninth Floor director Mina Shum: In Canada, “We’re racist but we like to apologize about our racism.” Shum discusses Canadian racism and her new documentary.
Canadian cinema
Coming-of-age in Ontario is messy in Sleeping Giant
Andrew Cividino’s assured debut Sleeping Giant — the opening film at this year’s Cannes’ Critics Week — captures the beauty of cottage country Ontario without ever quite transcending the often stilted performances of its non-actors. The film follows Adam (Jackson Martin) who is up north with his family for the summer where he meets two trouble-making […]
TIFF 15: Minotauro has interesting ideas but overstays its welcome
Nicolás Pereda’s Minotauro sees its North American debut in the Wavelengths section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This nigh impenetrable avant-garde picture is a narcoleptic journey into the interior lives of three young adults (played by Pereda regulars Gabino Rodríguez, Luisa Pardo and Francisco Barreiro) as they sleep, dream, read, and interact with occasional […]
Review of The Grand Seduction: The scheme may be grand but the comedy isn’t
Despite boasting a cast of the who’s who in English Canadian cinema — from Gordon Pinsent to Mark Critch to Taylor Kitsch — Don McKellar’s English adaptation of the lovely 2003 Québécois film La Grande Séduction is rather lacklustre. Considering most Canadians have no qualms about reading subtitles, it’s a bit of a mystery why this […]