July 30 - August 6

What’s the Worst Thing That Ever Happened to You At a Movie Theatre? For me it was watching “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” but for others it’s actually life threatening instead of just soul destroying. How about the guy who was shot for talking too loudly during a screening of Benjamin Button? Or the horrific “Shutter Island” meat thermometer incident? Read ranker.com’s list of The Top 10 Most Violent Movie Theatre Attacks here!

Favorite Website of the Week: Trailers from Hell, Joe Dante’s cool website that features directors introducing and commenting on their favorite film trailers. Mostly horror stuff but there is the odd vintage comedy (like The Three Stooges Meet Hercules) or drama thrown in for color. Check out the site here! Bring the Trailers from Hell experience to your home here! Here’s some info: “Trailers--you know, those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the exhibitors want you to NEED to see! Full of swirling letters screaming hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few minutes! THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1 showcases the cream of the award-winning website series, concentrating on promos for horror, science fiction and fantasy films which viewers can watch both as originally intended or accompanied by pithy commentary by Trailers from Hell Gurus: Joe Dante (Gremlins), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Mick Garris (The Stand), Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead).”

July 23 - July 30

Fun with Lego: The website Amusing Planet always features cool stuff, but their 26 movie posters recreated in Lego is really rather amazing. Enuff said, see it for yourself.

Go Canada Go! The Red List: Four years ago a Hollywood executive created the Black List, a rundown of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood. Over the years the list has included such projects as the Oscar winning "Juno" and the Oscar nominated "Lars and the Real Girl". Now it’s time for Canada to get in on the act. Here’s some info from the announcement: “Welcome to The Red List. We want to hear about the very best Canada has to offer, whether it is a script written by a prolific Canadian writer or the undiscovered talent lying in wait. We want to hear about those 3 amazing scripts that blew you away upon reading. In doing this we hope we can begin to cast a light on those scripts that at the very least are deserving of a read, if not an option. Parameters are: The project can be optioned but must not be produced as of December 31, 2010. Must be written by Canadian writer(s) only. Must be a feature film length screenplay - no TV. When submitting your top 3 you must include the title, the author(s) name(s) and brief log line. The list will be announced post-TIFF on September 25, 2010. 

July 16 - July 23

Question of the Week: Why isn't this movie available on DVD?The Devils, Ken Russell's horror masterwork has been available on and off on video and DVD but the remastered print that has played at various film festivals in the last couple of years hasn't yet been made public except for a brief (like two or three day) stint on itunes. Any movie Leonard Maltin thinks is "not for the squeamish" is all right by me. For more on Ken Russell click here. Also! stay tuned for more details on Richard's upcoming Q&A with Ken Russell!   

Another English Director! This one is just a link, but it is a cool link. Click here to see Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright's 10 Coolest Movie Moments courtesy of Total Film! His choices range from The Gumball Rally to Raising Arizona and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

July 9 - July 16

American Movies, State by State: I'm a bit late on this (Happy Belated Independence Day USA!) but this is worth having a look at. It's a map of the States with an interesting choice of a movie to represent the state. Cool stuff courtesy of hollywood.com. Here's the info from the website: "In honor of Independence Day, we’ve gone a little patriotic -- you know, cinematically speaking. It wasn’t always easy (thanks, Utah!) and we didn’t always agree (thanks, New York!), but after much debate, we’ve picked each state’s best movie of all time. Wanna see what we chose as the greatest movie ever set in, say, Georgia (hint: It’s not The Last Song)? Just click on the state. Not everyone will agree, but that’s OK -- after all, what’s more American than arguing over national affairs?"

Cool Movie Announcement of the Week: YouTube, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald are teaming up to create Life in a Day, a film / internet project that hopes to document one day on earth. Here are the details from the press release: So the idea is that 6.7 billion people view the world through their own unique lens.  This is a way to collect all of these perspectives and to mold them into the cohesive story of a single day on earth. On July 7th, YouTube will announce Life in a Day, an historic global film experiment that will attempt to do just that: document one day on earth (July 24, 2010), as seen through the eyes of people around the world.  The project will be produced by Ridley Scott, directed by Kevin Macdonald. Anyone in the world will have 24hours to capture their life on camera.  They can film the ordinary (a sunrise, the commute to work, a neighborhood soccer match) or the extraordinary (baby's first steps, a marriage) and upload the footage to www.youtube.com/lifeinaday. Kevin Macdonald will edit the most compelling footage into a feature-length documentary.  Individuals whose footage makes it to the film will be credited as co-directors and 20 of these contributors will be flown to Park City, Utah for the film's world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.”

July 2 - July 9

Favorite iPad App of the Week: The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has its own iPad app, available free of charge at the iTunes Store or at the NFB’s download page at NFB.ca. Here’s some info from the press release: “One of the first Canadian film apps for the iPad, the NFB app allows users to enjoy over 1,000 NFB documentaries, animated shorts and trailers, streamed over Wi-Fi and 3G wireless networks. It includes a selection of films in 3-D and stunning high definition. Users will also be able to download and store a film for up to 48 hours, for off-line viewing. The app has the same features as the NFB’s iPhone app (which has been downloaded more than 235,000 times, with 821,000 film views) but has been optimized to take advantage of the inherent qualities of the iPad.”

Favorite Movie Announcement of the Week: Production has begun in London on Academy Award®-winner Martin Scorsese’s adventure film Hugo Cabret.  The live-action film, to be photographed in 3D, stars Academy Award® winner Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen and Kick Ass’s Hit Girl, Chloë Moretz. From the press release: “Hugo Cabret, Scorsese’s first film shot in 3D, tells the tale of an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station.   When Hugo encounters a broken machine, an eccentric girl, and the cold, reserved man who runs the toy shop, he is caught up in a magical, mysterious adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy. Hugo Cabret will be filmed at London’s Shepperton Studios as well as on locations in London and Paris. It is scheduled for a December 2011 release in North America.”

June 25 - July 2

Book of the Week: Blade Runners Deer Hunters And Blowing The Bloody Doors Off  by Michael Deeley. From amazon.ca: “One man links "The Deer Hunter", "Blade Runner", "The Italian Job", "Don't Look Now", "The Wicker Man" and "The Man Who Fell To Earth". Producer Michael Deeley, an urbane Englishman in Hollywood, had to fight wars to get these movies made, from defending the legendary sex scene of "Don't Look Now" from a disapproving Warren Beatty to seizing control of Convoy from a cocaine-ridden Sam Peckinpah. This is a no-holds-barred look at the true stories behind some of the greatest cult movies ever made.”

Unexpected Comeback of the Week: Rona Barrett. In the far away days of my youth Rona Barrett was the conduit of all things gossipy and Hollywood. She was a columnist and author who began her autobiography with the words: "Just an inch, Miss Rona, just let me put it in an inch!" attributed to western star Hugh O'Brian who desperately wanted to have, I guess, just a little bit of sex with her. Then she disappeared, retiring from the scene to pursue business opportunities. Now, after a break of two decades she’s back with a one woman show called Nothing But the Truth playing at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. More info here. 

June 18 - June 25

Book of the Week: "Role Models" by John Waters. It’s supposed to be a compendium of pieces about the people who have influenced the filmmaker, but instead is actually a fascinating self portrait of an original thinker and free spirit. Here’s what amazon.ca says: “Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich—and happily horrify readers everywhere. Role Models is, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena; from the English novelist Denton Welch to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathis—these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness. Role Models is a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse, and hilarious artistic minds of our time.”

Corporate Mascot of the Week: The giant Luxo Jr at Pixar Studios in Emerville, California! Luxo Jr. was the first film produced in 1986 by Pixar Animation Studios. Since then the small hopping desk lamp has become the company's mascot and has appeared in almost every Pixar production to date. The photo was taken from the foyer of the Pixar building looking on to their grounds.

June 11 - June 18

Cool Art of the Week: Classic horror fans check out Pennsylvania based artist Ray Santoleri's website. He makes extremely cool (and affordable!) sculptures of classic movie icons. The Karloff busts caught my eye, but fans of The Three Stooges and other movie and TV stars will also find much to like here. Pictured here is the third in the Karloff series. Here's some info on the bust from Santoleri's website: "The third in a series of five, 1/4 scale busts of Boris Karloff from the 1930s. Boris Karloff as himself, this solid resin bust stands 6" with the base. All 5 busts will be mounted on the same base. These are licensed thru Karloff Enterprises and sold only by me. Painted busts are signed and numbered by me and limited to 25." Buy them here!

Starlet of the Week: Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone." In the film she plays Ree Dolly, a 17 year-old girl forced to track her father through the Ozark Mountains after he places their home up as his bail bond and goes on the lam. The up and coming actress, who won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival for her work in The Burning Plain in 2008 and will soon be seen starring opposite Mel; Gibson in the Jody Foster directed "The Beaver." Read more about her here and watch this exclusive interview for Maple Pictures' social media fans on Facebook/Twitter/Youtube with Jennifer (Richard did the interview!) here.

June 4 - June 11

1960's Movie of the Week:The Tenth Victim, as chosen by Splice director Vincenzo Natali. "Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress," he says. "An Italian film made in the 60s but way ahead of its time. I don’t think you’ve heard of it because I don’t think people understood what they were looking at when they aw this movie. How could they? It’s about a most dangerous kind of game, televised for the entire world, in which people kill each other. Marcello has to kill Ursula Andress and vice versa and it is a satirical comedy, absolutely brilliantly made. It’s filled with cool futuristic Italian architecture, design and furniture and so on… It’s really funny. I cannot recommend it enough but very obscure. Not many people know about it." To hear Natali's whole list of great sci fi movies listen in to Richard Crouse At the Movies on NewsTalk 1010 Saturday June 5 at noon and read about them in the Metro Weekender!

Movie of the Week:"Splice goes places that bigger budget science fiction wouldn’t dare to tread. This isn’t the enviro-friendly sci fi of James Cameron or the space opera of George Lucas. No, this has more in common with the exploitation films of Roger Corman. There’s an icky creature, some scientist sexy time and loads of crazy science. Corman might not have been as successful at layering in the love, jealousy and real human emotions Natali heaps on his characters but I think the b-movie king would approve of “Splice’s” overall tone. It’s doesn’t skimp on the blood and guts but it’s funnier than you think it is going to be, wilder than expected—Sarah Polley’s maternal instincts towards Dren are right out of “Mommie Dearest”—and takes several unexpected twists and turns..." Ever wondered what you'd look like as a mutant? Click here to find out!

May 28 - June 4

CD of the Week: I’ve been listening to the remixed and refabulized Exile on Main Street nonstop since picking it up last week. I didn’t think it would be possible to take a classic album and make it even… well, more classicer (I know that’s not a word, but you get what I mean). It’s still gloriously muddy and the vocals are buried a little too deep into the mix, but Sweet Virginia, Shale Your Hips and all my other faves have never sounded better and the extra tracks, particularly Plundered My Soul and Title 5 made my Stones lovin’ heart beat a little faster every time I hear them. Can’t wait for the documentary Rolling Stones in Exile to drop at the end of June… it contains bits and pieces from Robert Frank’s Cocksucker Blues documentary that I’ve been waiting to see on something other than the ratty old VHS booitleg I have on my shelf.  

May 21 - May 28

More Marion!: Lady Blue Shanghai, a new Dior short, this one directed by David Lynch and once again starring Marion Cotillard (in her third short for the company) is now on line. "They called me up and said, ‘Would you like to make a short film for the internet? You can do anything you want, you just need to show the handbag, the Pearl Tower and some old Shanghai,’” said Lynch. Read more about it here. Watch it here!

Congratulations of the Week: Go to my friends at Rue Morgue who are not only celebrating their 100th issue this month, but also announcing a feature film! Here's the press release: "From Cannes, Variety resports in the production partnership of Spain’s Rodar Y Rodar (The Orphanage) and Canada’s Rue Morgue Cinema for the feature film CUT THROATS NINE, starring Danish superstar MADS MIKKELSEN (Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans) along with veteran Hollywood actor HARVEY KEITEL (Pulp Fiction, Bad Lieutenant) and Canadian luminary ROY DUPUIS (The Rocket, La Femme Nikita)." 

May 14 - May 21

Favorite Website of the Week: Biz Cards. Ever wondered what Indiana Jones's business card looked like? Now you can find out. From the Marcus Tee's site: "I picked up a few of these at a Science Fiction Convention many years ago. I have since made some of my own and it's grown into quite a hobby. I decided I'd share them with others. And now you can too! You can add your own TV, Movie, Science Fiction or Fantasy Business Cards here. Design it in a graphics program and email the image of your creation to me and I will post it here. No scanner ? No problem. Just send your card design on paper to me.     

Book of the Week: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub Foreword by George Clooney. From amazon.ca:  "Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower East Side, the wilds of Alaska, or the hills of Hollywood--he has found a way to put on a show and sell tickets at the door. "All life was a theater and I wanted to put it up on a stage," he writes. "I wanted to set the world under a marquee that read: 'Jerry Weintraub Presents.'"

May 14 - May 21

Favorite Movie of the Week: The Trotsky. Most seventeen year olds are concerned with school, sports and finding a date for the prom. Not Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel). Convinced he is the reincarnation of revolutionary Leon Trotsky he tries to unionize the students of Montreal West High School. This Canadian commie comedy is chock full of funny lines and nice performances—Baruchel really impresses as the budding Bolshevik—and actor turned director Jacob Tierney shows a firm hand behind the camera.

Best On-Line Read of the Week: Roger Ebert has posted his script for Sex Pistols' movie Who Killed Bambi?, the Russ Meyer film that never was. Read it and weep here.

May 7 - May 14

Coolest Festival of the Week: Hot Docs! North America's largest documentary festival runs for 11 days, April 29 to May 9, presenting over 170 films from more than 40 countries and welcoming hundreds of international filmmakers and industry delegates to Toronto. View our Online Schedule to buy tickets and find films. Tickets and passes may also be purchased in person at the Hot Docs documentary Box Office, or by phone at 416-637-5150. My picks? The Story of Furious Pete - Yes, it's occasionally gross (competative eating contests are not for prudes) but it's also inspiring.Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage - Rush was one of the first concerts I ever saw and while I haven't listened to them much recently I enjoyed this in depth look at their career. Also look for: Leave Them Laughing, A Drummer's Dream and The Socalled Movie.

I Want to Read This!: The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks by Nicole LaPorte. From amazon.ca: "For sixty years, since the birth of United Artists, the studio landscape was unchanged. Then came Hollywood’s Circus Maximus—created by director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave the world The Lion King—an entertainment empire called DreamWorks. Now Nicole LaPorte,who covered the company for Variety, goes behind the hype to reveal for the first time the delicious truth of what happened." Of course I will have read this by the time I host the This Is Not a Reading Series event with author Nicole LaPorte on May 18, 2010 at the Gladstone Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West in Toronto).

April 23 - April 30

DVD pick of the Week: At Home By Myself… With You. Buy it here! Here's a cool story about the production company and some info on the film!: "Pocket Change Films (PCF) is a Canadian production company based in Toronto. Begun by screenwriter Ramona Barckert, director/screenwriter Kris Booth and actor/producer Andrea McCulloch, PCF produced their first feature film At Home By Myself… With You in November of 2008. The production budget for the film was raised by collecting other people’s pocket change; pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. Those who gave larger contributions of $100 or more were granted a ‘Funded By’ Credit on the finished film. At Home By Myself… With You stars Genie-award winner Kristin Booth and had its world premiere at The Vancouver International Film Festival in October 2009."

April 16 - April 23

Book of the Week: Secret Lives Of Great Filmmakers: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the World’s Greatest Directors by Robert Schnakenberg. From amazon.ca: "On the heels of Secret Lives of Great Authors, Great Artists, and Great Composers comes Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers, an uncensored look at screen legends ranging from D. W. Griffith and Frank Capra to Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers. Readers will discover that Charlie Chaplin's corpse was stolen and held for a 400,000 ransom. Akira Kurosawa dreamed of making the ultimate Godzilla film. Alfred Hitchcock 'lost' his belly button during abdominal surgery and often shocked his leading ladies by flashing his curiously smooth tummy. David Lynch won't allow cooking in his home; the odor of heated food disturbs him. With outrageous anecdotes ranging from the weird to the bizarre, Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers is a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the making of movies."

Cool On-LIne Movie of the Week: Guy Maddin’s Night Mayor on The National Film Board of Canada website. Presented in HD, Night Mayor is Maddin’s first film to be added to an official online collection. Recently awarded the Short Film Jury Award for Experimental Short at the 2010 South by Southwest (SXSW) the film is available here through the National Film Board of Canada's website. “I thought Night Mayor could unspool luminously and infinitely in its own enchanted, and frequently visited, corner of cyberspace,” says Guy Maddin. “Now, if only I could get my films on radio and Telex I'd really be set!"

Interviews of the Week: Just in time for the DVD and Blu Ray release of Avatar come my interviews with key members of the filmmaking team.

Watch Part One of my interview with Paul R. Frommer, the film's alien language creator here here! Watch part two here!

April 9 - April 16

Coolest Movie Gear of the Week: Winter is over, but Nightmare on Elm Street fans may want to invest in a new pair of gloves... they are the ultimate horror collectible, Nightmare Gloves. From their website: "The simulated muscle and bone, polished stainless steel blades carrying a more 'demonic' talon shape make the New Nightmare glove stand apart from the gloves used in previous films. In this frightening version, theweapon comes to life as part of ther anatomy..." 

DVD of the Week: In “Defendor” Woody Harrelson plays a man whose rich inner life spills out into his real life. By day he is dead-end-job-Arthur but by night he is Defendor, a masked superhero do-gooder. His task? To clean up the streets of Hamilton, Ontario. It sounds like the kind of thing we’ve seen before but Canadian actor turned director Peter Stebbings puts a unique spin on Arthur’s story. Gritty and very funny, this is a hard one to categorize. It’s not exactly a comedy, nor is it a crime drama. It’s somewhere in between. I’m not sure if that indefinable quality will make this a harder sell or not—people like to pigeonhole their movies—but for those willing to be go along for the ride the movie is an enjoyably genre busting good time.

April 2 - April 9

DVD of the Week: The T.A.M.I. Show: From IMDB: “Filmed just eight months after The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The T.A.M.I. Show introduced rock n soul youth culture to America in the first concert movie of the rock era. One of the rarest and most sought-after performance films from its time, the 1964 concert event featured future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes and many other American and British Invasion hitmakers in their prime. This legendary film has never been available on DVD and has not been seen in its entirety since it originally appeared in theaters in 1964. Mastered from a new High Definition transfer and uncut, this complete version features the Beach Boys performances that were removed following the films initial theatrical run. This is what music fans have been waiting for: the ultimate collectors edition of this long-unavailable landmark film.”

Book of the Week: Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, “America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine” by Henry E. Scott. Here’s some info from amazon.ca: “Humphrey Bogart said of Confidential: “Everybody reads it but they say the cook brought it into the house” . . . Tom Wolfe called it “the most scandalous scandal magazine in the history of the world” . . . Time defined it as “a cheesecake of innuendo, detraction, and plain smut . . . dig up one sensational ‘fact,’ embroider it for 1,500 to 2,000 words. If the subject thinks of suing, he may quickly realize that the fact is true, even if the embroidery is not.” Here is the never-before-told tale of Confidential magazine, America’s first tabloid, which forever changed our notion of privacy, our image of ourselves, and the practice of journalism in America. For more info click here.

Crazy Movie Promo of the Week: Sony created a special feature on the  website for Death at a Funeral that will allow people to have Chris Rock perform their eulogy.  You can personalize and send to anyone or post on facebook. Check out DieLaughingNow.com.

Mar. 26 - April 2

Favorite Promo of the Week: The Kick Ass posters in the Toronto subways! Here’s some info on the film: “Based on a wild indie comic of the same name by Mark Millar “Kick-Ass” tells a couple of intertwining stories. First up is Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a fanboy who creates a superhero alter ego called Kick-Ass as a way to boost his self esteem. In life he says his only superpower is being invisible to girls, but when he dons the suit he becomes… only marginally more super. His exploits, however, grab the attention of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz), a slightly psychotic father and daughter team of masked (and in Hit Girl’s case, wigged) avengers who admire Ass’s style and moxy. For the caped crusaders in “Kiss-Ass”  all roads lead to drug lord Frank D'Amico (a suitably evil Mark Strong) a ruthless tough guy who is unafraid to go all medieval—his men even use a giant microwave as a torture device—on his enemies.”

Favorite Film Festival the Week: The Female Eye Film Festival. Here's some info: The Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) now in its 8th year opens tomorrow and is delighted to be announcing an exceptional list of talent who will be attending the festival including actors, directors, screen writers and industry experts.  The Female Eye supports extraordinary filmmaking talent from around the globe and is a necessary cultural event of Toronto’s landscape.  The Festival runs March 24th – 28th, 2010 with special guests screen legends Shirley Douglas and Karen Black, Oscar Nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo and Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke. All film screenings will take place at the Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East.  For advance tickets, visit TicketBreak.com or call 1-866-9-GET-TIX. For more information about the festival, visit the web site at www.FemaleEyeFilmFestival.com.

Mar. 19 - Mar. 26

Favorite Website the Week: ChainsawChick.com. With the release of The Runaways this week I thought it would be fun to look into the whereabouts of the main players in the band. Guitarist Lita Ford still plays and also recently contributed her likeness and voice to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game, Brütal Legend. Drummer Sandy West died of lung cancer in October 2006. Everybody knows what Joan Jett is up to, but what of Cherie Currie, the singer of Cherry Bomb? Well, check out ChainsawChick.com to see her chainsaw art work. “I work in all kinds of wood,” she says, “Pine, Alder, Elm, Palm, Redwood and Ash.  Some wood is kinder than others when it comes to carving, but if your chain is sharp, you can tackle just about anything.” For an update on producer Kim Fowley new project Pink Cement (“[It] will make you jump for joy and your life will be more enjoyable for the shared viewer experience that is PINK CEMENT,” he says.) click here

Favorite DVD of the Week: Part One here.
Part Two here.Fantastic Mr. Fox: Wes Anderson’s mix of deliberately old-school stop motion animation—you can see the fur moving where the animators have touched the puppet characters—gentle humor and action is unlike any other movie this year. In its pacing and style it is decidedly old fashioned, a throw back to the colorful Rankin and Bass animated Christmas specials, but without the schmaltz. I doubt you’d find an existential line like, “Now he’s just another dead rat in a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant” in any other vintage stop motion film for kids and it is that edge that sets “Fantastic Mr. Fox” apart from the pap, like the recent “Astro Boy,” that passes for kid flicks.

Mar. 12 - Mar. 19

Favorite Book the Week: The Girl In Alfred Hitchock's Shower by Robert Graysmith. From amazon.com: The New York Times bestselling author who investigated the Zodiac case now uncovers a real-life mystery of murder, body doubles, and obsession. Marli Renfro was a model who played a part in one of the most iconic scenes in American movies- as Janet Leigh's nude body double in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho-only to fade into obscurity, a footnote in Hollywood history. It wasn't until 1988 that Marli Renfro made news again-raped and murdered by a serial killer with a fetish for the classic Hitchcock shocker. But as Graysmith investigated Marli's story, a nagging doubt entered his mind. What if Marli was still alive? What if another woman had been murdered in her place? And if Marli was still alive, would he ever find her? The line between art and reality is blurred in this astonishing coda to one of the most memorable screen murders of all time, and to a real- life crime that one man was determined to solve.

DVD of the Week: Alice in Wonderland (1966) Starring: Peter Sellers, John Gielgud Director: Jonathan Miller Can’t make it to the theatre to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland? Why not rent the trippy Peter Sellers version? The Sellers Alice, a made-for-BBC television movie, is as mad as a hatter. Director Jonathan Miller sought to boil the production down to the essentials, to dispense with the “japing and game play” of earlier versions. To that end none of the strange creatures Alice meets along the way are played by actors in animal costumes. This approach could have fallen flat, but when you have actors like John Gielgud and Peter Cook accentuating the wonderful dialogue rather than the flashy production design, it works. Add a trippy soundtrack by Ravi Shankar and some veiled drug references and you get a film that could only have been made at the height of the Swingin’ Sixties.

Mar. 5 - Mar. 12

Favorite Person of the Week: Sarah Polley may not be thrilled that the google search “sarah polley” + “margarine” brings up hundreds of hits, but I admire the way she has stuck to her guns and taken her name off a short she directed that will be aired during the Oscars. “In December 2009,” she says, “I made a film to be aired during the Academy Awards that I believed was to promote the Heart and Stroke Foundation. When I agreed to make this film (The Heart), I was thrilled, as I was proud to be associated with the work of this incredible organization; however, I have since learned that my film is also being used to promote a product. Regretfully, I am forced to remove my name from the film and disassociate myself from it. I have never actively promoted any corporate brand, and cannot do so now.”

Favorite Charity Event: I’m late on the Lost Art of Inglorious Basterds charity event, but the images are cool and well worth a look. Here’s some info from the Upper Playground gallery website: “On February 18th, 2010... the world [got to]  preview and purchase the “Lost Art of Inglourious Basterds” at The Upper Playground Art Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles.  All proceeds from this program will be donated to The American Red Cross to help the victims of the Haiti Earthquake. This creative team has assembled the following select group of accomplished artists, David Choe, Sam Flores, Estevan Oriol, Grotesk, Jeremy Fish, Patrick Martinez, Alex Pardee, Dora Drimalas, Munk One, N8 Van Dyke, Rene Alamanza, Morning Breath and Skinner Davis, to create their own poster art based off their interpretation of the Oscar Nominated film, “Inglourious Basterds” artwork. Each print will be numbered and signed by Quentin Tarantino.  Only six (6) of each amount will be made.”

Feb. 26 - Mar. 5

Favorite Oscar Storage Stories: What do you do with your Oscar after you’ve won? If you are Russell Crowe (Best Actor, 2001, 'Gladiator') you keep it on your ranch in Australia to inspire the hens to lay larger eggs. If you’re Jamie Foxx (Best Actor, 2004, 'Ray') you give it to your manager because “people [were] stealing it and leaving me with an Oscar Mayer instead.” And if you’re Jimmy Stewart (Best Actor 1941, 'The Philadelphia Story') you give it to your father who will use it as a window display in family's hardware store for 25 years. For more Oscar storage stories click here.

Favorite Crazy Review: I have no words... Read this Wolfman review for yourself... "This movie was a complete waste and I feel that it offends ALL Twilight Fans around the world, that including myself. For one, it was a COMPLETE remakingof the Wolf Pack from the Twilight Saga: New Moon. It gives the werewolves a bad name and makes them look like some deformed mutation of a rabid dog. I actually started to like werewolves after seeing Jacob Black and all his awesomeness on the big screen at the movies. That was until I saw your crappy remake of what you call to be a "were wolf". I don't see how you live with yourself for making it the way you did. If I made this movie, I would be ashamed to even admit that I owned it. How can a werewolf be killed with a silver bullet*? Better yet, have you saw the transformation of the man that is "supposed" to be the wolf? He sits in some chair and his entire body turns in to some mutated freak. If you would watch the transformation of Jacob Black, (Taylor Lautner) he doesn't come close to looking as fake, cheap and or mutated as the wolf man. You tell me, who looks to be the better werewolf. Your stupid Wolf Movie didn't even make the top Movie for the charts; Valentines Day WITH TAYLOR Lautner! Get that this is MY oppinion and I felt I wanted to express it because I saw that your email was on your site. I wanted to let you know this is what i thought of the wolf man that sucks. FREAKIN LAUTNER DID! TEAM JACOB- cuz hes a REAL WEREWOLVE!" Read more here.

Feb. 19 - Feb. 26

If I Was Going to Be in London Anytime Soon I'd Be At This: SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS presented by The Compton Cassey Gallery 17th - 20th February 2010. He may be best known for his iconic film career, but this enigmatic artist is also a talented composer and visual artist. Sir Anthony Hopkins, who considers himself a shy artist, paints every day in his Malibu studio. He produces a variety of works, which include acrylic and ink paintings, all of which have been described as surrealistic in nature as well as evocative and magnetic. He began painting in 2002 at the encouragement of his wife, Stella, after she found a collection of old scripts with his drawings on them. He has since exhibited throughout America. In this first exhibition in London will be ink drawings and acrylic paintings. The exhibition is intended to continue at other venues, the first being at The Dome in Edinburgh, immediately after London and then Wales. Opening hours: Wednesday to Friday: 11am - 6pm Saturday: 11am - 4pm, All enquiries to: Compton Cassey Gallery, Nr Withington, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 4DE. Telephone: 01242 890 224.

Favorite On-Line Home for Documentaries: From the press release: "Hot Docs is proud to announce the launch of its new Doc Library at www.hotdocslibrary.ca. Featuring hundreds of Canadian films and videos, the Doc Library offers free access to homegrown documentary work, with full-length features by some of the country's leading non-fiction filmmakers. All films are directed by filmmakers whose works have screened at Hot Docs, and many of the titles themselves are works that have shown at the Festival or Doc Soup. Housing uniquely Canadian stories and perspectives on the world all housed within a bilingual user-friendly interface, the Doc Library is a treasure trove for film lovers and an indispensable resource for educators seeking thought-provoking content."

Feb. 12 - Feb. 19

Movie Swag of the Week: District 9's Arc Generator and Gas Projector replica! Crafted by the same artists and designers who made the original props for the film, Weta's just launched the pre-orders for them. Here's some more info from ugo.com: The Gas Projector and the Arc Generator -- which is, coincidentally, our Weapon of the Day -- are made of glass fiber, and they come with a wall mounting bracket for display. They'll cost 710.22 in New Zealand dollars (which translates to $492 USD) each. Only 200 of each are available worldwide, and you can pre-order them at Weta's website.

Feb. 05 - Feb. 12

Website of the Week: Check out the Desk Space blog from Evie Christie. It's a look at the work spaces of writers and poets. It's my favorite this week because this week's blog is all about where I write! Check it out here.  

Favorite Movie Poster of the Week: I haven't seen the movie yet, but if the film captures even a hint of the sleazy rock 'n' roll feel of the poster The Runaways might be one of the best music movies to come down the pike in a while. Here's some info from Wikipedia: "The Runaways is a 2010 biographical film, based on the 1970s all-girl rock band of the same name. The film was written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, and stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, Stella Maeve as Sandy West, Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford, and Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley. Alia Shawkat plays the band's bassist, a fictional character named Robin, created due to legal issues preventing the portrayal of bassist Jackie Fox. The film is partially based on lead-singer Cherie Currie's 1989 autobiography Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story which details her fractured childhood, the group's meteoric rise to fame, and her subsequent battle and recovery from drug and alcohol addiction."

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5

Sundance Movie I'm Excited About (But Haven't Seen Yet): Splice. Its director Vincenzo Natali says "it’s not your daddy’s creature movie” and even star Sarah Polley calls it "morally indefensible." I can't wait. Here's what IMDB describes it: "Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly." According to The Toronto Star's Peter Howell, here's how one audience member described it: “Dude, that was the most f---ed up thing I’ve ever seen!” I've seen some f---ked up stuff so I'm curious. 

Book of the Week: In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles by Chris Welles Feder. From amazon.ca: "Out of all the many stars and celebrities Hollywood has produced, only a handful have achieved the fame--and, some would say, infamy--of Orson Welles, the creator and star of what is arguably the greatest American film, Citizen Kane.  Many books have been written about him, detailing his achievements as an artist as well his foibles as a human being.  None of them, however, has gotten so close to the real man as does Chris Welles Feder's beautifully realized portrait of her father. In My Father's Shadow is a classic story of a life lived in the public eye, told with affection and the wide-eyed wonder of a daughter who never stopped believing that someday she would truly know and understand her elusive and larger-that-life father.  The result is a moving and insightful look at life in the shadow of a legendary figure and an immensely entertaining story of growing up in the unreal reality of Hollywood, enhanced by Welles Feder's collection of many never-before-seen family photographs."

Jan. 22 - Jan. 29

Favorite Song of the Week: Eyes of Mars by Marion Cotillard and Franz Ferdinand. The song, written and recorded to promote a perfume for the French label Dior, is insanely catchy and can be streamed here. Entertainment Weekly said: “…she works out the sort of breathy, ‘zut alors! I am far too sexy for pitch control’ coo that revered Gallic pop lizard Serge Gainsbourg coaxed from his own movie star muses in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Book of the Week: A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age by Richard Rayner. I’m a sucker for early LA history and this book, based on fact but plotted like a Raymond Chandler novel it’s a page turned from the very first chapter. This is what Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City had to say about the book: “Set in Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties, A Bright and Guilty Place weaves the stories of two men, an idealistic crime-scene investigator and a charismatic politico, who stood on opposite sides of a scandal that shaped a city's identity and darkened its soul. Richard Rayner makes masterful use of his material—sex, murder, corruption, greed, and the invention of noir—to concoct a seething, sinful tale worthy of Raymond Chandler himself. This is narrative nonfiction at its best: meticulously researched, deftly drawn, and more compelling than anything the imagination might dare to conjure.”

Avatar Promo of the Week: Avartize yourself courtesy of McDonald’s! Transform into an avatar and share with your friends. Click here to get the blues.

Harrison Ford Story of the Week: Click here!

Jan. 15 - Jan. 22

Favorite Hobby of the Week: A website called Everythying Is Terrible is trying to amass the world's largest collection of second hand Jerry Maguire VHS tapes. We all have to have a dream!Our goal is to have the largest private collection of Jerry Maguire VHS tapes in the history of mankind and we need your help,” read a recent post on the site. “Don’t let another orphaned Jerry sit forgotten in a cold, dark bargain bin.” Help them out by sending unwanted copies to the following address:

Everything is Terrible!
P.O. Box 47924
Chicago, IL 60647 USA

Favorite Blogspot of the Week: Nic Cage As Everyone.You owe it to yourself to check out the photo shop wizardry that transforms the everyday and mundane into bits of Nic Cage-ology! Here's the blogs manifesto: "Founded on the belief that everything in life would be better with a little more Nic Cage, the most unique and versatile actor of his generation."

Book of the Week: Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America by Peter Biskind. Here's some info: "Biskind explains how Beatty exercised unique control, often hiring screenwriters out of his own pocket (and frequently collaborating with them), producing, directing, and acting in his own films, becoming an auteur before anyone in Hollywood knew what the word meant. He was arguably one of the most successful and creative figures in Hollywood during the second half of the twentieth century, and in this fascinating biography, Warren Beatty comes to life -- complete with excesses and achievements -- as never before."  

Jan. 8 - Jan. 15

2010 Movie Diet: The first resolution I break every January is my promise to eat better in the New Year. So far I’ve stuck to my guns but as every day passes temptation mounts. How can I resist bacon flavored popcorn? Or Star Trek waffles? My twin loves of pop culture and bacon will be the death of me…

Here’s some info: BaconPop is vegetarian and certified Kosher (aka, it tastes like bacon, but no pigs were harmed!)… The Kellogg Company, producer of Eggo Waffles, released a limited line of Star Trek-themed waffles. They include 25 different images, icons, and phrases from the science fiction franchise.  

Theatre Tips: The only theatre tips I would add to Chris "National Post" Knight's list of ways to civilize the cinema are shut the hell up when the movie is playing and turn off your damn cell phones... other than that, this is a pretty complete list of ways to enhance your theatre experience. Read his hints here.

Dec. 25 - Jan. 8

It's almost the New Year but before we and quaff too much champagne let's have one last look back at the year that was.

Richard's Worst Films of 2009
Richard's Most Overlooked Films of 2009
Richard's Best Films of 2009!
And!
Richard's Best of the Decade!

Dec. 18 - Dec. 25

My Favorite Phone Call of the Week: Apparently I have to get a haircut nor it's off to Bellevue for me! Hear the whole, uncut hair do rant here.

My Favorite Thing of the Week: Christmas came early for me when I got to hang around Terry Gilliam at the American Express Gala screening of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus at the Carlu in Toronto. I introduced Terry to the stage and spent the rest of the night trading stories (many of which can’t be repeated here) and generally basking in the glow of an artist who helped unlock my imagination. Sometimes the perks of this job are pretty great.

Christmas Movies For People Who Hate Christmas Movies: Tired of moronic, overly sweet feel good Christmas movies? How about talking in some alternative Christmas titles that won’t make you feel diabetic afterward. Annie Hall is ripe with Christmas references—but no snow or kindly old Santas! There’s hardly any music in the movie but you can hear a carol sung by a boy’s choir if you listen carefully, and Allen’s take on Christmas in LA is priceless.  One of the most famous Christmas gifts in all of film history is handed out in the early moments of Citizen Kane when the young Charles Foster Kane receives a sled as a gift from Mr. Thatcher, his guardian. The Ref is foul mouthed good Christmas fun with Dennis Leary as a burglar who robs the most annoying people in the world on Christmas Eve. Looking for something a bit more post apocalyptic? The viral outbreak that kills most of humanity in I Am Legend breaks out on Christmas Eve. Too “silent night, deadly night” for you? How about a trio of Yuletide crime dramas to make your Christmas bright? In Die Hard terrorists take over a Los Angeles skyscraper on Christmas Eve. Die Hard II sees terrorists seize control of air traffic control at a Washington DC airport on, you guessed it, Christmas Eve! And then there’s the first Lethal Weapon movie, also set over the holidays. 

Dec. 11 - Dec. 18

Christmas Gift of the Week: From www. brandonbird.com comes the perfect gift for the Wild At Heart fan in your life. Here’s the info from the website: Introducing the Nicolas Cage Adventure Set! The magic and wonder of one of the most dynamic figures of the 21st century comes home in this incredible playset (one might even call it a Colorforms set, if "Colorforms" was not a registered trademark of the University Games Corporation). Reusable vinyl stickers cling like magic to glossy backdrops! Mix and match accessories! Peel and re-peel to create new scenes! The fate of Nicolas Cage is in your hands! Each set includes a double-sided 8.5 x 11 inch play background (depicting "tropical island" and "haunted castle" environments) and one 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of nine vinyl cling stickers: 3 full-body Nicolas Cages, battle axe, skateboard, ice cream cone, scary ghost, parrot, and space helmet. Learn more here!

Favorite Christmas Song of the Week: The rollicking, but craggy “Must Be Santa” from Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart CD. Ignore the reviews that refer to “Dylan’s dirt-road larynx” and say it “blatantly pokes fun at the very idea of Christmas music” and “I could make a better Christmas record than this (with my dad on drums, my mom on rhythm guitar, and my sister on f%$#ing bass) 5 seconds was more than enough for me…” Ignore them and buy it because Dylan is donating all of his American royalties from the record, now and forever, to Feeding America, a program that provides meals for the hungry.

Dec. 4 - Dec. 11

Fund Raiser of the Week: Never mind messing around with government grants or running up your Amex Card to get a film made, the folks behind Color Me Obsessed have a different idea. They want your money! Depending on how much you donate you can either get an advance DVD of ther soon-to-be finished film or an executive producers credit. Here’s the scoop: “Color Me Obsessed is a crazed and crazy look at the only band that ever mattered, The Replacements. From director Gorman Bechard comes the potentially true story of the most influential, always drunk, self-destructive, and yet frighteningly brilliant rock band of all time as told through the eyes of their fans, followers, and fellow musicians. Love, hate, obsession, tears, vomit...it might not be the prettiest story ever told, but it certainly rocks. Click here for the details!

Favorite Makeover of the Week: OK, I was a little late getting to this, but it’s pretty cool, particularly if you have ever harbored a desire (like me) to be an extra in a George A. Romero film. Click here to zombify yourself. It’s an easy process, just upload a photo and then add some open wounds, a gored out eye or two and perhaps even a ban saw cut to the forehead.

Nov. 27 - Dec. 4

Review of the Week: I don’t usually showcase other reviewers on my Pick of the Week spot, but this was too good to pass up: The M/C Review: Is it possible to hate a film more than 'Old Dogs'? By Drew McWeeny. You gotta love a review that starts with: “If "Old Dogs" were a person, I would stab it in the face.” Love it, that is, unless you’re Robin Williams or John Travolta. McWeeny continues: “To give you an idea how wretched the film is, if you take the worst Robin Williams film, multiply it by the worst John Travolta film, and then multiply that by ‘Wild Hogs,’ the last film from director Walt Becker, you would still end up with something better than this… If you truly hate your family and you're all trapped together this weekend, and you reeeeeally want to punish them and show them just how little you value their joy, then by all means, pile into the car and rush out to find a theater playing ‘Old Dogs.’” Read the whole thing here.

Also… And people think I’m bitchy sometimes… Check out this Daily Beast review by Nathaniel Rich: "To describe The Original of Laura as a novel would be like mistaking a construction site for a cathedral. Yes, the blueprints might call for flying buttresses and oriel windows, but for now it is only a mess of wheelbarrows, uncut limestone, and piles of sand." Read it here.

Favorite Movie Character of the Week: The Booger Monster from "Shorts," out on DVD. This isn’t slick Disney style kid’s entertainment—I doubt that any of Walt’s movies would feature a character named The Booger Monster—it’s a little more down and dirty than that, a little more like the way kids really think and act. 

My New Favorite Tie:I love my Fantastic Mr. Fox tie. I love that it is furry and fun. It's also a tie-in to the movie (I also love a bad pun!) but I can't tell you why or how without giving away a plot point, so go see the movie yourslef if you're interested. It's great... Here's part of my review: "Wes Anderson’s mix of deliberately old-school stop motion animation—you can see the fur moving where the animators have touched the puppet characters—gentle humor and action is unlike any other movie this year. In its pacing and style it is decidedly old fashioned, a throw back to the colorful Rankin and Bass animated Christmas specials, but without the schmaltz. I doubt you’d find an existential line like, “Now he’s just another dead rat in a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant” in any other vintage stop motion film for kids and it is that edge that sets “Fantastic Mr. Fox” apart from the pap, like the recent “Astro Boy,” that passes for kid flicks..." to read the rest click here. (My thanks to Kris Able for the photo!)

Nov. 20 - Nov. 27

Book: The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder by David Thomson. This is a fascinating look at the classic film from one of the best film writers out there. Thomson covers everything from how Hitchcock managed to show a flushing toilet on screen (a cinematic first) to the film's legacy in an economical 192 pages. Here's some info from amazon.ca: "It was made like a television movie, and completed in less than three months. It killed off its star in forty minutes. There was no happy ending. And it offered the most violent scene to date in American film, punctuated by shrieking strings that seared the national consciousness. Nothing like Psycho had existed before; the movie industry—even America itself—would never be the same. In The Moment of Psycho, film critic David Thomson situates Psycho in Alfred Hitchcock’s career, recreating the mood and time when the seminal film erupted onto film screens worldwide. Thomson shows that Psycho was not just a sensation in film: it altered the very nature of our desires. Sex, violence, and horror took on new life. Psycho, all of a sudden, represented all America wanted from a film—and, as Thomson brilliantly demonstrates, still does."

Blu Ray: Warner Home Video's 70th Anniversary Blu-ray release of Gone With the Wind. Not only is the restored picture beyond beautiful but there's loads of extras. In the limited-edition velvet box is a picture book, a soundtrack CD, art prints and reproductions of correspondence and the roadshow program book. On the discs are a making-of documentary hosted by Christopher Plummer, a doc on the legacy of Gone With the Wind, another doc on the amazing films released in 1939 and for the first time on home video, Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Wars, the 1980 made-for-TV drama about the casting of Vivien Leigh in the iconic role of Scarlett O'Hara.

Sad News of the Week: The Carlton Cinema, (pictured here before it moved down the street to its current location) one of the last art house theatres in midtown Toronto will close in early December. I've seen hundreds of movies there, and while it's a bit dowdy these days, it feels like losing an old friend. Cineplex Odeon (the theatre's owner) is relocating all the staff to other outlets., so that's good, but I will miss the Carlton's eclectic offerings. Legendary Toronto filmmaker Ron Mann is sad to see it go as well. This is what he said to Now Magazine: “Unfortunately it’s a case of Video Killed The Rep Cinema Star,” Mann says. “It’s appalling that in Toronto, a city which has the greatest number of movie-goers in North America, doesn’t have a decent movie theatre in which to screen art films. I don’t know where these films can play, other than The Royal and The Bloor, [and then only] for a limited engagement. Sadly, a lot of these films will never find an audience as a result… I guess we’ll all be showing films out of a truck soon.” 

Nov. 13 - Nov. 20

Book: A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters by Angela Narth and Peter H Aykroyd. Forward by Dan Aykroyd. Here’s the blurb from amazon.ca: “Peter Aykroyd spent his childhood watching his family’s parlor séances through the crack of a basement door. Here, for the first time, Aykroyd tells the strange and delightful story that inspired his son, Dan, to make the mega-hit, Ghostbusters . Part history, part family legend, A History of Ghosts starts in 1848 in upstate New York, where the spiritualist craze first began. Aykroyd introduces the reader to notable mediums while telling the story of the development of spiritualism, interweaving a personal history marked by a fascination with ghosts and spirits with the larger narrative about the role the paranormal has played in our culture. Such legendary figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini appear and vanish. Everyone loves a good ghost story. Successful TV shows such as Medium and Ghost Hunters are proof that our national obsession with ghosts is here to stay. Millions of Americans believe in the paranormal—and even skeptics have heard a bump in the night and suspected it might be something supernatural.”

Blu Ray: In Up, Finding Nemo screenwriter Bob Peterson has crafted an epic but personal story about rediscovering humanity, dealing with the loss of a loved one and finding a sense of purpose. It’s a subtly complicated story that gently introduces adult themes into an art form generally aimed at kids. Binding together elements of everything from A Christmas Carol to The Wizard of Oz and Fitzccarraldo, Up manages to be somewhat familiar and yet startlingly original all at the same time.

Pie Chart of the Week: As I descend into a long weekend of junket journalism (!) I was interested to see Jason Reitman's breakdown of the questions he's been asked most frequently while doing press for Up in the Air. By his count, he's had to answer the question "What's it like working with George Clooney?" 111 times. Can't anyone think of something new to ask? More here.

Nov. 6 - Nov. 13

Cool Eyewear of the Week… Besides My Own Of Course: Here’s what Vogue said about the new line of Albert Maysles face furniture: "Albert Maysles, whom Jean-Luc Godard has called “the best American cameraman,” is the sort of person you just love to love, not only because he’s given us such celebrated documentaries as Grey Gardens and Salesman but also because he has no shortage of style. The filmmaker’s signature look? A lit-from-within smile and trademark spectacles dating to the sixties, the latter of which are now offered at Barneys New York in collaboration with the eyewear label Barton Perreira. Designed in classic readers and sunglasses, the frames are flawlessly replicated: a moderated cat-eye topped with silver insets that glint like confetti—a perfect pairing with the sportswear spotted on recent runways (think Céline, Jil Sander, and Stella McCartney). “We saw everyone wearing glasses that looked like his. Instead of looking for the best glasses inspired by Albert Maysles, we thought, ‘Why not have the real authentic glasses?’ He is such an iconic, respected, and beloved figure,” says Judy Collinson, Barneys EVP of womenswear. And what does the 82-year-old (who credits Marc Jacobs, Phillip Lim, and Yoko Ono as style influencers) think of this happenstance trendsetting? “It’s all with the eyes; the eyes have it. My mother always used to say, ‘There is good in everybody,’ and I look for that.” It’s this intuitive and graceful vision we admire so; may we all view the world in his frame. Exclusive to Barton Perreira for Barneys New York, Al Maysles Eyewear. Readers, $365; sunglasses, $350; $25 of each sale goes to the Maysles Institute; barneys.com." 

October 31 - November 6

DVD of the Week: The William Castle Collection. Castle was behind many movies, some good, like Rosemary’s Baby, some not so good, like 13 Frightened Girls, but no matter what the movies are always fun. This box set collects his several of his “spooktacular” offerings, including the classic Vincent Price vehicles, The Tingler and House On Haunted Hill. As the story goes, Alfred Hitchcock was so taken with the amount of money Castle’s House On Haunted Hill had made in 1959, he made and released his own low-budget horror film, Psycho, the following year.

Castle was famous for directing films like The Tingler with gimmicks. The movie is about a docile creature that lives in the spinal cord. Activated by fright it can only be destroyed by screaming. In the film's finale one of the creatures gets loose in a movie theatre. Some seats in theatres showing the film had joy buzzers attached to the underside of the seats. When the Tingler in the film attacked the audience the buzzers were activated as a voice encouraged the real audience to “Scream - scream for your lives.”

Musical of the Week: Toxic Avenger: The Musical. Saw it in NYC earlier this year and loved it. It’s now playing at The Danforth Musical Hall in Toronto. Here's some Wikipedia info: Melvin Ferd the Third lives in Tromaville, Exit 13B on the New Jersey Turnpike. He likes Sarah, the blind librarian, and learns from her about the "Good Earth Company" that pollutes the town in collusion with its mayor who also happens to be linked to the company. His attempt to clean up gets foiled by the mayor's minions who dump him into a vat of radioacive waste; he reemerges as "the Toxic Avenger" who with supernatural strength starts to attack the polluters and rips them apart. Meanwhile, Sarah who is unable to discern his gowlish appearance takes a liking to "Toxie". Events come to a head when the mayor tries to kill him by throwing bleach at him. The scheme misfires, Sarah and Toxie get married, and on year later, Toxie becomes governor of a cleaned-up State of New Jersey. My favorite Toxie-related review headline: "Toxic Avenger: The Musical Is A Spine-Ripping Good Time..." See the show and you'll know why that's funny. Also watch my interview with Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Book of the Week: How to be a Movie Star by William J. Mann. Here’s some info from amazon.ca: “William J. Mann, author of the bestselling Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, has now turned his attention to Elizabeth Taylor, the quintessential movie star, and uses her biography to reveal the machinations of stardom and fame, from the studio era of Hollywood through the 1970s.  How to Be a Movie Star is a totally fresh, brilliantly researched, and reported portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, as she became our first superstar.  It is also a fascinating revelation of cadre that got her there, from her mother to her managers, publicists, gossip columnists, and early paparazzi--and, not least of all, herself.

Swathed in mink, sailing aboard her yachts, discarding husbands nearly as frequently as she changed diamond earrings, Taylor dominated the headlines for three glittering decades, rewriting rules, defying conventions, laying down the yardstick by which celebrity has been measured ever since.  Focusing on the most glamorous period in Taylor's career, Mann takes us inside her privileged childhood in England to her schooling on the MGM lot (alongside Judy Garland), through her work in National Velvet, Giant, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, among other films.  Whether it is her studio-arranged first marriage to Nicky Hilton (timed to create publicity for her film father of the Bride), the Eddie-Debbie-Liz scandal, or scandalous Italian romance with Richard Burton during the filming of Cleopatra, Mann offers the full, intimate account of how the actress turned into an icon.  More unexpectedly is the emergence of Taylor not as the passionate, impulsive creature of circumstance depicted by previous bios, but instead a smart, shrewd player of the celebrity game who took the lessons taught by the incomparable MGM publicity masters and used them to craft her own public image in the post-studio world--a world she herself helped create, as the first female star to get a million dollars a picture and to work for a percentage of the gross.

With the help of major new interviews and never-before-tapped sources, How to Be a Movie Star tells us everything we need to know about fame and public life in the twentieth century dress in the irresistible guise of the last unrivalled star.” Watch my interview with author William J. Mann here. And here. And here. And here. 

October 24 - October 31

Interview of the Week: Just in time for Halloween Cinematical has posted this rare one hour interview with Alfred Hitchcock conducted by the late, great Tom Synder. When asked what are you afraid of? He says: “Policemen. I never drive a car on the theory that if you don’t drive a car you can’t get a ticket.” He also talks about Cockney rhyming slang and much more. It’s great stuff. Here’s the lowdown from Cinematical’s Elisabeth Rappe:

“In 1973, Tom Snyder and his Tomorrow program conducted an hour long interview with the legendary director, who talked candidly about his career. The interview was believed to have been lost, but was discovered on a VHS tape and has now been put up on YouTube. It's rare to actually hear Hitchcock speak for himself. He's now become one of those directors who is heard about more than he was ever heard from. While he was definitely in his twilight years here, his wit was still very much intact, and he talks about everything from his films, to his Jesuit training, his public image as "a monster," and the longevity of his career. In a delicious sign of the times, there's a glass of wine at his elbow the entire time. They certainly don't do interviews like this anymore! It's fascinating stuff, and a must see for any fan of Hitchcock, or anyone aspiring to create films in his image.”

Cool Thing of the Week: Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made by Alison Castle (Author), Stanley Kubrick (Author), Christiane Kubrick (Editor). There’s only 1000 of them in print, but it sounds like the year’s cinemamaniac present. It’s only $504 Canadian dollars! Here’s the write-up from amazon.ca: “Tucked inside of a carved-out book, all the elements from Stanley Kubrick's archives that readers need to imagine what his unmade film about the emperor might have been like, including a facsimile of the script. This collector's edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies. For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director's mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s "Napoleon" was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford Napoleon specialist, he amassed an unparalleled trove of research and preproduction material, including approximately 15,000 location scouting photographs and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery. No stone was left unturned in Kubrick's nearly-obsessive quest to uncover every piece of information history had to offer about Napoleon. But alas, Kubrick’s movie was not destined to be: the film studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, decided such an undertaking was too risky at a time when historical epics were out of fashion. TASCHEN’s sumptuous, limited-edition tribute to this unmade masterpiece makes Kubrick’s valiant work on “Napoleon” available to fans for the first time. Herein, readers can peruse a selection of Kubrick’s correspondence, various costume studies, location scouting photographs, research material, script drafts, and more, each category of material in its own book. *Includes exclusive access to searchable/downloadable online research database: Kubrick's complete picture file of nearly 17,000 Napoleonic images*”

Other Really Cool Thing of the Week: This press release came in from Alliance Films: “Alliance Films is proud to confirm the "Solar System Premier" of the animated comedy, Planet 51 which will be released in theatres across Canada, Earth on November 20th. The film is currently orbiting the planet on the International Space Station! The film was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on August 28, 2009, and was transferred to the space station by the astronauts a few days later. The film is now cruising high above Earth at 17,500 miles per hour and orbiting the planet every 90 minutes, which is the exact running time of the movie, so it will make a full Earth orbit as the movie premieres on the ground. In a photo accompanying the announcement, a disc of the film can be seen floating weightlessly in space, observing Earth as it floats by a Space Station window. The photo mimics a shot from the film, in which Lem, an alien from Planet 51, observes his home planet from the window of a spaceship for the first time.”

October 16 - October 23

Congratulations to...: My friends at Anchor Bay... Last week, at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel –site of the first Academy Awards® ceremony -- Anchor Bay Entertainment took home the lion’s share of awards at the first-ever Grim Reaper Awards, honoring the year’s best achievements in horror home entertainment. Anchor Bay took home four “Grimmys” with the classic Hellraiser winning for Best Remastering, the Hellraiser Box Set for Best Packaging, Laid To Rest for Best Slasher Film and the “Grimmy’s” top honor – Best in Show for the Hellraiser Box Set.
 
The Grim Reaper Awards is a joint venture between home entertainment industry leader Home Media Magazine and the horror insiders at DreadCentral.com. An esteemed panel of judges from within the horror community, selected the final nominees in twelve categories, with horror fans from all over the world voting online to choose the best horror DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of the year here.
 
He's a Pinball Wizard: This is from the official blog of Benjamin J. Heckendorn: "A  while back I decided to take some time off and now I’ve finally done it! I’ve spent most of the last few weeks working on a long-gestating “dream” project of mine, which is to build my own pinball machine from scratch... Shown above is the main cabinet that I built last week, as well as the illuminated backbox. As many of you know, the theme of the pinball machine is Bill Paxton - a fine American actor who has thrilled audiences with a variety of characters over the years..." For more info, click here. (pinball photo by Benjamin J. Heckendorn)

October 9 - October 16

Book: Bad Boy Drive: The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson by Robert Sellers. Written by the same guy who did Hellraisers, a look at the life and wild times Oliver Reed and Richard Harris, this one is a tour through the high and low lights of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of these four leading men. Is it all true? I don’t know, but it is entertaining. “The best time to get married is noon,” says Warren Beatty, “that way, if things don’t work out, you haven’t blown the whole day.” Check it out here.
 
Thanksgiving Movies: “If aliens learned about Thanksgiving from movies and television, they’d get a skewed idea of what the day is all about. In real life we express our gratitude for life’s bounty, but on screen it’s a different story. ‘Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday,’ joked Johnny Carson. ‘People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year and then discover once a year is way too often…’ Read more here.

Museum Exhibit: The Vanity Fair exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. It’s a collection of classic photos from the magazine’s archives, including all the stuff you’d expect like Demi Moore's famous nude and the more recent controversially suggestive photo of Miley Cyrus but my favorite is a photo of Mary Pickford who was born only a few blocks away (at 211 University Ave. where the Sick Kids Hospital on the corner of University Avenue and Gerrard Street West now sits. See photo.) from where the photograph is now on display. The Toronto exhibit is the only Canadian showing of the portraits.

Movie Event with Free Popcorn: Here's some info from the press release for Paranormal Activity: “Paranormal Activity” makes its Canadian debut in Toronto! Fueled by the growing fan demand and sold-out shows for “Paranormal Activity” across the United States, the film opens exclusively at AMC Yoinge & Dundas 24 for midnight shows only on Thursday, Oct. 8–Sunday, Oct. 11. Be one of the first in Canada to see the film that critics are calling “one of the scariest movies of all time.” In addition, guests will receive a free small popcorn and small drink during these special showings by printing the coupon using the link below http://www.tribute.ca/mailers/amc/AMCParanormalActivity.html

October 2 - October 9

Movie Map!: Check out this map from vodkaster blog. Their contributor David posted a subway map using the 250 best movies, as voted by IMDb.com users on June19, 2009, as the stops. “Hope you’ll have fun traveling around this cinematographic subway plan,” he says, adding, “How would you go from Alien to North by Northwest without crossing The Godfather: Part II?” Check it out here.

Sing-A-Long of the Week: Forget about The Sound of Music Sing-A-Long and don’t bother making toast for Rocky Horror screenings anymore, the latest interactive movie fad is the Labyrinth Sing-A-Long. Flavorpill.com says: “Jim Henson's last film is a fantastically outlandish production featuring his famed puppet creations alongside Jennifer Connelly and glam rocker David Bowie. Connelly plays Sarah Williams, a teenager with an overactive imagination who has to navigate the evil Goblin King Jareth's (Bowie) ever-changing maze to rescue her brother who's been abducted and brought to a netherworld of epic proportions. Luckily, this Labyrinth screening is a sing-along, so you can busy yourself belting out cool Bowie songs on the soundtrack, like the instantly catchy Magic Dance.” Have a look at it here. Here sounds from Labyrinth here!

Sky Mall Shopping: Just got back form NYC and  spent some time browsing the Summer 2008 Sky Mall magazine from United Airlines. My favorite items? The $95 Lucius Malfoy’s Walking Stick from the Harry Potter movies. “Remove the serpent’s head from the cane to discover a hidden wand!” Also… The Zombie of Montclaire Moors Statue, a creepy garden statue with “the eeriest undead eyes you’ve ever seen.” And finally Star Trek fans will want the Star Trek Full-Size Captain’s Chair, a $2717.01 full size replica captain’s chair with a working swivel design, light-up controls and sound effects form the original series. For more info click here.

Sept. 25 - Oct. 2

Book of the Week: In Spite of Myself: A Memoir by Christopher Plummer. Read this after I interviewed him at the most recent Toronto International Film Festival. Wish I would have picked it up beforehand. I would have asked him why he called Elia Kazan a chameleon who “might change into you, wear your skin, steal your soul” or how exactly that it is possible to have sex at a party with your leading lady while conversing with her husband. Also I’d ask him to explain this passage: “At an embarrassingly early age, I began to hit the sauce. Booze was a national sport up north. It was essential! — (a) to keep you warm, (b) to keep you from going mad, (c) to keep your madness going.” It’s a great and surprising read from an actor who seems to have been around forever, but is still doing interesting work. (To hear a snippet of my conversation with Christopher Plummer click here.)

DVDs of the Week: The Wizard of Oz: Ultimate Collector's Editions. Look for two-disc Special Edition, the four-disc Blu-ray Ultimate Collector's Edition or the five-disc standard Ultimate Collector's Edition on Tuesday September 29. Each version comes with a karaoke-style sing-along extra, but the deluxe sets include new featurettes on Wizard trivia in their four hours of extras and cool bonuses like a 52-page coffee-table book and Oz wristwatches. Now if only they came with therapy sessions to help me deal with the terrifyingly digitally restored flying monkees… Find out more here.

Behind the Scenes Story of the Week: Who said “without exception, every one of his crazy ideas I used turned out to be a terrific moment”? Find out here in this terrific UK Telegraph article by Phillip Horne.

Sept. 18 - Sept. 25

Champagne for Charity!: Here's the press release from the Canadian Film Centre: Oscar-nominee and Canadian Film Centre graduate, Sarah Polley, fittingly applies the final signature to the extremely rare Moët & Chandon 12 Litre Balthazar bottle, which will be auctioned in benefit of the CFC.  The bottle has become a one-of-a-kind piece of art, signed by cinema greats that include Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Sir Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Emily Mortimer and Kristin Scott Thomas  during TIFF. The starting bid at the CFC gala for the 12 Litre will be set at $5,000 CDN. An additional 6 Litre bottle signed by Megan Fox  and a 9 Litre bottle signed by Robin Wright Penn, Keanu Reeves  and Rebecca Miller  of ' The Private Lives of Pippa ' will also go up for auction. (Photo courtesy of the Central Image Agency)

Quote of the Week: "This city can't contain Lindsay Lohan. I don't know how we can be expected to contain a wildfire." - Jimmy Kimmel on the LA wildfires.

Favorite TIFF Promo: At the after party for The Men Who Stare at Goats someone had the inspired idea of having real honest-to-God goats wearing little t-shirts that read "Stop staring at me."

Book of the Week: Errol Flynn Slept Here by Robert Matzen and Michael Mazzone. It's 184 pages of text and photos that unlock the raunchy secrets behind Errol Flynn’s legendary Mulholland Farm in Hollywood. Learn about the two way mirrors in the guest bedrooms and the peephole in the ladies restroom. For more info click here. Or here! 

Sept. 11 - Sept. 18

TIFF 09

Richard's TIFF Picks!

Chloe: 3 STARS
Despite being based on a French film the new movie from Atom Egoyan bears all the earmarks of the director’s work. Continuing his career long examination of sexual taboos and miscommunication he’s made a movie that is part sexual Scheherazade, part Single White Female but is also his most straightforward movie in years. Starring Amanda Seyfried as an escort hired by Catherine (Julianne Moore) to test her husband’s (Liam Neeson) fidelity, it’s a steamy thriller the director calls “an extreme examination of how to re-eroticize a marriage.”

Crackie: 3 STARS
Crackie is a gritty drama about a young girl from a small town who dreams of bettering herself. It’s a universal story, this time around set in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Director Sherry White has put together a harrowing portrait of troubled home life buoyed by strong performances from This Hour Has 22 Minutes vet Mary Walsh and newcomer Meghan Greeley. It's an uncompromising look at three generations of dysfunction that even at its most grim offers a glimmer of hope.
    
Defendor: 4 STARS
Woody Harrelson plays a man whose rich inner life spills out into his real life. By day he is dead-end-job-Arthur but by night he is Defendor, a masked superhero do-gooder. His task? To clean up the streets of Hamilton, Ontario, but can he defeat a corrupt cop (Elias Koteas) and the mysterious Captain Industry? Gritty and very funny, this is a hard one to categorize. It’s not exactly a comedy, nor is it a crime drama. What it is, however, is good genre busting entertainment.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: 3 STARS
Directed by Terry Gilliam, this movie is best known as Heath Ledger’s last film. The strange tale of an immortal who complicates his life by making deals with the devil is beautiful looking—it’ll make your eyeballs do the Watusi!—but it’s more a piece of surrealist art than a traditional movie. The story is somewhat hard to follow, but the casting of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to replace the late Ledger in the imaginarium scenes is inspired.

Leslie, My Name is Evil: 2 ½ STARS
Woodstock’s 40th anniversary received a lot of attention this year but another, equally important event from the summer of love hasn’t been as celebrated... until now. The Manson murders are the subject of the newest film from Canadian director Reginald Monkey Warfare Harkema. A surreal retelling of the “Helter Skelter” killings, the subsequent trial and a juror who falls one of the defendants, the movie is more interesting for its visual panache and ideas than actually entertaining. This is a strange movie about a strange time.

Reel Injun: 3 STARS
Weaving together interviews and clips from one hundred years of on-screen Native life Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond presents an engrossing portrait of how popular culture has shaped the world’s perception of First Nations people. Archival footage abounds but it is the firsthand stories from native activists and celebrities like Sacheen Littlefeather and Adam Beach that really flesh out the story. Think of it as The Celluloid Closet for the Native community and you get the idea.

The Trotsky: 4 STARS
Most seventeen year olds are concerned with school, sports and finding a date for the prom. Not Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel). Convinced he is the reincarnation of revolutionary Leon Trotsky he tries to unionize the students of Montreal West High School. This Canadian commie comedy is chock full of funny lines and nice performances—Baruchel really impresses as the budding Bolshevik—and actor turned director Jacob Tierney shows a firm hand behind the camera.

Sept. 4 - Sept. 11

Good News of the Week: Dolphin activist Ric O'Barry has worked tirelessly to stop the dolphin slaughter in Tajii, Japan. It now seems like his efforts (and the momentum started by the film The Cove) has had an effect. In a letter dated September 1, 2009 O'Barry wrote: "Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight..." Read the rest of the letter here.

For more info go to www.savejapandolphins.org.

From the 'Everybody Loves a Cocktail" File: Every year Skyy Vodka creates drinks to honor the Canadians at the Toronto International Film Festival. This year the three cocktails pay tribute to Ellen Page, Lisa Ray and Sandra Oh. For the recipes click here.

August 28 - September 4

The Reason I read Hollywood Elesewhere: Jeffrey Wells is one of the most unique voices currently writing about movies on the net. He's contrarian, difficult and sometimes a bit loopy but never less than wildly enjoable. Check out this recent blog post: "I've always felt on some level that my reactions to films are partly & obviously my very own and partly a channelling of some...I don't know what to call it but let's call it a kind of Movie God wisdom. I am a person with a particular background and likes/dislikes, but I am also, I feel, a kind of conduit of something bigger. You can't really write, I feel, if you don't open yourself up to that "something greater and grander" out there (or "up there" or "in there"). You have to let that force tell you what's right & true. It's partly what you know and partly what is. So in a certain sense I am an instrument of some sort of energy that's not entirely fed by what kind of breakfast I've had in the morning. Go ahead & laugh, but that's how it kinda feels. Glenn Gould said something like this once. He's playing the piano, of course, but it's not just him. Something is also speaking or playing through him. And that force knows (and has courteously let me know) the true cosmic & celestial worth of Inglourious Basterds."

My Favorite Shameless Plug of the Week (for myself): Saturday Richard hosts two Q&As at the Fan Expo! At 1 pm he’ll host a Q&A for the hilarious new horror spoof Stan Helsing with stars Leslie Nielson, Diora Baird, Desi Lydic, Director Bo Zenga, and composer Ryan Shore at Festival of Fear and at 3 pm he’s with Dave Thomas in room 717. For more details click here!

Here's a synopsis of Stan Helsing: "It’s Halloween night and video store clerk Stan Helsing just got stuck with a last minute request to deliver some videos. With his best friend, his best friend’s date, and a smoking hot ex-girlfriend waiting to go to a party, Stan convinces them to take a side trip to Stormy Night Estates for the drop. But the group gets locked inside and Stan discovers he’s actually Stan Van Helsing, descendant of the famed monster killer. Now, to lift a curse from the town and get his friends home safely, Stan must defeat the six greatest movie monsters of all time: Fweddy, Mason, Needlehead, Lucky, Michael Criers and Pleatherface!"

Here's the info on Dave Thomas: CRiTiCAL MASS Entertainment (CME) presents Dave Thomas at Toronto’s premiere fan convention, FanExpo. Dave Thomas, is a comedy genius, Second City and SCTV alumni and one half of the iconic Canuck duo Bob and Doug Mackenzie. Fans will be able to hear Dave Thomas’ insight into his past work and the development of his current project Bob And Doug, an animated series produced by his own animation studio Animax. This Q & A event will be hosted by Richard Crouse, the host of Richard Crouse's Movie Show on E! and the Independent Film Channel. He is the regular film critic for CTV's Canada AM and host of Richard Crouse At the Movies on CFRB NewsTalk 1010 in Toronto.

For lots more info on the Fan Expo click here.

August 21 - 28

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS:
4 ¾ STARS

The last words of “Inglourious Basterds”, the new film from director Quentin Tarantino, are “I think this just might be my masterpiece.” The words aren’t spoken by Tarantino (I’m not going to give away anything and tell you who says them), but they did flow from his pen and it isn’t hard to imagine him claiming them as a comment on his own work. After all he did spend more than a decade working on the script, so long, in fact that “The Irish Times” wrote that the film “has been predicted more often than the second coming of the Lord.” It’s meant to be the director’s magnum opus; a sprawling film that has been gestating inside him for years. I’d like to be able to report that it is his masterpiece, but it’s not, that’s the impossible to better “Pulp Fiction”, but it is as combustible a movie as will be released this year.

Borrowing the title from a little seen 1978 Enzo Castellari film, (the second word is spelled differently, inserting an “e” where the “a” usually sits), Tarantino has created a violent WWII fantasy that rewrites history.

The Basterds are a group of Jewish-American Allied soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Think of them as the Dirty Half Dozen. Their mission is to hunt down, kill and scalp at least one hundred Nazis. The rare Nazi who escapes a nasty death at their hands—left alive to tell others of the Basterd’s ruthless tactics—is marked for life by a swastika carved deep into his forehead. Running parallel is a story thread about movie theatre proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman, aching for revenge against SS colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) A.K.A. the Jew Hunter. In Tarantino’s bloodthirsty world it’s inevitable that Raine’s band of brothers, Shosanna and Col. Landa will cross paths.

The films of Quentin Tarantino deeply polarize people. For every person who quivers at the thought of a new film from the “Reservoir Dogs” director there is another who thinks his movies are too long, too self indulgent and too derivative. Despite those criticisms, fair or not, there is almost no argument that of all the brand name directors working today, Tarantino is the most audacious. His films are a singular vision and “Inglorious Basterds” is no exception.

It opens with an almost unbelievably tense scene, spanning the first twenty five minutes of the movie. It is a tour de force of razor’s edge filmmaking, sadistic and twisted, all without a drop of blood or a raised voice on display. It’s pure cinema, and as a set piece is the best filmmaking I’ve seen this year.

The opening sets a high standard and Tarantino does his best to live up to it, taking his time unfurling the story in chapter form. Unlike bombastic directors like Michael Bay, Tarantino understands the ebb and flow of the storyline. His movies don’t clobber you over the head with every frame, instead he calibrates the story to include deliberately paced scenes which create a sense of anticipation for the next crescendo of violence or plot.

The movie is, as I said, deliberately paced, but never feels slow. Tarantino weaves together the disparate storylines, and styles—everything from spaghetti westerns to 70’s exploitation and über violence—into one seamless package.

The bow on top of the package has to be the performance of the Austrian-born Christoph Waltz. As SS colonel Hans Landa he is pure evil; a slimy villain for the ages.

“Inglourious Basterds” won’t be for everyone, it’s too extreme for casual viewers, but the film lover in me is tickled that the heroine is a cinema owner who literally uses film to bring down the Third Reich. Love him or not, you can never accuse Tarantino of being boring.

My Favorite Pre-Movie Message of the Week: This is from an article called Shut up, already by Jim Emerson: "The magnificent Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX, has the right approach. Exhibitors: take it from here. Hire bouncers. Big ones. (Photos by Mark G. Power, who is working on a movie called "Sacred Cinema," about great places to watch movies all over the world. It sounds fantastic.)" Also, for some claification on the finer points on theater etiquette here is an Examiner article on how to behave in a movie theatre by Mark Jones.

August 14 - 21

Three Days of Music and Peace: Forty years ago this weekend... The Woodstock Festival! From Wikipedia: "The Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition", held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha, 0.94 mi²) dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County. Thirty-two acts performed during the sometimes rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest moments in popular music history and was listed on Rolling Stone's 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll."

Watch Richard's Canada AM interview with Woodstock promoter Michael Lang (pictured) here. Watch the extended cut here.

Watch Richard's Canada AM interview with Santana singer Greg Rolie (pictured) here.

To get a taste of what that historic weekend was really like check out Richard's interviews with Woodstock director Michael Wadleigh (part One, Two and Three), original Sha Na Na drummer Jocko Marcellino and original Santana member Michael Carbello as they discuss the festival, the Summer of Love and the recent Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu Ray. Also check out the Woodstock 40th Anniversary Red Carpet and a Red Carpet interview with Richie Havens, the first man on stage at the legendary 1969 festival.

August 7 - August 14

Best News of the Week: Disney has fired Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz the terrible hosts of At the Movies. I'll never gloat when someone loses a job (and they are both still employed elsewhere), but these guys were bad for film criticism. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Gone are Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment Television and Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies, the cable hosts Disney chose last summer to front what it called "the next generation of the series," in favor of a return to dueling newspaper film critics, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of the New York Times.” The show will probably never regain what it had with hosts Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, but at least cutting the two Bens loose will allow a return for some real film criticism on the show. On a related note, here is an excellent essay by Roger Ebert on the state of film criticism on television.

Tribute of the Week: There have been lots of tributes to John Hughes since his untimely passing on Thursday August 6, but I like this one.

Movie Mash-ups: These aren’t new but they are amazing. Click here to see a series of new film posters reimaging some classic movies. The rules are simple: “Take any film you wish, and photoshop the scenery, characters or titles into the style of a famous movie poster for a different film: The Dambusters in the style of Ghostbusters, Finding Nemo in the style of Jaws, etc.” Enjoy.

July 31 - August 7

Quote of the Week: “I respect criticism but I know more about film than most of the people writing about me. Not only that, I’m a better writer than most of the people writing about me. And I can write film criticism better than most of the people writing about me.” – Quentin Tarantino, GQ, August 2009

Best Movie Swag Collection: 202 Star Wars T-Shirts compiled by hideyourarms.com: a blog about hoodies and t-shirts. This is a coolio collection of unusual Star Wars shirts (and the links to sites where most are available for purchase). Here's a note from the man behind the liust,m Andy: "I think that you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a series of movies that have gained as much of a following as Star Wars, and as you’d expect that has resulted in a huge amount of t-shirts being produced that reference the films in one way or another. So, being HYA, I thought that I’d better make an unnescessarily loing list of them..."   

July 24 - July 31

Michael Jackson Tribute of the Week: There have been thousands, if not millions of Michael Jackson tributes in the weeks since he died, but Eternal Moonwalk has to be the most hypnotically dance trance inducing. It’s unique and completely international just like the star it honors. On the other end of the tribute scale is this site, featuring 16 Bad Michael Jackson Tattoos. My favorite is number 7.

DVD of the Week: In Pontypool, the townsfolk of a small Ontario town are infected by a deadly virus on St. Valentine’s Day. A God Bug that turns them into flesh eating zombies. Now, Pontypool is a movie set in a radio station that plays like a radio show. By and large the action is described and for once the old cliché that what you can’t see is more terrifying that what you can actually see rings true. Couple that with a mounting sense of doom and you have an edge of your seat thriller.

July 17 - July 24

Wine of the Week: 2006 Newman's Own Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s $17.95 better than Thunderbird and all the profits and royalties after taxes are donated to charity. Over twenty-five years ago, Newman started selling salad dressing in old wine bottles. "We have come full circle," Newman said in 2008. "We are back to wine bottles but this time we are filling them with a wine that will complement my salad dressing and pasta sauce."

Here’s what on-line reviewers The Wineauxs had to say about it: “Twizzlers and smoke on the nose – an odd combination. Mildly tannic, a nice fuzzy feeling coats the tongue, some nice blackberry notes, a bit of vanilla, and some very dark, very ripe – almost bordering on slightly dried – fruit, like a plum that needs six hours in the dehydrator but only got three. Very nice – soft and easy drinking. A little bit of wood and a whole punch of black fruit fade quickly…”

And now, a drink for after 5 pm: I wish Dan Aykroyd would spend more time on the script for Ghostbusters 3 and less on extracurricular activities, but I do like a shot of vodka and this is the coolest bottle to come around since Black Death Vodka. Here's the write up from hitimewine.net: "This "Pure Spirit", vodka triple filtered through polished crystals known as Herkimer diamonds, free of additives, is exquisite any time of the year but perhaps ideal for October... Brought to us by Dan Aykroyd, known for his fascination with the invisible world, Crystal Head Vodka ties in with the story of the 13 Crystal Heads that have been unearthed at various times on our planet... from the Yucatan to Tibet. The Heads are believed to emit positive energy, good will and prosperity. Crystal Head Vodka is perfect as a lone shot, chilled or served in signature cocktails..." and here's Aykroyd's carzy instructional video!

Also... Crystal Head is manufactured by Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Ltd in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and is apparently quadruple-distilled and triple-filtered through Herkimer diamond crystals...

July 10 - July 17

Flash Drive of the Week!: From the press release of Know Your Mushrooms: In celebration of the highly-anticipated release of Ron Mann’s latest film Know Your Mushrooms, comes a Limited Special Edition Collector’s Box. For the first time in North America, a feature film is being released on a 4-gigabyte re-usable Mimobot(R) USB flash drive! Ron Mann has always been on the cutting edge of film distribution. He worked with the Voyager Company, which pioneered CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s, and published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films. As digital technology began to revolutionize the film distribution model, Mann’s seminal documentary Poetry in Motion was one of the first films to be digitized with Quicktime. “We fight piracy every day,” says Mann. “So we figured, why not cut out the middle-man (DVDs) and give the media-pirates exactly what they want? A movie as a digital download. DVD and Blu-Ray are simply optical disc storage. So why not use a Mimobot(R) flash drive? It’s more compact and you can re-use the stick after you transfer the film to a hard drive device.”In a revolutionary move, Mann and his independent distribution company Filmswelike are releasing Know Your Mushrooms on commercial DVD as well as a Special Edition Collector’s Box.
 
Crossword of the Week: I don’t know what a horcrux is but I enjoyed the Harry Potter mega crossword.

Trailer of the Week: Diablo Cody gets on my nerves a bit, but she can write a good line. Check out this red band trailer for Jennifer’s Body. Here's some info: "The film follows Jennifer (Megan Fox), a mean-girl cheerleader possessed by a demon who begins feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. It is then up to her "plain Jane" best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) to kill Jennifer, escape from a correctional facility and go after lead singer Nikolai (Adam Brody) and his Satan-worshiping rock band responsible for the transformation."

July 3 – July 10

Movie: Public Enemies is a movie of contradictions. It’s a romantic gangster movie; an art film disguised as a summer blockbuster; a film about a thief who was seen as a hero. It’s a complicated character study that holds up to more than one viewing.

Coolest Project by Someone With Too Much Time on Their Hands: The top 250 best movies of all time Map from vodkaster le blog. Here’s the description.: “This is a map I made listing all of the 250 best movies, as voted by IMDb.com users on the 19th of June 2009. Hope you’ll have fun traveling around this cinematographic subway plan!” Here’s the map (click on it to enlrge).

Trailer of the Week: Daybreakers. Now this looks like good, dumb fun. Here’s the blurb: “Two-time Academy Award nominee® Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.” Here’s the trailer.

Richard's Picks
June 26 – July 3

Possibly the Greatest Website / Phone App Ever: RunPee: Helping Your Bladder Enjoy Films as Much As You Do. You’re at the movies. You have to go, but you don‘t want to miss anything. Enter RunPee which lets you know when there will be a lull in the action and how long that lull (and your pee) will last. Where was this when I missed the climax of Signs because of Gatorade related over hydration?   

Coolest Way to See a Movie: The UK’s Secret Cinema. From the Guardian by Killian Fox: Not only does the innovative Secret Cinema organization (tagline: "Tell no one") screen films in locations that reflect what the film is about, it turns the screenings into atmospheric events. Emails alert members to time and place but the film is revealed only once the lights go down. Past choices have included classics ( If ... ), cult favourites ( Ghostbusters ) and exclusive previews, such as a screening of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park at Shipwright Yard, Southwark, London. A recent screening of Anvil! featured extras done up as moshing metal fans and a surprise performance by Anvil themselves.

Alternate List of Favorite Movie Quotes: A few weeks ago I gave you a link to a video by Liquid Generation of the best movie quotes of all time. Here is an alternative to that list with some very cool quotes from Pajiba’s Guide to What’s Good for You. My favorite? “I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?” or maybe “My grammy never gave gifts. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks…” Actually I like a lot of these…

Line I Wish I Had Written: From the Michael Phillips Transformers: ROTF review in the Chicago Tribune: "[This movie] is like that scene in "Raging Bull," when Joe Pesci slams a car door against the guy's head, over and over. Bay's sequel is the car door; the audience is the guy."

Richard's Picks
June 19 – June 26

Sad News of the Week: The film world lost a major talent this when Alan King, documentary filmmaker, passed away of brain cancer at age 79. I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. King several times and was always taken with how smart, how talented and humble he was. He was a pioneer and he will be missed. Click here to see a tape of Mr. King chatting with Orson Welles. R.I.P.

DVD: One Week has been called a “love letter to Canada,” and it is from its unabashedly Canadian setting to its strictly CanCon references—I doubt “roll up the rim to win” has much resonance for anyone outside the purview of Stats Canada—but its heartfelt story is universal and timeless enough to appeal to anyone whether they have the Queen on their money or not.

Book: The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. After a slow start (the first 100 pages provide A LOT of set up) the book takes off, spinning a scary and unusual vampire tale. These vampires don’t glitter in the sunlight…

Best Trailer of the Week: Zombieland. If this is as good as the trailer I'll forgive Woody Harrelson for the odious Battle in Seattle. Read all about it here.

Richard's Picks
June 19 – June 26

Video: You don’t have to be a Anthony Michael Hall fan to enjoy the Phoenix - Lisztomania Brat Pack Mashup, but it wouldn’t hurt.    

My Congratulations To: The word Web 2.0 and its designation as the English language’s millionth word. “A US web monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be Web 2.0, a term for the latest generation of web products and services. Global Language Monitor (GLM) searches the internet for newly coined terms, and once a word or phrase has been used 25,000 times, it recognizes it.” Read more words here.

Hippie Stuff: : Check out Richard's interviews with Woodstock director Michael Wadleigh (part One, Two and Three), original Sha Na Na drummer Jocko Marcellino and original Santana member Michael Carbello as they discuss the festival, the Summer of Love and the new Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu Ray. Also check out the Woodstock 40th Anniversary Red Carpet and a Red Carpet interview with Richie Havens, the first man on stage at the legendary 1969 festival.

Most Fun I Had This Week: Checking out Toxic Avenger: the Musical at The New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, NYC). Here's some Wikipedia info: Melvin Ferd the Third lives in Tromaville, Exit 13B on the New Jersey Turnpike. He likes Sarah, the blind librarian, and learns from her about the "Good Earth Company" that pollutes the town in collusion with its mayor who also happens to be linked to the company. His attempt to clean up gets foiled by the mayor's minions who dump him into a vat of radioacive waste; he reemerges as "the Toxic Avenger" who with supernatural strength starts to attack the polluters and rips them apart. Meanwhile, Sarah who is unable to discern his gowlish appearance takes a liking to "Toxie". Events come to a head when the mayor tries to kill him by throwing bleach at him. The scheme misfires, Sarah and Toxie get married, and on year later, Toxie becomes governor of a cleaned-up State of New Jersey. The New York premiere opened at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street in Manhattan, 1/2 block from Wicked (another green show)on April 6, 2009. The New York Times called the production "Exuberantly Silly", "Hilariously Funny" - NY POST, "Four Stars! A rock and roll romp!" - Time Out Magazine. My favorite review headline: "Toxic Avenger: The Musical Is A Spine-Ripping Good Time..." See the show and you'll know why that's funny.

Richard's Picks
June 5 – June 12

Most Tasteless Headline of the Week: With my apologies to the Carradine familty...

Video: Liquid Generation’s 100 Movie Lines in 200 Seconds. Despite some obvious misses—where “Attica! Attica!” and “May the force be with you”—this is still a pretty cool trip down movie memory lane.   

Strangest News Story of the Week: British women have picked James Bond actor
Daniel Craig to be rendered in a frozen fruit-flavored treat, Del Monte Foods says. "Daniel Craig topped our poll of Britain's coolest celebrities and, thanks to our Del Monte lolly replica, he is officially immortalized as super smooth and licensed to chill," spokesman Matt O'Connor said in a statement.

DVD: The re-mastered Woodstock Blu Ray offers a fascinating glimpse—it’s more than a glimpse actually, the new director’s cut is four hours long!—into a well documented time but while we may have seen many of these images before the power of the film really becomes apparent when you watch the movie from start to finish. It’s the sights and sounds of a world in the midst of a huge sea change and while its message of peace of love might sound corny in our cynical age, it heartening to go back to a time—even if it is just for four hours—when anything seemed possible. The best thing is you don’t even have to take the brown acid to have a good time.

Richard's Picks
May 29– June 5

Video: A mysterious virus turns humans into horrifying vampiric creatures in The Strain, an upcoming novel co-written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Watch del Toro discuss the book here!

Cool t-shirt Alert!: From Red Canoe: National Heritage Brands comes the Beaver logo t-shirt. SIZE: SM, MD, LG, XL, XXL 100% cotton panel constructed t-shirt with inset sleeves and top stitching. Discharged logo. Red Canoe logo patch on right t-shirt sleeve. Show your Canadian pride for only $32.50!

Event: Friday, May 29, at 7 PM, the Cumberland Cinemas will host the inaugural edition of “TFCA Presents,” a new series presented in partnership with the Toronto Film Critics Association. This week it's Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, The Limits of Control, which will be entering its second week of release at the theatre. Critics will introduce the film and then host a question-and-answer session with the audience afterwards.

The series, which is expected to run roughly once a month, was devised with several goals in mind. Besides affording TFCA members an intimate new platform to discuss worthy local releases, it gives audiences the chance to put faces to the bylines of film critics they read every week—and to add their own voices to the fray. TFCA critics will take turns hosting the event.

The Cumberland's commitment to screening the best of international and art-house cinema made it a natural partner for the TFCA, which broke from the mainstream earlier this year by giving its 2008 Best Film award to the independently produced drama Wendy and Lucy (which made its Toronto premiere at the Cumberland). Given its polarizing reception among critics, The Limits of Control—an auteur film that stars Isaac de Bankole as a taciturn hit man stalking unknown prey through a series of picturesque Spanish locations— is an ideal title for discussion.

Richard's Picks
May 22 – May 29

Website: For those who don’t feel they take enough abuse in their day-to-days lives, here’s an instant verbal beat down from one of the masters of the genre, Chef Gordon Ramsey.    

Book: The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession by Adam Gollner. I’m always fascinated by people who allow their interests to become obsessions. Adam Gollner likes fruit. A lot. His love exotic fruits took him around the world to uncover a intriguing array of fantastic fruits from the coco-de-mer to a miracle berry containing a compound called miraculin that makes everything you eat afterwards taste sweet. The fruit sounds great and if I was a magician I would totally use the stage name The Amazing Miraculin!

Most Fun I Had This Week: Live band karaoke at the Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen St. W. 416-536-7717)! The details are sketchy, but I remember a rockin’ three piece band, a teleprompter, devil horns and a slightly off key version of Folsom Prison Blues.

Richard's Picks
May 15 – May 22

Strangest Thing I Saw This Week: Dictator Wine. Not sure what the back story is on these totalitarian tipples but this display in a liquor store in Rome caught my eye. A close second to the despot drinkables in the surreal department was the “His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire” apron I bought for 6 Euros from a street vendor.

DVD: True Blood Season One. The show, about vampires trying to assimilate into human culture (Thou Shall Not Crave Thy Neighbor!) with the aid of a beverage called Tru Blood that takes away their thirst for real blood, is cool, but the extras are cooler. They include: In focus: Vampires in America: a mock-u-mentary about vampires in America; Tru Blood beverage ads: French and American "Tru Blood" beverage ads; Vampire service ads: ads for vampire dating, vampire hotels and lawyers that service vampires and public service announcements: both pro and anti-vampire rights.   

Video: The Snakes on a Plane television edit must be heard to be believed. For years censors have insisted that “freakin’” is a perfectly acceptable substitute for that other f- word, but the dubbing of The Snakes on a Plane’s most famous line can only be described as surreal. Like Edith Piaf singing La Vie en Rose, the first verse of Howl by Alan Ginsberg, Angelina Jolie’s lips, Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues, or delicate chocolate flecks in mint ice cream, the sound of Samuel L. Jackson saying “Mother fucker,” is sublime. No one says it quite like him. It is as artful as Pavorotti’s high c, and a lot less showy than Cirque du Soleil. It is his Pietà so hearing it replaced with “monkey fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane” feels like desecration. See the dumbest dubbing ever here! 

Book: Vanity Fair’s Tales Of Hollywood edited by Graydon Carter. I know all these articles have been published before, but I’m grateful for a book that binds them together in one place. In depth stories on the making of All About Eve, Cleopatra, Sweet Smell of Success, Rebel Without a Cause and Saturday Night Fever make for a varied and fun read in a time when most movie journalism is limited to 400 to 500 word pieces.

Richard's Picks
May 8 – May 15  

Interview: Last week I recommended the new James Toback documentary Tyson. To learn more about the movie and Toback’s twenty year friendship with Iron Mike, check out my interview with the director here.    

Video: David Lynch’s Interview Project. From New York Magazine: “David Lynch is taking a break from cow wrangling (and cow sculpting) and cooking quinoa to launch Interview Project. Lynch describes the black-and-white online video series, debuting June 1, as "a road-trip where people have been found and interviewed … hundreds of people." Focused on Americans from all over the country and shot in black-and-white, it looks like Lynch's return to sincerity. Call it The Straight Story: The Documentary Sequel.” See Lynch discuss it here.  

Coolest Thing I Saw This Week: Zombies 'n Monsters Embroidery Transfers by Sublime Stitching. George A. Romero fan take note! From the website: “Finally! Monster patterns that leave cutesy at the cellar door. Halloween may be just around the corner, but flesh-eating zombies are appropriate any time of the year.”

Richard's Picks
May 1 – May 8  

Best Opening Line in a Speech: From Julia Roberts's speech at the April 27, 2009 Film Society of Lincoln Center 36th Gala Tribute to Tom Hanks at Alice Tully Hall: "All right, it’s late and I’m paying my babysitter overtime and I have to pee, so ... everybody fucking likes you..” Read the whole speech here.  

Worst Idea of the Week: A remake of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, sans Cronenberg. “Universal Pictures will remake the 1983 David Cronenberg-directed thriller "Videodrome," with Ehren Kruger set to write the script and produce with partner Daniel Bobker…” Why! Why! Is nothing sacred? Read the whole sorry story here. 
 
At the Movies: Check out the new James Toback documentary Tyson at this year’s Hot Docs festival in Toronto. It’s an hour-and-a-half of Iron Mike talking straight to camera, with the odd bit of archival footage thrown in. It fascinating to hear him talk tenderly about Cus D'Amato, the only father figure he ever knew and unsettling to hear him refer to Desiree Washington, the woman he was accused of raping as “that wretched swine of a woman.”  
Video: “Curators discuss the cataloging of the Robert De Niro film collection and how the materials are processed upon their arrival at the Ransom Center. The collection, which opened in April 2009, covers many different aspects of filmmaking, from the scripts and the screenwriting to the costumes and film and videotape. Listen to the curators' share the discoveries about the collection.” It’s cool in a dull kind of way, but then they discuss doing the “bug check” on De Niro’s belongings and it gets surreal…  

Coolest Thing I Learned This Week: Did you know that director Paul Thomas Anderson’s father was best known as horror television host Ghoulardi? Neither did I. From Wikipedia: “Ghoulardi was a fictional character invented and portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio from January 13, 1963 through December 16, 1966.” For more info click here to see Ghoulardi or here to read about the DVD American Scary, a documentary about horror hosts.

At the Gallery: A new show of paintings in Palm Springs features likenesses of b-movie babe Tura Satana and other Russ Meyer faves. Called Pussycats, Dolls & Vixens: A Tribute to Russ Meyer you can check it out at the M Modern Gallery (2500 North Palm Canyon Drive in Pal Springs).  Here's what Tura said: "Here is the link for the art show that took place last night in Palm Springs. I am truly awed by the paintings and the art work that all of these wonderful artists have rendered of not only myself but of all the Russ Meyer ladies. Thank you so much for the honor of being either your model or your inspiration." (picture at left: "Faster Pussy" - by Dale Sizer - 24" x 18" - Acrylic on Metal Flake Vinyl - $ 1,650)

Richard's Picks
April 24 – May 1  

Book: Paul Mewman: A Life by Shawn Levy. A complete look at Newman’s life, packed with detail. My favorite quote? On his battle with the New York Post Newman said, “I wish I could sue the Post, but it's awfully hard to sue a garbage can.” Read all about it here…  

The King of Condiments: Baconaise. My life may never be the same. That the creators financed their company with money they won on America's Fiunniest Home Videos makes me love it even more! “Baconaise could be the greatest condiment ever invented. Sorry Ketchup.” -  Geek Monthly Magazine. Spread the bacon love!  

Coolest Thing I Saw This Week: In the final moments of Jennifer Baichwal’s new documentary Act of God there is a “duet” between author Paul Auster’s recitation of a short story about being struck by lightening and the wild, unhinged electronic improvisation of guitarist Fred Frith. As Auster tells the story in a measured tone Frith underscores the story with a feral musical soundtrack, created by placing metal objects on the strings of his guitar. Layered on top are Baichwal’s unforgettable images of lightening. It’s beautiful, unforgettable filmmaking.

Best Mini Site(s) of the Week: Warner Bros and Paramount Pictures both have new and fun mini-sites for to shill for their big May releases. On Trek Yourself you can transform an old j-peg of yourself from last year's office party into a talking 3D Vulcan, Romulan, Captain or Red Shirt Officer avatar. It's the same idea over on Terminate Yourself, but here you can add battle scars to revealing your hidden T-800 endoskeleton.

Best Book Titles of the Week: Haven't read any of Kim Harrison's books, which are described as"sexy and supernatural" on amazon.ca, but I do like her titles. Names like The Good, The Bad and the Undead, Every Which Way But Dead and The Outlaw Demon Wails reveal a wee bit of a Clint obsession.

Richard's Picks
April 17 - April 24  

Book: Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole and Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers. Oliver Reed and 36 friends drank, in an evening, 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of Scotch, 17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine and one bottle of Babycham. Read all about it here…  

At the Gallery: “There is no such thing as a bad movie frame,” said John Waters, and in his show Rear Projection at the Gagosian Gallery (456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210) he aims to prove it with a series of manipulated frames from favorite movies. Here is more info: Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce "Rear Projection", an exhibition of new photographs and sculpture by John Waters. "Rear projection" is a movie term for the process whereby a foreground action is combined with a background scene filmed earlier to give the impression the actors are on location when they are, in fact, working inside a studio. In Waters' latest work, this artificial and outdated visual effect is embraced, attacked and taken to extremes. Glorifying the struggle, humiliation, and wild excitement of a life in show business, Waters uses an insider's bag of film tricks and trade lingo to celebrate the excess of the movie industry. Rewriting and redirecting existing film imagery snapped off the TV screen, he assaults, elevates, subtitles, and startlingly alters these one time classic, respected, even honored movies to attain a new kind of equality: a cult film that only needs one viewer – John Waters himself. Child stars are given bad habits… Click here to read more.   

Viral Video: Lindsay Lohan and eHarmony with a little help from FunnyorDie.com. This is the best thing she’s been in since… well, maybe ever. "Hi, my name's Lindsay and I'm searching for love. I'm recently single, I think, and I'm looking for someone I can spend the rest of my life with - or, at least, the rest of my probation with…”  

RIP: Marilyn Chambers, April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009. Here’s an excerpt from the 1992 book Cronenberg on Cronenberg where David Cronenberg discusses working with Marilyn Chambers in Rabid: “When I met her she was a lot harder than I had hoped. She had plucked eyebrows and her hair was very pre-Farrah Fawcett. She had been doing Las Vegas. Chuck Traynor, her husband / manager, was not my favorite kind of guy. Very tough. They were both into trading gold-plated revolvers with Sammy Davis Jr., that kind of thing. It's a world totally foreign to me; not one I'll ever get to know too well. But Chuck was very protective of Marilyn, and very supportive of the movie. And Marilyn herself was very shrewd and sharp, and worked really hard. She'd obviously had some rough times since that first little movie that I saw of hers. But she was a real trouper, and invented her own version of Method acting. When she had to cry it wasn't a problem, because Chuck would say, "Remember when Fluffy died"—Fluffy was her cat—and then she'd cry. I thought she had real talent, and expected her to go on and do other straight movies. But she went back. I don't know if it was Chuck, or that the industry still wouldn't accept her.”

Favorite Photo of the Week: This picture speaks a thousand woprds. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...

Richard's Picks (long weekend edition)
April 10 - April 17  

Book: Deconstructing Sammy by Matt Birkbeck. An insightful, but sad account of Sammy Davis Jr.’s legacy. I bought this one based on the back cover blurb: “After kissing her dead husband on the cheek, Altovise quickly removed the remaining jewelry from his body. Before Sammy was buried, she took his glass eye…” If that doesn’t grab you, nothing will.     

On Stage: The Toxic Avenger: The Musical! The Original Singing and Dancing Iconic Toxic Mutant LIVE ON STAGE!  

Television Show: Fringe is back! Don’t know where it went for the last couple of months but this show, which is a weird mix of The X-Files, Altered States, The Twilight Zone and Dark Angel, is a welcome addition to my Tuesday nights. It isn’t just a cool show but also airs with only half the usual amount of commercials, adding about six minutes to the show's run time.  

At the Movies: Next week check out The Toronto Jewish Film Festival (April 18 – 26, 2009). Highlights include American Swing, a documentary about Larry Levenson, the founder of the legendary New York City swinger’s club Plato’s Retreat and a special screening of What Makes Sammy Run? the recently-restored 1959 television drama. In attendance will be the legendary producer and screenwriter Budd Schulberg. For more information go to www.tjff.com.  

Viral Video: These aren’t exactly new, but the Will It Blend? series of videos still makes me laugh. If you haven’t seen them here’s what happens: Tom Dickson, the slightly creepy host with the monotone voice, puts everything from i-phones to bic lighters into a blender to see what will happen. That’s it. Hilarity ensues. Kitchen appliances are rarely ever this fun.  

Richard's Picks
April 3 - April 10

Book: Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman by Hedy Lamarr. The back cover blurb from this 1966 paperback says it all: “An unabashed autobiography… Miss Lamarr sets a new mark for utter frankness… Prudes will be shocked!” Read all about it here!

DVD: Slumdog Millionaire. Even if you’ve already seen the movie the DVD is worth checking out for the enthusiastic commentary tracks.

Viral Video: A couple of weeks ago I ripped Nicolas Cage for his over-the-top acting style calling it an “experiment in extreme b-movie acting.”  With these commercials (shot for Japanese television) he’s back in my good books.

Event: The coolest thing I did last week was to go and see David Cronenberg receiving the prestigious Legion d'Honneur, France's highest distinction at a private ceremony on Wednesday night. When he closed his speech with “Vive la France, vive le Canada et vive le cinéma,” I got goose bumps. Here's my (grainy and not very good) video of the event.

Catch Phrase: I’m loving the tagline for the new Steven Soderbergh film The Girlfriend Experience: “See it with someone you ****.” You fill in the blank.

Television Show: Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… Any show Costello that claims to be an “antidote to the moronic entertainment environment” works for me. The show premieres April 3 at 10 p.m. ET on CTV; and April 4 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo!

Richard's Picks
March 27 - April 3

Book: Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula by Eric Nuzum. Check it out here.

DVD: The Tale of Despereaux. "Despereaux doesn’t feel like other recent animated hits like Shrek, which relies on pop culture references as a source of humor or even the brilliant WALL-E with its environmental message. Despereaux is more old fashioned than that; more like a “Once upon a time” Grimm's fairy tale. The humor in the film comes from the characters and the situations, not belch jokes or double entendres..." Read the whole review here.

Viral Video: Get Obsessed. You can play a prank on a friend where Ali's character from the upcoming film Obsessed is obsessed with the person of your choosing. It's beyond awesome. Click here to check it out.

Event: Richard is hosting a Q&A with the guys from Anvil to celebrate the theatrical distribution of Anvil: The Story of Anvil at the AMC Theatre Yonge and Dundas on Friday April 3. Be there. Devil horns are NOT optional!

Catch Phrase: "Drunch" as coined by Roger Ebert. "In my drinking days, some of us would gather around noon on Saturdays at Oxford's Pub for what we called Drunch. We would commence with shots of creme de menthe and pint glasses of real Coke, in the hope that a combination of alcohol, sugar and caffeine would restore us." Click here to read more.