Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski) takes place over one long weekend in the early 80s as a small army of nerdy men (and one woman) descend on a remote hotel for a computer chess competition and proceed to screw up each other’s lives and careers with gusto. Shooting the desolate setting with terrible period video cameras, Bujalski spins out a series of vignettes that gradually coalesce into a larger narrative about smart people trying to understand things that don’t want to be understood, from cranky computers that insist on throwing matches to the possibility of deeper connections with their human rivals. In a weird way, it’s perfectly in sync with Bujalski’s previous thorny romantic dramedies this one just happens to play out between men and their machines. And, yes, that is indeed Dazed And Confused’s Wiley Wiggins as one of the more frustrated programmers. 92 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Jul 26 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) recreates the last day in the life of Oscar Grant before his death at the hands of a Bay Area Rapid Transit cop early on New Year’s Day 2009. Played winningly by Chronicle’s Michael B Jordan as an instinctively helpful person actively trying to put his troubled past behind him, Grant is allowed to be a complex, multi-faceted individual – an imperfect son, boyfriend and father who came to a violent, unnecessary end because of a combination of factors – institutional racism being a pretty big one. Writer/director Coogler isn’t out to paint Grant as a martyr as much as to create a three-dimensional study. The fact that the film arrives on the heels of the George Zimmerman verdict just drives his point home all the more brutally. 95 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Jul 26 at Varsity. See here for times.
The Wolverine (James Mangold) offers a riposte to the hysteria over exploitative 9/11 imagery in summer blockbusters, opening on nothing less than Fat Man dropping on Nagaski, August 9, 1945. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is on the scene at the time of the bombing, like a superhero Forrest Gump. Decades later, our lone wolf hero is rousted out of his solitary hideout by a soldier he rescued that day, and ends up stripped of his powers and ping-ponging through an overwrought Japanese conspiracy involving ninjas, the Yakuza and an enormous adamantium samurai. Though the plot is bogged down by dizzying double crosses, the action is uniformly superb. A breathless melee atop the roof of a speeding bullet train and the late-in-the-game storming of a mountain village are memorably gripping. 126 min.
Rating: NNNN (JS)
Opens Jul 26 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Docks Lakeview Drive-In, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Stardust Drive in Theater. See here for times.
Crystal Fairy (Sebastián Silva) is a slight but endearing little story about a handful of people getting high on cactus juice. The narrative tracks a battle of wills between two Americans – high-strung Jamie (Michael Cera) and flighty but equally stubborn Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffman) – as they drive to a Chilean beach to chase the legendary highs of the San Pedro cactus. Director Silva edges away from the insistent ugliness of The Maid to find something more inclusive in the largely improvised action, and Cera adds another casually obnoxious character to his modest gallery of pricks. But it’s Hoffman who proves the most compelling figure, someone so obnoxiously free-spirited that she has to be hiding some major issues. Some subtitles. 98 min.
Rating: NNN (NW)
Opens Jul 26 at Varsity. See here for times.
Thursday Till Sunday (Dominga Sotomayor) takes the opposite route from most family road trip movies. Instead of shifting gears between slapstick and melodrama while pursuing a happy ending à la Little Miss Sunshine, Sotomayor’s remarkable debut feels like it’s riding in neutral, staying at an emotional distance to observe a young family unravelling with every dip and bump in the road. The widening gulf between husband and wife, parent and child, is what awaits at the end of their journey. You know where this family is headed just from Sotomayor’s vivid compositions. The director sets up environments and spaces tellingly, hinting at the family’s history and current state through minor details and gestures, suggesting the bigger picture without ever explaining it, leaving you in the dark with Lucia. Unfortunately, slowly is the most pervasive adjective. Subtitled. 96 min.
Rating: NNN (RS)
Opens Jul 26 at Carlton Cinema, Kingsway Theatre. See here for times.
The Venice Syndrome (Andreas Pichler) takes the piss out of one of the world’s most beautiful cities, showing that moonlit gondola rides and quaint shops have been replaced by multinational stores and enormous cruise ships that clog the port and unleash hordes of tourists. Focusing on a dozen or so long-time inhabitants, Pichler shows why the city’s population is dwindling (it’s expected to be zero by 2030), with people forced out by exorbitant real estate prices, unemployment and the 21 million annual visitors. The film feels rudderless at times, and Pichler often repeats himself, especially in images of those grotesque cruise ships spoiling the scenery. But it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the natives losing their evocative city to uncontrolled capitalism. Subtitled. 82 min.
Rating: NNN (GS)
Opens Jul 26 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
Mussels in Love (Willemiek Kluijfhout) showcases expert 35mm camerawork that plays up the romance of the titular aphrodisiac while in its reproductive stages. The sensual, voyeuristic footage of mussels, which just happen to resemble human genetalia, is both beautiful and perverse. You may never look at moules marinières the same way after watching a mussel ejaculate. These scenes of shellfish getting off come early on. and the doc’s other concerns are nowhere near as fascinating. Yep, the film climaxes too soon. While charting the various farming and eating practices associated with the Dutch shellfish industry, Mussels in Love fails to construct a coherent narrative or argument. The film looks appealing but remains undercooked. 73 min.
Rating: NN (RS)
Opens Jul 26 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
The To Do List (Maggie Carey) stars Aubrey Plaza as Brandy Klark, a virginal keener whose friends convince her to do some proper boning over her summer break so she can go to college as an experienced woman. It’s 1993, so the internet isn’t there to help her learn the ropes all the research must be hands-on. I love Plaza on Parks And Recreation, and she did some great work opposite Mark Duplass in last summer’s Safety Not Guaranteed, but she’s terribly miscast here, a decade older than her character and in no way suited to play someone who’s basically a young Leslie Knope. The jokes don’t land the body-fluid moments feels desperate and forced. And a subplot that finds Brandy working at a water park and bonding with her immature boss (Bill Hader) just made me wish I was watching The Way, Way Back again. 103 min.
Rating: NN (NW)
Opens Jul 26 at Canada Square, Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, SilverCity Mississauga, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
Rufus (Dave Schultz) is an incoherent, hacked-up narrative about a small-town sheriff (David James Elliott, formerly of JAG) and his wife (Kelly Rowan) who take in a lost young man (newcomer Rory J. Saper) with a habit of sprouting fangs and claws and biting people on the neck. It’d be hard to screw up that sort of story, but Schultz does it: characters’ motivations shift from one scene to the next, time is compressed, key scenes seem to be missing. The indie rock soundtrack under every scene speaks to a desperate re-editing jo that didn’t work. 109 min.
Rating: N (NW)
Opens Jul 26 at Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
Andre Rieu Live in Maastricht 2013 is a high def live screening of a concert by the King of the Waltz from his home town of Maastricht, in The Netherlands. 177 min.
Opens Jul 28 at Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Queensway, SilverCity Yonge, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
Smurfs 2 (Raja Gosnell) is a sequel to 2011’s hit film starring everyone’s favourite blue buddies. Screened after press time – see review in next week’s issue. 105 min.
Opens Jul 31 at 401 & Morningside, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
