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Movies & TV

Film Friday: Holy Motors, Bobcaygeon, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and more

Holy Motors (Leos Carax) is writer/director Carax’s first feature since 1999’s Pola X. He’s recently worked primarily in short films, and Holy Motors does pulse with the sudden, surging energy of an omnibus film. Denis Lavant’s Monsieur Oscar is chauffeured to a series of “appointments” where he assumes one new personality after the next. In one he’s a street beggar (and apparently female), in another a dying man comforted by an estranged relative (Elise Lhomeau) and in yet another the green-suited babbling monster Lavant played in Carax’s segment of Tokyo!, rampaging into a photo shoot and sort-of kidnapping an American supermodel (Eva Mendes). And it gets weirder after that. There are hints that Oscar isn’t the only one performing and vague conversations about cameras we never see. The prologue and epilogue suggest a much larger, far more complicated relationship to cinema that Carax never explores, but I don’t think he ever intended to. He just wants us to get in and take the ride. Subtitled. 111 min.

Rating: NNNN (NW)

Opens Nov 16 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.


I Am Not a Rock Star (Bobbi Jo Hart) is an ambitious music doc that follows Montreal-born classical pianist Marika Bournaki from the age of 12 through 20, complete with scenes of adolescent angst, young love and petulant meltdowns. Bournaki began playing at five, encouraged by her parents, both aspiring artists (he was a violinist, she was a ballet dancer) who never fulfilled their dreams. Talented, attractive and bilingual, Bournaki’s given plum opportunities, but it’s clear early on she has some confidence issues, and as the years pass, as in time-lapse photography, the cracks in her family life widen. Watching her come to a renewed appreciation of her art is inspiring, as is the moment when you discover she’s speaking from the heart and not just repeating things she’s been coached to say since childhood. 85 min.

Rating: NNNN (GS)

Opens Nov 16 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.


Citadel (Ciaran Foy) is one of the simplest and most direct thrillers in a while, focusing on an agoraphobic single father (Aneurin Barnard) who must overcome his fears to save his infant daughter from a fate worse than death. Writer-director Foy’s narrative is so spare that the movie starts out feeling like a short inflated to feature length, but once things really get rolling in the second half, Citadel plays as a solid, uncompromising little shocker powered by an ingenious premise and an unexpectedly complex characterization from James Cosmo as a bellicose priest who becomes our hero’s only ally. 85 min.

Rating: NNN (NW)

Opens Nov 16 at Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


A Liar’s Autobiography – The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman (Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, Ben Timlett) brings Monty Python’s Graham Chapman back from the dead for an animated adaptation of his 1980 memoir. A team of filmmakers unearthed unreleased Chapman recordings, reunited the surviving Pythons and hired Cameron Diaz to play Freud (why not?) for some loosely connected sketches about Graham’s life. There’s no real through line, and even when covering the comedian’s infamous alcoholism the focus is on laughs, but an honest and appropriately surreal portrait of Chapman eventually emerges. The project is ultimately just for Python fans though, with little appeal outside of the cult. It’s always nice to see that gang together again, but it’s time for them to actually do something completely different. 85 min.

Rating: NNN (Phil Brown)

Opens Nov 16 at Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


Bobcaygeon (Andy Keen) tracks the Tragically Hip’s big 2011 outdoor show in cottage country’s Bobcaygeon. A film like Woodstock works because it documents a major movement burgeoning before our eyes. If there’s any social meaning to the Hip’s success, we don’t learn about it here. Worse, the doc tells us nothing about the group or their internal dynamics. The Hip’s fans may be passionate and have the tats to prove it, but they’re deadly dull. There’s a flicker of edge during a town meeting when a local club owner conflicts with the concert promoter, and a funny scene shows lead singer Gord Downie drinking out of a miniature Stanley Cup. But the doc doesn’t find any energy until one hour in, when the band takes the stage – Downie is one of rock’s most charismatic performers. Hip lovers won’t be able to resist this. Anyone else will not see the point. 100 min.

Rating: NN (SGC)

Opens Nov 16 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.


Red Dawn (Dan Bradley) is an earnest remake that adapts the original’s Cold War anxieties to today’s era of fear-mongering. A North Korean army attacks America for no discernible reason other than to give the U.S. a taste of its own medicine. They occupy the States in a fashion similar to Americans in Iraq, detaining prisoners in a football field dressed to look like Guantánamo. That leaves Chris Hemsworth’s marine and a pack of teens to assume the role of jihadists, mounting a terrorist campaign to defend their homeland. Hemsworth makes the most of the hammy dialogue, but the movie’s action, with teens wielding rocket launchers, is a mediocre substitute for playing Call Of Duty. 94 min.

Rating: NN (RS)

Opens Nov 21 at 401 & Morningside, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yorkdale. See here for times.


Lady Antebellum: Own The Night World Tour is the broadcast of a concert film by the bestselling country pop group. 90 min.

Opens Nov 20 at Coliseum Mississauga, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge. See here for times.


Life of Pi (Ang Lee) is Lee’s big-screen adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize- winning novel about a man who travels the sea with a Bengal tiger. See review in next week’s issue. 125 min.

Opens Nov 21 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


The Metropolitan Opera: L’Elisir D’Amore Encore is a repeat broadcast in high def of the Met’s production of the Donizetti comic opera, directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani. 167 min.

Opens Nov 17 at Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Yonge. See here for times.


Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey) is an animated pic about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny teaming up to save the world from a big villain. See review in next week’s issue. 97 min.

Opens Nov 21 at 401 & Morningside, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell) is a romantic comedy about a man (Bradley Cooper) recovering from a breakdown who meets a young widow (Jennifer Lawrence). See review in next week’s issue. 122 min.

Opens Nov 21 at Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (Bill Condon) is the big finale of the tween romance/horror franchise about vampires, werewolves and humans. Screened after press time – see review November 16 at nowtoronto.com/movies. 115 min.

Opens Nov 16 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Humber Cinema, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity. See here for times.


WWE Survivor Series – 2012 is a live high def match featuring WWE superstars. 180 min.

Opens Nov 18 at Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre. See here for times.

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