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Movies & TV

Film Friday: Promised Land, Texas Chainsaw 3D and more

Promised Land (Gus Van Sant) is a straight-up issue picture about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and the moral cost of working for a company that utilizes it. The script, by co-stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, trades in an outmoded, 1960s sort of morality, and apparently director Van Sant decided to be Stanley Kramer after Milk got all those Oscar nominations. Damon and Frances McDormand play a pair of smooth-talking natural-gas reps who come to a small town offering lucrative lease deals to drill wells on farms and homesteads. But then a local schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) raises some questions, and an environmentalist (Krasinski) arrives with a story about fracking having poisoned his family farm, and Damon’s character starts to wonder why he has to keep reminding everyone that he’s not such a bad guy. For its first hour, Promised Land ambles along pleasantly enough, setting up the conflicts amongst its characters by letting the cast exchange snappy dialogue. But Damon and Krasinski resolve the script’s simplistic conflicts with a cynical raspberry followed by an empty moment of moral clarity. 106 min.

Rating: NNN (NW)

Opens Jan 4 at Canada Square, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, SilverCity Mississauga, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


The Metropolitan Opera: Les Troyens is a live high def broadcast of the Met’s production of the epic Berlioz opera about the Trojan War, starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham and Dwayne Croft. 330 min.

Opens Jan 5 at Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge. See here for times.


Texas Chainsaw 3D (John Luessenhop) is a 3D sequel to the horror franchise about a chainsaw-wielding serial killer named Leatherface. 92 min.

Opens Jan 4 at 401 & Morningside, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale. See here for times.

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