The Case Against 8 (Ben Cotner, Ryan White) follows the court case mounted by two couples to overturn California’s law banning gay marriage. It’s an absorbing lesson in how to win an important political case. The plaintiffs are white and unthreatening, and the word “queer” is never uttered… but that’s kinda the point. The film fascinates in part because the legal team behind the couples included Republican stalwart Ted Olson and Democrat David Boies, who had squared off in the famous Bush vs. Gore case, the 2000 battle over the Florida recount. Here they’re warm and toasty together and passionately committed to a progressive cause. Also strange is the pathetically weak argument mounted by gay marriage opponents. But in the end, the unlikely bromance between Boies and Olson is eclipsed by the couples’ deep love. That’s why you’ll be reaching for the kleenex. 112 min.
Rating: NNNN (SGC)
Opens Jun 27 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
Earth to Echo (Dave Green) updates E.T. for a new generation of kids, compressing the narrative of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic into one overnight adventure, as three Nevada buddies (Teo Halm, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Reese C. Hartwig) investigate some weird cellphone interference to distract themselves from an impending separation and wind up encountering an alien. It’s presented as found footage, which lets Earth To Echo play as homage rather than rip-off, much as Cloverfield and Chronicle revitalized their own chosen genres. And it fosters an intimacy between the characters that grows richer the more time we spend with them. We see the subtle ways they’re unsettled when they’re joined by a schoolmate (Ella Wahlestedt) who’s easily the smartest person in the picture. Family movies aren’t usually this clever. Don’t miss out. 91 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Jul 2 at 401 & Morningside, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
The Internet’s Own Boy (Brian Knappenberger) is an engrossing, important portrait of computer whiz Aaron Swartz, who created a public online encyclopedia years before Wikipedia and helped develop Reddit, Creative Commons and RSS. He ditched Silicon Valley millions to become an anti-censorship, freedom of information activist. After the U.S. government arrested him on charges of computer fraud related to the systematic downloading of academic journal articles at MIT, the 26-year-old hanged himself. Everyone from Lawrence Lessig and Cory Doctorow to Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, weighs in on his importance and the danger and inaccuracy of the government’s campaign to make him a hacker scapegoat. Director Knappenberger makes the tech info go down smoothly, and Swartz’s family, friends and huge community of online followers bring the emotional loss to the fore. 105 min.
Rating: NNNN (GS)
Opens Jun 27 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
They Came Together (David Wain) is a romantic comedy for people sick of romantic comedies, deconstructing the bullshit clichés and contrivances of the genre with genuine edge. It’s hysterically funny and not the least bit heartwarming, which is why it works. Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler are Manhattanites who should hate each other because his giant candy conglomerate is opening a megastore across the street from her tiny, quirky Upper West Side sweetshop. But they fall in love anyway, because that’s what happens in You’ve Got Mail. The film unfolds like a series of sketches with the fantastic, enthusiastic cast skewering one lame convention after another. Christopher Meloni, Ellie Kemper, Max Greenfield and Wain’s old pal Michael Ian Black are particular standouts, but the movie’s real MVP is… nah, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it. You’ll know him when you see him. 84 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Jun 27 at Carlton Cinema. See here for times.
Me and You (Bernardo Bertolucci) seems to be heading into risky Last Tango In Paris territory when profoundly alienated Roman teen Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) asks his mother if she’d have sex with him if they were the last two people on earth. But ailing director Bertolucci – there’s talk that this might be his last film – plays it safe in a story about a different kind of human connection. Lorenzo has gone into hiding in the basement of his apartment building while pretending to be on a school ski trip. The sudden arrival of his half-sister, Olivia (Tea Falco) – mercurial visual artist and junkie – changes everything. There are clunky elements – Lorenzo’s strange experiments with insects, for example – but the performances are great, especially by newcomer Olmo Antinori, and it’s impossible not to care about the connection between the half-siblings. As Bertolucci pics go, however, Me And You seems small. Subtitled. 98 min.
Rating: NNN (SGC)
Opens Jun 27 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.
The Pin (Naomi Jaye) is the first-ever Canadian Yiddish feature – about two young adults trying to escape the Nazis. When a shomer (David Fox) – the man who sits vigil for the dead in a Jewish funeral home – believes that his current charge is the same woman he hid out with decades ago, he has intense flashbacks about the experience. Jacob (Grisha Pasternak) and Leah (Milda Gecaite) connect when they both escape to the same barn. The pair’s terror that they’ll be found is the film’s main source of tension, but the sense that Leah is hiding a secret – Jacob’s much more forthcoming than she about what brought them there – deepens the unease. The pace is a tad slow, but the leads are strong, and The Pin shows insight into what it takes to maintain your humanity under dire circumstances and how desperately survivors seek closure. Subtitled. 85 min.
Rating: NNN (SGC)
Opens Jun 27 at Canada Square. See here for times.
Deliver Us From Evil (Scott Derrickson) is a horror film about a police officer and a priest who battle demonic possession in New York City. Screened after press time – see review in next week’s issue. 119 min.
Opens Jul 2 at 401 & Morningside, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity. See here for times.
Tammy (Ben Falcone) is a road-trip comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon as an unemployed woman and her hard-drinking grandmother. Screened after press time – see review in next week’s issue. 97 min.
Opens Jul 2 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.
Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Rising (Yoshitomo Yonetani) is an animated action feature from Japan. Subtitled. 105 min.
Opens Jun 26 at Coliseum Scarborough, Courtney Park 16, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay) is a sequel to the toy-story-inspired franchise about battling bots. Screened after press time – see review June 27 at nowtoronto.com/movies. 166 min.
Opens Jun 27 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, 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, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
WWE Money In The Bank 2014 is a live high-def match featuring WWE superstars.
Opens Jun 29 at Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
