TIFF Bell Lightbox is an institution of cinematic worship. But one cannot be expected to think seriously about movies all the time when it’s this hot out, so the programmers have got into the habit of loosening up in the warmer months, screening pop classics designed to lure audiences out of the sweatbox of downtown Toronto to bask in nostalgia and air-conditioning.
This year, it’s some 35 years of American comedies, from National Lampoon’s Animal House to Bridesmaids, collected as Toga! The Reinvention Of American Comedy.
Having kicked off the series last night with an Animal House reunion, director John Landis – with whom I chatted in last week’s NOW – and producer Ivan Reitman will be hanging around all weekend doing Lightbox stuff Reitman will be introducing screenings of Meatballs and Stripes tonight, Ghostbusters Saturday and Kindergarten Cop Sunday, while Landis spends his Saturday night down for an In Conversation With session at 6 pm, introducing The Blues Brothers at 8 pm and doing the same for An American Werewolf In London at 11 pm, just because.
I love most of the movies screening in the Toga! series, but let’s not kid ourselves it’s not so much a curated series as an excuse to screen a whole bunch of comedies over the summer. The theme seems to be the infection of Hollywood by anarchic comedians, most of whom got their start on Saturday Night Live (or Second City and SCTV, in the case of Caddyshack director and Ghostbusters co-star Harold Ramis) and brought their chaotic sensibilities along with them when they made the leap to the big screen.
And sure, you can make an argument for Beverly Hills Cop coming out of the same wave that gave us Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke, Airplane! and National Lampoon’s Vacation. But once Reitman’s Kindergarten Cop is folded into the package, the series makes no logistical sense a tonally incoherent, surprisingly violent Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy has no connection to anything else in there.
Seriously, Kindergarten Cop doesn’t even have the “Some guys from Saturday Night Live are in it!” aspect that justifies the inclusion of Landis’s Trading Places, which is basically a 1930s screwball comedy that just happens to star Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. It’s just there because Ivan Reitman made it – as seems to be the case with his gentle political satire Dave, which I love, but which is absolutely not the sort of comedy that this series celebrates. And I have no idea what Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking is doing in there, either.
Also this week! The Christie Pits Film Festival is collaborating with the Big On Bloor Festival this weekend to host a special screening of LCD Soundsystem: Shut Up And Play The Hits Saturday night in the tennis courts at Bloor and Dufferin. The show starts at 9 pm. Bring snacks.
And on Wednesday night, I’ll have the pleasure of introducing Top Secret! in Harbourfront’s summer-long Free Flicks screening series. Made by Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker as their follow-up to Airplane!, it’s a delightful attempt to answer the musical question “What if Elvis had made war movies?” featuring a knockout performance from a baby-faced Val Kilmer and some really great songs. Strange that TIFF didn’t snap that one up for their comedy series, but their loss is my gain – and yours, if you’d care to join me.
