View image 1) I haven't seen a bad film yet at the 2006 Toronto festival, but I haven't experienced the ecstatic highs of last year, either, when "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," "Brokeback Mountain," "Cache," "A History of Violence,"…
View image Three tales in "The Fountain": Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. There's nothing tepid about Darren Aronofsky, and I love him for it. "The Fountain," his grand mythical fantasy that interweaves three tales about the fear of death and…
View image Not for the wee ones. Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is that rarest of cinematic rarities, a fully and flawlessly realized fantasy film. It's also, as of today, my favorite movie of the dozen or so I've seen…
The cast of the Oscar-favorite film, "Home for Purim." "For Your Consideration" -- Christopher Guest is blessed with the finest comedic stock company since the heyday of Preston Sturges. Guest, Catherine O'Hara (Goddess of Funny), Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Harry…
View image O, say, can you see Borat? For what he is? The New York Times headline about all the political films in this year's TIFF was: "At the Toronto Film Festival, Liberal Politics As Usual." David M. Halfbinger of…
View image Christian Bale in Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn." For the first half of Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn," the fictionalized movie based on his documentary 1997 "Little Dieter Needs to Fly," I wasn't sure if Herzog had tamed the commercial…
View image The ManuLife Center (glowing beacon in the middle of the shot), where most of the Toronto Film Festival press and industry screenings are held. The hallway of the Varsity Cinemas, with theaters on both sides. What's missing from…
Slavoj Zizek in the wake of Melanie Daniels, crossing Bodega Bay in a small motorboat. At 150 minutes, in three parts, "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" (catchy title, no?) is probably the fastest-moving, most shamelessly enjoyable film I've seen in…
Come blow your horn: Justin Bond sings "We All Get It in the End" at the end of "Shortbus." The camera soars over a wonderfully colorful handmade model of New York City, popping into one window after another. At the…
View image Three Women of "Volver": Sister, niece/daughter, sister. The dry east wind that howls through the little village in La Mancha where Pedro Almodovar was born, and where his latest film "Volver" begins, brings with it unease, fire and…
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