Review – LAMBERT & STAMP

by allan tong for FILMbutton Opens May 8th in Toronto & Vancouver Before The Who, there was Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring London filmmakers who accidentally managed one of Britain’s greatest rock bands. In the early-60s, the two were working as assistants at London’s Shepperton Studios, inspired by the French New Wave of […]

Review : Blue is the Warmest Colour

by allan tong for FILMbutton This year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes is a gripping, powerful, but also meandering three-hour journey through a young woman’s lesbian relationship. Carrying the picture is Adèle Exarchopoulos as Adèle, a high schooler who falls for the slightly older, blue-haired painter, Emma (Léa Seydoux).  They fall into a torrid relationship.  […]

Review – Dallas Buyers Club

by allan tong for FILMbutton Ron Woodruff was a foul-mouthed, ill-mannered redneck who contracted AIDS in 1986.  Back then only queers got AIDS, and Dallas was as redneck as it got.  Woodruff lost his job, trailer home and friends.  A driven, stubborn fellow, he sought every possible cure he could find whether or not it […]

Newcomer RiFF unveils week of rock music films

by allan tong for FILMbutton The latest film fest to hit Toronto (home to at least 80 fests) is the Reel Indie Film Festival, which is part of the 10-year-old Indie Week Music Festival. The film program begins tonight at 7:00 at the Royal Cinema (608 College St.)  with the Canadian premiere of  Los Wild […]

Capsule Review – The Dirties

by allan tong for FILMbutton Matt and Owen are two middle-class American film geeks who make thinly-veiled homages to their film heroes, from Kubrick to Tarantino. Like any geeks, they’re bullied at school and ignored by the pretty girls. Gradually, the beatings and tauntings get to them and they embrace thoughts of revenge. The Dirties […]

Capsule Review- Gravity

by allan tong for FILMbutton Gravity feels like it strayed from one of the summer blockbuster screens into TIFF where adult dramas herald the next Oscar season. None of this matters, because Gravity is an amazing thriller about two American astronauts who are hurtled into outer space after enduring an accident at their spacecraft. Sandra […]

Capsule Review – Fading Gigolo

by allan tong for FILMbutton Fading Gigolo was one of this year’s TIFF films that had buyers buzzing…until they saw it. Noted actor John Turturro writes and directs this starring vehicle for himself who becomes a high-price callboy for upscale Manhattan women like Sharon Stone. Woody Allen plays his 76-year-old pimp and steals every scene […]

Capsule Review – Adore

by allan tong for FILMbutton Roz and Lil (Robin Wright and Naomi Watts) have been close friends since childhood, and now happily live side-by-side on an Australian beach. Life is perfect, until Lil’s husband passes away, and later Roz divorces her husband, Harold, (Ben Mendelsohn) after he lands a job in distant Sydney and Roz […]

Berlin Announces 9 More Films in Competition

Another nine films have been selected for the Competition Programme of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival (February 7-17). The productions are from the following countries: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa and the USA. Camille Claudel 1915 France By Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus, Humanity, Flanders) With […]

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