The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 70mm drama about a battle of wills between a ravaged war veteran and the cult leader who offers him a place at his right hand, dominated the 2012 awards of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Anderson’s film took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, with co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman […]
5 Questions with Christopher Doyle by Allan Tong In 15 minutes, Chris Doyle answers five questions with 20 answers. He loves to talk and he loves films. In fact, Doyle will be talking about one in particular at The TIFF Lightbox on Saturday, April 23 in honour of the 1994 landmark, Chungking Express, that he […]
by Allan Tong for FILMbutton.com As the Mao era crumbled in China, his cultural delegates plucked 11-year-old Li Cunxin from his poor Chinese village and took him to Beijing to study ballet. In China, that’s pretty much like boot camp. Kids followed a strict regimen that left no room for weakness or individuality. In Li’s […]
by Allan Tong of Reel ‘n’ Rock for FILMbutton.com Samba, jellybeans and Communist disco dominate a slate of documentaries at this year’s edition of Hot Docs. For what’s good and what’s not, read on (ratings based on four stars): Disco and Atomic War (***) is a clever, funny voyage through the end of the USSR […]
The Brothers Warner by Allan Tong for FILMbutton Harry Warner’s granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, invites audiences to look at the rise and fall of Warner Brothers, one of the big Hollywood studios that her family founded a century ago. Harry Warner was the quiet one, Albert was serious but professional, Sam was the visionary; and […]
Keren Yedaya Germany/Israel/France, 2009, 105 min. by Allan Tong for FILMbutton Toronto’s International Diaspora Film Festival (IDFF), focusing on themes of migration, immigration, and cultural diversity, closed on Nov.8 with a thoughtful drama about Jews and Arabs. Jaffa is an Israeli port south of Tel Aviv where Jews and Arabs delicately co-exist. Billed as a […]
by Allan Tong for FILMbutton Toronto’s second annual KinoArt Festival, devoted to Russian film, opened on Nov. 4 with Sergey Solovyev’s adaptation of the classic Tolstoy novel, ANNA KARENINA. The book sired one of the most famous lines in literature which opens the film: “Happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in […]
by Allan Tong for Festival Products A different children’s movie is the chilling In A Soldier’s Footsteps, about child soldiers in Uganda. Danish director Mette Zeruneith was prepping a doc on Ugandan Steven Ndugga, who was 13 when he was conscripted into a paramilitary group, when his film took a sudden turn. Steven receives word […]
by Allan Tong for Festival Products This year the largest documentary fest in North America turned the spotlight across the Pacific with the Made in Japan program, featuring the powerful ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story. Directed by ex-Canadians, now living in Washington, Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim, ABUDCTION is a mesmerizing tale about a 13-year-old […]
by Allan Tong for Festival Products Another audience favourite was The World According To Sesame Street. Far from a puff piece, this fine work by Americans Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan follows foreign Sesame Street production teams trying to export the venerable children’s educational series to trouble spots like Kosovo, Bangladesh and Capetown. […]
