Reviews

Nettie Wild (director of A Place Called Chiapas) uses guerilla film-making techniques & dynamic editing, in telling the story of one of Canada's most urgent problems. Wild focuses on Vancouver's East Side, Canada's ground zero of heroin use, and site of the highest HIV infection rate in N.America. Fix spotlights charismatic addict Dean Wilson and city worker Ann Livingston, capturing the enormous scope of the problem facing the two advocates, as they struggle to open a safe-injection centre while feeding one another's emotional addictions. Explosive, confrontational and highly engrossing- Fix sidesteps sentimentality and rips open our hypocritical stance about addicts and drug addiction. Don't let the subject matter scare you. This is a hopeful,honest, and must-see film.

incredibly clever documentary about the ease with which we are manipulated by the media, and how the media is in turn used as a tool of manipulation. really worth seeing and, watch for clues!

Protection is an interesting, albeit cliched mobster-on-the-run drama. Its got some tense scenes, but it works because the supporting cast infuse the flick with some energy and interest. Especially Olga Montes as the spider woman Vanessa, who steals her scenes from under everyone's noses. (man, she's got temperature)...which begs the question-what else has she done? It would be cool to see her in some more interesting films.

A good rental for Baldwin fans.

one of the most beautifully resonant films ever made.

Mckellar begins this film with all the familliar trappings of modern life (the 'stuff' we define ourselves with, our idiotic baggage both literal and metaphorical) slowly renders it meaningless, and ends it with a sense of hope and freedom. Not easy to do when your film is about the end of the world.

I had a lot of misgivings going to see what i originally perceived as yet another, oh so ironic, oh so Toronto essay on the end of the world in 90 minutes. What i saw was a film of startling, hidden beauty, and a stunning narrative construction.

The film is filled with great performances, a wonderfully smart and funny script and a keen visual eye.

What Last Night presents isn't a wonderous world of lush greenery and turquoise pools, but a gray decaying urban jungle, lost souls and the possibility of human connection. Its our world, and my God, its painful to lose it.

From Sandra Oh's desperate attempts to return to her husband, to the increasing tension and hysteria that builds among the city's populace as the stroke of midnight approaches, to the film's final moments; Mckellar unwraps each moment with a gentle, enveloping precision. It builds to an unforgettable climax; a final, breathtaking, silent kiss. This connection, so simple, so right, and so important, as if the fate of the world depended on it.

Go see this film.

Despite Baliban's excellent portrayal of wise child Jude, and a series of wonderful character bits sprinkled throughout, Saint Jude fails to scale the heights it so desperately wants to.

Over -directed by L'Ecuyer (those fast motion shots of a world passing the characters by are used a little too often), who fails to capture the absolute essence of the film. Jude looks far too clean for a kid slumming on the streets, (literally too clean) and features some very stagy, awkward monologues that would have been better off left on the cutting room floor.

All this said the film has some very engaging moments, especially those involving Jude's wanderings, which have that joyous though melancholy sense of a young woman trying desperately to put her adulthood on hold for as long as possible.