Bang Bang Baby, the “sock-hopmutant-musical” by Nova Scotia’s Jeffrey St. Jules, opens today, The North Shore News’ Julie Crawford writes. It was developed through the Cannes Film Festival Residence program and takes viewers to a small town in 1960s Canada, where not much is happening except for the purple mist coming out of the chemical plant . . .
From small town Canada to Manhattan, by way of Brampton: Learning to Drive is the opening film in the third annual Sikh International Film Festival Toronto, beginning the 28th at Rose Theatre in Brampton. The 2014 comedy tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a Sikh cab driver and a career woman in crisis, reports Nouman Khalil in The Brampton Guardian.
Maxime Desmons’ What We Have (Ce Qu’on A) was originally set in Toronto, but moving it to North Bay, Ontario, gave it a whole new dimension — of claustrophobia. Daily Xtra’s Pat Johnson looks at this story of a student and tutor, set to screen at the VQFF.
Coming up very soon: Nick Wangersky’s thoughts on the films opening in the mainstream cinemas, and which might be worth spending your hard earned loonies on.
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Ref What we have movie . . . I guess now middle aged, it’s his final attempt at fame and he’s trying to ride the coattails of the currently trendy bullying bandwagon.
. . . As for the film itself, sorry to say, mainly slow and rather boring in French drama tradition, the acting looks more like intro amateur night improv but Des has a couple good scenes, rest falls flat. Alex Ozorov is the only redeemable part of the snoozefest. Now, that’s a young man to watch! Perhaps, I’m a bit harsh when I say maybe Desmons ought not quit his “moonlighting” gig, but there’s a reason in spite of his very intimate connections to the Canada film industry, he never broke out . . . Noble effort, I give this a generous C- for execution.