My second film of the evening on Day 2 was the North American Premiere of the science-fiction thriller Vivarium. It is a co-production between Ireland, Belgium, and Denmark. The film had its World Premiere at Cannes during the Critic’s Week back in May. The film is also setup to be the closing film of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland on July 13th.
It’s Day 2 of the Fantasia International Film Festival and I started the evening with the Quebec Premiere of the Australian zombie comedy Little Monsters. It had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in their Midnight Program back in January. It then went on to play at SXSW and the Calgary Underground Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Abe Forsythe and stars Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England, and Josh Gad.
How does a man who is—literally—paralyzed by happiness find love? Thanks to a condition called cataplexy—a rare disorder that causes him to lose control of his muscles whenever he is overcome by strong emotion, particularly joy—Brooklyn librarian Charlie (Martin Freeman) has learned to carefully edit all delight-triggering people, places, and events out of his life. Family weddings, cute babies, adorable puppies, and, yes, romance are all fraught with peril in Charlie’s carefully managed world. But when the beautiful, spontaneous Francesca (Morena Baccarin) falls for him, the risk-averse Charlie finds himself at a crossroads: suppress his feelings of attraction, or take a chance and let love in? Based on a true story originally featured on This American Life, Ode to Joy is a hilarious and touching look at what happens when we stop being afraid and let ourselves truly live.
Back for its 23rd edition, running from July 11th to August 1st, the Fantasia International Film Festival returns to Concordia University in downtown Montreal. To kick off my own 11th participation, I selected the Quebec Premiere of the US dark comedy The Art of Self-Defense. It was an advanced screening in a way because the film comes out on July 12th in the USA but only on July 19th in Canadian theaters. The Art of Self-Defense had its World Premiere at SXSW back in March to seemingly great reviews.
On this episode of the Cinephellas Podcast, Nile Fortner interviewed Gabriela Lopez about her role in the new film, The Browsing Effect. The film is now available on Digital and On Demand.
#TheBrowsingEffect #CinephellasPodcast #Interview #GabrielaLopez
“The seemingly endless possibilities of dating apps send a group of friends into a whirlwind of sex, jealousy, and self-doubt in this ensemble comedy that examines dating culture in the age of swiping.”
Young Cassie comes across a discarded cell phone with the latest artifical intelligence on it called AMI. Cassie customizes the AI to sound like her deceased mother which soon fulfills the void in Cassie’s life. As their relationship deepens, the nurturing and seemingly caring AI drives Cassie to perform heinous acts of murder that AMI convinces her are totally justifiable.
As divisive and overused Rotten Tomatoes has become in the recent year, it’s hard to ignore Lady Bird beating the record for most positive reviews to remain at 100% (164 positives beating Toy Story 3’s previous record of 163). While it since has dropped to 99%, it’s still only at 1 Rotten score with 213 Fresh reviews in its favor. With that level of acclaim is worth taking note of, so I figured I’d give it a shot and see what it had to offer. And while not the best film of the year, it can definitely stand out as one of 2017’s strongest offerings with career highlights from Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan.
On behalf of Momentum Pictures we are pleased to share the OFFICIAL TRAILER for the upcoming thriller JUNGLE which will be in select theaters and On Demand / Digital HD October 20, 2017.
SYNOPSIS: An enthusiastic young adventurer follows his dreams into the Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey quickly turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness lead to an all-out fight for survival.
DIRECTOR: Greg McLean
WRITER: Justin Monjo
CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell, Joel Jackson
Life Imitating Art : A Conversation with Angelic Zambrana
On today’s episode of the Cinephellas Podcast I’m chatting with Angelic Zambrana about her role in the film Bushwick (2017), which hits theaters and VOD on this Friday, August 25th. Bushwick is the horrifying story about a present-day civil war in which several southern states decide to secede from the United States. A group of mercenaries from Texas invade the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York and martial law is declared. Stupe (Dave Bautista) and Lucy (Brittany Snow) have to retrieve Lucy’s sister Belinda (played by Angelic) and escape this war zone with their lives.
The Meaning of a Mentor: A Conversation with Coach Stuart Krohn
If we’re lucky, we get at least one mentor that changes the direction of our lives. That person could be a teacher, a coach, or a family member. The student athletes of the Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF) Rugby program are lucky enough to have all three in Coach Stuart Krohn. After an All-American college rugby career and a professional playing career in France, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and South Africa, Krohn settled in Southern California to coach the Santa Monica Rugby Club in 1999. During that time he started teaching English and designing a plan to bring rugby to the economic disadvantaged communities of South Los Angeles.
Cinephellas 