Look, I don’t have any illusions. Everyone’s going to see the Tom Hanks movie, because he’s Tom Hanks and he’s the greatest guy and if they don’t go the terrorists win. But … well, if you need something else to do this Thanksgiving weekend, come to the Bloor late Sunday afternoon! I’m doing the Sunday Salon thing for the 4:30 pm screening of The Trials of Muhammad Ali. Come down, it’ll be fun.
And there’s plenty of other stuff opening too …
Bastards: TIFF anchors its Claire Denis retrospective to a limited run of her latest film, a jet-black neo-noir about French people screwing each other over. I may never be able to look at Lola Creton quite the same way — and let me tell you, that hurts.
Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass makes another fact-based thriller about resourceful white Americans outwitting sinister dark-skinned folks. But Tom Hanks is fantastic — and far, far better than the film deserves — as the eponymous seaman.
Design Is One: The Vignellis: Susan‘s admiration for designers Lella and Massimo Vignelli carries her through Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra’s biographically sparse documentary.
Machete Kills: Oh, Robert Rodriguez. Is there any good idea you can’t beat into the ground? Apparently not, but at least this time he got to play with Mel Gibson, Lady Gaga and Cuba Gooding, Jr., so that’s … something.
The Right Kind of Wrong: Rad really does not like Jeremiah Chechik’s romantic comedy starring True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten as a dreamer who decides he’s in love with a young woman (Sara Canning) on her wedding day. I can’t say I blame him; it sounds awful!
Romeo & Juliet: Paul Giamatti follows his thoughtful, empathetic performance in the disappointing Parkland with a truly great turn as Friar Laurence in this otherwise abysmal Shakespeare picture. If his plan was to be the only thing worth watching in terrible movies, he’s killing it!
Touchy Feely: Lynn Shelton’s latest stars Rosemarie DeWitt and Josh Pais as adult siblings struggling with sudden body issues, and Ellen Page as a young woman trying to reconcile her feelings for her aunt’s boyfriend (Scoot McNairy). It’s good. You should see it.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali: Bill Siegel’s documentary focuses exclusively on the champ’s conversion to Islam and his refusal to submit to the draft, and leaves you wondering whether Ali’s bluster and power had far more of a connection to the civil-rights era than conventional wisdom might have you believe. Oddly, I’m not sure that was Siegel’s intention; we can talk about it more on Sunday!
See you there ..?