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Silvery screens - a list by cath

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Movies you've got to see.

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Please ignore the marketing on the DVD cover and any references to Spinal Tap, this is NOT the punk-rock Spinal Tap. OK, it's a very funny movie and shot in the fake documentary style, but it's not irreverant or satirical and definitely not a comedy.

Followed by a film crew, an aging and defunct punk band reunites for one last Western Canada tour and hopefully last hurrah. Director Bruce McDonald is a master of the "Canadian road trip" flick and with Hard Core Logo combines it with Canada's underground punk music scene. Real life rock band frontman of The Headstones Hugh Dillon lends credibility to his role as Hard Core Logo's frontman Joe Dick. (Now an award-winning actor, this role was one of Dillon's first.) Charismatic and handsome Callum Keith Rennie plays Dick's childhood friend Billy Tallent, who has been slated to join a much more successful rock band after this final Hard Core Logo tour. Troubled bass player John Oxenburger (John Pyper-Ferguson) gradually loses hold of his sanity and then there's the buffoonish drummer (aren't they all?) Pipefitter, perhaps the most well-adjusted of them all.

It's a gritty, funny, poignant film and as quintessentially cool Canadian as you can get. A must-see! You won't soon forget Hard Core Logo's final shot, I promise you.

4 guys - 5 nights - 3000 miles - 764 gallons of gas - 987 bottles of beer - 3457 cigarettes - 1 last shot

Updated Aug 28, 2008

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Best in Show

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3 people recommended this item

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Christopher Guest is a genius. We all know people who get very, very silly about their dogs, and this movie taps into that perfectly.

In the mockumentary style of This Is Spinal Tap and Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show tells the story of a myriad of dog owners (among them Guest regulars Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge) as they travel to the Mayflower Dog Show with their pooches. There's not a whole lot more I can say about it except that it's HILARIOUS and that if you haven't seen it you should!

Updated Aug 27, 2008

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Les Triplettes De Belleville

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The most wonderful animated film I've ever seen! Watch the French version - it's virtually a silent film anyway - and allow yourself to be immersed into the odd whimsy of this movie.

A boy named Champion is raised by his loving grandmother, Madame Souza and grows into a massively-thighed Tour de France competitor. However, during the race, he and a number of other cyclists are kidnapped by thugs and Madame Souza accompanied by her faithful, fat and flatulent dog Bruno chase after them to the metropolis of Belleville. Lost and confused in the city, she meets the mysterious Belleville Triplettes, in their youth a glamourous performing act who now subsist by bomb-fishing for frogs and performing as an odd jazz combo. Madame Souza joins them and soon discovers where Champion is being held and hatches a plan to rescue him.

Bewilderingly creative, truly original and fascinating is the world of Les Triplettes de Belleville. See for yourself!

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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Secretary

First to recommend

2 people recommended this item

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This is a wonderfully quirky and provacative film with great cinematography

Updated Feb 28, 2007

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silver screen

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Better Off Dead

5 people recommended this item

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John Cusack has made a career out of playing the type of guy you meet and think "Wow, where was this guy when I was in high school?" and then you remember, he was there, right under your nose.

In Better off Dead, Cusack plays one of the first of these likeable but unpopular high school kids. Lane Myers is surrounded by odd people - his family, his only friend, his girlfriend, his classmates - and despite being a fairly normal, intelligent, witty teenager, he's misunderstood and unpopular. When his girlfriend dumps him for the high school ski jock and Lane fails to make the school ski team, he sets out to kill himself, semi-half-heartedly of course.

Better Off Dead stands out from other 80s teen sex comedies because of Cusack's performance and the absurdity and darkly comic touch director Savage Steve Holland brings to the table.

Moving jello, a sociopathic paperboy, talking drawings and a singing hamburger are only a few of the delights of Better Off Dead's twisted story!

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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Watership Down DVD

First to recommend

2 people recommended this item

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I don't remember how young I was when I saw this movie, but I remember being horrified. I was a sophisticated but sensitive kid, so I saw this too young, however old I was.

This is, obviously, not recommended for kids, or even pre-teens. Animated, fantastical, yes, child-friendly, no. It's based on a middle-school novel by British novelist Richard Adams about a warren of rabbits who have to fight for survival. They're humanized rabbits, though, with cultures, loyalties, family ties, and voices. It's like watching a modern war movie and the beauty of the story is that its themes are universal.

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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The Believer - Movie

2 people recommended this item

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Gritty, gripping and an utterly magnetic turn by Ryan Gosling (who has done nothing but the highest quality work since this film introduced him).

Gosling plays Danny Balint, a neo-nazi skinhead who is living an impossibly contradictory life because he's also a Jew. Violent, articulate and terrifyingly charismatic, Balint's only saving grace (weakness?) is what drives his hatred - his Judaism. This isn't an easy film and saying that is a vast understatement. It's brutally violent, frightening but also important.

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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Canadiana

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Hard Candy

2 people recommended this item

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A boy meets a girl in a cafe. This is their first face-to-face meeting because they've met online. It's like any other date except that he's 32 and she's 14. What happens next will suprise you.

Patrick Wilson in a thankless role and the astounding Ellen Page star in this intense, riveting and terrifying film. I bet you'll breath only three times watching it.

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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A History of Violence

First to recommend

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David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortenson suprised everyone when A History of Violence was released in 2005. Mortenson was coming from the incredibly successful and iconic Lord of the Rings franchise and Cronenberg was known for darkly psychological creep-outs like Crash, Naked Lunch, and Dead Ringers. It seemed like an unusal partnership and an unconventional choice for both of them.

A History of Violence is an incredible film, and Cronenberg has finally acheived widespread recognition as a master director. Mortenson, of course, continues to build his reputation as an exceptionally talented and devoted actor, despite his leading man good looks.

As Tom Stall, Mortenson takes the audience on a ride and you're not so sure if he's driving or simply riding beside you. When thugs happen into his small-town diner, the mild-mannered Stall shocks the sleepy town and his family by skilfully killing the two men in a burst of almost-instinctive violence. As life in a small-town does, things begin to settle down until the arrival of a mob boss (Ed Harris) claiming that he knows Stall arrives.

It's a terrific film that is relentless in its pace and mystery. You'll be guessing whether Tom Stall is who he says he is up until the very end, and then more importantly, does it matter who he is?

Updated Aug 26, 2008

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Amazon: Muriel's Wedding with Toni Collette

3 people recommended this item

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Australian films often have this dark whimsy to them. With Strictly Ballroom and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, there's a tonne of sequins, but there's often sand or tanning lotion on them...

So is the tale of Muriel Hislop of Porpoise Spit, Australia, an awkward misfit of a girl, desperately trying to blend in and obsessed with two things: ABBA and getting married. It's like she's barely treading water in an over-chlorinated pool when she meets Rhonda, an old classmate, who inspires her to get out of Porpoise Spit and move to Sydney.

It's a story about trying to escape your past but told in such a charmingly bittersweet manner by the astounding Toni Collette who plays Muriel and director PJ Hogan who would go on to success in Hollywood.

Updated Aug 26, 2008