Film Fan Fridays for Friday February 24, 2012

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday February 24, 2012! It is a busy week for film fans with not only having The Oscars this weekend (see my handy three different detailed Oscar lists: detailed list by category, a film list with detailed nominations by film, and a simple film list with # of nominations), but we also have 12 new films hitting theatres and five of those are Canadian or Canadian co-pros! Busy times, and great choices.

In limited release this week we have 7 films in releases including 4 Canadian releases starting with Doppelgänger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself) (see podcast review here) which is really funny, intelligent dark comedy that not only got me laughing but also had me thinking about interesting ideas about identity, artistic ownership, and of course doppelgängers. We also have Snow, a documentary style film following a woman who comes to Canada after a tsunami, Donovan's Echo starring Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood and the 3D animated film The Prodigies 3D with a gaming feel but also teens-on-revenge theme which looks pretty interesting and I'm surprized it's only opening in 1 theatres. More limited releases this week include Rampart, a 1999 Los Angeles set film following a renegade veteran cop played by Woody Harrelson, biography documentary Shalem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness and The Flowers of War starring Christian Bale as a man who pretends to be a priest in 1937 Nanjing.

In wide release this week we have 5 releases including the Canadian co-pro Hockey film Goon which follows a player whose literally there to be a fight instigator and this one got tons of press yesterday about the controversy to take down these posters with Jay Baruchel for Goon here in Toronto. It got people talking about a Canadian film so... there is that :) Also out in wide relases we have Gone starring Amanda Seyfried as a non-often believed survivor who is up against all odds to save her own sister from the man she escaped from, Act of Valor which is going with a real-feel being based on real events, but still narrative film about SEALs, CIA and terrorists. Also out in wide releases is Tyler Perry's Good Deeds and Jennifer Aniston/Paul Rudd comedy Wanderlust.

Have a great Oscar weekend! I'll be live-tweeting & Facebook-ing throughout the show, so come & say Hi or follow along for winner (and pretty dress) updates.

Edit: 2 late adds that I missed the first time round: Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya & Jodi Breakers. I look carefully for the Bollywood films, but sometimes they miss the first pass. I'm happy I found them in the listings!

Shannon

Festival Watch

Reel Artists Film Festival
February 23 - 26, 2012 at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival
February 26 - March 9, 2012 at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Friday February 24, 2012 Releases

Act of Valor
Dir: Mike McCoy & Scott Waugh - feature film directorial debuts
Cast: Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Donovan's Echo
Dir: Jim Cliffe - feature film directorial debut
Cast: Danny Glover, Bruce Greenwood, Natasha Calis, Sonja Bennett
Canada
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

Doppelgänger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself)
Dir: Kris Elgstrand and Dylan Akio Smith (The Cabin Movie)
Cast: Brad Dryborough, Tygh Runyan, Ben Cotton, Matty Finochio
Canada
Limited Release
Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDb Page

The Flowers of War
Dir: Zhang Yimou (House of the Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower / Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia)
Cast: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Zhang Xinyi
China/Hong Kong
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Gone
Dir: Heitor Dhalia (Adrift, Drained)
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Carpenter, Daniel Sunjata, Wes Bentley
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Tyler Perry's Good Deeds
Dir: Tyler Perry (I Can Do Bad All By Myself, My Did I Get Married?)
Cast: Tyler Perry, Thandie Newton, Brian White, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Goon
Dir: Michael Dowse (Fubar, Fubar II)
Cast: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill, Liev Schreiber, Marc-André Grondin, Eugene Levy
Canada/USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

The Prodigies 3D
Dir: Antoine Charreyron
Voices: Jeffrey Evan Thomas, Lauren Ashley Carter, Moon Dailly
UK/Canada/Belgium/India/Luxembourg/France
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Rampart
Dir: Oren Moverman (The Messenger)
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Shalem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
Writer/Dir: Joseph Dorman (Arguing the World)
Documentary
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Snow
Writer/Dir: Rohan Fernando (Trudeau's Other Children)
Cast: Sobaz Benjamin, Himaly Fernando, Mohan Fernando
Canada/China
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Wanderlust
Dir: David Wain (Role Models)
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Malik Ackerman
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of February 24, 2012**