Film Fan Fridays for Friday April 18, 2008!

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday April 18, 2008! It looks like spring has sprung and that includes some incubated films hitting the theatre to relieve us from the draught of winter. None of the super big name films are here yet but we have a batch of fascinating limited releases and some entertaining wide releases.

In limited release we have Emotional Arithmetic a Canadian film with a stellar cast including Roy Dupuis, Susan Sarandon and Max von Sydow. I was very close to seeing this film at TIFF 07 and am happy I'll get a chance to see it now. Next up is Ben X, a Belgium/Netherlands co-production and was a three time winner at the 2007 Montreal Film Festival. It pulls together living with bullying as well as the escapism of gaming, and I found the trailer compelling enough not to research further than that. Continuing with harsh themes, London to Brighton is another multiple award winning film but this one is set around the story of a young runaway in London. It looks very intense, but very good. Last up is Young @ Heart a documentary on a senior's chorus who rock out to the likes of Sonic Youth and The Ramones. Nothing like a little hard rock to help lighten everyone up.

In wide release we have the Al Pacino thriller 88 Minutes (which is actually 108 minutes long), comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall from "the guys that brought you Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin" so they sure know who their audience is and last up is the long awaited Jackie Chan & Jet Li film: The Forbidden Kingdom. Out of the wide releases I would have to pick The Forbidden Kingdom, although it looks very PG and cute, it still looks like a lot of fun.

However, regular releases will have to wait a little bit for me as spring festival fever continues this week with the opening of Hot Docs. Be sure to check out my daily coverage at Movie Moxie from April 17 - 27, 2008. So many documentaries, so little time. As a side note, I really hope there is no TTC strike as then I would have to change my schedule radically and of course because I hope for an amicable solution instead of the strike!

Have a great warm weekend!

Shannon

Festival Watch

Sprockets
Toronto International Film Festival for Children
Continues until Friday 18/08, at Canada Square in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hot Docs
Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
Thurs April 17 - Sun April 27/08, at various locations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Friday April 18, 2008 Releases

88 Minutes
Dir: Jon Avnet (Red Corner, Fried Green Tomatoes)
Cast: Al Pacino, Neal McDonough, Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski
Germany/USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer
Trailer has spoilers throughout considering the nature of the film but is mostly safe until the 1/2 way point

Ben X
Writer/Dir: Nic Balthazar - directorial debut
Cast: Greg Timmermans, Laura Verlinden, Marijke Pinoy, Pol Goossen, Titus de Voogdt, Maarten Claeyssens
Belgium/Netherlands
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer
Trailer has no timer, so hard to gauge spoilerness timing. First half is spoiler free at least.

Emotional Arithmetic
Dir: Paolo Barzman (Time is Money)
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Max Von Sydow, Roy Dupuis, Gabriel Bryne, Christopher Plummber
Canada
Limited Release
TIFF 07 page, IMDb Page, Trailer
When I watched the trailer, it was preceded by a 15 second commercial (shortest one I could find), bleh.
Trailer spoiler free for first half.

The Forbidden Kingdom
Dir: Rob Minkoff (The Haunted Mansion, Stuart Little, The Lion King)
Cast: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Yifei Liu, Collin Chou
USA
Official Film Site (autoplays trailer), IMDb Page, Trailer
Trailer is spoiler free.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Dir: Nicholas Stoller - directorial debut
Cast: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand
USA
Official Film Site (autoplays trailer), IMDb Page, Trailer
Trailer is spoiler free.

London to Brighton
Writer/Dir: Paul Andrew Williams - feature film directorial debut
Cast: Lorraine Stanley, Johnny Harris, Sam Spruell, Georgia Groome
UK
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, For Trailer Go Here, click picture second from the right
Trailer is pretty intense, there are spoilers but no counters on the trailer, so use your judgement when watching.

Young @ Heart
Dir: Stephen Walker - feature film directorial debut
Documentary on seniors that will rock you
UK
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer
Trailer is spoiler free for this documentary.

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of April 18, 2008**