Under Summer Skies
There was a glut of outdoor screenings last summer in ole Hogtown, and while there seems to be a little less enthusiasm for the concept buzzing about, there's still a whole heck of a lot of them hanging around. In fact, Post City's Steve Fisher more than ably covered the gamut here.
In addition to TIFF's In Your Park series, which we already covered, there's the Christie Pits Film Festival that takes place every Sunday. This weekend they're running the 2011 Canadian flick Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster at sundown in conjunction with the ongoing Open Roof Festival.
You can also check out Pat Mills' new comedy Guidance at 99 Sudbury St. Wednesday at 7: 30 p.m. as part of Open Roof. The screening comes with music by Rob Moir and The Lates and you can grab a ticket or two here.
Also, on Wednesday is Boyz N the Hood at 9:00 p.m. in Regent Park as part of Under the Stars. This is another weekly opportunity that comes courtesy of the Regent Park Film Festival.
Screening Roundup
This month's edition of Classics Revue gets full marks for featuring the best Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers picture. They went with 1935's Top Hat, which is a delightful merging of screwball-wit and musical pizazz, not to mention the sets. It's definitely superior to the usually cited Swing Time. Top Hat also features the desirable number of black-face numbers – that being none – unlike Swing Time. Check it out at 7:00 p.m. July 30 at the Revue Cinema.
These days people usually opt for Jonathan Demme's concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold to get their live Neil fix at home, but many will be aware that Young is 'something' of a documentarian himself under the credit of Bernard Shakey. The Royal is doing a retrospective on the man headlining WayHome this weekend when he gets behind the camera.
Friday July 24 at 7:00 p.m. you can check out Journey Through the Past which is a trippy early years doc that includes footage of Buffalo Springfield. It's more of a rarity than a pleasure. Saturday July 25 at 7:00 p.m. though is Rust Never Sleeps which is a great account of Young and Crazy Horse at the Cow Palace in 1978.
A while back TIFF did a top ten all-time Canadian films list in conjunction with its 40th anniversary. As a service to us all they're offering up free screenings of the ten films this summer. Few would debate that Jean-Claude Lauzon's 1993 classic Léolo deserves a spot on the list, but if you haven't had the distinct pleasure of seeing Lauzon's boyhood spent in Montreal told through an absurd, fantastical lens, well, it's free Saturday July 26 at 12:45 p.m.
Toronto Screengrab of the Week
@YeahToronto correctly nabbed last week's entry from Kick Ass 2. They also correctly nabbed the location, Yonge St., so why not head back there again for this week's shot.
