Holiday Screening Watch

It's a little early for me to get Christmas-y, and I find if I indulge in too much holiday film fare I run out of stuff well before the big day, but here's what Toronto's rep cinemas have come up with for the week ahead.

Drunk Feminist Films will chortle their way through Love, Actually at the Revue Cinema, Dec. 5 at 9:30 p.m. I remembered having very warm feelings for this ensemble cheerer, and source of many-a-meme, but it lost a little lustre on a recent re-watch. Even more disturbing is the fact that stuff from inside the new millennium can already look incredibly dated.

There is also Holiday Movie Trivia at the Revue Wed. Dec 8 

The Royal has the obligatory screening of Bob Clark's inimitable A Christmas Story as part of NOW Magazine's Free Flick Mondays, Dec. 7 7:30 p.m.

Less obligatory, actually rather off the beaten path I would say, is the 1935 version of Scrooge which is at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, Dec. 5 at 11:30 p.m.  Seymour Hicks gets to "bah humbug" in this particular version.

And just to put a bad taste in your mouth before the big opening of Star Wars The Force Awakens, Clinton's Tavern is hosting a viewing of the dreadful Star Wars Holiday Special Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. This lamentable cash-in of the original 1977 film's success features the original cast and apparently George Lucas wants it wiped from history. With good reason.

Screening Roundup

Easily one of my favourite movies set in Toronto, The Silent Partner, starring Elliot Gould as a glum bank teller who gets mixed up with a real nefarious character in the form of Christopher Plummer as a thieving killer. It's not a holiday movie in my books, but it does feature a Santa costume. Dec. 10 at The Royal 8:00 p.m.

A couple of film festivals are going on at the moment. There's Jayu: Human Rights Film Festival running Dec. 10 – 13  at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema and Brazil Film Fest 2015 at TIFF Bell Lightbox Dec. 4 – 6.

TIFF Bell Lightbox's Liz and Marilyn: Black and White in Colour programme gives us a new digital restoration of the flop of all flops, Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Dec. 6 at 3:15 p.m.

You can also catch free Japanese films at Innis Town Hall including Nobuhiko Obayashi's Casting Blossoms to the Sky Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Toronto Screengrab of the Week

Last week we went pretty low-rent with Graveyard Shift (or Central Park Drifter). This week's screengrab comes with a hint: there's a sing-a-long at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema this weekend…