Toronto must be movie hungover or something as this post-TIFF week is a little light. Fear not though as the slate starts to fill-up again next month for what should be an intriguing October. 

Pam Grier!

By far the coolest news this week is that Pam Grier is coming in-person to introduce some of her most iconic roles at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. This includes her terrific work with Robert Forster in Quentin Tarantino’s only adapted screenplay to date, Jackie Brown, from the late Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch Oct. 1 at 9 p.m.  

If you haven’t looked at it since it came out, you might be surprised at just how good it really is, and also features one of Robert De Niro’s best later-years turns. 

On October 2, Ms. Grier will be back to discuss her ass-kicking prime in the tandem blaxploitation classics Coffy and Foxy Brown, both directed by Jack Hill, at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Again, if you haven’t seen them in quite a while, or ever, both these flicks are more vibrant and worth re-watching than you might think. 

Michael Snow Retrospective Continues

I will confess from the outset that I have never seen Canadian avant-garde artist Michael Snow’s 'Rameau's Nephew' by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen but I will give credence to its place in the pantheon of “tough sits” by mentioning it here. It took quite some time to make, takes quite some time to watch, and TIFF is screening it as part of their year-long look at Snow’s work, Sept. 30 6:30 p.m. for free. 

I don’t mean to be flip about Snow’s work. His accomplishments are many and his work in experimental film is renowned. There’s much to say about his formal explorations but it won’t be and shouldn’t be by me. This particular film uses the number 24 – as in 24 frames per second – as a starting point and goes through exactly that many different sequences. Fellow film artists Chantal Ackerman and Jonas Mekas show up and, I’m sure, semiotics comes into this discussion next if I went on, but that would be a fool’s errand. This may well be your bag… 

Toronto Screengrab of the Week

This week’s entry has Toronto subbing in for Chicago yet again. What’s remarkable about this unremarkable 2012 romance, starring Rachel McAdams and the guy pictured above at what is clearly Casa Loma, is the sheer number of obvious Toronto locations.