Breakout Performance to Felicity Jones,
Like Crazy is definitely a film worth putting
on your list to see this fall.

- Tim Ryckman

Additional Screenings: Friday, Oct. 7 @
11:40 a.m. (Empire Granville 7)

Take This Waltz
(Canada, 2011, 123 mins, Dir. Sarah Polley)

OOo

Having never seen Sarah Polley’s
first film, Away From Her (2006), I was
pleasantly surprised at the poetically sad
mood displayed in her latest effort, Take
This Waltz. Michelle Williams plays the
protagonist Margot, a somewhat introverted
and quiet woman, whose marriage to Lou
(Seth Rogen) is plagued by communication
issues. While on a business trip, Margot
meets a charismatic and handsome
man named Daniel (Luke Kirby), who
conveniently lives across the street from
the married couple. Margot and Daniel
share an instant bond and Margot, who is
self-admittedly afraid of being “in-between
things,” finds herself in-between the two
most prominent relationships in her life.

Williams gives a remarkable
performance as Margot. She is able to
convey the intense emotions that trouble
her character with an incredible depth,
which is refreshing. The same goes
for Luke Kirby. His representation of
Margot’s frustrated potential lover is very
realistic. However, I thought Seth Rogen’s
performance was kind of mediocre; he
didn’t have the emotional depth that his
counterparts displayed.

The film focuses prominently on
absent intimacy —the intimacy absent
in Margot’s marriage, and the intimacy
absent from her relationship with Daniel.
Take This Waltz tugs at the audience’s
heartstrings while being selectively and
morbidly funny at the right times. The main
characters are fleshed out fairly well, and
the artful direction is delightful to say the
least.

- Kyle Wallis

Additional Screenings: Thursday, Oct. 6 @
4 p.m. (Visa Screening Room at the Vogue
Theatre)

How to Die in Oregon
(USA, 2011, 107 mins, Dir. Peter Richardson)

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In 1994, Oregon was the first state
to legalize euthanasia. The passing of
the “Death with Dignity Act” granted
terminally ill patients with the right for
a physician assisted-suicide. Roughly a
decade later, Richardson follows several
people— particularly one Cody Curtis—
who wished to end their lives this way.
Arguing in favour of the “Death with
Dignity Act,” Richardson also follows the
passing of I-1000, as Washington became
the second state to legalize physician
assisted-suicide in 2008.

As one might expect, this film is
very difficult to sit through; you will be

 

watching people’s
final months, weeks and moments of life.
Curtis’ story is arguably the most powerful
in the way her life is presented. Always
bright and ready with an adorable quip
for any situation, Curtis is dying of liver
cancer when we meet her. Curtis is the face
of and ultimate argument for compassion;
she wants to stick it out, but the pain is too
much. This is a documentary; you’re going
to fall in love with this woman, and then
you’re going to lose her, there’s no other
way around it.

The film, which won the Grand
Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance,
displays its case of dying with compassion.
There isn’t a narrator telling us what to
think, we are simply following people
who are at a point where they’d be much
happier in death than in life, or at the very
least support the concept. Whether or not
one agrees with this argument will be for
them to decide.
- Angela Espinoza
Additional Screenings: Monday, Oct. 10 @
2:50 p.m. (Empire Granville 7)

Guilt (La vérité)
(Canada, 2011, 91 mins, Dir. Marc Bisaillon)

OOoU

Yves (Emile Mailhiot) and Gabriel
(Pierre-Luc Lafontaine) are your somewhat
typical high school seniors. In their small
Quebec town they spend their days trying
to be good students, while their nights
are spent causing trouble. They have
great relationships with their parents, and
with Yves’ mother Caroline (Genevieve
Rioux) being a respected police officer
and Gabriel’s father Denis (Denis Trudel)
being a doctor, the boys have their whole
lives ahead of them. After a night of heavy
partying though, Yves and Gabriel find
themselves accidently murdering one of
their neighbors. Now these two kids must
figure out a way to handle their very adult
situation.

The film is carried by its splendid cast,
as Mailhiot and Lafontaine’s characters
struggle to keep their relationship with
each other and their loved ones together.
However, it’s Mailhiot who stands out;
as Gabriel runs away from their problem,
Yves is given the spotlight, barely finding
himself able to keep his sanity intact,
let alone his mouth shut. The film is
Bisaillon’s second feature, and while
the occasional weak joke or off-handed
reference make the fact evident, Guilt
shines in its ability to display how any
decent kid can have their life suddenly
spiral out of control.

- Angela Espinoza

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Image froin: Like Crazy

 

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