CIUT Critics Circle

Critics' Circle June 29, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing Paul and Linda Plan a Threesome that plays at the Here for Now Festival in Stratford,
Daniel is reviewing 3 films:
Yorgos Lanthimos's new film Kinds of Kindness.
A Quite Place: Day One a prequel to the popular horror/thriller.
Crossing, by Georgian director Levan Akin.
Interviews:
Daniel is interviewing the director of Kipkemboi the first co-production between Canada and Kenya.
It's a fun and exciting movie about a teen genius 
who lives in a mud hut in Kenya who figures out how
to outsmart wall street.

Critics' Circle June 22, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing a roundup of the recent openings at the Shaw Festival.
Daniel is reviewing three new movies all starting with the Letter B!
The Boy in the Woods, a Canadian WWII movie based on memoir of man who survived holocaust by hiding in the woods in Poland.
The Bikeriders, a drama about a Midwest motorcycle gang in the 1960s.
Blackwater Lane, a Thriller/horror  
Interviews:
Lynn is interviewing Fiona Mongillo, the Artistic Director of Here for Now Theatre in Stratford, on her upcoming season.

Critics' Circle June 15, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing Wicked at the Princess of Wales Theatre until July 21, 2024.
Daniel is reviewing 2 films about parents and their kids in honor of Fathers Day:
Tuesday, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as a mother in London whose daughter is dying.
Kidnapped, Bellocchio's historical drama about the kidnapping of a little boy, Edgardo Mortara, in Bologna by the Vatican.
 
Interviews:
Daniel is interviewing Toronto filmmaker Jamie Kastner about his new documentary on surveillance and privacy: Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Applebaum.

Critics' Circle June 8, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing RAWUMS, a kids show for kids 2 years old and up, and AGE IS A FEELING at Soulpepper Theatre with Hailey McGee.
Daniel is reviewing 3 dramas:
I Used to be Funny, about a depressed standup comic in Toronto.
Longing, about a rich man in Hamilton who discovers he had a son he never met.
 
Robot Dreams, an animated film about A dog and his robot in 1980s New York City.
 
 
Interviews:
Lynn is interviewing Antoni Cimolino, the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival. 
Daniel is interviewing Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge about their Documentary Red Fever about Indigenous culture appropriated into mainstream sports, fashion, music, film, and politics.
 
 
 

Critics' Circle June 1st, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today:
 
Reviews:
 
Lynn is reviewing The Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Something Rotten, a rousing Broadway musical, and Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen.  
 
Daniel is reviewing 3 movies:
 
Back Spot directed by DW Waterson.
The Goldman Case directed by Cedric Kahn. 
Handling the Undead directed by Thea Hvistendahl.
 
Interviews:
 
Daniel interviews Director Amnon Carmi and writer Ben Ducoff for the film Yaniv, a screwball slapstick comedy.
 
 
 
 

Critics' Circle May 25, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today:
 
Reviews:
 
Lynn is reviewing My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival.
 
Daniel is reviewing 3 movies: 
 
Spark is a non-binary, groundhog's day-type movie having its world premiere on Friday at the Inside Out festival.
 
Babes is a Comedy, starring Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau as best friends and opens Friday.
 
Wilfred Buck is an NFB documentary about Cree Elder Wilfred Buck released theatrically this weekend.
 
Interviews:
 
Lynn is interviewing Seana McKenna about directing Twelfth Night at Stratford. 

Critics' Circle May 18, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing Seven Ways of Killing Kylie Jenner at Crow's Theatre, a co-production with Obsidien Theatre.
Daniel is reviewing The Stranger: Part 1, "A Cabin in the Woods" style thriller/horror
 
Interviews:
Daniel is interviewing Harrison Xi and Ivan Leung the co-writers, directors, actors whose film Extremely Unique Dynamic, a "Meta-Asian-Stoner-Coming-Of-Age- Bromantic Dramedy.
 
 
 

Critics' Circle May 11, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing Hedda Gabler  from Coal Mine Theatre.
Daniel is reviewing three new indie/art house movies from Canada, the US and Japan, all opening this weekend in Toronto:
Borealis, Winnipeg director Sean Garrity's latest drama, starring longtime collaborator Jonas Chernick
 
We Grown Now, Directed by Minhal Baigl
A drama set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project.
 
Evil Does Not Exist, Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, ( Drive My Car's director with 4 Oscar Nominations)
This comedy/drama is about developers infringing on a small mountain village.
 
Interviews:
Lynn is interviewing Lynda Hill the Artistic Director of the Wee Festival that opens for three weeks beginning Saturday May 11.
 
 
 
 

Critics' Circle May 4, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing a Beautiful Scars, a musical at Theatre Aquarius about Tom Wilson who was in his 50s before he learned he was really Indigenous.
She is also reviewing Darktown Strutters Ball, at Theatre Orangeville, about how Black performers have changed the face of theatre through history from Burt Williams to Josephine Baker to Oscar Peterson.
And Daniel is reviewing 3 movies:
 
The Fall Guy an action comedy rom-com about a stuntman.
 
Pelikan Blue a Hungarian animated doc about teens forging train tickets (hot docs)
 
The Ride Ahead about a young disabled man interviews famous disabled leaders to answer his questions about sex, dating, etc (hot docs)
 
 

Critics' Circle April 27th, 2024

In Our Roundtable Today: 
Reviews:
Lynn is reviewing Witness for the Prosecution that opens at the Shawand Tyson Song at Factory.
Daniel is reviewing some documentaries premiering at Hot Docs.
Interviews:
Lynn is interviewing Jordi Mand, playwright of In Seven Days whichwill play at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre in May.
Daniel is interviewing the host and director of a new series that just opened on TVO called Secrets of the Forest. The program is a children's science show starring 10 year old Tavis Edwards and is directed by Melissa Peters.