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TIFF Oscar buzz begins: Natalie Portman wins critics’ support in Black Swan

(Image: James Helmer)

The Oscar baiting of TIFF films has officially begun, with acclaim for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan pouring in—with overwhelming praise for Natalie Portman’s starring performance—after its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The film, scheduled to screen in Toronto on September 13 at Roy Thomson Hall, follows Nina (Portman) as a spotlight-craving ballerina who becomes entangled in a pas de deux with a rival dancer played by Mila Kunis. Eventually Nina’s plight takes a Cronenberg-esque turn (hey, this is an Aronofsky flick), with her eyes discolouring and wings sprouting from her back as she becomes the swan she strives to portray onstage.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

August 30, 2010 | 2:21 pm

7 Comments

Full Throttle: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Parts and Labour

The Parkdale it spot is a raucous hybrid of fine dining and indie cheek. It’s loud, stylish and double-dares you to eat fried pig face By Chris Nuttall-Smith

(Image: Ryan Szulc)

They started jacking the stereo around 8 p.m., just as we were eating the chopped raw lamb with herbed, salted lard. By the time the horse tenderloin arrived, it felt as if a maniacal toddler had been handed control of the dial. Groups of young, aggressively stylish women tottered in, past the velvet rope, past the bouncer with the neck tattoo and under the decorative, gold-leafed satellite dish that its designer (one of the restaurant’s owners) described as a “Hegelian dialectic between high and low.” The music, thumping from the five JBL speakers arrayed above the bar, kept rising, as if in salutation. We had to press our ribs into the edge of our long, too-wide communal table and shout to hear each other when we bothered trying to talk at all.

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The Dish

Opening

July 22, 2010 | 5:07 pm

8 Comments

Introducing: Scarpetta, the Thompson Hotel’s New York restaurant import

Chef Scott Conant had never thought of opening a restaurant in Toronto, but when he was approached by the Thompson Hotel group and asked to do just that, it seemed like a logical step for him and his now-famous brand, Scarpetta. “I have so many clients from Toronto who visit my New York and Miami restaurants, it just seems like a natural progression,” says the James Beard Award winner. “To expand on the east coast also means it’ll be easier to travel between the places, since a flight from Toronto to Miami is only three hours. It just made sense. Toronto is an alpha city, and it’s great to be a part of it.”

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The Hype

Prime Time

July 15, 2010 | 11:09 am

1 Comment

Americans dig Toronto cop shows—well, not The Bridge

Toronto cops haven’t exactly been in people’s good books since that whole G20 debacle, but TV viewers can’t get enough of them—especially the fickle couch potatoes south of the border. Rookie Blue, a show about a posse of newbie officers, has just been picked up for a second season by Global TV and ABC. Perhaps critics’ comparisons to Grey’s Anatomy worked in the show’s favour as opposed to knocking it. Toronto’s crime drama Flashpoint is now airing its third season on CTV and CBS and is dominating American ratings in its time slot (albeit the Friday night death slot, when only grandparents are watching). It’s a different story for CTV’s The Bridge, though. Relegated to Saturday night, the pilot drew a meagre 2.98 million viewers and was easily beaten out by Cops and America’s Funniest Home Videos. So it’s official: Americans like cheesy cops and intense cops, but definitely not ones that look like Aaron Douglas.

• Cop drama Rookie Blue graduates to 2nd season [CBC]
• The Bridge: New CBS Police Drama, Cancel or Keep it? [TV Series Finale.com]
• Ratings Race: ABC and CBS Split Victory with ‘Primetime’ and ‘Flashpoint’ [TV Squad.com]

The Dish

Bottoms Up

July 9, 2010 | 3:59 pm

Comments

Tickled pink: seven reasons rosés are gaining popularity this summer

La vie en rose: rosé's day may finally have arrived (Image: barockschloss)

Despite a recent surge in popularity known as “the pink tide,” rosé wines can’t seem to shake the stigma that they’re an overly sweet and not entirely “real” wine. More and more, experts are looking to dispel that myth. According to the Globe’s Beppi Crosariol, blushes’ not-so-favourable reputation stems in part from the proliferation of white zinfandel, which is often marketed to a younger pop-loving crowd. A little research, however, reveals plenty of dry rosés that can satisfy the most discerning of palates. With summer in full swing, we round up seven reasons why refreshing rosés shouldn’t be overlooked, each plucked from critics’ pro-pink pieces.

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The Hype

The Beat

July 7, 2010 | 9:35 am

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Media blamed for Lilith Fair’s dismal ticket sales and cancellations

Lilith Fair mainstay Sarah McLachlan (Image: Kashmera)

Terry McBride, co-founder of the girl power rock festival Lilith Fair, has cried foul against the media for bad publicity surrounding lagging ticket sales. In “An Open Letter to Critics,” McBride blogged that he was “amazed at the feeding frenzy of negativity by the media and bloggers around Lilith Fair.”

Such attacks are normally seen in the theatre of partisan politics that have poisoned western society. What drives the passion to write negative and speculative commentary on what is a socially positive and giving festival?

Ten cities were dropped from this year’s lineup, and some shows were moved to smaller venues, but most of the press has been more of a lament toward the femme fest’s misfortunes rather than a mockery of its failure.

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The Informer

Cityscape

June 23, 2010 | 3:46 pm

2 Comments

North York’s Regent Park: Lawrence Heights revitalization, opposed by Rob Ford, passes committee unanimously

Last weekend, Rob Ford took some time to relax the way he likes best: by shouting into a bullhorn about the fat cats at city hall. In particular, he told a group of 200 protesters (note that this isn’t a G20 post) that he supported their efforts to stop the redevelopment of Lawrence Heights in North York. The candidate went further, saying that if he becomes mayor, city plans would not proceed in neighbourhoods where the residents oppose it.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 23, 2010 | 3:02 pm

4 Comments

G2OMG: Toronto momentarily not hated by rest of Canada, fabric of reality at risk

Toronto hating has deep historical roots, as illustrated by this 1956 cartoon by John W. McLaren (Image: Adam Campbell)

If there’s one thing Canadians outside of the GTA know, it’s that Toronto sucks. Critics say that this city is crowded, loser-filled and mean. This conviction, along with health care and the railroad, have built the nation into what it is today. So the fact that the G20 mess has upright citizens reconsidering this basic tenet of the universe should be cause for concern.

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The Hype

Pop Art

June 17, 2010 | 12:24 pm

7 Comments

Toronto critics call Drake album shallow, want to punch him in the face

While Drake’s Thank Me Later has garnered generally positive reviews south of the 49th (its MetaCritic score currently sits at 80, with big-ups from Pitchfork, The Onion, All Music Guide, Spin, Village Voice and Vibe), some Toronto critics have taken their homeboy to task for being “unbelievably shallow,” “humourless” and sounding “like a frog.”

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The Hype

Curtain Call

June 15, 2010 | 11:23 am

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Rufus Wainwright’s debut opera opens in Toronto, earns comparison to “Loblaws grocery bag”

(Image: Rubenstein/Martyna Borkowski)

Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna made its North American debut last night as part of Luminato, and critics aren’t exactly tossing roses. The Star condemns the Canadian singer-songwriter’s first opera as “a dramatic wreck,” tossing out cattily that “you can’t get a Louis Vuitton clutch from a Loblaws grocery bag”; the Globe is more charitable. Reviews from over the pond (it premiered in Manchester last summer and arrived in London this past April) were equally mixed, with the Guardian’s Andrew Clements grumbling:

For interminable episodic stretches it seemed as if Prima Donna would take over in my personal pantheon as the worst new opera I’ve ever seen… the banality of what is sung is sometimes breathtaking.
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The Hype

The Beat

June 7, 2010 | 10:13 am

4 Comments

In defence of dad rock: The National makes it to Massey Hall

The National, a five-piece dad rock band from Brooklyn, arrives in town tomorrow for a two-night stand at Massey Hall. When critics use the term dad rock, typically to describe all-male guitar bands who make capital-A albums of classic rock–influenced songs, it’s pretty much a full-on dis, but we’re actually quite fond of most bands tagged as pro-paterfamilias. For one thing, when they get big enough, dad rock bands, such as Wilco, Fleet Foxes and now The National, like to play at Massey Hall when they come to Toronto.

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The Hype

Cinemania

June 4, 2010 | 10:30 am

3 Comments

The top-secret formula for decoding Toronto Star movie reviews, revealed

Everyone’s a critic, right? Well, at the Toronto Star, even its film critics don’t seem to be too, well, critical these days. Every other week, there’s a three- or four-star (out of four) review popping up. And unless it’s been an especially good year for movies (editor’s note: it has not), then there’s only one answer to why the reviews are so darn positive: math.

Through some crack investigative work—and one very-soon-to-be-sorry radio room intern—The Hype has managed to get a hold of the entertainment department’s top-secret “ridiculously absurd virtues for entertainment” equation, or RAVE for short. This classified formula reveals just how critics manage to award stellar reviews to such universally acknowledged dreck as Alice in Wonderland (3 1/2 stars, but 53 per cent on metacritic.com), the remake of Death at a Funeral (three stars, but 51 per cent on metacritic) and, shudder, The Twilight Saga: New Moon (three stars, but a pitiful 44 per cent on metacritic).

Herewith, the math behind a Toronto Star movie review.

The formula breakdown, after the jump.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

May 5, 2010 | 4:09 pm

5 Comments

Corey “Snooty Elitist” Mintz allegedly seeks roommate through Craigslist

Last week, the Star’s former food critic and current columnist Corey Mintz—or someone pretending to be Corey Mintz—posted an ad on Craigslist seeking a flatmate. Judging by the location, photos and description, he’s one of the few journalists in the city who aren’t living in squalor and can afford $925 a month.

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The Hype

Creative Types

April 29, 2010 | 11:18 am

5 Comments

Toronto’s Art Battle takes a page from the reality TV playbook

Anna Pantchev and Brian Belanger in the final battle (Image: Matthew Hague)

In an attempt to fill the reality arts entertainment void left by Canadian Idol, Toronto’s Art Battle pits would-be Picassos against wannabe Warhols for a paint-off in front of a live audience that eventually votes on a winner. On Tuesday night, we attended the fifth such battle at West Queen West’s Great Hall, where a crowd of art patrons-slash-critics waited expectantly to watch three sets of painters go brush to brush.

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The Hype

Cinemania

April 28, 2010 | 1:09 pm

1 Comment

Rush doc rocks Tribeca, opens in Toronto tomorrow

They have the most consecutive gold and platinum studio albums of any band other than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Stephen Colbert, Jason Segel and Paul Rudd are among their fanboys. They’ve captured the hearts of the middle class—and remained unabashedly devoted to it in return—in a way few groups have before or after. And yet somehow, sometimes, it seems like Rush just can’t get any respect. (And by respect we mean an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Or love from the critics. Or a decent wardrobe.)

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