TIFF Review: Modra [Ingrid Veninger, 2010]

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Crystal in Movies | 1 Comment

Toronto - On-screen teen romance has always captivated me. I can appreciate the awkward pauses and hesitant first-kisses often brought to life a la film. I don’t think I’m alone in this. Most adults seem to gravitate toward any youthful display of affection. Maybe it’s because our innocence is pretty much obliterated by the time we graduate high school. We grow up. Become adults. At some point, Truth quietly slips out the back door just in time for Lust, Mind-Games and The Future to come barreling in the front. Between speed-dating and long-distance relationships, we forget the simple delights of young love.

Thankfully, director Ingrid Veninger is here to remind us. Her new film Modra is a coming-of-age story that uncovers the essence of teen romance. Set mostly in Slovakia during a week-long vacation, Modra features the seventeen-year-old Lina (Hallie Switzer) who, after an inpromptu break-up with her boyfriend, invites schoolmate and near-stranger Leco (Alexander Gammal) along for the trip. Enter teen angst.

Modra boasts two talented young actors that captivate the audience with their on-screen chemistry and age-appropriate woes. Lina is a young, strong-willed, mature girl who knows what she wants. In contrast, Leco is brooding, shy and immature. Together, they form a very convincing pair. In fact, don’t be surprised if their on-screen exploits have you coveting memories of teen-years past.

The beauty of the film is the dry, almost bland way in which the story is told. There is no fluff. No grand (unrealistic) gestures of love. No glib twenty-something year-old actors with silver-tongued vocabularies. Instead, there are plenty of awkward pauses, immature outbursts and mindless conversations. I, for one, appreciate this approach. It keeps the cheese factor to an all-time low. Having said that, Modra is definitely not lacking in the entertainment department. True, Veninger’s rendition of teenaged life is served straight-up. But she also adds a touch of spice in the form of a romantic rival or two.

Overall, Modra is not your typical coming-of-age story. It’s better. It’s a well thought-out portrayal of teen romance that should appeal to just about anyone – sentimental adults and youthful film buffs alike.

Harbord Pizza Showdown: Mama B’s vs. Pizza Gigi

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Brian in Everything | 5 Comments

mamagigi

They stand on opposite corners on Harbord Street, just east of Bathurst. At 189 Harbord stands Pizza Gigi, a Harbord Street institution for 30 years, critically acclaimed in some circles as one of the best pizza joints in town. How they must look out their large front windows at relative newcomer Mama B’s, who mock them with their sign’s slogan “Second to None,” with sheer hatred. You can almost imagine the owners of the two storefronts glaring at each other across the street, occasionally leaving the safety of their restaurants to hurl curses and balls of mozzarella at one another.

With this kind of rivalry and proximity, how could we not put them to the ultimate test: a head to head pizza showdown for the right to call themselves the best pizza in Toronto, or at least the best pizza you can get at a pizza place that’s on the corner of Harbord and Lippincott?

The rules were simple: my companion and I would each walk into one of the stores and order a small pizza with the same three toppings and bring them back to Harbord House, the Panic Manual’s main base of operations, and devour them, perhaps sharing them with whatever Panic Manual groupies happened to be in the house at the time.

Review: Fallout 3 [2008, Bethesda Softworks]

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Gary in Video Games | 1 Comment

Toronto – If you had asked me to envision Elder Scrolls: Oblivion’s brother I would have said it can be no more enticing than a disfigured midget orc painted in a horrible color palette. Seriously, who wants to play as elves that look hideous and the other races and NPC that were scrawny walking, oozing pus-bags? Ugliness does not equal realism. I also had to work with a stamina system that depletes for no apparent reasons. Put that factor in and now the games sounds like: ugly old grannies from the first hut of the game beats the shit out of my more ugly convitct while he/she is sprawled unconciously on the ground and every other exchange is so frustratingly dice-based and the game world so immense for no possible practical rationale that I might as well be playing paper D&D. Enter Fallout 3 which, to be fair, wasn’t Bethesda’s game to mess up. Interplay had already screwed up in Fallout 2 a decade ago. Bethesda injected a dose of their experience on the Elder Scroll games. And out of all the warm, composting fecal matter came something definitively pristine and enjoyable. Wow.

And that’s probably as far as you should read this review: it is insanely long. The rest will consist of verbal description of this awesome-ness. First off, Fallout 3 is NOT ugly. Here, you will actually wish to see your character’s Asian/African/Hispanic/Caucasian face. So, character creation for me was a rewarding process which took 45 minutes while the game pretends baby Lone Wanderer is being born. The initial tutorial was a good rump through the ropes of the game with the Wanderer as a toddler. But be forewarned – the VATS system is never officially introduced. I’ll get into this later.
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