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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Dec --> Jan films

The final few weeks of December are always a busy time for Hollywood film releases but in the past, I have had to wait until mid-January to catch some of the big buzz films such as The Wrestler, Gran Torino, There Will be Blood and Children of Men because of delayed release cycles across Canada. This year, it seems it will be the turn of Black Swan to get a January release. Currently, only three Canadian cities are playing Black Swan, with Toronto showing the film in 5 theaters, Vancouver in 2 and Montreal in a single cinema. In fact, the AMC Dundas in downtown Toronto has a staggering 16 shows of Black Swan on both Saturday and Sunday. However, the rest of the country will most likely have to wait until the first 2 weeks of January to see what the noise is all about.

While Black Swan still has no local release date, some interesting Indian films have confirmed dates for a Calgary release.

1) Dhobi Ghat -- I missed seeing Kiran Rao's debut film at TIFF so I am glad to know it is releasing on January 21.



2) No One Killed Jessica -- Raj Kumar Gupta's debut film Aamir was impressive so curious to see how his second feature turns out. Ofcourse, the headlines will be stolen by the pairing of Rani Mukherjee & Vidya Balan. Jan 7 release.



3) Utt Pataang -- Srikanth.V Velagaleti makes his directorial debut with this Vinay Pathak - Saurabh Shukla comedy out on Jan 21. Any Vinay Pathak film is an event to look forward to and this one has the bonus of being written by Saurabh Shakula. Interestingly, Rajat Kapoor & Ranvir Shorey are not involved with the film so Pathak and Shukla will have to carry the film on their own.



4) Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji -- Madhur Bhandarkar's new feature is out on Jan 28 and it is surprizing to see Bhandarkar try his hand at comedy as he is known for more hard hitting films such as Satta, Fashion, Traffic Signal, and Chandni Bar. The comedic style appears to be taking a page out of 3 Idiots book but the film title is clearly taken from the soul stirring track from Ishqiya.



Ofcourse, Sundance kicks off on January 20th and Rotterdam starts on Jan 26. For me, Rotterdam officially kicks off a new film festival year but it seems strange to be talking about 2011 films when I am still waiting to see many 2010 films such as Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void.
[Update Dec 15, 2010]

Black Swan will open on Friday, Dec 17 so I will not have to wait until 2011 to see it.

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