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Parent Teacher Night

Reviewed by Barry Benintende, Film Editor for Riveting Riffs Magazine

Short films are an art form that often goes unappreciated by most of us, however, most of us have benefited greatly from short films which sometimes appear before the feature film or often are viewed on television when a broadcaster has a time slot that is too small to run a regular program.  They come in all shapes and forms and bring us laughter, they educate us and sometimes they are entertaining animations. This past weekend at the ReelWorld Film Festival in Toronto we had the opportunity to watch Parent Teacher Night with a screenplay by Lucy Filippone and Stephen Roscoe, who also served as the Producer and director respectively.  The film was placed just prior to the feature film Why We Laugh: Black Comedians On Black Comedy, so the Filippone / Roscoe short benefitted from great exposure.

Hopefully those in attendance will realize that there were some technical issues that were not inherent to the film, but due to the cinema and / or the individual operating the film projector. Nevertheless the experienced filmgoer will have seen this project for what it is, a well directed and well produced piece of art, which is highly entertaining and drew much laughter from the audience as they no doubt relived their own experiences of attending Parent Teacher Night.

Canadian actress Michèle Duquet was cast in the leading role as the teacher, Ms. Appleton and she was absolutely brilliant!  Ms. Duquet has a natural comedic flair that is neither gimmicky nor is it campy, but comes across as authentic.

 

Reviewed by Barry Benintende, Film Editor for Riveting Riffs Magazine

If you liked Iron Man and all the guns shooting and things going boom, you are going to love Iron Man II. Admittedly, I loved comic books when I was growing up in lovely El Cajon, California, a place where summers were boiling hot and if your house did not have air conditioning (ours did not) one of the few public places that did was the public library. Fortunately, the El Cajon public library was stocked with Marvel Comics and I grew to love Iron Man. So before you go any further, you should probably know that I was sold on the first installment of Iron Man before the credits rolled. I liked Iron Man II more than I should have.
 
True, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) does not suit up in his high tech suit of destruction enough and there are so few unanswered questions from the first movie, the only thing a sequel could do would be to up the violence and keep the quick paced dialogue running. This movie does that and there are even a few moments, like the opening scene, when the sequel is better than the original.

Stark is dying from advanced palladium toxicity, which is a byproduct of the coruscating energy source that keeps him alive while it powers his suit. Once Stark's condition is revealed, it serves as a jumping off point for drunken behavior and the too obligatory musical number thrown into too many films (Queen takes the hit this time).

Musical:  Bizzzy / Whitefire Theatre / Los Angeles, California

Reviewed by Ethan Silver for Riveting Riffs Magazine

Visualize this…you enter a theater and you are instantly transported to the 1970’s complete with disco music and lighting, pastel-laden walls and a polka dotted blanket covering the couch.  What follows is a musical look into the busy life of Kelly Corbett (Jacquie Donley), her daughter Jill (Madeline Penn) and her son, Bobby (Jeremy Herzig) as they work though the trials and tribulations of a single parent household, which is taunted and tormented by the sleaze-ball IRS agent, Orville Schlyman (Michael G. Welch).  On the surface it seems as if is a drama, but with the colorful characters and the cheerful melodies, the audience is treated to a (mostly) lighthearted journey that is both relatable and enjoyable. 

The lead female actor Donley is a natural in her interplay between characters, which is both believable and a joy to watch, however her performance would be heightened with a more pervasive sense of frustration and exhaustion whether it be from emotional strain, physical strain or a combination of both.  Donley seems to jump freely back and forth from the upbeat moments to the darker moments of grief without the

Cats-Dogs.0042: (L-r) Diggs, voiced by James Marsden Catherine, voiced by Christina Applegate; and Butch, voiced by Nick Nolte in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' family comedy CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, protected by copyright ©