Published December 08, 2005. The Tragically Hip: That Night In Toronto (Universal) In a year where live music on DVD has exploded onto the market, this show packaged as part of the band’s retrospective Hipeponymous box set is notable. It should remind fans that despite uneven albums, 20 years on the road makes for a […]
Carsten Knox
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Kung Fu Hustle
Kung Fu HustleDirected by: Stephen Chow(Columbia)Stephen Chow is one of the biggest movie stars in Asia. Kung Fu Hustle is his second film to attract attention in the west, after Shaolin Soccer, and he is credited as writer, director and lead. Here he is Sing, a street thug in a1930s metropolis beset by the diabolical […]
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Absolute DC: The New Frontier
Absolute DC: The New FrontierDarwyn CookeDCToronto-born, Nova Scotia-residing Darwyn Cooke’s limited series is given the deluxe treatment in a huge DC Absolute edition. It’s a look back at an era of DC heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern—with only the slightest of nods to the gods of continuity, and tells the story of a moment […]
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Birth
Published December 08, 2005. Birth Directed by: Jonathan Glazer (Alliance) Director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) pays tribute to both Kubrick and Polanski in this atmospheric drama. The story of a 10-year-old who claims to be the resurrected husband of Nicole Kidman’s widow takes some strange, illogical twists, but will stay with you long past the […]
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Everything’s Gone Green
Everything’s Gone Green Directed by: Paul FoxAstralAnother quality Canadian picture that somehow missed a run in local theatres. This one arrives on DVD with a notable pedigree: a charming and witty script by Douglas Coupland. It’s a comedy about selling out your principles in cookie-cutter culture, set in a startlingly beautiful and rain-free Vancouver.Carsten KnoxCategories: […]
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The Assassination of Richard Nixon
The Assassination of Richard Nixon Directed by: Niels Mueller(ThinkFilm)Sean Penn has said he doesn’t think of movies as entertainment. He believes they should aspire to more. This movie, along with his recent performances in small, grim pictures (21 Grams comes to mind) cleaves with that philosophy. Set in the early ’70s, Penn plays Samuel Bicke, […]
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Hustle and Flow
Hustle and FlowDirected by: Craig Brewer(Paramount)A caustic urban drama, the picture gave everyone in it the best roles of their careers and made a star out of Terrence Howard as DJay, the Memphis pimp who becomes a rapper to get off the streets. As music industry ironies abound, the grit in the story won’t wipe […]
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Kinsey
Published December 08, 2005. Kinsey Directed by: Bill Condon (20th Century Fox) The best biopic of 2004 (Ray wasn’t even close) is of the infamous sex researcher (Liam Neeson) and the unorthodox experiments he conducted with the help of his wife and colleagues. Laura Linney and Peter Sarsgaard soar in their roles, and the making-of […]
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Layer Cake
Published September 15, 2005.Layer CakeDirected by: Mathew Vaughn(Sony Pictures Classics)Matthew Vaughn produced all of Guy Richie’s films: he certainly knows his way around this new brand of British crime movie. He’s got the chiselled, unnamed lead (Daniel Craig), a businessman in a world of drug dealing, a guy who wants to make his money and […]
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Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull StoryDirected by: Michael Winterbottom(Alliance/Universal)Long thought of as unadaptable, Laurence Sterne’s classic The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman—a bawdy, self-reflexive novel—is now a bawdy, self-reflexive film. Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People, Happy Endings) plays the titular Shandy, who narrates his own story from birth, frequently jumping about […]
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Sam Peckinpah’s The Legendary Westerns Collection
Sam Peckinpah’s The Legendary Westerns CollectionDirected by: Sam Peckinpah(Warner Home Video)Hard drinking director Peckinpah will always be known for his stories of men with guns. Here are his best, including the elegiac Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, which gives what is considered one of the classic modern westerns, The Wild Bunch (also included in […]
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Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
Published December 08, 2005. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself Directed by: Lone Scherfig (Sundance) Danish director Lone Sherfig’s follow-up to Italian for Beginners, this is the story of two Scottish brothers, one of whom is terminally depressed. Beginning as a black comedy it becomes a sweetly affecting love triangle. Don’t be put off by the […]
