After almost a decade in front of cameras documenting their every boneheaded and reckless move, the Trailer Park Boys, Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, seem pretty comfortable holding court in a downtown hotel suite. With a bare-bones short, One Last Shot, a decade ago appearing at the 1999 edition of the Atlantic Film Festival and after […]
Hillary Titley
Posted inArts + Music
Thriller Whiteout freezes
Even though Whiteout is set in one of those locales that begets the tagline “In … no one can hear you scream,” the film can’t even pass muster as a pulse-pounding whodunit, nor resemble Antarctica as anything more than inconveniently blowy and cold. Kate Beckinsale plays South Pole-based g-woman Carrie Stetko, who is investigating a […]
Posted inArts + Music
AFF Prelude
Press screenings began today; a usual prelude to the AFF madness. My reviews of both films will be in print next week in The Coast. Bright Star is review restricted anyways, and, in this case, I am grateful that I am spared from making any snap judgments on the film. It moved me deeply and […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Cove’s revelations shock
Part nature doc, part espionage thriller, part horror story, The Cove contrasts its dolphin character study (they’re self-aware, intelligent and highly communicative, according to the film) with shocking footage of the capture and slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Director Louie Psihoyos, at the urging of former Flipper trainer turned activist Rick O’Berry, […]
Posted inArts + Music
9
What on Earth happened in 9, an animated post-apocalyptic adventure featuring a voice cast of Christopher Plummer, Elijah Wood and John C. Reilly? 9 (voiced by Wood), who looks like a burlap rag doll, wakes up in a world terrorized by machines out of the Terminator films’ Skynet nightmare, finds his goggle-eyed, potato-sacked brethren (Reilly […]
Posted inArts + Music
Adam a thoughtful love story
A voice-over by Rose Byrne’s Beth comparing Hugh Dancy’s Adam—a man with Asperger’s—to The Little Prince inspires dread that this is a saccharine 100-minute cliche about what mentally challenged folks can teach us, a la I am Sam and The House of D. However, Adam quickly recovers once the narrative unfolds and Beth and Adam […]
Posted inArts + Music
All about Steve (and Sandra)
Sandra Bullock is Mary, an obnoxiously juvenile crossword creator, hot for golden-boy cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper), obsessively stalking him across America. It’s remarkable enough that All About Steve is centered on a character so profoundly unwatchable—Mary’s know-it-all nattering borders on being sadistically anti-social, as if it’s a dare for the other characters to punch her […]
Posted inArts + Music
Judge’s Extract a great leveller
Mike Judge’s cinematic legacy is secure with his searing satire Office Space. Remarkable for uncovering the backwards cult of personalities within confined work spaces, begetting a rabid cult following and pre-dating Ricky Gervais’ The Office by a couple of years, Judge is now a vaunted chronicler of those poor souls who must co-exist amongst the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Be a cult movie conoisseur
We’ve all heard about Lebowski Fest, the annual pilgrimage for fans of The Big Lebowski, and heard tales of midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and, more recently, the phenomenon of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room and the detailed forms of audience participation it requires. The world of cult films has always placed certain […]
Posted inArts + Music
Camelia Frieberg’s cross-pollination project
“One thing that is so incredibly exhilarating about film,” says filmmaker, producer and Pollination Project co-founder Camelia Frieberg, “is the process by which it comes together. Talk about cross-pollination—you’ve got the music, the visuals, the writer, the actors bringing their craft—all those things have to come together and collaborate. Sure, you have one unifying vision, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Taking Woodstock fails to connect
When you’re living with the repercussions of baby boomer excess, it’s pretty hard to get excited for their halcyon nostalgia, which makes Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock hard to connect to in a meaningful way. If you are about to shoulder a generation’s enormous health care costs as they wither, do you really want to revel […]
Posted inArts + Music
Tedious, predictable, pretty good
Type-A college grad Ryden (Alexis Bledel) comes up short in the job market, moves back in with her parents and generally learns that life and relationships and stuff are really hard. It’s pretty tedious and predictable, I know, but Post Grad has the good sense to fill out its wan storyline with zany and droll […]
