Let us take a moment to recognize the heroes of movie-watching in Halifax: the Carbon Arcs, the Atlantic Film Festivals and the Video Differences of our city. Let’s remark upon their variety, their expertise and their dedication and resolve to not take their benefits in vain, nor their deficits too personally. Let’s meditate on them […]
Jacob Boon
Posted inArts + Music
Don 2 is pretty, bloated
Five years after the smash Bollywood action flick Don comes the inevitable sequel, Don 2: The King is Back. Sharukh Kahn stars as the title character, who appears to be taken straight from a bad fan fiction story. A criminal kingpin 10 steps ahead of his enemies, Don is cocky, unflappable, the best dancer, and […]
Posted inArts + Music
A passable The Darkest Hour
Big balls of invisible energy terrorize Moscow’s nightclub district in the familiar, but still fun, The Darkest Hour. Emile Hirsh (Speed Racer) and Olivia Thirlby (Juno) help lead a ragtag group of survivors past the destruction and towards rescue after the film shifts from initial invasion to apocalyptic survival story. Thankfully, the characters all but […]
Posted inArts + Music
No blemishes on The Skin I Live In
A genre-defying mix of horror and melodrama, The Skin I Live In is the latest tale of obsession and sexual identity from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. Antonio Banderas stars as a wealthy plastic surgeon who has mutated pig cells to create a transgenic human skin resistant to burns. Banderas’ leading-man good looks add to the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Rhonda’s Party filmmakers Ashley McKenzie and Nelson MacDonald
There’s a snappy back-and-forth that happens when you sit filmmaking duo Nelson MacDonald and Ashley McKenzie down. It’s a testament to the pair’s long history of collaboration, even if they don’t quite remember their own filmography. “We made our first film together when we were 17,” says MacDonald. “It was just for school.” “Which film […]
Posted inArts + Music
Immortals makes a heroic effort
The classic myth of Theseus and the Minotaur gets a lavish re-imagining by director Tarsem Singh (The Fall) and the producers of 300. The nihilistic King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is rampaging across Greece in an effort to free the legendary Titans and destroy the gods of Olympus. Luckily, former slave Henry Cavill (the upcoming Superman: […]
Posted inArts + Music
A Drummer’s Dream director John Walker
John Walker was 17 when his band was invited to open for Frank Zappa. The young Montreal drummer desperately wanted to go to California, but he had been offered a chance to fulfill his other passion working at a film studio. Walker gave away his drums and wished his friends well. The band became ’70s […]
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Paranormal Activity 3 familiar but scarily effective
Like the charity haunted house at your nearest community centre, Paranormal Activity 3 arrives in time for Halloween with familiar but nevertheless effective scares. A prequel to its two predecessors, the film travels back to 1988 and the childhoods of sisters Kristi and Katie as they are plagued by a sinister apparition. Mom’s boyfriend attempts […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Guard full of Irish charm
A hard-drinking black comedy, The Guard features Brendan Gleeson patrolling the Irish countryside with a loaded gun and a mind full of profane sarcasm. Director John Michael McDonagh sets his debut feature in the western county of Connemara, where police sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) finds his sleepy town invaded by a trio of international drug […]
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Courageous long on message, short on entertainment
The latest from Christian film studio Sherwood Pictures (Fireproof) deals with issues of fatherly responsibility, which—surprise!—does not a thrilling experience make. Writer, director, producer and associate pastor Alex Kendrick also stars as one of four Georgia sheriffs, each beset by the tragedy of being a father in this kooky, gang-ridden culture of ours. The rest […]
Posted inArts + Music
50/50 goes halfsies with comedy and pathos
It’s trite, but not inaccurate, to say 50/50 is an even split between comedy and pathos. Based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s real-life cancer battle, the movie sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception) as Adam, a young man forced to deal with a drastic diagnosis that renders him a coin-toss away from death. Seth Rogen plays the best […]
Posted inArts + Music
What’s Your Number? Maybe three out of 10, if that
In the year of Bridesmaids, it’s hard not to compare What’s Your Number? to that funnier, better romantic comedy. Anna Faris (The House Bunny) stars in this lacklustre film as a promiscuous woman who sets out to revisit her past boyfriends in a search for true love. This is after a magazine suggests any woman […]
