Lindsay McCarney

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownDirected by: Bill Melendez/Charles Schultz(Warner Home Video) “Let’s face it…Santa Claus has had more publicity,” writes steadfast Linus to his Halloween hero, the Great Pumpkin, in pop-cultural institution It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. “But,” he continues, “being number two, perhaps you try harder.” The line’s apparently a reference to […]

Taxi to the Dark SideDirected by: Alex Gibney(Paradox) In 2005’s Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, documentarian Alex Gibney accomplished a mightily impressive feat—making the story of energy company Enron’s bankruptcy and accounting fraud surprisingly comprehensible and interesting. With his latest doc, the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, Gibney employs the same thoroughness […]

KablueyDirected by: Scott Prendergast(Columbia/Tristar)A lot of the humour in Kabluey—writer-director Scott Prendergast’s feature-length debut—comes from the film’s central conceit. When your protagonist spends much of his time in a hard-to-maneuver blue suit, it’s difficult not to mine the ludicrous costume for laughs. And so, while dressed as “Kabluey,” (the large-headed corporate mascot of a failing […]

[image-4]Published September 25, 2008.The Office: Season Four Directed by: Developed by Greg Daniels(Universal Studios)Oh, season four of The Office: You could have been so terrible. After seasons of keeping made-for-each-other Office-mates Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) circumstance-crossed, show helmer Greg Daniels and his writing crew finally threw fans a bone in season three’s […]

[image-4]Published September 18, 2008.Spaced: The Complete SeriesDirected by: Edgar Wright (BBC Warner)Early on in British series Spaced, procrastinating writer Daisy (Jessica Hynes) manically suggests the idea of throwing a party to her new roommate, Tim (Simon Pegg). “We could have a glitter ball! I could make one out of tinfoil!” she enthuses. The hilariously lame […]

Late FragmentDirected by: Daryl Cloran, Anita Doron, Mateo Guez(Mongrel Media)Sometimes stripper Theo (Jeffrey Parazzo) surprises his girlfriend with birthday cake; sometimes he bleeds on her from his self-inflicted wounds. One time, he kidnapped his former molester at gunpoint. All these events—and more!—take place, non-chronologically, in Canadian-made Late Fragment, an “interactive film.” Bored by Theo’s story […]

Send a Bullet (Manda Bala)Directed by: Jason KohnCity Lights Home EntertainmentIt makes sense that Jason Kohn, director of the engrossing documentary Manda Bala, once served as a research assistant for legendary filmmaker Errol Morris. Kohn remains unseen throughout Manda Bala, but his presence is felt: The insightful questions the director lobs at his fascinating subjects […]

The Mindscape of Alan MooreDirected by: DeZ Vylenz (Shadowsnake Films) Prodigiously bearded Alan Moore (the genius behind Watchmen and V for Vendetta) is one of the world’s most celebrated comics scribes, but he’s a man uncomfortable with celebrity. Yet, when you get him talking, charming Moore has fascinating things to say about sexuality in art, […]

[image-4]Published August 07, 2008.Chaos TheoryDirected by: Marcos Siega(Castle Rock)Coincidentally, the night before I sat down with Chaos Theory, I watched a Batman: the Animated Series episode featuring a gentleman named Temple Fugate. Much like Frank (Ryan Reynolds), the protagonist in Chaos Theory, Fugate is a time-efficiency expert whose ordered life is thrown into disarray when […]

PersepolisDirected by: Directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi(Columbia/Tristar) Nifty animated French film Persepolis is a movie about the Iran where the film’s co-writer and co-director, graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi, grew up—a country torn apart by an eight-year war, governed by leaders who refused to accept political dissent. But it’s also about Satrapi’s coming of […]