I can’t think of a more ridiculous band than the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their bass player is a jazz phenom, their drummer is tight, their guitarist shreds, and their singer was in Point Break. Sounds good, right? Problem is these guys have made super annoying funk-rock for the past three decades. Californication was the […]
Matthew Ritchie
Posted inArts + Music
The Ides of March a powerful political thriller
The Ides of March may be a political thriller co-written by, directed by and starring leading man George Clooney, but hot property Ryan Gosling steals the show in an award-worthy performance. He’s Stephen Myers, an idealistic campaign staffer working on the presidential bid for democratic candidate governor Mike Morris (Clooney). As the campaign trail progresses, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Young conservationists
Although he just graduated from St. FX this spring, Halifax-based saxophonist Andrew MacKelvie is already busy changing the shape of jazz in the city. Which isn’t an easy task, considering that the musical genre has been constantly evolving since its inception in the early ’20s. But with a desire to tell the genre’s long history […]
Posted inArts + Music
Breakaway shoots, misses
Breakaway is a Bollywood inspired sports-comedy that misses its mark by not pushing enough boundaries. The film tells the story of a college dropout named Rajveer Singh (played by Vinary Virmani) who dreams of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but is stuck working as a driver for his family’s delivery company. When Singh decides […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dream House? More like a house of cards
In Dream House, Daniel Craig plays Will Atenton, a retired book publisher who moves with his family to an idyllic suburb. But during renovations, Craig and his wife (Rachel Weisz) discover that their home was the location of a grizzly homicide five years earlier, which, as his reality begins to unwind, Atenton suspects he may […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Swell Season and An American Werewolf in London
As the 31st Atlantic Film Festival comes to a close, I decided I would go out for one last night to check out some films to tie me over until next year. The first feature was The Swell Season, a documentary on the band by the same name, which charts their rise from obscurity to […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bored to tears by The Turin Horse
I’m going to preface this piece by saying I’ve never seen a film by Béla Tarr, the Hungarian director behind The Turin Horse, an existential movie about the life of a horse who is later whipped in an Italian square, a moment which supposedly sent Friedrich Nietzsche into insanity for ten years prior to his […]
Posted inArts + Music
Here’s Killer Elite, action junkies
Killer Elite is a jet-set action thriller about an ex-military operative named Danny (Jason Statham) who must rescue his mentor (Robert DeNiro) by uncovering the truth behind a series of assassinations commissioned by the British government. Not to be confused with the mostly terrible James Caan film by the same name, Killer Elite is a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dolphin Tale a winning sea mammal movie
It’s true what they say; Morgan Freeman really does show up in everything, even aquatic children’s films about wounded dolphins. Filling the void left by ‘90s classic Free Willy, Dolphin Tale is a film based on the true story of a dolphin named Winter who, after being injured in a fisherman’s trap and subsequently undergoing […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dragonslayer and Mark Little
Growing up all I wanted to be was a professional skateboarder. The only thing that got in my way is that almost any time I fell I would end up crying. So instead of actually trying to get over this watery hurdle and realize my dreams of shredding pools and jumping down handrails, I decided […]
Posted inArts + Music
Get behind the wheel and Drive
Fans of Ryan Gosling who grew up watching him in Breaker High and The Notebook, be warned. In the eight years since starring in the Nicholas Sparks blockbuster, he has become a man with increasing levels of badass-ness. This is evident in Drive, a hyper-violent and visually stunning picture that has Gosling playing the role […]
Posted inArts + Music
I Don’t Know How She Does It is dull and unfunny
Sarah Jessica Parker’s new movie, I Don’t Know How She Does It, is a comedy that fails to deliver any laughs. Parker plays Kate Reddy, a mother of two who works during the day as a financial analyst. As a project emerges involving the creation of a new retirement savings plan, Parker must decide between […]
