Handmade Film Screening Tuesday, January 29, 7pm The Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen Street free Of the art forms, filmmaking is usually one of the most collaborative—anyone who’s sat through the credits of a Marvel movie (all of you) knows this. But there is a different kind of filmmaker, one who makes movies alone, by […]
Tara Thorne
Posted inArts + Music
Film review: On the Basis of Sex
In the final shot of On the Basis of Sex, Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, having slowly ascended the steps of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, disappears behind a pillar. She comes out the other side as the present-day, 85-year-old judge. In the theatre last weekend, a voice—male, of course; elderly, […]
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Concord Floral’s patterns
In Concord Floral, suburban Toronto teens adopt an abandoned million-square-foot greenhouse as their hangout, imbibing and exploring. Then two of them find a body. “The rest of the play is this fallout of why is there a body here, is it even there?” says Pamela Halstead, directing the production for DMV Theatre in partnership with […]
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Erin Costelo doc airs Saturday on CBC
Sink into winter Saturday afternoon with a look behind the scenes of one of 2018’s best local albums, Erin Costelo‘s Sweet Marie. Directed by Newfoundland songwriter/legend Amelia Curran, it covers the 10 days Costelo and her band spent in a very nice rural Nova Scotia house. “I imagine it’s what the Desperate Houseiwives of Atlanta […]
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Film review: If Beale Street Could Talk
Opens Friday, January 4 Cineplex at Park Lane Barry Jenkins follows up his Best Picture winner Moonlight with a similarly lyrical, heartfelt, lusciously filmed drama. In his adaptation of James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins’ narrative approach is less linear than the three periods of Chiron in Moonlight: We are with […]
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A rule-breaking Hamlet for the era of political rule breakers
Hamlet January 9-20 Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage 1593 Argyle Street $28-$37 neptunetheatre.com Nearly four years ago, Ken Schwartz was at The Bus Stop Theatre watching a production of The Pillowman—a Martin McDonagh play cast gender-blind with Jackie Torrens, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Theo Pitsiavas and Matthew Lumley—when he was struck by a vision. “I had this image of Jackie […]
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The 10 best films of 2018
Blindspotting Daveed Diggs co-wrote and stars as Collin, freshly out on probation and returned to the Bay Area of California, which like most urban centres has seen a lot of its poorer citizens—people of colour, mostly—priced out. His friendship with Miles (Rafael Casal) is breezy but dangerous; the latter is white and quick to be […]
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In the air there’s a feeling of Villages
“A lot of people love it, and we love it for sure,” says Villages’ Matt Ellis, of a little holiday called Christmas. “It’s a vibe around this feeling, and what creates that feeling is the music. Aside from the music it’s celebrating and gathering.” Ellis and the rest of the Villages—his brother Travis, Jon Pearo […]
Posted inLifestyle
Christmas carol showdown
“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” SJ: Have you ever roasted a turkey? You need to fucking know. I want to know if you’re gonna be here because I have shit to do. I have to make up a bed, I have to set an extra place, the grocery stores are a fucking madhouse, it’s like, […]
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Bend the River’s Long Night coming
Bend the River EP release show Thursday, December 6, 8pm The Seahorse Tavern, 2037 Gottingen Street $10-$18 “He’s just got this energy—it’s really intense. He knows music really well, inside and out. He brings such a a history, it’s always there, right at the forefront of what he’s doing,” says Ronok Sarkar. “It was a […]
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Film review: Clara
The new Canadian drama Clara pokes at the big questions: Why are we here? Are we alone in the universe? Is love worth the pain? Isaac (Patrick J. Adams, from Suits) is an astronomer racing fellow scientists for the NASA-funded opportunity to discover new life in the universe, except he fucks up and gets fired […]
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Other tongues
Languages of Nova Scotia Thursday, November 29, 7pm Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library 5440 Spring Garden Road free The predominantly English local film scene will get mixed up this week, courtesy of the Languages of Nova Scotia screening. An initiative of the Atlantic Filmmakers’ Co- operative, on Thursday five directors will present their debut shorts, […]