Emil Sher describes himself as a “news junkie,” and it shows in his work. His stage and radio plays often start with subjects ripped from the headlines—the tainted blood scandal, a child’s right to refuse medical treatment, the ethics of profiting from criminal acts or, as in the case of Mourning Dove, wrapping up at […]
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts + Music
Going for broke
It’s mid-September in Toronto and it’s unseasonably chilly. Many of assembled journalists, the ones based in LA and Europe, are grumbling about unexpectedly having to buy sweaters. But they don’t need them here in this cramped hotel conference room filled two-to- one with photographers and camerapeople trying to get pictures of Jude Law, a star […]
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Elementary
George Steeves calls his house the photo bunker. It’s well hidden, deep on a looping crescent in an old Clayton Park neighbourhood—it was the end of town when Steeves moved there in 1973—where bungalows protectively stretch out like arms linking in solidarity. The photo bunker is built on angles and soft watery colours. It’s tidy, […]
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Daddy’s Little Girls
The sentiment of Tyler Perry’s movies (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea’s Family Reunion) only seems atypical because of the delivery. Most romantic comedies express traditional values, but because Perry’s love stories aren’t concerned with being funny, the earnestness is front and centre. His improvement as a director in Daddy’s Little Girls makes the […]
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Strike victims
For about half an hour on Friday, the strike was called off. And then Hollywood put the brakes on. Since the beginning of the year, the Alliance of Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the national union representing 21,000 Canadian performers, had been on strike in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec. The union called a […]
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Norbit
Declaring Norbit horrible isn’t unfounded, just too easy. Eddie Murphy’s comedy treads dangerous ground for anyone who hates the “it’s only a movie” defence. The first joke involves baby Norbit’s parents throwing him out a car window onto the front step of an orphanage. Before five minutes are up, Murphy has handed opponents their ammo. […]
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Bollywood/Halifax
Mihir Busa, a mechanical engineer originally from Bombay, has had a little trouble adjusting to life in Atlantic Canada. “We all are used to not eating meat,” he says. “Over here it’s hard to find Indian food in the Superstore. There are a few Indian stores, but the prices are…whoof.” He says that for young […]
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As seen on TV
Glasgow doesn’t reveal itself immediately. Pulling off the 104 at Westville Road, you have to drive about five minutes until you meet Stellarton Road, then it’s another left, keep driving past the strip malls and the obligatory Tim Horton’s until you meet George Street. And then you see it. The little bridge that crosses the […]
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Little Children
Little Children is about shame and righteousness, members of a small-town community using their moral indignation to cover their own dark secrets. It’s a view of suburban life, inhabited by hypocritical, sexually corrupt simpletons, of which I’m tired. Remarkably, Little Children’s generalizations don’t extend to its treatment of core characters. Director Todd Field views his […]
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Happy Dance
Like every man who came to his senses in any romantic comedy ever, Sundance won me back in the end. It chased me through an airport. It climbed my fire escape even though it was afraid of heights. It stood outside my window blasting Peter Gabriel. When last we met I was wallowing in the […]
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The wonderful world of Woodrow.
It’s one week before Graeme Patterson’s exhibition Woodrow opens at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and there’s fresh paint on the walls. A black sky and twinkling stars float above a yellow field, suggesting the moon’s glow on a warm prairie night. Piano-sized wooden crates, scattered along the edges of the room, reveal nine […]