Personal cinema is in desperate shape. Amid the faceless, streamlined norms of moviemaking, films that carry legitimate human experience must be encouraged. But this counter-equation has resulted in a sheltered narcissism. The screen puts up with self-promoting artists. This deluded faith that one’s egotism will help others has resulted in everything from Tarnation to Super […]
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts + Music
Bus to New York
If you stick the words “New York” into the Internet Movie Database’s search engine, you get 6,025 results (the first one it spits out at you, disappointingly, is Friends). If you modify New York with “City” you’ll get 8,495 results. More than 8,000 films, television shows and video games either set, shot in or featuring […]
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Rareplay
It’s the middle of Labour Day weekend and dawn has yet to crack. In a van crammed with gear and costume changes, the members of In-Flight Safety—bassist Brad Goodsell in the driver’s seat, keyboardist Daniel Ledwell in the passenger side, drummer Glen Nicholson in the middle and singer-guitarist John Mullane in the back—are headed from […]
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Crossing time
We live in dangerous times. Canadian troops are dying with alarming frequency. Atomic weapons tests are rearing their ugly mushroom-shaped heads. War is a game played by countless young people in the flickering light of computers. Armed conflict is all around us, yet we are, for the most part, happily removed from it. Flash back […]
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Flags of our Fathers/The Prestige
What might be described as Showbiz Syndrome is the core of the year’s most intricate screenplay. Christopher Nolan finally meets his hype with The Prestige’s genre fantasy about the agony of success. Nolan (co-writing with his brother Jonathan, and based upon a Christopher Priest novel) knows this doesn’t entail the usual portrait of fame as […]
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Tiernany
Being funny isn’t always easy. In fact, for Irish stand-up Tommy Tiernan and many of his fellow touring comedians, it’s often downright difficult to keep tickling the humerus night after night. “It has its challenges to be sure,” says the comic from County Meath, speaking from his hotel room in Corner Brook. “I mean, here […]
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Face off
Most competitive males will admit to taking part in a ridiculous challenge at one point in their lives. Who can shotgun a beer faster? Been there. Face slapping contests? Done that. Most contests of this nature involve alcohol or poor judgment (sometimes both), and usually result in physical injuries and terrible hangovers—perfect entertainment for close […]
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Man of the Year
In many screenplays, a movie’s entire progression becomes evident after its first third. Some don’t even need that much time. If Man of the Year and The Marine barely register on the pop climate it’s because they aren’t actually new movies. These autumn regurgitations foresake surprise (and interest)—begging the question of why their makers think […]
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Neptune squad
Practically any evening of channel-surfing will reveal an abundance of forensic crime dramas. But before CSI (in any city), before Bones, certainly before Cold Case, there was CTV’s Cold Squad, helmed by the spunky Sgt. Ali McCormick, AKA Julie Stewart. Stewart—the only cast member to work all of the show’s seven seasons—has been looking for […]
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Pole vault
Last February, as winter’s chill began to thaw, Cathy Busby took a short walk over to One World Cafe, minutes away from her home near the Common. She observed the posters on the wall promoting various shows and events. In particular, she thought one for Gypsophilia—a striking, swirling design on a black background—was nice. The […]
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Truman show redux
In her thoroughly engrossing new book A Killer Life, indie über-producer Christine Vachon (Go Fish, Kids, I Shot Andy Warhol, Far From Heaven) writes in the chapter “A Tale of Two Trumans” of being the producer of “the other Truman Capote movie.” The first, of course, is last year’s bleak Winnipeg-shot drama Capote, for which […]
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The Departed
The Departed is a gripping adult thriller. Remaking the acclaimed Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Scorsese returns to his tough guy films, delivering his straightest genre work since Cape Fear. The conventions could be a letdown, were The Departed not such an expert entertainment. The feel of a world spiralling apart is the palpable doom […]