Arts & Culture

The glib consensus is that The Black Dahlia is a bad movie when it’s really just an easy one to dislike. It brings complexity to genre (not just in the thick plot details—the film’s true weakness). True 1940s noir style is met by director Brian De Palma’s obsessions with guilt surrounding violence and sex. The […]

I’m showing my geek credentials here, but every day as I ride past the apparatus on the edge of the Common that on Saturday will support all those rockin’ sexagenarians, I think it looks like that bizarre construction from Contact. You know, the one that transported Jodie Foster all the way across the galaxy. This […]

One sign of an excellent festival program is when you see entirely different crowds at various films. At last night’s nearly sold-out screening of American Hardcore, the architectural eyeglass frames (do all film people shop at the same store?) were replaced with shaved heads and studded leather jackets. Programmer Lee Anne Gillan thanked the crowd […]

Manufactured Landscapes left me feeling very strange. The doc, directed by Jennifer Baichwal, arrives from The Toronto International Film Festival with an award for best Canadian feature. What Baichwal does is attempt to replicate what photographer Edward Burtynsky does with his photographs, but with moving images. Ostensibly she’s following him around as he visits China […]

Here’s a quandary. I saw one of the films I’m not supposed to review, and once again, had a strong emotional reaction. Now, I know the embargo is really in place because the distributors don’t want any bad buzz to kill its chance of making some money during the commercial release, but they don’t mind […]

People are already calling to ask how the interview went. I’ll get to it, don’t worry. Let me go back a little: My day clambered to life on the air at CKDU. Thanks to Hillary for guesting again—we navigated the review embargo while still trying to blab about the movies at the festival. I’ve heard […]

Occasionally as a writer, I am lucky enough to observe incredible moments during an artist’s creative process (and to get paid for it!). Watching choreographer Sally Morgan and her crew of local and German contact dancers and skateboarders during rehearsals for the dance film decoding the undertow for a Coast cover story (see the archives–I […]

Well, I guess I can call myself a filmmaker now. Should get my passport updated? The Super-8 experience went pretty well, largely due to my great actors, Anthony Black, Ann-Marie Kerr and Jerry West. Listen to me, it sounds like I’m prepping my Oscar speech. It was a lot of fun, a real collaborative experience, […]

Last night’s laughs turn to tears (ok, bordering on right-out bawling) during the screening of Snow Cake, starring Alan Rickman, Signourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, about a troubled Brit who, through tragic circumstances, ends up in Wawa, Ontario, with Linda (Weaver), a highly functional autistic woman. Directed by Marc Evans as a Canada-UK co-production, it’s […]

Last night I saw a whole whack of funny shit–but I can’t tell you about it due to the review restrictions placed on Young Triffie and Strangers with Candy. What I can tell you is that it’s pee-your-pants funny just to be in the same room with Mary Walsh and Andrea Martin, who were both […]