Michel Gondry’s Dave Chappelle’s Block Party forgoes the star worship and suspenseful developments of music documentaries. It brings the concert film down to earth — a feat so unassuming it’s at first difficult to identify the root of its charm. Expanding on Gondry’s innovative concepts for framing the subjects of his music videos, here, the […]
Arts + Music
Live theatre, art exhibits, comedy, literary, spoken word – The Coast guide to Halifax and Dartmouth, NS . The downtown, local arts scene – plays, writers, actors, artists and performers. Painting, sculpture, photography, stand-up, stage.
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antenna’s up
Lucy Liu, best known for her work as an actor in films such as Charlie’s Angels and the Kill Bill volumes, will show off another side of her expression—her multimedia art. Her show antenna opens on Sunday at emotion picture gallery. There are connections between visual art and the film world for all involved: emotion […]
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Quitting Brokeback
The talk’s all wrong. Everybody’s saying that Brokeback Mountain is a brave movie—the brave gay cowboys, the chances the brave actors take by playing brave gay cowboys, the sheer nerve of the brave gay cowboy film to be showing on 1,600 screens across the continent (compared with 158 for Transamerica). The brave gay cowboy movie […]
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Head on
In a last-minute Brokeback setback, many analysts now predict the Best Picture Oscar will go to Crash. There’s also a stronger current against Crash now than when it opened. But it isn’t a case of controversy proving a movie’s worth. Disputes don’t arise over Crash’s complexity and motives; they’re about whether the film is spectacular […]
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Adventures in Press Materials, volume 3
This week we received a tube of “mermaid bait” (gummy worms) as promo for the late March release Aquamarine starring Emma Roberts — AKA niece of Julia — as a teen mermaid. It’s a waste of studio money, but we’re not going to spit in the face of free candy (except for the time we […]
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Carry on up the Khyber
Efforts to re-open The Khyber Club are still underway, but assuming this closing is official, the Halifax institution was given one memorable sendoff. The public paid its last respects on February 19 and reminisced along with surprise solo performances from two of the arts community’s most illustrious sons: Matt Mays and Joel Plaskett. The former […]
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Black’s anatomy
The Neptune Theatre has an “A” level. This is where the administrative offices are located, on the floor above the main foyer. There is a long, carpeted hall, its walls spotted with glossy promotional posters of past shows and interrupted by offices on both sides. At the hall’s end is the Pratt & Whitney studio, […]
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Fiction’s imprint
Reading the lavish amounts of positive press Toronto-based rock group From Fiction has been receiving around Southern Ontario, one can easily develop the impression the band is really something. And perhaps it is. Maybe the quartet is that band you’ve been waiting to rescue you from your musical doldrums. Maybe these guys will restore your […]
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Date Movie
What do the makers of Date Movie think their audience wants from a film like this? What does said audience really expect? And what different circumstances would my life have to undergo for me to give this movie a positive review? These are the questions that plague my soul. Since much of what I do […]