Day seven
Got in trouble down in New OrleansI must admit that I was strung out, painted in the corner of a limousineSomeone called piano fighterI’m a thin ice walker, I’m a freelance writerHold me tight, honey, hold me tighterThen let me go, piano fighter —Warren Zevon At this point in the festival, approaching 20 features, I…
Hamsters and writers and demons, oh my.
To the best of my knowledge, Ellen Page has yet to give a performance that isn’t utterly committed. That’s what I was thinking while watching Bruce MacDonald’s The Tracey Fragments. In the picture she plays Tracey Berkowitz, a 15-year-old who has a miserable relationship with her parents, narrating the movie while on a bus wering…
Roger Ebert on Juno:
“…which I predict will become quickly beloved when it opens at Christmastime, and win a best actress nomination for its 20-year-old star, Ellen Page.”
Green Fleet
Q. When is “green” not green? A. When you’re driving a car instead of taking a bus, no matter how fuel efficient that car is. Which brings us to Rodney MacDonald’s announcement yesterday that the province will implement a “green fleet” policy. The announcement was made as part of the opening remarks at the provincially…
Europud rant, etc.
Today I saw something that kind of ticked me off. It is, unfortunately, on the embargo list, so I will not be saying what it is called, but please, just indulge me a moment here while I rant about some anonymous movie. Hugh Grant called them “Europud.” He was quoted in Richard E. Grant’s (no…
Gimme more
I found out too late that I could get into AFCOOP’s masterclass with legendary Albert Maysles, but alas, it was not meant to be (thanks battery power). So I wasn’t going to miss seeing him do a Q&A at the screening of his landmark doc, Gimme Shelter, about the 1969 Rolling Stones’ free concert at…
Frame x Frame the sequel
OK, so back to the animation night. First, props to local animator Joey Adrian MacNeil who literally makes the street come alive with his breakdancing graffiti, B-Boy Bomb Breaking, and Posters, as community and music posters battle for position on the pole. As usual, the NFB animations stood out. Sleeping Betty is a wonderful piece…
Greenaway’s Sunday
Dazzlingly sunny Sunday morning brought my radio show (shameless plug time: “The Love & Hate Movie Show” on CKDU, 88.1FM every Sunday at 11am) which, of course, was an AFF special edition. Wandering over to the Academy Luncheon at The Lord Nelson to hear Peter Greenaway speak, I passed the Greyhound club’s meeting in Victoria…
No more Norma Lee
When Norma Lee MacLeod, who was nominated for a Gemini last year as “Best News Anchor” for her work on Nova Scotia’s six o’clock news, goes on the air tonight, it will be her last Monday in the anchor chair. The veteran Jim Nunn is taking over “CBC News at Six” next Monday, Sept 24.…
Pac Masters and Horse Worriers
I know, it’s a goofy headline, but it’s the best I could come up with at 1:30 on a Saturday morning. It was going to be “Stupid Fucking Rain,” but that seemed sort of pointless. Besides, a ale-filled day is a great day for staying in and watching movies… or going to Park Lane to…
ani-mates
Turns out I wasn’t hungover, I was sick. Even better. But nothing cures a cold better than cartoons on the couch, or animation in a packed theatre. Funny how animation crowds are different from others—either alterno-arty creative types, guys in architecturally structured eyeglass frames or guys who drew really awesomely detailed dragons and guns and…
Cancon canon
I’m trying to remember when it was the last time I saw so many Canadian films. Seven films into the festival and all of them have had some homegrown element, even the new Peter Greenaway, Nightwatching, had a Canadian production tag in the credits. And, you know what, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve seen.…
it’s all a blur
Deciding the skip the movie for the party (I really felt like I couldn’t do both–it just felt wrong), the evening started off well as my 20lb. bracelet shot off my arm, into the air and across the floor of Dharma Sushi, as I waved hello to a friend who works there. Classy, that one.…
Credit for the Gala
I really should be in bed, given the week I have ahead of me. Must pace myself. But I’m still juiced by an eventful evening. First off was The Tragically Hip. Yes, I missed the Gala Screening of Shake Hands With The Devil. That’s because I saw it on Wednesday, so it’s not like I’m…
The Tara fragments
Let me tell you about the Varsity VIP. The majority of the press screenings are held in the Varsity, an eight-screen multiplex in the Manulife Centre at Bloor and Yonge. There are a handful of screenings in the Varsity VIP, and until this year I never knew what it was. It’s three tiny theatres, like…
Blogger Knox (Volume III)
Yes, it is me, back at the Atlantic Film Festival, due to popular demand and certain outdated extradition laws… The media screenings actually began on Wednesday, so I have a bit of a head start on most folks. Now, as per previous years, a review embargo prevents me from talking in depth about many of…
Control yourself
So I just picked up my media kit and I’m ready to go. All of the important papers come in a fancy-pants bag that, when accompanied by a lanyard, scream “I’m an important dude.” (Photo soon.) If I had a cell phone or a Blackberry I would want to take my bag and walk down…
Weather watching
You know how near and dear the CTV Evening News is to us, so it’s only our duty to report that weather dude Peter Coade has defected to CBC. (Man it’s like we work for Frank all of a sudden. Insert “Frisky Frisko” jokes at will.) “Nova Scotians have come to count on Peter’s forecasting…
A World gone
When Siobhan Murphy arrived on Wednesday morning for her shift at the One World Cafe, she found the Agricola Street hotspot closed, windows covered over, people removing kitchen equipment and other furnishings through the side door. Murphy has worked at One World for the last two-and-a-half years, and was deep in negotiations to buy the…
Ch-Ch-Ch…Chabaa!
After months of prepping, painting and renovating, downtown’s newest Thai eatery, the Chabaa Thai Restaurant, is open for business at 1546 Queen. Restaurant co-owner and head chef Wen Prathumma, originally from Thailand, has been cooking in other restaurants for years, but Chabaa Thai is the first one he’s owned. And Prathumma’s ready to dazzle you…
Whitewashing 9/11 truths
To the editor, I’m a long-time reader and fan of the The Coast and many of its staff. I appreciate all you do to bring a truly local perspective to the world of Haligonian print media, which is why I was disappointed in last week’s Stephen Kimber article, “The prophet in Clayton Park” (September 6).…
Slim down big-assed cars
To the editor, We don’t need more roads for dumb suburbanites to find another way to clog them. How about a Toyota Corolla instead of a Chevrolet Suburban. These big-assed vehicles are stupid. I know it’s a dick thing and owning a McMansion isn’t enough, but I am a driver myself and think commuter rail…
Blue-bagging it
To the editor, In your recent poll on garbage bags you should have allowed for one or less per week. I, and many other single house/apartment dwellers, only produce one full-size bag a month. My pet peeves is that I see many of my neighbours put out four to five bags a week. I have…
The big smokescreen
The media coverage of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is taking great, self-important strains to point out how political this year’s slate is. On the documentary side, you’ve got Operation Filmmaker and Heavy Metal in Baghdad, two films about Iraqis trying to find culture in the face of war. You’ve got Jonathan Demme’s Jimmy…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
No more metaphorical mud and old shoes, Libra, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Q A close friend of ours is a gay male in his 40s. About seven years ago, our friend met and briefly dated a not-too-bright, conniving guy about 10 years younger. Our friend threw himself into this relationship with his new “trophy husband” and did everything he could for his new boyfriend. He financed his…
Drinking problems
It was hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy on August 29 as Barry Barnet, minister of health promotion, faced an onslaught of media questions over his plans to curb Nova Scotians’ thirst for hootch. “One in five Nova Scotians who drink alcohol do so in a way that harmfully affects their own health…
Critical mass
On stage, inside Pier 21, Harold Madi takes his turn playing god. “I’ll do that again, watch the screen over here…annnd, pop!” With one divine keystroke, buildings appear. Roads are re-routed. Skyscrapers rise from the footprint of the Cogswell interchange and the Halifax skyline is transformed. If only it were that easy. Tonight, it’s just…
Corporate U
New students flock to the East Coast every September with shiny shoes and rosy outlooks—and then congregate every February with blue placards and empty pockets to demand tuition reductions. Despite increased corporate sponsorship in universities, tuition fees have continued to climb, and student debt is up 126 percent from 10 years ago. Tuition fees are…
A sense of Wander
Newfoundland’s Don Brownrigg sounds like home. The displaced islander hangs his hat in Halifax, but the self-proclaimed stray will always belong to the landscape of the Codroy Valley. He celebrates his wandering ways with the release of Wander Songs, a debut full-length, with his wordy friend Tanya Davis at The Khyber on Friday night. “Tanya…
General excellence
It’s August 2006, and Toronto producer Laszlo Barna is sitting on a couch in the stately foyer of Shirreff Hall at Dalhousie University, leaning forward as sunlight dapples through the windows behind him. He’s keeping his voice down in consideration of his film crew shooting a scene one room over, the spaghetti strands of electrical…
Just Great
Listen to “I Am Part Of A Large Family” and “Your Rocky Spine” off Great Lake Swimmers’ new album Ongiara. A funny thing happened in 2004: rootsy folk music made a comeback. After the success of Zac Braff’s Garden State, a cinematic paean to life in your twenties, people began talking about Iron & Wine,…
The sensation
“I’ve been in this business 17 years. It’s not like I was an accountant and two years ago I thought, “Oh I’m going to make a film now.'” Sitting in a south end coffee shop on a warm August day, Chaz Thorne is rolling his eyes at the prospect of his “overnight” success. If you…
Take me to a leader
In his book, COLLAPSE, geographer Jared Diamond takes a historical tour of human societies that collapsed and disappeared under the weight of environmental crises (Greenlandic Norse, Easter Island Polynesians, the Anasazi culture, the Mayans), and those that successfully weathered the storm (Icelandic Norse, Highlanders of New Guinea). Successful societies, says Diamond, have responsible elites, who…
All you need is love
Pick one defining connection between Albert Maysles’ documentaries from the last 50 years, and it would be their astonishingly vulnerable moments. There’s Little Edie Beale’s bizarre and flirtatious dervish dance down the hallway of her decaying East Hampton mansion in Grey Gardens. Mick Jagger’s mildly fearful gaze while watching footage of a murder at The…
The other brother
Liz Feltham visits Darrell’s on Hollis, the newest incarnation of an old Halifax favourite.
Lights! Camera! Dachshund!
A wiener dog. Picture, if you will, the furry little face and astonishing joie de vivre. There are few things in life more immediately charming as the inimitable dachshund. And, guess what? People race them. Filmmaker and multiple-cat owner Shane MacDougall knew nothing about the growing sport of wiener dog racing when he had his…
The perfect 10
The Stone AngelProud, cantankerous, selfish Hagar Shipley, the protagonist in Margaret Laurence’s classic novel The Stone Angel, has haunted Can-lit classes for decades. And rightfully so—as a character, she’s enormously captivating, and enormously flawed and human. God-like acting powerhouse Ellen Burstyn (who’s stolen scenes in everything from The Last Picture Show to Requiem for a…
The moving adventure
By Lulu Keating’s own estimation, this is her 22nd turn at the Atlantic Film Festival. “I was making pretty well a film a year and the festival came along just as I was starting to make films,” says the director, “so I kept putting my films in and getting them in there.” Dawson Town Melted…
A kick in the AFF
I was once afraid of the Atlantic Film Festival. When I was aimlessly wandering the grounds of Saint Mary’s University back in the late “90s, I thought a cool thing to do, something that would assert my newfound adult independence, would be go to some film-fest films. But I didn’t know how—where did I buy…
