Thorney won’t be living here in a day
Usually the festival is winding down at this point, but it’s still going full-tilt (full-TIFF?) for me. Thursday, my final day, could be a four-movie day if I let it. Anyway I get to do something really cool today. Every year the festival presents a handful of special screenings called Dialogues, where they have luminaries…
Recite the names of provinces and Hollywood actors / Oh Ontario, oh Jennifer Jason Leigh
Laura Linney explains it all at a screening of The Savages. A couple weeks ago Liz Logan asked me on CBC, “If you love Laura Linney so much, why don’t you marry her?” But Linney just got engaged to her boyfriend. So. Missed that boat. Tamara Jenkins goes emo at the screening while Philip Bosco…
Up in our movie theatre after the war
Last night helped build the wall of fatigue I’ve been suffering through today. TIFF has started this cool thing where each journalist gets five public screening tickets, which maybe I’ve mentioned but maybe not. You go stand in a line and hope for the best; as a for instance I did not get a ticket…
United, the people can never be divided
What an interesting day this has been so far. First of all, I woke up to high teens and rain, just how I like it. Even though I have been dinged on approximately three Sunday-morning Toronto-to-Halifax flights in the past, I forgot until I was already out the door at 8am that the subway doesn’t…
The Lover
Extra chairs were laid on for Saturday night’s sold-out performance of Harold Pinter’s deliciously twisted exploration of the question haunting us all: What is this thing called love? Sarah (wonderfully and sensuously played by Vanessa Walton-Bone) and Richard (Phil Reid, visually and note perfect in a tricky multi-leveled role ) have been married for ten…
Ready, Set, Life!
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Poet Langston Hughes asked that, once. In “This is the Rest of Your Life!”, one of two similarly themed short plays featured as part of the show “Ready, Set, Life!,” writer/actor Geoff Kolomayz asks it, too. Kolomayz’s play is a sometimes heavy-handed exploration of the tension between idealistic dreams…
Beautiful City
I hope that there is someone out there on this last day of The Fringe combing this blog for a great show to end off with, because I can recommend one. “Beautiful City” by Saints Alive! Theatre Company is a moving musical powered by an amazing collection of young talent. It’s basically a Romeo and…
Hippolytus
“Hippolytus” would have been a little more enjoyable if Cole’s Notes had been provided at the door. This modern-day version of Euripides’ classic play presupposes that the audience is familiar with Greek myths and goddesses. But even familiarity the ancient story would not have saved this play. The writing is confusing. For example, we supposedly…
The sisterhood of the travelling films (ya-ya!)
Even though my first screening wasn’t until 2:15pm and it’s not yet midnight, I’ve managed to make this a four-movie day. And, in a particularly banner twist, three of them were directed by women. Imagine. They’re movies, not a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. But first there is the Juno press conference, which starts late because Blowhard…
Tough
Tough is one tough play to watch. Essentially a 70-minute fight between a couple, it starts off turned up to eleven and never really lets up. The Bobby has cheated on his girlfriend and her best friend caught him. As the argument progresses, with the best friend egging on the tension, it is revealed that…
The Road Less Gravelled
The first two times that I attempted to go see Newfoundlander-turned-Torontonian Wanda Carroll’s one-woman show “The Road Less Gravelled”, it was sold out; the show played to a packed house again last night. And impish, hilarious, enthusiastic Carroll deserves all the attention she’s been getting. In just over an hour, Carroll takes the audience on…
Lunduntown
Poor Jordan, straight arrow Haligonian, would be art history student and innocent. In Lunduntown, a wry comedy written by Alan Mercieca and Glyn Jones, Jordan’s footloose on a mission. Namely to convince his aging free-spirit London-based Uncle, flakey Charlie Dibbles, to come to terms with and thereby to deal with a pressing family matter back…
It makes me feel like I have a purpose
I had planned to kick off TIFF by wrangling my way into Jodie Foster’s gala for The Brave One (opening worldwide September 14) on Thursday. But Jodie’s people didn’t get my ticket request so I had to settle for 11:45am the next day. Friday morning I found out there was a press conference for the…
The monologue’s our enemy/not if gets us a truckload of Emmys
But seriously. We finished on Monday, and we ended as we began, ironically of course — with a visit from the local PD. Stephan MacLeod AKA Windom Earle opened the show with some karaoke skillz. He chose to do Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” What’s unclear is if he already knew what that song…
It is 34 degrees at 8:30pm
See you tomorrow. Unless, you know, the smog.
Toronto Adventures
The Toronto Adventures The Toronto Adventures chronicles the real life story of a Cape Breton girl as she moves to “the big smoke” (psst – that’s Toronto) to make it as an actress. The inevitable culture clash is played out, often to humourous effects. Through it all the protagonist never loses her sense of humour…
Tuesday twang
Country music is alive and well, and it’s living at Ginger’s Tavern. On Tuesdays, at least. Halifax hurtin’ country unit The Whiskey Kisses launched Honky Tonk Hiccups—a weekly roundup of local country and folk musicians—two months ago, and the response has been stellar. Initially a way for the band to improve its live chops, the…
Mumford’s the word
The shelves are different (and piney!), and the porn’s gone. Indeed, change is in the air at Mumford Video (7037 Mumford). Why the make-over? As of June 1, the store’s had a new owner. “We’re reviving it; we’re re-doing it. We’re renovating,” says Judith Gavin, the new owner in question. “It’s like we’re rescuing a…
Urban renewal
Here’s why that headline is clever. One: HRM by Design, the city’s ambitious design strategy, renews this week with public forum number four. Two: it’s urban—this time around, more urban than usual. The fourth public forum focuses on the downtown core, bounded by Cogswell, Inglis, South Park and the Harbour. If ever there were a…
A trip to the Salon
Film festival season is upon us as of this week, but the Atlantic Film Festival is not the only game in town. The Salon des Refuses, the annual one-night festival of AFF rejectees, has announced its selected-by-lottery line-up. The all-Atlantic slate of films includes: Bread for the Journey, “a 30-year journey in the lives of…
Magical Thinking
Here’s a treat for audiences. A magic show. But not just a magic show. Magical Thinking (as in pick a card, show the audience, think of that card, is it the seven of diamonds?) is a piquant showcase of Trevor Poole, close-up magic card manipulator and heavy equipment maintenance man. OK, the latter is his…
Banned in NS
The list of movies that have been banned in Nova Scotia over the years ranges from the gory (Rabid Grannies, 1988) to the pornographic (Beverly Hills Copulator, 1986) and even includes a few cult classics (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971—the tagline for Sweetback? “The Film that THE MAN doesn’t want you to see!” Apparently not).…
Bound by the Beauty
In last Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Barbara Ehrenreich makes the point that people teaching sexual abstinence should be abstinent themselves. Which is a good idea. Coast columnist Dan Savage gave a talk in Halifax several years ago; he pointed out that those who teach sex education in schools seem never to show any passion or…
Inland Empire
Inland Empire is like the last song you sometimes get on a concept album, the one that encompasses all the themes and motives of everything that came before it. Everything David Lynch has been obsessing over in his works—the fragility of identity, the struggle between good and evil in every soul, the purity and torment…
The new deal
“We weren’t planning to shoot here originally, but Moncton stands in for any suburb in North America.” Michael Melski laughs down the line from the New Brunswick set of Growing Op, his feature directorial debut. It’s day seven of a month-long shoot, happening mostly in Moncton, and he sounds confident and relaxed for a guy…
Vine dining
The recent announcement that Nova Scotia restaurants will soon be allowed to have the option of offering BYOW (“Bring Your Own Wine”) came as a pleasant surprise to many wine lovers in the province. It has arrived quietly, even though there were public consultations held in late 2006, where restaurant owners and consumers were invited…
Mommy weirdest
How come I’m not on the cover of Us, people? Because I’m all about “bizarre nudity” in front of my kids (wailing in a high-pitched sing-song at the back door for the cat to come in before bed, does that count?). I’m also guilty of demanding the kids share my bed (when I want to…
Recently reviewed
Bedford Prime For a steak and chop house, Bedford Prime’s menu has a wide variety of fish, and the first time I eat here, just a few weeks after opening, the seafood dishes are wonderful but the meat is not so great. Giving the place time to mature, like good beef, I return a couple…
The mighty ’boosh
Liz Feltham discovers, in her estimation, the best falafel in town, at relative newcomer Tarboosh.
Talent pool
When you think about current Canadian musicians on the world stage, there are a few names that immediately come to mind. Avril Lavigne. Nickelback. Arcade Fire. Feist. For better or worse—depending on taste—these artists are de facto representatives of Canadian culture, selling millions of albums and winning over countless fans while simultaneously waving the Canadian…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Time for a bit of metaphorical mining, Aquarius, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Q My friends and I were debating a troubling incident over drinks and figured you would be the best person to ask: What should you do when, while looking for a toilet, you accidentally walk into the bedroom of someone you know, but don’t know well, and discover a boy half her age tied to…
Terrorist sell
The day after September 11, Rudolph Giuliani spoke to his fellow Americans from a news conference. “Show your confidence,” he said. “Show you’re not afraid. Go to restaurants. Go shopping.” President Bush offered a similar message on September 27, talking about those 19 hijackers: “When they struck, they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear.…
The prophet in Clayton Park
On the morning of September 11, 2001, a family doctor named Bill Deagle was driving his two older sons—Matthew, 16, and Stephen, 14—to Chatfield, their charter high school in Littleton, Colorado, a couple of miles from their home, when he heard the first confused, confusing, stuttering reports on the radio. A plane has crashed into…
