So much to enjoy in the Gala Atlantic Shorts program, showing tonight for a second time at 7pm at Park Lane. Earlier this week I had the pleasure of speaking at an NFB panel with Cory Bowles and Preston Hudson, the director and producer respectively of Heart of Rhyme, one of the best shorts of […]
Cineplex Park Lane
Posted inArts + Music
Here’s Killer Elite, action junkies
Killer Elite is a jet-set action thriller about an ex-military operative named Danny (Jason Statham) who must rescue his mentor (Robert DeNiro) by uncovering the truth behind a series of assassinations commissioned by the British government. Not to be confused with the mostly terrible James Caan film by the same name, Killer Elite is a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Moneyball hits for the cycle
Moneyball is an inside-baseball movie about the inside of baseball—there is precious little sports footage; it’s about team-building from statistical and budgetary perspectives, which is a hard sell. Luckily it’s got a terrific Brad Pitt at the centre. Pitt is Billy Beane, the spirited general manager of the worst team in baseball in 2001, the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Cave of Forgotten Dreams helps us remember
The idea of Werner Herzog making a 3-D movie might seem strange, but the prolific German filmmaker’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is anything but a gimmick. Given extremely limited access inside France’s Chauvet Cave, Herzog and his tiny crew document the site’s famous, 30,000 year old cave paintings. The 3-D effects bring an astonishing realism […]
Posted inArts + Music
Mediocre Abduction
A heavily mediocre spy thriller, Abduction finds Taylor Lautner (The Twilight Saga) essentially playing Jason Bourne Jr. When seemingly normal high school student Nathan (Lautner) discovers his face on a missing persons website, it triggers an improbable manhunt from both government and criminal forces. Director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) slums his way through […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dolphin Tale a winning sea mammal movie
It’s true what they say; Morgan Freeman really does show up in everything, even aquatic children’s films about wounded dolphins. Filling the void left by ‘90s classic Free Willy, Dolphin Tale is a film based on the true story of a dolphin named Winter who, after being injured in a fisherman’s trap and subsequently undergoing […]
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Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy revisited with cast and director
Chatting with filmmakers after you’ve seen (and reviewed) their movies is always a curious experience, in that your perspective is always changed in at least some small way. If you read the print edition of this week’s Coast, you know how I felt about Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, the Rob Heydon adaptation of the Trainspotting author’s […]
Posted inArts + Music
Higher Ground and Jane Alexander
Only have a few minutes to scrawl some notes before rushing off to the next dark room. The first Saturday of the Atlantic Film Festival is crammed with screenings, parties, what have you. Last night I had the good fortune to catch American actor and director Vera Farmiga‘s Higher Ground, a really amazing feature film […]
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Blood In The Mobile shows our complicity
With local director Michael Melski and busting balls to finish Charlie Zone, Melski’s drama-thriller set in Halifax’s seedier neighbourhoods, a planned Thursday morning screening of the film was scrapped. Disappointing, for sure. The good news is that Melski, whom I ran into Thursday afternoon, did finish Charlie Zone that morning and the movie was ready […]
Posted inArts + Music
Empire Theatres have trouble with their screenings
We here at The Coast love movies, and the we presume the good people at the local branch of the national cinema chain Empire Theatres do too, or why would they be in the business of offering them for our enjoyment? They have a monopoly on first run cinemas in Halifax, so they must really […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dragonslayer and Mark Little
Growing up all I wanted to be was a professional skateboarder. The only thing that got in my way is that almost any time I fell I would end up crying. So instead of actually trying to get over this watery hurdle and realize my dreams of shredding pools and jumping down handrails, I decided […]
Posted inArts + Music
Sarah’s Key digs into Nazi history
Sarah’s Key presents Kristin Scott-Thomas as an American journalist whose research on a story about a mass arrest of Jews in Nazi-occupied Paris leads takes an unexpected detour into her husband’s family history. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner toggles between her story and flashbacks depicting a young girl taken in the Vel d’Hiv Roundup who manages to […]
