On the long list of movie executive excuses not to make things—“A gay person can’t play straight!” “Men don’t like women’s stories!” “People don’t want to see movies about minorities!” “No one will believe a 57 year-old man could be in love with a 50-year-old woman!”—no one thought to add “Leonardo DiCaprio as the doting […]
Film + TV
Posted inArts + Music
NY[A&]E: your New Year’s TV binge
What are you doing New Year’s Eve? The same thing you do every Thursday night: binge-watch shit you’ve mostly seen before. Save some money, avoid the crowds and enjoy a celebratory day-long rampage through various screens and A/V delivery services. Schedule bathroom breaks at your own personal rate of consumption and relief. December 31, 12-1:12pm: […]
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Review: Carol
Of his time-period-hopping contemporaries—the Coens, Tarantino, Linklater—it’s Todd Haynes who uses era most effectively, not merely as a cool framing device or something to subvert with modern language. From Velvet Goldmine’s lurid, woozy ’70s palettes to I’m Not There’s grittiness to, until this, his masterwork Far From Heaven’s lush, painting-like world, he uses era for context and emotion. His characters are […]
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How dead is Nova Scotia’s film biz?
Last April’s budget announcement kicked off a tumultuous time for Nova Scotia’s film industry. The Liberal government slashed the film tax credit, the foundation of the film industry in many other provinces. After much backlash and a very successful PR campaign headed by Screen Nova Scotia, the previous uncapped tax credit, estimated to be worth […]
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Review: Sisters
On any other week of the year, a new Tina Fey-Amy Poehler pairing would be all anyone was talking about. While Sisters exists as smart counter-programming, most critics saved their careful consideration and overwrought sentences for a certain space opera reboot, dismissing this comedy outright. A mistake. The Poehler-Fey duo is a glorious thing, a perfect platonic coupling that never […]
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Review: In the Heart of the Sea
Title card: Nantucket, 1850. Internally: Groaaaannnn. Look, Ron Howard is a Hollywood director of the old-timiest variety, a real-life Peter Pan who got to grow up to make Cocoon, Far & Away and Apollo 13, big adventures with big stars and heart. But he’s also responsible for the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, two Da Vinci Code movies […]
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First-ever BAFF isn’t a “special” event
Nova Scotia doesn’t always rank first, but one statistic we lead in nationally is the percentage of the population with a disability—”self-identified disability,” reachAbility CEO Tova Sherman is quick to clarify. With one in five Nova Scotians self-identifying as having some form of disability, the non-profit disability advocacy and culture organization has had a lot […]
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Review: Creed
In one of the laziest years on record, we’ve moved far past sequeldom—never the most dignified place to be, even when talking Toy Story 2—into poorly executed, barely considered, cash-snatching rebootery. Movies like Jurassic World and Peanuts, repackaging the elements green-eyed producers think are what we want, then forgetting to surround them with feeling or, you know, craft. (The upcoming Star Wars […]
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Review: Truth & Spotlight
This month has brought two journalism movies, one a thudding misfire and the other a thrill. The former is Truth, a ham-fisted telling of the chain of events at CBS News that got Dan Rather fired. (Rather unfortunately, it contains a top-notch Cate Blanchett performance very much worth seeing.) The latter is this week’s entry, Spotlight, about the Boston Globe’s […]
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Review: Miss You Already
Catherine Hardwicke announced herself as a production designer-turned-director with 2003’s thirteen, starring Evan Rachel Wood as a teen out of control and Holly Hunter, in an Academy Award-nominated performance, as her alcoholic mom. It was scrappy, authentic and a tough watch. A few films down the line found her at the helm of Twilight, a […]
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Review: Room
A darling of the fall festival circuit, the Irish-Canadian co-pro Room is worthy of every accolade piled atop its scrappy, sensitive shoulders. Based on Emma Donoghue’s novel, it stars Brie Larson as a woman who was abducted as a teenager and kept in a 10-by-10 shed as a sex slave. This situation has produced a […]
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The Wolfpack’s cinematic shut-ins
Five years ago on a regular day in Manhattan, filmmaker Crystal Moselle noticed an unusual-looking group walking along First Avenue. The six Ray Ban-wearing, long-haired brothers, then aged 11 to 18, looked like the Reservoir Dogs. Moselle was compelled to strike up a conversation, and soon discovered that their chance encounter was one of the […]
