Let us first do away with the term “chick flick.” Unless we are going to institute the term “dick flick” for every male-driven film that treats women as caricature—that would be most films, then—let us read no more of Peter Travers’ “chick flick hell.” The whole world is dick flick hell, dude. Find a new […]
Film + TV
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Scary Movie 4
The Scary Movie franchise provides the same service American fast food chains do for tourists in foreign countries—it’s not especially rewarding, but the menu is easy to interpret, and you get what you’re accustomed to. Only prior experience with this series makes it satisfactory that Scary Movie 4 is just reasonably OK. A full half […]
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Teresa MacInnes, British Columbia born-and-raised, has been a Nova Scotia resident for seven years. She came to filmmaking through social work, and found that by telling stories through the lens she was able to make more of a difference in people’s lives. “After a couple of years in social services you realize very quickly the […]
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Lucky Number Slevin
It may seem unlikely that Lucky Number Slevin and The Benchwarmers have entirely different filmmaking philosophies; they’re both, after all, failed comedies. The distinction lies between the extremities of their attitudes. One is deathly in love with itself. The other just doesn’t give a fuck. Slevin displays one of the worst influences of Tarantino- inspired […]
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Written for the screen
With the ubiquity of movies in popular culture, any novel that reaches a certain visibility gets in line to be adapted for film. It’s close to impossible to find a group of published authors whose numbers don’t include someone with some experience in screenwriting or whose books have not been adapted. Have a look at […]
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Ice Age: The Meltdown
End-of-the-world peril is conveyed through slapstick in Ice Age: The Meltdown. Its balancing of world wary poignancy and breathless mayhem surpasses the 2002 original. Rather than play for lazy sequel dollars, the crew at Blue Sky animation aim their fuzzy animal adventure for something greater —finding the heart and relentlessness to pull off a winning […]
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I want my real TV
Floria Sigismondi calls herself a realist. That may come as a surprise to fans of the Juno-nominated video director, best known for creating lush otherworlds for Björk, Fiona Apple, The White Stripes, David Bowie, Christina Aguilera, Marilyn Manson and other musical elite. “I’m just depicting things the way I see them,” she says. “There is […]
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Live capture
“It wasn’t like, ‘Now’s the time to make a DVD,’ it was, ‘Now’s the time to document something.’” Joel Plaskett is discussing the philosophy behind releasing his band’s new live DVD/studio EP package Make a Little Noise on the phone from a hotel room in Philadelphia. He’s touring the States with labelmate Kathleen Edwards, though […]
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Inside Man
Despite prevalent claims that Inside Man is a departure for Spike Lee, it’s really more of a reformatting. The tested bank caper genre is used as a front for the director’s social concerns. As New York City detective Keith Frazier, Denzel Washington leads a prestigious cast of Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Chiwetel Ejiofor […]
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V for Vendetta
Those who bought George Clooney’s Oscar speech statement that Hollywood is ahead of the curve by showing the world what issues it faces ought to love V For Vendetta. It addresses the freedoms of “the little people” with a ruse of sophistication that only the socially empowered can provide—enforcing obvious sentiment in simple-minded terms. It’s […]
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Girls talk
The funniest scene in the Shediac, New Brunswick-shot comedy These Girls takes place between leading man David Boreanaz and one of his three female co-stars, Holly Lewis. Boreanaz plays Keith, the local weed dealer, who is being blackmailed by Lewis’ character, the cheery, teenaged Lisa. She wants him to deflower her, “deflower” being a word […]
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Failure to Launch
When Animals Attack Matthew McConaughey has been released under the title Failure to Launch. Remembering that half the equation of a romantic comedy is humour, the filmmakers fill the downtime between story points with Trip (McConaughey) being bitten by a dolphin, a chipmunk and a lizard. So audiences don’t call out this repetition, the device […]
