The Year of Amy Schumer hit the big screen this week, and unlike so many failed Saturday Night Live skit expansions and the first 15 years of Chris Rock’s movie career, this is a natural and fitting progression. Schumer is no mere viral comedian, not just another woman on the street asking sex questions—though honestly […]
Film + TV
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Review: Salt of the Earth
And now for something a little more sobering for your summer, here’s Wim Wenders with The Salt of the Earth, a stunning retrospective of the life and career of the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, who began his career shooting the working class all over the world, then moved into war zones and the environment. A […]
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Review: Magic Mike XXL
The first Magic Mike, directed with a portentous hand by Steven Soderbergh—he of three Ocean’s movies, yet obviously thinking he was above such tawdry material—was nevertheless a huge hit and, in conjunction with 21 Jump Street, catapulted Channing Tatum onto the A-list. Where the original got bogged down in a sparkless love story and too […]
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Review: Inside Out
Amy Poehler is perfectly cast as Joy—as in the feeling of—in Pixar’s wonderful Inside Out, a thrilling return to form after a couple of lazy sequels. We’re inside the head of Riley, an 11-year-old hockey-playing happy-go-lucky kid whose world is rocked when her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Poehler’s natural warmth, quick wit […]
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Review: Clouds of Sils Maria
Olivier Assayas directs Juliette Binoche in the odd, beautifully shot drama Clouds of Sils Maria, which began confounding audiences on the film festival circuit last fall. Binoche stars as fading star Maria Enders, who is getting ready to appear in a restaging of the lesbian romance that gave her artistic credibility and made her famous, […]
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Way into OUTeast
It’s a Netflix world, but OUTeast Queer Film Festival producer Andria Wilson suggests ditching the couch for a theatre seat once in awhile, “I was at [Toronto LGBT fest] Inside Out, watching Tab Hunter Confidential,” she says. “I was alone, sitting next to strangers, and on one side of me was this older couple, two […]
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Review: Spy
While we’ve wasted years waiting for the Scorsese-DiCaprio love affair to produce something worthwhile, here are Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig with their third hit in a row, not-so-curiously devoid of the thinkpieces and circle jerks. McCarthy’s short appearance in Feig’s wonderful 2011 jam Bridesmaids cracked her star wide open—though, as millions of people are […]
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Review: I’ll See You In My Dreams
A surprisingly lovely bit of counter-programming arrives ahead of the dinosaurs in the form of I’ll See You In My Dreams. Carol Petersen (the wonderful Blythe Danner), an ex-musician and teacher, has been on pause since her husband passed 20 years ago. When her dog dies (this happens onscreen, it’s not gory but brace yourself) […]
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In a HIFF
The Halifax Independent Filmmakers’ Festival has a local focus, but festival director Nelson MacDonald says you’d be wrong to assume that priority is a kind of parochialism. “I feel no obligation to show local films,” says MacDonald. “I show local films because they’re good.” In addition to two programs of local short films, the June […]
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Review: Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland opens with a classic Disney fanfare and font that are supposed to make you think it’s already a classic, or will be soon enough, but director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and co-screenwriter Damon Lindelof (that guy, co-creator of Lost, knows from disappointing people) never quite match the hope they clearly want to inspire. At […]
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NS Film Tax Credit: Not a matter of opinion
“I think the numbers are difficult to understand,” said finance minister Diana Whalen when asked by reporters to confirm figures from the department’s press release. “Twenty-five percent of 50 percent, of this, of that.” Over the past several weeks, the Liberals have done a remarkable job of passing a budget with very drastic cuts, all […]