Carey Mulligan is a feminist way before her time (1870s rural England) as a farm owner who can’t walk across her own damn field without getting proposed to in Far From the Madding Crowd, yet another entry from the Thomas Hardy factory. Her suitors include Matthias Schoenaerts (hot), Michael Sheen (old) and Tom Sturridge (a-hole, […]
Film + TV
Posted inArts + Music
Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
“Where are all the ladies?” asks Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in Avengers: Age of Ultron, in a winky tone that is Joss Whedon saying “Look, I get it! I am a feminist too! I did Buffy!” Except there are only eight other women with speaking roles in a credited cast of over 100, and two […]
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Review: The Age of Adaline
When you lay out the facts of The Age of Adaline, starring Blake Lively (no) as a woman who dies for two minutes via drowning until she is struck by lightning (buh), which renders her ageless for decades, with a daughter played by Ellen Burstyn (um) and an ex-love by Harrison Ford (barf), it makes […]
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Beastie Boy grows up in While We’re Young
In Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young, Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts star as childless filmmakers who fall in with a hipster couple played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. Stiller’s best friend Fletcher, a new dad, is portrayed by Adam Horovitz, who you more likely recognize from his day job as a Beastie Boy. He […]
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Review: While We’re Young
The notably caustic Noah Baumbach, not quite as chilly as Wes Anderson or the Coens but a far cry from Richard Linklater or even Kevin Smith, changed his tune with 2012’s wonderful Frances Ha, about a 20-something trying to find herself in New York. It was co-written by and starred Greta Gerwig, Baumbach’s real-life love. […]
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Film funding talks take three
The first time they met, finance minister Diana Whalen refused to own up to her role in the potential destruction of the local film industry. After the two-hour meeting last Tuesday, she told reporters “they have a problem with this, we do not. It works for government.” .@dianawhalenNS says @Screen_NS told her #NSFilmTaxCredit doesn't work […]
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A timeline of film production in Nova Scotia
Filmmakers have a long history of working in Nova Scotia—Evangeline, shot here over 100 years ago, was one of the first movies made in Canada. But in recent years, the province’s natural beauty and historic charms that might appeal to cinematographers were augmented by the film tax credit, which appeals to the producers who are […]
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The Manitoba Connection
Remember Goon? About a minor-league hockey team from Halifax with a hard-hitting enforcer? It’s been three years since the movie played for audiences around the country and the world, but what Haligonians may recall is that the movie wasn’t filmed in Halifax, but rather as far away from the ocean as you can get: the […]
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The end?
Last week, a new provincial budget was announced that could put thousands of jobs in Nova Scotia’s film industry in jeopardy. Counter-arguments have been made, logic and reason have been championed, meetings have been had and demonstrations have been staged. Still, our Liberal government has even more bad news: they don’t care what anyone thinks […]
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Steve Lund: From skates to sci-fi
For former Haligonian and actor Steve Lund, Halifax and Nova Scotia will always remain important parts of his life and career. “I’ve always viewed Nova Scotia as the greatest place to be born, the greatest place to be raised and the greatest launch pad,” he says. “Nova Scotia possesses powerful connections to two requisite facets […]
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Fight or flight
Christopher Ball of Mahone Bay believes Nova Scotia couldn’t be more perfect. A five-time winner of the Best Cinematography at the Atlantic Film Festival, he loves the ocean, the wilderness, everything the Nova Scotian lifestyle has to offer. Still, he says, he will have to leave if the province’s slashing of its film tax credit […]
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The film industry by the numbers
Finance minister Diana Whalen may know a thing or two about numbers, but she apparently doesn’t understand Nova Scotia’s movie business very much. Her budget plan to gut the film industry tax incentive has local producers worried that Whalen is going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. How much metaphorical egg-gold are […]
