For those who don’t know, CBC TV’s Land & Sea is a half-hour documentary show running stories of Atlantic history and culture, running Sundays at noon. In the past months they’ve aired “The Last Sardine Outpost” about North America’s only remaining sardine cannery in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick and “Rum Running,” about prohibition-era run trade […]
Film + TV
Posted inArts + Music
Coriolanus “as tedious as a twice-told tale”
When Baz Luhrmann brought Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the big screen in 1996, he modernized the piece with wit and creativity. Ralph Fiennes, an undeniably talented actor (the Bard is his forte), is unable to match Luhrmann’s work as a director with his own screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, a lesser-known play about a […]
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Project X is shit
Project X is barely a movie. The plot: three high school seniors—the gullible birthday boy, Thomas (Thomas Mann), the fat guy, J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown), and the obnoxious dude, Costa (Oliver Cooper)—stock up on booze and pot and set out to “get some pussy” by throwing “the party you’ve only dreamed about” when Thomas’s parents […]
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The Lorax is bloated
Astonishing in its ability to offend both sides of the environmental debate, The Lorax is the latest bloated 3-D CGI studio mutation of a classic Dr. Seuss book from Universal Pictures. Zac Efron voices young Ted, who undertakes a quest to find the once-greedy Once-ler (Ed Helms) and figure out what happened to all the […]
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Hitchcock presented
Rope (1948) Plot: Two university grads kill a classmate to impress their professor (James Stewart), who once theorized in a lecture about how to commit the perfect murder. Did you know? This was the first Hitchcock film shot in colour, but what’s impressive about Rope is that it was filmed continuously in just 10 shots. […]
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Deconstructing Doyle
Republic of Doyle star Allan Hawco was in Halifax Friday, and was nice enough to grant me an interview. I caught up with him in an otherwise empty lounge in the Marriot. This is our conversation. Bousquet: Welcome to Halifax. This is a PR tour? I see you’re speaking to students. Hawco: So, we do […]
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Screening of The Music Never Stopped for Atlantic Association for Music Therapy
To celebrate Music Therapy Month, the Atlantic Association for Music Therapy is holding screening The Music Never Stopped, directed by Jim Kohlberg. The screening happens 10am, Saturday March 3 at the Oxford Theatre (6408 Quinpool Road), followed by a Q&A. $10/$6 for students. The Music Never Stopped is set in the mid-1980s, telling a story […]
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Nightmare Factory screens at The Oxford
Film Nova Scotia and Empire Theatres are presenting a free screening of Nightmare Factory at the Oxford Theatre (6408 Quinpool Road) on Wednesday, February 29, 7pm. Nightmare Factory delves inside the fascinating high-stakes world of special FX make-up and creature design through the eyes of one of the industry’s key players, Greg Nicotero. He headed […]
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Goon a bloody good time
Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) is a none-to-bright bouncer from New England who finds a meaning in life by becoming a fighter on skates, an enforcer for a Halifax minor league hockey team. The very likable Scott has the size and physicality to convince, while director Michael Dowse delivers some solid play around the puck. […]
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Jay Baruchel and Michael Dowse on Goon
Slap Shot casts a long shadow. The 1977 hockey comedy starring Paul Newman, directed by George Roy Hill, is widely considered to be the best hockey movie ever. Not that it has a lot of competition. “There needs to be a good hockey movie done by Canadians,” says director Michael Dowse. “It’s been awhile, if […]
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Act of Valor an ad for the American military
To evaluate Act of Valor in the usual cinematic context is to misunderstand certain rules of engagement, for this is less a movie than a brand advertisement for a US military that’s lately suffered a few dents to its reputational armour. Directors Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy use a standard-issue terrorism story, populated by a […]
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Wanderlust doesn’t go anywhere
Manhattanites George (Paul Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston), unemployed, flee the city for a commune. The entire movie feels a bit lazy, like director David Wain is relying on star power (Rudd and Aniston) and his past hits, Role Models (2008) and Wet Hot American Summer (2011) (both of which Rudd was in), instead of […]
