The Final Destination can only rank as a complete imaginative failure. Selling bland fatalism to kids, it’s the work of crooks. The original movie had the best premise of any slasher film: Making the killer death itself, while teenagers question the uncertainty of their own mortality. Rather than expand the mythos, the sequels (and this […]
Movies
Posted inArts + Music
Camelia Frieberg’s cross-pollination project
“One thing that is so incredibly exhilarating about film,” says filmmaker, producer and Pollination Project co-founder Camelia Frieberg, “is the process by which it comes together. Talk about cross-pollination—you’ve got the music, the visuals, the writer, the actors bringing their craft—all those things have to come together and collaborate. Sure, you have one unifying vision, […]
Posted inLove the Way We Bitch/Love
Movie Theatre Etiquette: A New Rule
I’ve asked you nicely—many, many times. I’ve told you firmly and loudly—many, many times. Now I’ve had enough with the asking and telling. This is the NEW RULE: When IDIOTS (you know who you are) go to movies clearly intended for GROWN-UPS, and keep checking their phone messages every five minutes—I counted AT LEAST 20 […]
Posted inArts + Music
Band-made celluloid: rock film clips
In amongst his 244 soundtrack appearances, Paul McCartney has 23 official credits as an actor, mostly voiceovers and Wings DVD compilations. Of course, he did appear as himself in the Beatles movies of the ’60s, including A Hard Day’s Night, Help and Magical Mystery Tour. And in 1978, McCartney appeared in an uncredited cameo in […]
Posted inArts + Music
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
There’s a small detail in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that cuts to the heart of Michael Bay’s tact. Teen hero Sam (Shia LaBeouf) sits in his university astronomy class, where somehow every enrolled female student looks like a Maxim model. To appreciate some of Bay’s movies, one must learn to accept that his interests […]
Posted inArts + Music
Director James Gray in real time
James Gray agrees when he is told that a romantic drama, like his film Two Lovers, is a rare breed in mainstream film. On the phone from his office in LA, he explains that the ridiculous behaviours that come with being in love are better suited to comedy than serious drama. So, how did Gray […]
Posted inArts + Music
Josh MacDonald’s Halo moves to the big screen
“I’ve done a lot of bracing over the years—I don’t think it’s any huge secret that any low-budget Canadian film has about 10 near-death experiences on its way to fruition,” says Josh MacDonald. “But here we were, first day of photography.” The Dartmouth writer first put the idea for Halo to paper a decade ago […]
