The idea that Michael Moore, the only multimillionaire documentarian, is a outsider Everyman slash provocateur has been laughable since he won the Oscar for Bowling For Columbine. His schtick—he still wears the same baseball hat/glasses/ill-fitting jean combo he’s been sporting since he was a commoner, circa 1989’s Roger & Me; he still narrates, in his […]
review
Posted inArts + Music
Review: Sisters
On any other week of the year, a new Tina Fey-Amy Poehler pairing would be all anyone was talking about. While Sisters exists as smart counter-programming, most critics saved their careful consideration and overwrought sentences for a certain space opera reboot, dismissing this comedy outright. A mistake. The Poehler-Fey duo is a glorious thing, a perfect platonic coupling that never […]
Posted inArts + Music
Review: In the Heart of the Sea
Title card: Nantucket, 1850. Internally: Groaaaannnn. Look, Ron Howard is a Hollywood director of the old-timiest variety, a real-life Peter Pan who got to grow up to make Cocoon, Far & Away and Apollo 13, big adventures with big stars and heart. But he’s also responsible for the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, two Da Vinci Code movies […]
Posted inArts + Music
Review: Miss You Already
Catherine Hardwicke announced herself as a production designer-turned-director with 2003’s thirteen, starring Evan Rachel Wood as a teen out of control and Holly Hunter, in an Academy Award-nominated performance, as her alcoholic mom. It was scrappy, authentic and a tough watch. A few films down the line found her at the helm of Twilight, a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Final weekend to get this Messenger
It’s no surprise that opening night of Messenger at the Neptune Studio brought out a huge cross-section of Halifax’s theatre greats and political progressives. After all, the play was written by award-winning playwright and former MP Wendy Lill. Her credentials put her in the perfect position to deliver both a beautifully written family drama and […]
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Review: The Dillinger Escape Plan at HPX
Going to a heavy show in Halifax that isn’t all ages is still a weird concept to me. I still remember the newness and novelty of finally being legal and getting to see a band at The Pavilion (RIP) one night and then watching the exact same set the next night at Michael’s (also RIP) […]
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Review: Joel Plaskett
The first thing you might ask with Plaskett is “Emergency or solo, rock or acoustic?” Drummer Dave Marsh and bassist Chris Pennell play on a good portion of the 13 tracks, often with extras. The Emergency is most robust on “Credits Roll,” where Erin Costelo’s piano boosts the bottom end and Peter Elkas adds a […]
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Review: Foxcatcher
The ol’ “let’s put on a nose and an accent and do some Acting” thing worked for Nicole Kidman in The Hours, but Steve Carell achieves mixed results in Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller’s very tense, oddly inert retelling of rich weirdo John DuPont’s obsession with Olympic wrestling. Watch the trailer with someone and they’ll gasp when […]
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Conversationalist
Conversationalist (Night Danger) For all its tailored complexity, symphonic nuances and thoughtful studio production, there are primitive elements on In-Flight Safety’s 10-track album Conversationalist, released in September on Night Danger Records and mixed by Gus Van Go in New York (The Stills, Hollerado). The band’s third record appears five years after We Are an Empire, […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Comfortably Hum’s
The door to Hum’s Kitchen sticks a bit when I try to open it. After almost tripping inside after a forceful push, my friend Rachelle and I are greeted and told to sit down anywhere we like in the almost empty dining room. Hum’s is a small, tidy restaurant. The chairs are solid, carved wood […]
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Blood and Quick Silver
Writer/director Michael McPhee may have created the world’s first dada film noir in Blood and Quick Silver, which charts the professional misadventures of “private dick” Sam Silver (Michael McLeod). The players handle this anachronistic gem deftly—Annie Valentina is never misses a beat as no-good dame Emma Fatale—and the skilled use of cardboard props creates a […]
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Athena in Love
Athena in Love, directed by Garry Williams, reimagines the Greek myth of Pallas and Athena (in which Pallas is killed) as a fable of mutual healing. Seeking to fulfill her dying friend’s wish that she aid the Gorgon Medusa, Athena (Keelin Jack) embarks on a quest that takes her beyond the limits of Greek mythology. […]