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31 Days of Horror: The Exorcist
I went to church this past Sunday afternoon for the baptism of a good friend’s recently born little girl. I’ve witnessed this particular ceremony a number of times, more often these days, it seems, as...
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Saturday At The Movies: G.I. Jane (1997)
Over the last few weeks, this column has seen two different reviews of the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation film – one by “Joe” fanatic, Andy Burns, which you can read here and one by regular Los Angeles...
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Saturday At The Movies: Man of Steel (2013)
You couldn’t escape it the past month, could you? Like gravity, you couldn’t help but allow it to influence your life, be it in newspaper reviews, bus shelter advertisements, television commercials,...
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Saturday At The Movies Comic Book Two-fer: Red 2 & The Wolverine
It’s comic book domination this summer at the box office. We’ve already seen Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel and we have 2 Guns, from BOOM! and Kick Ass 2 to look forward to. So in honor of a truly comic...
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What Blues Now? Ultra-Rare Stones Doc Screens at TIFF
So Justin Bieber’s partying with Brazilian call-girls and Lady Gaga sleeps with her bandmates. It’s all a bit… *yawn*, ya know? Each era has its debauched poster-children, from Pete Doherty and the...
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Saturday at the Movies: Hustle Your American Right Out of the Theater
I had been hearing good things about American Hustle. All-star cast with a retro feel to a distinctly 70’s movies. Christian Bale with a paunch? Jeremy Renner with a massive pompadour? I’m in! Plus...
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31 Days Of Horror 2014 – Murder By Decree (1979)
The world over, and in even in the realm of pop culture, is there a more horrifying thought in public consciousness than the famously unsolved murders of Jack the Ripper? Of course, innumerable amounts...
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Saturday At The Movies: Birdman (2014)
If you don’t know much about Hollywood and acting, this is the movie to go see. It will give you a glimpse into what goes on when you start on any type of commercial or artistic venture. Birdman stars...
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Take A Walk With A Man On A Ledge
If you’re going to check out a movie called Man On A Ledge, it’s safe to say you know exactly what you’re getting. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun watching it all go down. Such is the...
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Saturday At The Movies: REC 3: Genesis
The “found footage” genre of film making is getting a little long in the tooth for my liking. It seems that every other horror film that hits the silver screen is “cobbled together” from somebody’s...
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Now Playing: Tangerine
Tangerine, the new film by Sean Baker, portrays a realism that is at once immersive and fresh. The film, shot entirely on cell-phone cameras from seemingly every possible angle, invites the audience...
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Wim Wenders at TIFF: The American Friend
Wim Wenders’ neo-noir thriller, The American Friend, looks like it was cut from the same cloth as other films from the genre. When viewing the film in 2016, it’s hard not to make stylistic connections...
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Biff Bam Pop’s Alien Invasion – District 9
Why do so many aliens want to kill us? Okay, maybe humanity leaves a lot to be desired. There’s war, murder, avarice aplenty, and people that want to elect Donald Trump. If we haven’t broken the...
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Review: “Suicide Squad” Is All Guts, No Glory, And That’s OK
You don’t have to go very far to get an opinion on the new Suicide Squad film. Chances are, you hit the Internet and the first thing that comes up are the negative reviews. And there are a lot of...
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The Lovers and the Despot
A mad dictator obsessed with film kidnaps the best director and actress of a rival country, so that his nation can make its movies world-class. In two years, the captive pair churn out seventeen...
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Here’s What’s Fantastic About “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
Throw on some jazz, pour a glass of Giggle Water, and curl up with your favorite bowtruckle, we’re talking Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, on this spoiler-free review. Newt Scamander, the...
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An “Anne Of Green Gables” Superfan Watches The Latest Adaptation
I’ve been obsessed with Anne of Green Gables since I was a kid, and I’m always a bit nervous when new adaptations appear. I never want to see anything that ruins my Anne, so as I sat down to watch the...
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‘A Man Called Ove’: Yet Another Grumpy Old Man, But Better Than Most
They don’t come around all that often, but the movies love a charismatically gruff old man. From the goofy classic Grumpy Old Men with Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau to Clint Eastwood’s racist...
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‘Buster’s Mal Heart’: Rami Malek Shines in Surreal But Broken Thriller
Anyone who watches Mr. Robot knows how hypnotic Rami Malek’s presence can be. He’s mastered an aura of complicated blankness, his glinting, buggy eyes set deep in his flatly inexpressive face. Malek...
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Marriage Under a Microscope Overshadows The World Of ‘The Commune’
Man. I guess people were so depressed in the seventies they’d try just about anything. As we live through a fast-forward remix of the Watergate scandal, it’s interesting to take a look back at those...
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TIFF 2017: High Fantasy
Jenna Bass’s latest film, High Fantasy, is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of South Africa’s multi-cultural youth. Appearing as a sort of homemade travelogue, High Fantasy is filmed as if...
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TIFF 2017: Dragonfly Eyes
Dragonfly Eyes, Chinese artist Xu Bing’s first foray into feature-length filmmaking, is a direct glimpse into what the future of cinema might be. Celebrated as a successful visual artist before...
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TIFF 2017: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonagh’s likes his comedies like his coffee: black. Actually, I have no idea how McDonagh takes his coffee, if he takes it at all. But boy does he have a way with finding the humour in very...
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TIFF 2017: Zama
Zama, the long-anticipated return of Argentinian director-extraordinaire Lucrecia Martel, is an astonishing work of colonial examination and technical perfectionism. Martel disappeared from...
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TIFF Leans Into Blade Runner 2049 Hype with High Concept: The Films of Denis...
Next week, Blade Runner 2049 releases to immense hype, sans the original’s helmer Ridley Scott. That this is a good thing is almost undeniable, after Scott’s belaboured Alien sequels Prometheus and...
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Noah Baumbach knows families. Not feel-good crap or five-hankie manipulated drama. Baumbach families are a lot like the ones we share, with real awkwardness, back-handed affection and incidental...
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God’s Own Country
Francis Lee’s debut feature God’s Own Country finds its soul in the rugged English countryside, bleak and affecting. Getting raves on the indie circuit, it’s a stark romance about a young farmer...
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‘Mudbound’ is a fascinating, moving film
Mudbound is a fascinating, moving film from director Dee Rees. Set in the deep south during the forties, this adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s 2008 bestseller is deeply affecting but not without its own...
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Takashi Miike’s ‘Blade of the Immortal’ slices and dices, but it could use a...
Takashi Miike’s been one of the biggest shock jockeys of Japanese cinema for eons. Ichi the Killer (2001) was a high-splatter mark for lovers of extreme gore, and Miike’s output has been an...
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Creations of Chaos: Anastasia
On this edition of Creations of Chaos, it’s My Fair Lady meets mysticism and murder. We go Once Upon a December to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the film, Anastasia. Plot Anya, a Russian orphan,...
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Can’t Win For Losing – JP Enjoys The Hell Out Of The Losers And Nearly Finds...
Last week, regular Biff Bam Pop! movie box-office oracle Scotty G released his prognostication as to how many ducats the latest comic book-to-Hollywood-film would garner on its opening weekend. Now,...
View ArticleHot Docs 2019: ‘On the President’s Orders’ Documents the Philippine Drug War
On the President’s Orders, directed by James Jones and Olivier Sarbil, is a jarring and disturbing account of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Waged in the slums of Manila, national...
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