I'm a published writer, illustrator, and film critic. Cinema has been a passion of mine since my first viewing of Milius' Conan the Barbarian and my film tastes go from experimental to modern blockbuster.
I have no idea what this movie is trying to get at and there’s little spirit that I can find in it. It’s frustrating because I’m a fan of Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions. In it, Remy is an old professor who will soon die of cancer. He’s a womanizing, wine loving socialist. The characters in the film are multi-layered and almost every scene is infused with brilliant sarcasm and/or a…
Although I’ve attended the Toronto International Film Festival almost every year since I was eighteen, this is my second year of covering it for Next Projection. This year, I’ve taken on reviewing several films with my press pass and I’ve taken on navigating the insane media schedule that goes along with it. There are films I’ve had to miss due to overlapping screenings, but I’ve…
I have never hiked, but I have friends who have done some crazy hikes. I have no survival skills. However, one day in a post partum depression phase after a walk, I decided to run a marathon. I needed to prove something to myself, at least, that I could do something with my life. Checking off the miles on my training schedule had me progressing and pushing my limits. Every long…
It’s extremely disturbing to realize that there are real life stories of genocide and mass murder that are yet to be uncovered. There are times the world seems so small with social media covering everything, yet it’s so big and confusing in its ignorance of its past that didn’t have that scope of broadcast. Researchers, journalists, archivists, and documentarians help to keep our eyes open to…
David Dobkin’s much anticipated film premiere at TIFF was greeted with a packed house. As I settled into my seated with a large popcorn, I was soon to learn that the The Judge would clock in 141 minutes. Normally I wouldn’t mind so much considering performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. But as a family drama, I was skeptical of how Dobkin, director of past…
Pascale Ferran’s Bird People is an existential tale of alienation, but it’s little heavy handed about it. We are taken into the worlds of Gary and Audrey. Gary (Josh Charles) is an American in Paris. He is tired of everything: his job and his wife. He needs an escape from it and decides to leave it all behind while on business trip. Audrey (Anaïs Demoustier) is a French chambermaid who…
If the term “coming of age” hasn’t been retired, it should be. People grow up, learn, and do things with their lives, but I don’t think anyone ever comes of age. They just get better or worse or linger somewhere in between. Does anybody ever get it together or do people just learn how to navigate the world in way that causes less scars along the way? People all have their…
The insect-human metaphor is prevalent in literature and film. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis springs to mind, but in Michelle Latimer’s The Underground, the insect, specifically, the cockroach, takes on a emotive and political skin. The film’s protagonist, Araz, faces a solitary struggle as a newcomer to a foreign land. Although set in Toronto, it could be any…
A different perspective on futuristic dystopias is the view of the utopia without limitation. What does society do when faced with freedom without restriction? The Oculus Rift has already made it possible to experience virtual reality in an entirely new way. Technology has afforded us promise to rebuild reality, one that is limitless in its use and format.
What does a modern vampire do nowadays? If you’re immortal you’ve probably travelled the world, read all of the books, heard all of the music, and seen all of the things that time lays out before you. Up until now, the perspective of the vampire has either been of the monstrous Dracula or the teenage whiner with a god complex. Few films delve into a magic …