It’s time, once again, for the On DVD series featuring new releases from Paramount Home Distribution and more!. TV Tut Spike TV’s three-part miniseries starring the great Ben Kingsley is epic and pulpy and mildly historically useful, so it’s pretty much everything you ever wanted from something called “Tut”. Special features on the DVD include a look […]
Ryan G. Hinds is one of Toronto’s most beloved cabaret performers. From his glittering one-man Fringe show Starry Notions to the absurd and exuberant disco ballet he created for SummerWorks, Hinds lit up our summer with his own unique brand of star power. Now, as he takes his latest show #KanderAndEbb on the road, we’re asking […]
Minute for minute, was that the best episode of Survivor ever? In the last 5 years? At the very least, it was the best since Cagayan. At some point in this episode, every single one of my favourite players (except Jeremy, I guess) was either in serious danger or playing a major role in putting […]
Most of my favourite television shows are a little bit brutal. Not really brutal like The Americans or Daredevil, that sort of long-slog, pitch-dark, blood-bathed stuff. Just a little bit brutal. Usually half hours, often billed as comedies but ultimately hard to define as such, my favourite shows tend to have vague, commonplace premises like […]
A Mamet play is all about the language. Everything you need to know is right there in the half sentences and blustering speeches, the interruptions, the curses, that strange combination of grandiosity and hyper-realism. In the slice-of-life one-act Lakeboat– with the exception of Stephen Macdonald, whose leading performance as a sensitive recruit is marked far more […]
Oh, Giuseppe Verdi, how I adore your dedication to stories worth telling. You are, of course, a splendid composer whose soaring melodies and lush orchestrations fly beautifully from the mouths of the COC’s chorus and the bows of its spectacular orchestra (here under the capable baton of Marco Guidarini) but the real reason I love […]
IFC’s latest comedy Benders is about grown men who are obsessed with their division eight hockey league. Three episodes in, the bro-ish series from Tom Sellitti and Jim Serpico (both fresh from the Denis Leary stable) mostly just feels like a weak League imitation. Lindsey Broad is somewhat fun as a refreshingly-not-a-drag wife but, for […]
Rowing (Then They Fight) Writer/director Aaron Jan’s new play about a small town rowing team sports a strong cast delivering well crafted quick-pace dialogue. Each individual arc is, for the most part, clear and engaging, especially those of the contrastingly lovelorn Chris and Rick, played with great pathos and excellent timing by Lauren Griffiths and […]