I think someone should start prescribing a night at the theatre for patients who complain of drowsiness, stress, mild depression or self importance. Not just any night at the theatre, I don’t think Endgame would help, but something like Alligator Pie– a piece so brimming with light, happiness and creativity that one can’t help leaving […]
There’s an easy way and a hard to explain Cloud Atlas. The easy way: it simultaneously tells six linked stories taking place over the span of five hundred years. Individually these stories are (generally) easy to understand, and, just as importantly, easy to follow, as they weave in and out of one another. However, to […]
Here’s the thing, I like Pitch Perfect. I’ve seen it twice now and enjoyed it both times, because it’s exactly the movie I’m supposed to like. I mean, university a capella? Hilarious, and also ripe for all sorts of character fun and honest-to-god stories about competition and friendship and belonging (there are people whose job […]
It is not that often we get to see realism on stage anymore. Even more rare: three hour productions. Do people even have that sort of attention span these days? Lucky thing for intermissions. At least in opera you have the chance of being taken on a musical journey. But this is three hours – […]
While I’ll be the first to admit that both Casino Royal and its ugly stepsister Quantum of Solace were not what I would consider the crème de la crème of the Bond franchise, I still found both films to be very enjoyable for one simple reason: Daniel Craig does good Bond. With his third swing […]
Okay people, I’m tired of this. It was cute for awhile, the making musicals out of hit movies thing, but it’s gotten out of hand. If you’re going to do a Really good job (as I’m told was done with Once), fine, go ahead. If you’re trying to improve a dud/somewhat obscure movie (like Newsies […]
Before the release of Ben Affleck’s surefire hit Argo, the film garnered a ton of positive press from movie people and really pissed-off chatter from, specifically, grumpy Canadians. The film is a topical period piece in the same way that Charlie Wilson’s War used a story from the 1980s to say something current about the […]
On Dundas East, in Regent Park, there is a fantastic new Toronto theatre. The Aki Studio Theatre in the beautiful Daniels Spectrum community centre is a truly great space: a big convertible black box that feels at once expansive and intimate- the perfect place to house Keith Barker’s new play that touches on how one […]