Looper, the newest sci-fi thriller from wunderkind director Rian Johnson, is a rare thing: it’s a perfect movie.   By that I don’t mean it’s the world’s best movie, or even the year’s best. What I mean is that Johnson and his crew created a movie that manages to perfectly embody its own story and […]

First a story: My dad doesn’t like Charlie Brown; he finds him depressing, and this is an argument we have every December when it’s time to pull out the old tape of Christmas specials. I love Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts world (especially Lucy!). If I had to pick a Christmas special to call […]

This week I went out to Glasslands to catch The Ice Choir and Craft Spells. The show was put together by PopGun, a Brooklyn based booking agency. The bill worked well with two different era kind of bands. There was a third band that opened called Ski Lodge, but I didn’t arrive in time. I […]

Death of a Salesman is exactly the sort of piece that Soulpepper does brilliantly- intimate, personal, actor-driven, and a modern classic. The tight-knit company always fares well with family stories and any time you can cast the first couple of Soulpepper- Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk- as the parents at the centre of things, it’s […]

 

Okay, right off the bat, let’s get this clear – this isn’t Kanye West’s new album. Compilation album that he’s the Exec. Producer on for the G.O.O.D label- that’s what this is. Whew, thank you & spread that knowledge please. Now, throughout the summer, Yeezy and his crew have been releasing some solid music. Between […]

Equal parts tragedy and comedy with a tinge of history, Alumnae Theatre’s season opener is a real visual treat.  Audience members are aptly greeted by a tall pyramid structure positioned centre stage which I – for better or worse – immediately deemed the “tower of Babylon.”  Contained within are many of the props which actors […]

I’ve always liked to believe you can tell a fine play by its title.  In this case, playwright Jordi Mand has ingeniously chosen a seemingly ordinary one which, in actuality, alludes to the electrifying secret that propels the story forward in this head-to-head dispute between Marion (Susan Coyne) and Teresa (Christine Horne) about what really […]

 

With found footage movies on life support, writer and director David Ayer hopes to reanimate the genre with his first-person buddy cop action film, End of Watch. Having written Training Day, Mr. Ayer certainly had the street credentials for the job, but his flashy and ornate homage to the television show Cops, the original forbearer […]