The Adjustment Bureau could have been a really great film. At its core it’s full of interesting philosophical questions, ones that introduce possibilities that both fit into and are new to global spiritual narratives. Ideas of fate, free will and intelligently designed plans are expressed alongside darker ramifications like the sacrifice of potential in some […]
You probably didn’t see it. It’s only up for one Oscar (makeup?! really?!) and though Paul Giamatti won Best Actor at the Golden Globes for his truly extraordinary performance, no one really lends much weight to the comedy/musical categories or even pays attention to the Globes if the Oscars don’t seem to agree. But here’s […]
Acting Up Stage Company and Studio 180 have brought something really special to Toronto this month. In the Canadian premiere of the Tony-winning musical Parade, a pared-down company of just 15 takes on the most sprawling story ever told by Jason Robert Brown, one of musical theatre’s most complex and daunting composers. Whatever the Globe […]
First let me apologize for that title, it’s inexcusably bad. But I had to come up with an excuse to talk about The Coen Brothers’ grimy and excellent western True Grit in the same article as the melancholy story of a country western singer Country Strong, which I think is just as well executed, if […]
There are two distinctly British films playing in theatres right now. The King’s Speech, one of Oscar’s top contenders, is a formal high-art story about monarchy, duty and the pressure of expectation. Made in Dagenham is a scrappy, spirited, populist film about factory workers fighting for their rights. The former’s principle plot is centered on […]
The new film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize/Tony-winning play Rabbit Hole has gotten some excellent reviews. If I were watching this film as an original story, who knows, I might agree with them. But as an adaptation of the remarkable play I saw just a few months ago, the film of Rabbit Hole is but […]
It really is a shame that The Golden Globes, one of the only major award shows that makes a point of acknowledging comedies and musicals, often does such a bad job of it. Academy pretension will most likely keep talented comedy actors like Emma Stone out of the Oscar race, so The Globes is where […]
The Fighter is the latest effort from controversy magnet David O’Russell. Although he may be best known to the general public as being a brief viral sensation thanks to an expletive filled diatribe aimed at Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees . However, I have loved him since his work on the […]