Zack Kotzer

This hopeless weirdo is a bit of a culture addict, given an NES and Bubble Bobble at a young age all going downhill from there. Zack is the assistant editor of Canadian culture mag, Steel Bananas as well as a contributing writer to the SPACE Channel, Newsarama and Torontoist. Zack is also working on a new safe haven for nerds called Giygas, though a word of warning, if you ask him about it, he will tell with gusto. Email - [email protected]

Articles by Zack Kotzer:


  • March 13, 2015
    ’71 Review

    ’71 is a relentless, impressive and frank film about the IRA conflict, The Troubles at its peak, and moreover how no wars are fought strictly between combative soldiers on isolated battlefields.

  • February 16, 2015
    Interview: Marjane Satrapi

    Zack Kotzer speaks with The Voices director Marjane Satrapi about what scares her, what we can take away from film’s sentiments towards mental illness… and cats for that matter.

  • February 13, 2015
    Interview: Jemaine Clement (and Stu)

    The hilarious What We Do In The Shadows opens today! Here’s our interview with one if its stars and creators, Jemaine Clement… and Stu, the IT guy who plays himself.

  • September 11, 2014
    TIFF 2014: The Voices Review

    The Voices Vanguard In every horror movie, established or not, there has to be some assumption as to why a slasher is on their spree. Traumatic childhoods, supernatural influences, mental instability. Sometimes, there are films that try to turn the mirror on this, creating empathetic murders who seem like a machine unable to stop, like […]

  • September 11, 2014
    TIFF 2014: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence Review

    A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence Masters So your first question, about the title, is answered immediately. It opens on a pigeon, sitting on a branch, and though it is stuffed and mounted in a natural history museum, it’s not a stretch to imagine it reflects on its existence. The people that […]

  • September 11, 2014
    TIFF 2014: The Duke of Burgundy Review

    The Duke of Burgundy Vanguard In Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland made a delirious love letter to giallo horror, framed in the clever concept of an unassuming foley artist in a strange pocket of filmmaking before melting his work into a fever dream. In The Duke of Burgundy, Strickland revisits genres he had to hide […]

  • September 9, 2014
    TIFF 2014: Hyena Review

    Hyena Vanguard “This isn’t the 80s,” says Michael Logan’s superior, his contemporary way of groaning, “you’re a loose cannon, Logan, but damn it you get the job done.” Logan (A Field in England’s Peter Ferdinando), does get a job done, he gets a lot of people busted, but he doesn’t do it with any good […]

  • September 9, 2014
    TIFF 2014: Interview: Dave McKean

    In comics and illustration, Dave McKean is a legendary creator of fantasy, which is both odd and apt, as you don’t see many elves, pixies or dragons in his work. Creating the haunting landscapes which appeared in Hellblazer, Sandman, and Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum, McKean not only set the style guide for DC’s Vertigo imprint, […]

  • September 9, 2014
    TIFF 2014: Luna Review

    Luna Vanguard Dave McKean is one of the architects of the 90s; a dark illustrator, his busy but whimsical images set a tone for many brooding album covers and drama students. When he took his skills to task as a director for the first time in 2005, with MirrorMask, it felt like a bit much, […]

  • September 6, 2014
    TIFF 2014: Elephant Song Review

    Elephant Song Special Presentations In the moment, it’s easy to get a little invested in Elephant Song, a mysterious drama about a senior doctor, Toby Green (Bruce Greenwood) being called in on Christmas to see if a charismatic patient, Michael (Xavier Dolan, acting in a film he didn’t make himself), knows anything about a missing […]

  • September 6, 2014
    TIFF 2014: ’71 Review

    ’71 Discovery Not all wars have glory and not all intense war films are glorifying. ’71 is a relentless, impressive and frank film about the IRA conflict, The Troubles at its peak, and moreover how no battles are fought strictly between combative soldiers on isolated battlefields. Gary (Skins’ Jack O’Connell) is an anxious soldier being […]

  • Hector and the Search for Happiness
    September 5, 2014
    TIFF 2014: Hector and the Search for Happiness Review

    Hector and the Search for Happiness Special Presentations Listen, if I’m going to sit through Eat Pray Love for dudes I’m going to want way more tanks, nudity, Vegas buffets and duking it out. Not a film that’s just an odyssey linking various cutesy inspirational memes with each other. This is one of the most […]

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