May’s Blu-Ray Round-up

In this month's round-up of the best in home entertainment we look at wartime classic The Great Escape, the little known Sam Raimi/Coen Brothers team-up Crimewave, the criminally underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle The Last Stand, Jackie Chan's Police Story films, the cult favourite Repo Man, Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia, and Godard's Band of Outsiders.

Behind the Candelabra Review

Steven Soderbergh's Liberace bio-pic Behind the Candelabra - debuting tomorrow on HBO with a simulcast at the TIFF Bell Lightbox for the Inside Out festival at 9pm - is a tasteful and fascinating look at a kitschy entertainment icon, with excellent leading performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.

Something in the Air Review

The latest film from Olivier Assayas, Something in the Air is an amorphous, but emotionally charged character piece about a budding teenage revolutionary that reasserts Assayas as one of the best filmmakers in the world today.

Inside Inside Out

We take a look at some of the offerings at the 23rd annual Toronto Inside Out LGBT film festival, including Peaches Does Herself, Valentine Road, Schoolgirl Complex, The Rugby Player, Interior. Leather Bar, The Most Fun I've Ever Had with My Clothes One, I am Devine, and I Stand Corrected.

Epic Review

Shoddy and forgettable, Epic might be one of the most ill titled films ever. It seems more like wishful thinking than an actual title. It's the first major high profile misfire of the summer.

The ABCs of Death Review

While horror anthologies are always dicey propositions, the 26-part opus The ABCs of Death contains a higher hit to miss ratio (for the hardy souls who can take it) than one might expect.

Quality Balls: The David Steinberg Story Review

Much like this week's release of a similarly idol worshipping documentary about Bruce Cockburn, Quality Balls - The David Steinberg Story never goes beyond simply saying why it's admittedly charismatic subject is so great in the first place.

Picture Day Review

The Canadian independent teen sex comedy-drama Picture Day is like an oasis for those wanting something different than middling documentaries, slight local independent films, and overhyped blockbusters, featuring sharp writing and an excellent leading performance from Tatiana Maslany.

Bruce Cockburn – Pacing the Cage Review

While Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn is undoubtedly one of the most talented songwriters and most passionate activists in the world, the documentary Pacing the Cage never gets deeper than a Wikipedia level understanding of the man in a film that might have been just better suited as a straight-up concert film instead.

Fast & Furious 6 Review

Fast & Furious 6 somehow manages to clear the already high bar set by the series' previous entry in terms of action and excitement. It's also the best of the series and a darn good movie overall perfectly designed to give the audience exactly what they want. It's what this type of blockbuster filmmaking should always be like.

The Hangover Part III Review

Far more interesting than the dreadful second outing in the series, the still imperfect The Hangover Part III brings the inexplicable trilogy to a close with a surprisingly more serious tone and fewer cheap laughs.

The Rep Review

While an intriguing and heart wrenching look at the Toronto Underground Cinema, its day to day operations, and sadly eventual closure, the documentary The Rep sometimes gets bogged down by trying to place the cinema into part of a greater dialogue about the state of repertory cinemas around the world.

Star Trek Into Darkness Fan Review

Alex James is baffled as to why so many people seemed so opposed to the new direction J.J. Abrams has decided to take in his Trek films - and boy oh boy, are they ever opposed. This piece isn't so much a review of Star Trek: Into Darkness as a critical defense of ideas in an era dominated by safe choices.

Greetings from Tim Buckley Review

Penn Badgley gives a great performance as a conflicted Jeff Buckley struggling to come to terms with his father Tim's legacy in the slice-of-life biopic Greetings from Tim Buckley, but the film is so threadbare and navel gazing that it's hard to care about anything that happens.