Last time I reviewed Metro 2033, a Ukrainian made glimpse into the nuclear fallout and submerged societies. This time I’m looking at Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, a Japanese glimpse at a young boy traversing a barren world and decrepit undergrounds. While both are atmospheric adventures across a haunted wasteland, only one can […]
Celebrities have their picture taken on an almost constant basis. Often by fans, sometimes by professionals, but only occasionally by certain photographers who have a knack for showing a side of the celebrity that is never seen on camera, often they can capture the loneliness that comes from lack of anonymity. For rock stars in […]
The Magnetic Fields are an eclectic but fairly obscure American indie rock band that has been recording for nearly twenty years. While not a household name, they have a fairly devoted following, and many musicians, such as Peter Gabriel, count leader Stephin Merritt as one of the great contemporary American songwriters. In Strange Powers: Stephin […]
New York City has seen its share of artistic revolutions, though any kind of positive revolution might have seemed impossible in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The city was crippled by massive debt with no help from the federal government, and whole neighbourhoods were urban war zones as countless buildings were left abandoned or […]
Before the days of iPods, televisions, and even radio or mass print publications, humans entertained themselves and each other by telling stories. In small groups around campfires, communities would tell each other the stories of their past and present. Fastforward to the 21st century, and Argentinean filmmaker Daniel Burmeister seems to have resurrescted this spirit. […]
How can a movie be obnoxious and charming at the same time? I don’t know. But somehow Iron Man 2 manages to be both an over the top summer blockbuster and a gleefully charismatic and funny film. With the origin story out of the way, Jon Favreau’s sequel can move into new territory. The film […]
Every filmmaker dreams of meeting their favourite director. So when aspiring filmmaker David Sieveking had the opportunity, he begins his film David Wants to Fly with a trip to the United States to hear David Lynch speak about his passion for Transcendental Meditation, a movement founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi—who also inspired, among others, […]
It’s appropriate that I am writing this review on May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day—May the Fourth be with you…! *groan* Before I talk about The People vs. George Lucas, let me first qualify my review with a short preamble about my relationship with Mr. Lucas. May 18th, 1999. It’s raining, it’s cold […]
It has been my long-held belief that everyone in North America should work at least one minimum wage job in their life, for a minimum of six months. Not just to understand how impossible it is to live on minimum wage, but also to understand how we treat people who provide us with necessary services, […]
You might stare when you see Super Street Fighter IV sitting on the store shelves, as it looks incredibly similar to the original Street Fighter IV, which came out early last year. In many ways you’d be right to stare; throughout its 20-year history each separate Street Fighter game has undergone at least two (sometimes […]
As part of the former USSR, Estonia was geographically closer to (supposedly) democratic Finland than the communist powers in Moscow. When Finland began to broadcast television, they showed not only their own programs, but American ones as well. The north coastal Estonian city of Tallinn was only 80 km from Helsinki, and as much as […]
Rush is probably the strangest anomaly in rock music. They have sold the third most number of albums worldwide of any band (after The Rolling Stones and The Beatles), but have never had a number one single. Their fans are arguably the most devoted in the world, and yet (until recently), Rush has been panned […]
Alan Jones joins us for a guest spot review of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Alan is president of the University of Toronto Cinema Studies Students Union (CINSSU). This review and many others can be read on the official CINSSU blog. Walking into the new Platinum Dunes horror remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street […]
You don’t need an elaborate excuse for mutants and excessive gun use if it’s after the apocalypse. Many games have leveled the field with nukes and invaders all in the name of giving players an arena to shoot their handmade rifles and ask questions never. So while the nuclear fallout isn’t new grounds for a […]
Right from the get-go, The Losers makes damn sure to tell the audience that they’re watching a really cool movie. The movie has it all: shaky hand-held camera work, freeze frames, jump cuts and the requisite “group walking towards the camera in slow motion” scene—reassuring the audience that they are indeed watching an awesome film. […]
