Moneyball review

Directed by Bennett Miller | Written by Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, from a Stan Chervin story, adapted from a book by Michael Lewis | on Netflix  The first thing Moneyball taught me is that those armchair loudmouths who call into sports shows are a bunch of know-nothing douchebags. Yeah, that's right. Sports radio is full…Read More

Drive review

Directed by Nicolas Winding RefnWritten by Hossien Amini from a book by James SallisI was so ready for this movie for a bunch of reasons. 1) Ryan Gosling is the King of Hollywood right now. He can do whatever he wants, get any movie made by showing an interest, and he's shown that he either…Read More

The Atlantic Film Festival wraps

I'm here to tell you I survived another year. I flagged a little in the middle but came through strong in the homestretch.It was a great fest, and I think a popular one, with a bunch of sold-out screenings. The audience award went to Thom Fitzgerald's Cloudburst and there were five screenings of Roller Town.…Read More

Festival fatigue already?

Yes, it's only Day 3 of the Atlantic Film Festival. I've only seen a half-dozen shorts and maybe seven features, but I can already feel it in my head and in my bones. It's something I always forget about the festival even though I've covered it since 2004. It's partly the rushing around, the schmooze…Read More

2011 Atlantic Film Festival

For Halifax film lovers, this is Christmas: 10 days of films screened at downtown cinemas.Lots of local pictures—the Atlantic Shorts programs are always packed—and new features by regional filmmakers are also hot tickets: check out the AFF Guide in this week's issue of The Coast, where I am film editor, for my story on Picnicface,…Read More

The Tree of Life podcast

Having a look back at my summer movie reviews, I'm amazed that I didn't sit down here to ramble on about The Tree of Life. I mean, there's no doubt the film will feature prominently in my Best of 2011 list, while at the same time I recognize it can be a frustratingly opaque cinematic…Read More

The Debt review

Directed by John MaddenWritten by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan,based on the film Ha-Hov by Assaf Bernstein and Ido RosenblumRachel Singer (Helen Mirren), ex-husband Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and ex-pat David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) are national heroes in their homeland of Israel. In the mid-1960s they were Mossad agents, assigned to East Berlin…Read More

A year of Flaw in the Iris

Just before Labour Day 2010 I decided it was time to start talking about movies again, but for fun. That is to say, I write about movies professionally, but I used to have a weekly radio show where I'd discuss them. After four years of that I called it quits in September 2009, but I…Read More