I did a capsule review of British director Steve McQueen's Shame at The Coast, which you can read here. I also talked to the screenwriter, Abi Morgan. You can see my story here.Read More
Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Written by Lem Dobbs | 93 min | Hoopla Oh, how much fun is Haywire? It's from Steven Soderbergh, who is always an interesting director—I'm a big fan of The Limey, Out of Sight, sex lies and videotape and Solaris, with much respect for Traffic, last year's Contagion, Erin Brockovich…Read More
I'm fairly ambivalent about Disney's fantasy epic John Carter, though I've followed with interest the struggle they've had marketing the thing, and have been surprised by the unusually fervent negative buzz. The film has strong and experienced creative forces behind it, and my hope is it does a better job translating this vintage fantasy into…Read More
I see so many movie trailers that the pacing, the pitch and psychology of them is like a language I don't speak but passively and completely understand. I admire a good one, a trailer that subverts the expectations, like this one. And I agree with this NPR story about movie trailers, The Girl With The…Read More
I saw Shame in December, and had the pleasure of interviewing the screenwriter, Abi Morgan, who had a pretty great 2011—she also wrote The Iron Lady. I haven't reviewed Shame yet here, wanted to let it percolate a bit, though it did feature in my Best of 2011 list, as a runner-up. I'll post a…Read More
Directed by David Cronenberg Written by Christopher Hampton, from his play A Talking Cure, which was adapted from the book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr. I have really been enjoying the Viggo Mortensen era of David Cronenberg's work. Mortensen has starred in the past three Cronenbergs, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and…Read More
I've written them for my employer, The Coast, this week. Click on the titles to read reviews for The Iron Lady and Carnage. Also on The Coast site you'll find my piece on Hollywood's love affair with nostalgia this awards season, which I strongly decry.Read More
Directed by Steven SpielbergWritten by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, from the book by Michael MorpurgoSitting in a mostly empty movie theatre watching Spielberg's new epic movie, I playfully imagined what War Horse would be like as directed by Terrence Malick, probably because I just reviewed 2011 and Malick's The Tree of Life featured prominently.…Read More
Here's my list (early this year!), to add to the collection of other Best Of 2011 lists crowding the internet.My criteria: The film had to have been released in cinemas in 2011, even if it didn't open here in Halifax. For example, I did see a number of movies at the Atlantic Film Festival, such…Read More