Category Archives: Actors & Creators

Remembering Tony Scott

It wasn't cool to say you were a fan of Tony Scott's movies. Among cine-snob circles, anyway. His work was too commercial, too mainstream. He wasn't an auteur because he didn't write his own features. And Ridley, his older brother, got more acclaim, won more awards and had a bigger fanbase thanks to Alien and…Read More

Interview with Eugene Levy

Remember when I said I was no longer an editor at The Coast? This is still true, but the good people there still allow me to write for them and hooked me up with Eugene Levy, who was in Halifax a few days ago to receive an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie University. He was friendly…Read More

Tom Waits on screen

"And there's a difference between 'I do some acting' and 'I'm an actor.'" is what Tom Waits told Pitchfork back in 2006. "People don't really trust people to do two things well." Waits doesn't think of himself an actor, which is fine. Most of the roles he's been cast in he plays some variation of…Read More

John Williams is 80

Empire Magazine online has put together an amazing cross-section of excerpts from John Williams' scores. My favourites, aside from the most well-known Spielberg, Lucas and Superman themes, has to be that one from The Witches of Eastwick, described here as an "earworm."Click here for 80 Reasons Why John Williams is The Man.Read More

10 Great Christopher Walken roles

image by Martin Schoeller Christopher Walken is one of those actors who in his older age is defined by his oddness, by all the people who do impressions of him. Kevin Spacey, Kevin Pollack and Jay Mohr have gotten a lot of mileage on impersonating the guy. Just head over to YouTube if you don't…Read More

Bill Murray’s movies

Through the rest of July and August, there's a Bill Murray film festival happening here in Halifax. Every Friday night you can check out one of his movies down at the waterfront: Outdoor movie joy. The big ones are represented, including Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Rushmore. This week I wrote a piece in The…Read More