On paper this one sounded like a complete winner to me, and perfect Midnight Madness fare for which it was programmed at TIFF. A Curry Western with vampires, sign me up! I love the sound of it, we know there’s going to be blood and violence – its action sequences were choreographed by Very Tri…
TIFF ’26: The Spiral dir. Paolo Strippoli
A Faustian thriller that drips with dread, The Spiral is fantastic TIFF fare. It will not only appeal to the Midnight Madness crowd for which it was selected, but also countless film lovers as it plays within the genre, but also raises lots ot morality questions, and is executed seamlessly and skillfully. Spirals can be…
The Man With Two Brains (1983) – Carl Reiner
Steve Martin is always a delight, even when the films he is in don’t work as well as they could. The Man With Two Brains seems like a bit of a hybrid between sex comedy, romance, and an homage to the B-movie horror films of yesteryear. And a couple of the things in the film…
Gozilla Minus One (2023) – Takashi Yamazaki
I saw this one in the theatre when it came out, and I can’t believe I didn’t write about it then. But that gave me an excuse (like I needed one) to rewatch it for the blog. And damn, if it isn’t better than I remember it. Wow. It opens in the final days of…
Smallville (2006) – Void, and Fragile
Holly Harold wrote Void, which first aired on 6 April, 2006. Clark (Tom Welling) heads to Honduras (still obviously Vancouver, with a little dressing up) to look for Milton Fine (James Marsters). Lana (Kristin Kreuk) gets hooked on a kryptonite-laced drug which allows you to flatline, and possibly encounter deceased loved ones. Clark sees the…
Star Trek: #21 – Dreamworld (1985)
Issue 21 of DC Comics’ ongoing Star Trek series was available on spinners until December, 1985. While Tom Sutton continued on pencils and Ricardo Villagran delivered inks, Bob Rozakis delivered the story, which saw a shift from Kirk and the Excelsior to Spock and his crew (all new characters for us readers) aboard the Surak….
TIFF ’26: Love is the Monster dir. Netto Villalobos Brenes
How far would you go for love? Would you do something truly monstrous? Director Netto Villalobos Brenes delivers a female-driven narrative (men only show up a couple of times throughout the film, and each time makes an impression) that lands the viewer in a not-so-distant, dystopian-leaning future. The men are gone. They left two years…
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2004) – Quentin Tarantino
I’ve been a fan of the idea of stitching Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 together since I saw them originally in the theatre, and now, a little late to the party, I’ve added the new 4k release to my collection. And it’s awesome. Spread over two discs, with an actual intermission card, Tarantino’s epic…
TIFF ’26: The Stunt Driver dir. Michael Dowse
There’s always time for some Canadiana at TIFF, and The Stunt Driver delivers it fantastically with lots of humour and great performances, and explores a small but fascinating corner of Canadian pop culture history that I had no clue about. In the late 70s, it seems everyone knew who Evel Knievel (Ben Foster) was. Heck,…
TIFF ’26: Coward dir. Lukas Dhont
Instead of retreading antiwar themes so brilliantly evoked in films like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1979, and 2022) Lukas Dhont’s third feature film delivers a poignant character film that explores hope, love, the horrors of war and the shattering of youth and the illusions they hold for their lives. Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia)…
The Mind Reels 