Awkwafina and Sandra Oh play sisters in the very enjoyable, Quiz Lady, which I missed at TIFF but was delighted to check out when it hit streaming platforms. Anne (Awkwafina) is quiet, set in her routines, and has some mental health issues that keep her confined to her job, and her couch, where she and…
Author: TD Rideout
Witness (1985) – Peter Weir
It’s been some time since I had settled in for the Harrison Ford drama Witness directed by the amazing Peter Weir. I remember loving it as a teen when I first came across it simply because it was a Harrison Ford film. I loved movies at the time but I didn’t realize the film had…
Hill Street Blues (1987) – Norman Conquest, and Sorry Wrong Number
While Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) and Goldblume (Joe Spano) review officers for promotion alongside Mike (Richard Herd) Lt. Norman Buntz (Dennis Franz) is left in charge of the precinct for the day. Norman Conquest was written by Steve Bello from a story by Bello, Neil Eglash, Jonathan Lemkin and Micheal I. Wagner and it was…
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmicheal Manor (2023) – Stephen Cognetti
While I’m not always the biggest found footage fan, it’s a genre that has really been done to death because everyone thinks they can do it, I quickly became a fan of Stephen Cognetti’s Hell House LLC series. He’s written and directed all the films so far, which makes The Carmicheal Manor the fourth in…
Galactica 1980 (1980) – Space Croppers, and The Return of Starbuck
The penultimate episode of the short-lived series, Galactica 1980, is Space Croppers, and it is the last time we see Troy (Kent McCord), Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) and Jamie (Robyn Douglass) in the series. Written by Robert McCullough, this episode debuted on 27 March, 1980, and once again lets the series lean into a little…
Family Ties (1985) – Remembrances of Things Past
Season three of Family Ties ended with an hour-long episode that was broadcast on 28 March, 1985 and was written by series creator Gary David Goldberg and Alan Uger. Steven (Michael Gross) gathers the family up to head to his family home to help his mother, May (Anne Seymour) sell the house. It also forces…
Call of the Wraith (2018) – Kevin Sands
Simon & Schuster Canada keeps the adventure coming with the fourth book in The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands. You can collect them individually, or in a gorgeous six book hardcover collection. In book four picking up shortly after the previous story, Christopher wakes up, not knowing where he is, or more importantly, he…
Galactica 1980 (1980) – The Night the Cylons Landed Part I, and Part II
Troy (Kent McCord) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) pawn off the spacekids on Jamie (Robyn Douglass) when a new cylon fighter gets drawn into Earth orbit and is going to come down near New York, just in time for Halloween. The Night the Cylons Landed was a two-parter. The first episode aired on 13 April,…
When Evil Lurks (2023) – Demian Rugna
The Spanish language film, When Evil Lurks, from Argentina, has found its way into my favourite horror films along with Late Night with the Devil. It’s creepy, has some legitimate scares, and a real sense of menace. Two brothers, Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demian Salomon), find themselves confronting true evil when they encounter a…
A Haunting in Venice (2023) – Kenneth Branagh
Branagh delivers a third Agatha Christie adaption, and like the previous films, Branagh brings in a great cast and delivers a lush-looking production with some gorgeous production design and location work. Branagh directs and stars, again, as Hercule Poirot the great detective who has now retired to Venice. He is approached by an old friend,…
The Mind Reels 