Pamela Anderson delivers a career-topping performance as Shelley an aging Vegas showgirl, whose show, Razzle Dazzle, is closing, bringing her thirty-year career to a grinding stop. Directed by Gia Coppola whose use of shallow focus lenses keeps the story on Shelley at all times, the tale looks honestly at aging and beauty in not only…
Dark Skies (1997) – The Last Wave, and The Enemy Within
John Loengard (Eric Close) and Kim Sayers (Megan Ward) are back in California for the funeral of a friend, but find out that there was more to his death and the surfer scene than initially thought, because the Hive are involved. Written by Melissa Rosenberg, this episode first debuted on 4 January, 1997. Kim investigates…
TIFF24 Visionaries – Steven Moffat
The Toronto International Film Festival offers a number of industry panels through the course of the week, and they got started this week with their Visionaries program, and their first one featured Steven Moffat – there was no way I was going to miss that! Set in the Glen Gould Studio at the CBC, the…
TIFF24: Santosh dir. Sandhya Suri
“Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.” The entire runtime of Sandhya Sur’s Santosh that line of dialogue circulated through my brain repeatedly, as the film plunged the viewer into a morally grey world that was frightening and horrifying as its narrative threw us right into the brutal caste system of rural India, and the ongoing sexism…
TIFF24: Meet the Barbarians dir. Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy directs and stars in the charming, and delightfully satirical Meet the Barbarians. Set in the small town of Paimpont, France, a teacher, Joelle (Delpy) has convinced the local town council to do their part and take in some Ukranian refugees, they’ve studied, they’ve got a home set-up, have donated groceries, and are ready…
Ghost Ship (2002) – Steve Beck
Beyond bad doesn’t even begin to describe this one. A Dark Castle original film, the plan for the company was to remake the iconic gimmick-driven films of William Castle, Ghost Ship still didn’t fare very well despite, much like its production predecessors, having a solid cast. And some of that cast, like Julianna Margulies have…
TIFF24: Flow dir. Gints Zilbalodis
Animated films have taken us to a variety of places and let us encounter all manner of characters, and they make us feel, which says something incredible about the fact that they started out as sketches or lines of code in a computer. Flow does something we don’t often see in animated films, its characters,…
TIFF24: I, the Executioner dir. Ryoo Seung-wan
I, the Executioner is the follow-up to Seung-wan’s Veteran. I hadn’t seen it, and I loved this one. So don’t let that hold you back from checking this one out. South Korean action films and police thrillers are always engaging, and they aren’t afraid to get dark. Veteran cop, Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) works in the…
TIFF24: The Seed of the Sacred Fig dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Rasoulof examines the patriarchy and religious law in the microcosm of the family in The Seed of the Sacred Fig. For some it can be a tough watch, as it incorporates actual footage from the 2022 protests in Iran following the death Masha Amini who died while in police custody, charged with improperly wearing her…
Stargate SG-1 (1998) – Enigma, and Solitudes
Enigma introduces a couple of recurring items for the SG-1 team. We are introduced to the Tollan race, and two of their representatives, Narim (Garwin Sanford), Omoc (Tobin Bell), and Colonel Harry Maybourne (Tom McBeath) who will prove to be a thorn in the SGC’s side. Written by Katharyn Powers, this episode was first broadcast…
The Mind Reels 