Toronto After Dark 2017: The Villainess – Byung-gil Jung

The hyper-kinetic assassin thriller The Villainess, has it’s Toronto premiere this evening at Toronto After Dark, screening exclusively at Scotiabank Theatre. This South Korean film is nothing short of a high-octane thriller that recalls Besson’s La Femme Nikita with overtones of Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Ok-bin Kim stars as Sook-hee, a violent woman with a violent…

The Day of Wrath (1943) – Carl Theodor Dreyer

DK Books’ The Movie Book continues to let me explore the works of Carl Theodor Dreyer, as I dive into the 1943 film, The Day of Wrath. This one is on the What Else to Watch list following my screening of The Passion of Joan of Arc. Just like Arc, there is a lot of…

Dune Messiah (1969) – Frank Herbert

A substantially shorter novel than the first book in the series, Dune Messiah is on the Book Shelf this week. Published four years after Dune, Messiah is set twelve years after the events that saw Paul Atreides become Emperor, marry a princess in name only, and his Fremen launched their jihad on the galaxy. Paul…

The Accusation (2017) – Bandi

Due out this week from Anansi Press is this beautiful collection of stories, the first fiction to come out of North Korea. They say write what you know, and while I recognise that these stories are fiction, they have their roots in the real world, and as such, give the reader a fascinating glance inside…

Mad Max (1979) – George Miller

A twenty-one year old Mel Gibson put the pedal to the metal and rocketed to first cult, and then international fame alongside George Miller with the thrilling, verge of the apocalypse (which was to come between films), action-packed Mad Max, which is my next stop with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Civilisation is crumbling in Australia,…

TIFF Bell Lightbox – Trek Talks Physics!

The celebrations around the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek continues at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Not only are the screenings continuing, classic episodes and all the theatrical releases, but a number of Trek Talks have been scheduled between now and the beginning of December. This evening’s event may have edged out the previous two as…

Batman: The Movie (1966) – Leslie H. Martinson

  The Sci-Fi Chronicles book continues to give me tons of awesome things to watch or re-watch, seeing them in a new way. I’m definitely not the film reviewer I was when I was 20 (I wasn’t even blogging then), nor am I the same writer that I was when we started the blog (almost…