22 Jump Street (2014) – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

With some sly remarks about sequels, more of the same, but bigger, 22 Jump Street takes Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) to college. Once again, the film walks a fine line between raunchy/silly comedy to delivering a commentary on relationships, bromance, and box-office budgets. When the pair are shipped off to college for…

American Fiction (2023) – Cord Jefferson

I’m a little upset that I didn’t go to see this one when it screened at TIFF, but I was very happy that this was a film that my partner and I could watch together, and we greatly enjoyed it. But it’s Jeffrey Wright, the man can do anything, and play anything, and he brings…

Dead Heat (1988) – Mark Goldblatt

I never saw the trailer for Dead Heat when it came out, if I had, I may have seen it a lot sooner. Everytime I saw the poster art at the video store I thought it just looked too silly and without sounding too harsh, I was never a Joe Piscopo fan. So I finally…

Polite Society (2023) – Nida Manzoor

Polite Society is an enjoyable action comedy with strong female characters involved in a wonderfully melodramatic tale. The story follows a young Pakistani woman, Ria (Priya Kansara) who dreams of being a stuntwoman, and who idolizes her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), who is experiencing a tough time after leaving art school because she she…

It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023) – Tyler MacIntyre

With a title like It’s a Wonderful Knife, you can tell already what kind of film this is going to be. It plays on the classic Capra film, turns it into a horror movie, and also includes a lot of laughs. It has a solid cast and may become a new holiday favourite for horror…

Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) – Eli Craig

Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk star in this horror-comedy that puts the murderous hillbilly horror trope on its ear. A group of annoying college kids, led by Allison (Katrina Bowden) and Chad (Jesse Moss) are headed up into the woods for a weekend of debauchery but are extremely creeped out when they come across a…

Scrooged (1988) – 4K

The endlessly quotable (‘The night the reindeer died’ stays with me!) Bill Murray holiday film, Scrooged hits 4K from Paramount Pictures just in time for the holidays. A riff on the classic Dickens’ tale, A Christmas Carol, Bill Murray brings the laughs in this delightful film helmed by the legendary Richard Donner. Murray plays Frank…

TIFF ’23: Hell of a Summer

Long-time friends Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk share directing, producing, writing and starring credits in their enjoyable and goofy riff on camp slasher films. It’s summer, and Camp Pineaway is gearing up for another round of campers and counsellors. In fact, the counsellors gather the weekend before camp opens to prepare, get reacquainted, drunk, high,…