To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) – Harper Lee

Countless people read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school, or couldn’t read it because people fought to get it banned. In high school, for me, it was all about Le Petit Prince and The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve had a huge hole in my literary field. But I was finally glad to fill…

The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop (2024) – Simon Ennis

The Hobby rolls a D20 for charm! Filmmaker Simon Ennis shows us the connections, the obsessions, and the passions that have sprung up around modern board games, and the people who play them. Traveling across Canada and the United States The Hobby introduces a cross-section of society and the way they can be their best…

Starman (1986) – Fatal Flaw, and Blue Lights

Paul (Robert Hays) and Scott (Christopher Daniel Barnes) are still on the hunt for Jenny Hayden in Fatal Flaw and end up helping a female pilot, Jessica (Patricia McPherson) and her father, Conrad (Kenneth Tobey). Written by Mike Gray and John Mason, this episode was first broadcast on 3 October, 1986. After an incident at…

TIFF ’23: Chuck Chuck Baby

Chuck Chuck Bay is an ebullient experience. A delightful film about love, life, loss and music which brushes against deeper and heavier themes of community, hurt and acceptance but never loses track of the joy of falling in love and how every song seems to be about you. While not quite a jukebox musical, the…

Parable of the Sower (1993) – Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction tale, that follows a young woman of colour on her quest to understand herself, the ideas of god, and the destiny of humanity. Within pages of this novel, I was completely swept up in Butler’s storytelling style, her characters, and the world she created. And here’s the thing, the world…

Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) – James Baldwin

This week sees me reading something a little different from my usual escapist fare. Recently LeVar Burton began a reading club on Fable, and while I can’t access it in Canada, they did list the first three books he was recommending, and Go Tell It on the Mountain was at the top of his list….

Millennium (1997) – Weeds, and Loin Like a Hunting Flame

Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) steps back into the darkness with another pair of episodes of Millennium this week. First up is Weeds. Written by Frank Spotnitz this story first aired on 24 January, 1997. Frank heads to a small gated community, joined by Cheryl Andrews (Cch Pounder in a return appearance), where a series of…

Chuck (2011) – Versus the Hack Off, and Versus the Curse

Zachary Levi directs this episode of Chuck, which was written by Craig DiGregorio and Alex Katsnelson. It debuted on 9 December, 2011. Both Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Lester (Vik Sahay) are in prison for their individual crimes, though Lester has the place more wired (literally) than Casey who has to deal with some problems. Meanwhile,…