First contact. The interpretation of words. How we communicate both person to person, and mass media. The very perception of our existence. These are all at work in Canadian director Villeneuve’s latest film. A hard science fiction tale that eschews lasers and space battles for deeper concepts like the way we interact and understand one…
Tag: fear
Vertigo (1958) – Alfred Hitchcock
Perhaps one of Hitchcock’s best films, Vertigo, is next on the list of recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. With the combined star power of James Stewart and Kim Novak, this romantic thriller defines obsession as well as fear. Stewart is John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson a San Francisco police detective on…
Crash (2004) – Paul Haggis
Walking away with the Academy Awards for Best Picture (controversially – as Brokeback Mountain was the presumptive winner), Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, writer/director Paul Haggis’ tale of a cross-section of denizens of Los Angeles, tied together by race, loss and redemption come together in Crash, my next recommendation from the Great Movies…
Batman: The Animated Series (1997) – Cold Comfort, Never Fear and You Scratch My Back
Freeze (Michael Ansara) is back in the first episode of the Batman: Animated Series this week. This one aired originally on 12 October 1997. When last we saw him, he was stuck in an iceberg with his still ill and frozen wife, but now he’s back, and Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Batgirl (Tara Strong)…
Prodigy (2013) – Marie Lu
It’s back to the realm of Legend, as I dive into the second book of the young adult trilogy by Marie Lu. The dystopian world Lu creates, brings me back to a torn United States, divided almost in two by the Republic and the Colonies, it plunges me back into the lives of Day…
The Trap (2015) – Melanie Raabe
There is an immediacy to Melanie Raabe’s debut novel, The Trap, which sees its English release this week, via House of Anansi Press here in Toronto. Translated from German the captivating tale draws the reader into the world that she has created, much as her character, author Linda Conrads, is drawn into the situations…
Batman: The Animated Series (1992) – The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy, Perchance to Dream, and The Underdwellers
It’s time to head back to Gotham for another trio of episodes featuring the Caped Crusader (Kevin Conroy). These three stories oiginally aired on 14th, 19th, and 21st of October, 1992, respectively. Up first is The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy! Batman may have his hands full when he encounters a trap designer who has…
Doctor Who (Tom Baker) – The Sontaran Experiment
This week we take on the shortest Doctor Who story in the 1970s. This two-parter was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin and aired from 22 February to 1 March, 1975. Tying in with the previous story, The Ark in Space, the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah-Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) transmit down to the Earth…
Fringe Toronto: OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Darryl
Much to my shame, I’ve never attended a show at Toronto’s Fringe Festival – until now! Tim applied and acquired media passes for us, so even though I am working full time this week, I’m still trying to get to a show every night I still have available, and have already made a mental…
Inside Out (2015) – Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen
Pixar has a strong track record, and I’m eager to see each of their films as they get released, all I knew about this one before going into it was that it dealt with a young girl’s emotions, we would be inside the character… And what Pixar has given us is a beautiful and…
