TIFF24: K-Pops dir. Anderson .Paak

Anderson .Paak stars and directs alongside his son, Soul Rasheed in a formulaic but incredibly energetic and entertaining family comedy filled with lots of tunes. BJ ( .Paak) is a drummer who fell for Yeji (Jee Young Han) but couldn’t choose between a real romance and possibly more and his music career, which never seems…

TIFF ’23: Sleep

Midnight Madness at TIFF is always a lot of fun, and some great genre films get scheduled that are designed to deliver to the late-night audience. Sleep hopes to do that this week. A Korean entry to the film festival from writer/director Jason Yu. It’s his first feature film, and Yu creates a tense, moody…

M*A*S*H (1983) – Strange Bedfellows, Say No More, and Friends and Enemies

Mike Farrell gets behind the camera and settles into the director’s chair again in Strange Bedfellows which was written by Karen Hall and debuted on 10 January, 1983. Charles (David Ogden Stiers) is suffering from a seasonal allergy and his snoring is keeping both Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Farrell) awake. It’s complicated by the…

M*A*S*H (1981) – Oh, How We Danced, Bottoms Up, and The Red/White Blues

Oh, How We Danced written by John Rappaport, and with an original airdate of 23 February, 1981, has a fantastic A-story, that really touches the heart (even as it messes with series continuity), and a completely forgettable B-story. The B-story first then. Charles (David Ogden Stiers) delivers a substandard sanitation rating to a nearby American…

TIFF 2021: Hellbound dir. Yeon Sang-ho

Director Yeon Sang-ho, who staked his claim in international pop culture with his fantastic zombie film, Train to Busan, not to mention it’s animated prequel, and follow-up sequel, helms Hellbound, already picked up by Netflix, a supernatural procedural series based on his online digital cartoon, The Hell. Screening at TIFF the first three episodes are…

M*A*S*H (1973) – Major Fred C. Dobbs, Ceasefire, and Showtime

Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) push Frank Burns (Larry Linville) just a little too far after he rails out a nurse in Major Fred C. Dobbs. Written by Sid Dorfman, this episode, with a nod to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the title, first aired on 11 March, 1973. Burns goes…

MASH (1970) – Robert Altman

“And then there was Korea…” Robert Altman’s classic war comedy, MASH, is the first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Apocalypse Now. The movie remains very funny, and it’s anti-war commentary is just as important today. That being said, this is not the MASH I grew…