Smallville (2005/2006) – Lexmas, and Fanatic

We got the Halloween episode a short time ago, and that was pretty bad. How’s the Smallville episode? It’s a riff on the Ebenezer Scrooge/Wonderful Life tale. Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) is shot and ends up in a coma, and while in that state he discovers a happy life that he could have, if he doesn’t…

TIFF24: A Missing Part dir. Guillaume Senez

Senez delivers a moving drama that examines familial connections against the backdrop of Tokyo and Japan’s clean break policy when it comes to family separation. Jay (Romain Duris in a role that allows him to deliver a stellar performance) drives a cab at night, while he spends his days trying to find the daughter he…

Legend (1985) – Ridley Scott

Monsters in the Movies, the fantastic book by director John Landis from DK Canada moves on to the next chapter. Leaving mummies behind, I know turn my attention to Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales, a widely populated region and I couldn’t think of a better place to start with it than Ridley Scott’s dreamlike take…

Trouble In Paradise (1932) – Ernst Lubitsch

As I turn to the next title in DK Canada’s brilliant, The Movie Book, I realised it was a film I had already seen, To Be or Not To Be, so it was off to the What Else to Watch list, and here were a number of films I had never taken in. The first…

Toronto After Dark 2017: Impossible Horror – Justin Decloux

Having its world premiere tonight at Scotiabank Theatre as part of the Toronto After Dark film festival is this odd and strange film shot here in Toronto. With a runtime of just over an hour, there isn’t a lot to it, and at times it seems experimental, while at others, to paraphrase one of the…

The Talisman (1984) – Stephen King and Peter Straub

There are very few Stephen King novels I haven’t read, and even as I revisit the occasional one, I realised that I had never finished The Talisman. A copy of this book was a Christmas gift to my Mom the year it came out. She read it first, and I was next in line to…

Quantum Leap (1991) – Justice and Permanent Wave

Sam (Scott Bakula) is less than happy to find where he has leaped to in Justice. Penned by Toni Graphia and with an original airdate of 9 October, 1991, Sam is Clyde, and he’s just been inducted into the Klu Klux Klan – people who stand for everything Sam’s family taught him to fight. It’s…