BFFs, LOLs, LIKES, RETWEETs and MURDER. The Toronto After Dark film festival comes to a close this evening at Scotibank Theatre with the Toronto premiere of the exceptional dark comedy, Tragedy Girls. A Heathers for the cyber age, the film follows two students and best friends, Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) who are…
Tag: police
Fear (2017) – Dirk Kurbjuweit
Hitting trade paperback on Canadian book shelves this week is this engrossing thriller penned by German author Dirk Kurbjuweit. A captivating tale the novel explores themes of love, family, perceptions of masculinity, and the rule of law. The novel opens with a murder. And a confession. For months Randolph Tiefenthaler and his wife, Rebecca and…
Street Angel (1928) – Frank Borzage
The next film on the What Else to Watch list following the recommendation of Murnau’s Sunrise in DK Book’s engaging and informative The Movie Book is Street Angel from 1928. Set in Naples, Janet Gaynor plays Angela, a young woman turned prostitute to pay her rent. Trouble rears its head though when she is arrested…
Strike (1925) – Sergei M. Eisenstein
DK Book’s The Movie Book guides me through What Else to Watch following Battleship Potemkin. The first film up is Eisenstein’s silent film, Strike. During the rule of the Czar, the workers of a factory organise a strike after one of their own hangs himself having being falsely accused of theft. However, neither staff nor…
Battleship Potemkin (1925) – Sergei M. Eisenstein
DK Book’s The Movie Book brings me the next big title they highly recommended, Eisenstein’s seminal Battleship Potemkin. Running at a lean 76 minutes the story follows the crew of the titular ship during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The crew stage a mutiny against the ship’s officers who rule with tyranny, events spin out…
A Corner in Wheat (1909) – D.W. Griffith
As I continue digging further into DK Book’s The Movie Book, I move onto the work of D.W. Griffith. I had previously reviewed his epic film, Intolerance, and have moved onto his key works. Listed first is A Corner in Wheat, a short from 1909. This film is as stunningly relevant today as it was…
Predator 2 (1990) – Stephen Hopkins
Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Bill Paxton, Robert Davi, Maria Conchita Alonso and Ruben Blades are in the sights of an alien in Predator 2, the next stop as I close in on the end of the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Following on the trail of the original 1987 film, Predator 2 is a bit of a…
Quantum Leap (1992) – Killin’ Time and Star Light, Star Bright
Sam (Scott Bakula) is in for an interesting ride this week in Killin’ Time. Written by Tommy Thompson with an original airdate of 20 October, 1992, Sam finds himself in the person of Leon Styles, a violent escaped convict on 18 June, 1958. He’s troubled by the fact that Al (Dean Stockwell) hasn’t shown up…
Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Martin Scorsese
A recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of Bonnie and Clyde is this 1972 Scorsese picture that he made while he was learning at Roger Corman’s studio. A fictionalised account of the Bertha Thompson (Barbara Hershey) the film follows the transient and who became a labour organiser…
Mad Max (1979) – George Miller
A twenty-one year old Mel Gibson put the pedal to the metal and rocketed to first cult, and then international fame alongside George Miller with the thrilling, verge of the apocalypse (which was to come between films), action-packed Mad Max, which is my next stop with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Civilisation is crumbling in Australia,…
The Mind Reels 