TIFF24: The Last Showgirl dir. Gia Coppola

Pamela Anderson delivers a career-topping performance as Shelley an aging Vegas showgirl, whose show, Razzle Dazzle, is closing, bringing her thirty-year career to a grinding stop. Directed by Gia Coppola whose use of shallow focus lenses keeps the story on Shelley at all times, the tale looks honestly at aging and beauty in not only…

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – 4K Review

Stanley Kramer’s funny, provocative, and poignant Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner from 1967 has been a hole in my viewing history for far too long. With the arrival of Sony’s release of Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4, I was able to remedy that, and I was finally able to settle in and…

Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond (2023) – Henry Winkler

I was lucky enough to meet Henry Winkler once at one of Toronto’s Fan Expo, and he was as friendly and charming as I would have wanted him to be. And I didn’t get to tell him, but when I was a kid, living in CFB North Bay, I would ride my little yellow banana…

TIFF’23: Knox Goes Away

I’ve said it before, and I know I’ll say it again. I love a good noir, and Knox Goes Away directed by and starring, Micheal Keaton may be one of my new favourites. making fantastic use of his framing, lighting, score and production, Knox Goes Away, despite its modern trappings, feels like a throwback to…

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) – Alfred Hitchock

It’s time for a little more Hitchcock as I dive into another old favourite, Shadow of a Doubt starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. A coming-of-age tale with a twist of murder, this film remains completely captivating thanks to the direction, the leading and the wonderful supporting cast which are all recognisable to anyone who…

Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Stuart Rosenberg

Paul Newman is Cool Hand Luke, the next title up for watching as I delve into the What Else to Watch list of DK Canada’s The Movie Book following my screening of The Shawshank Redemption. Featuring an all-star cast including George Kennedy (who took home Best Supporting Oscar), Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper (though I…

Yellow Earth (1984) – Kaige Chen

The What Else to Watch list from DK Canada’s The Movie Book is always filled with great selections, and today I dig into selections following my screening of Raise the Red Lantern. Yellow Earth is a somewhat familiar tale, as it follows a young Communist soldier, Cuiqiao (Bai Xue) in 1939 China. He has been…

Space: 1999 (1977) – The Immunity Syndrome, and The Dorcons

This is it, the last week of Space: 1999, and while some of it has been very good, and a number of stories showed some promise, the series, as a whole, has not weathered the decades as well as it could have. The penultimate episode is The Immunity Syndrome (not to be confused with the…

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Complete Series

It’s here! Amassed in one small slip-case, the adventures of Aang (Zach Tyler), the Last Airbender – The Complete Series comes to blu-ray for the first time. Over the course of 9 discs and 66 episodes the brilliant, and beloved Nickelodeon series comes home in the perfect collection. Included in the set are a mass…