The next stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is a long overdue check-in with Miyazaki, the famed writer/director who has envisioned so many incredible tales. This time around, it’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I didn’t have access to a subtitled version, so I went with the English dubbed (subtitle is ALWAYS the…
Tag: writer
Donnie Darko (2001) – Richard Kelly
The final recommendation from this visit to the Family genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is Kelly’s cult film Donnie Darko. While not necessarily suitable for younger viewers, it does involve family and a young troubled boy. This one was one of those films that while I was in the…
Toronto After Dark 2016: War On Everyone – John Micheal McDonagh
My time with the 2016 Toronto After Dark film festival got underway last night with the exceptional, brash, bold, politically incorrect, devastatingly hilarious War On Everyone. I think the only thing I would have changed about it is the name, everything else, totally worked for me. Now, as a caveat, part of the enjoyment of…
TIFF Bell Lightbox – Trek Talks Go Boldly!
TIFF Bell Lightbox continues to pull out all the stops in their celebration of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary. In support of the iconic show, the Lightbox will continue to screen episodes and all 13 films of the series, as well as a fundraiser party, and the absolutely engaging, thought-provoking and stunning lecture series called Trek…
Quantum Leap (1989) – Catch a Falling Star and A Portrait for Troian
Sam (Scott Bakula) leaps into the body of Ray Hutton, the understudy in a musical production of Man of La Mancha in Catch a Falling Star. This episode was written by Paul Brown, aired on 6 December, 1989 and was directed by Bellisario, himself. This one introduced me to the musical of La Mancha, as…
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…
Do the Right Thing (1989) – Spike Lee
Writer/director Spike Lee’s powerful drama is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of American Beauty. A powerhouse cast brings a multi-cultural street in Brooklyn to life on the hottest day of the year, as the heat builds so does the tension as hate, racism…
Looker (1981) – Michael Crichton
I love when a movie I’ve never heard of at all comes along on the lists I am working through, and as I dove into the Sci-Fi Chronicles book today, I learned Michael Crichton’s films were next on the list. He only wrote and directed a few and this one is one of them,…
Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite (2015) -Svyatoslav Podgayevskly
It’s always interesting to see what genre films look like from other countries, and this Friday at select cities across the country, and on VOD on the 19th, we can have a look at Russia’s Queen of Spades. A riff on the Bloody Mary urban legend that is seemingly as old as mankind, the…
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) – William Shatner
The next stop with the U.S.S. Enterprise according to the Sci-Fi Chronicles is the fifth film in the series, as I’d previously reviewed IV. Shatner takes the helm both as Captain James T. Kirk and as director and helped with the story as well. Big ideas get caught up in budget restrictions and less…
The Mind Reels 