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…

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…

Toronto Screenwriting Conference 2016 Day 2

  The creativity and writing began early as day 2 of the Toronto Screenwriting Conference got underway this morning with showrunner Stephen Falk (Orange is the New Black, Weeds, and You’re the Worst) took to the stage to talks about how to break a season, or specifically how he and his writer’s room, break a…

The Canadian Screen Awards 2016: The Mind Reels on the Red Carpet

  Sue and I were absolutely delighted this year, when we were notified by Touchwood PR (an amazing group of smart and dedicated people who continue to help us be the best we can be) that not only would we be attending the Canadian Screen Award Galas, and Broadcast, but that we would have a…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – Guillermo del Toro

  Not sure why this one ended up in the family genre section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, but I guess, it ties in with the Wizard of Oz in terms of a fantasy world, and a young girl. Doesn’t matter, because I love sitting down and watching this one!…