Anne Brodie It’s chilly March and a pair of adventurers has set off to conquer the Appalachian Trail and its 2,200 miles or 3,500 km of wilderness. New gear and optimism drowns out a wife’s warnings and fears. The men crave adventure and feel compelled to perform this rite. Like those who climb Everest or Meru it’s
“If you took acting away from me, I’d stop breathing.” —Ingrid Bergman My mother accompanied me on a working trip to Los Angeles some years ago. She came to the screening of Isabella Rossellini’s new film and remarked how much “the girl” looked like Ingrid Bergman, her favourite actress. I told her the girl was
This provocative and incredible story of the rise of N.W.A. is worthy and well-made and signals the beginning of awards season. It’s that good. At 2 hours and 45 minutes it’s rich and dense as it follows the dramatic journey of Compton rappers N.W.A. as an expression of a politically and socially important time and
Beyond the Mask is a Revolutionary War action thriller spanning England and the New World in the years leading up to the 1776 signing of the American Declaration of Independence. Through the politics of rebellion, classism, racism and religion, it paints a picture of the struggles that beset the British making inroads into the eastern
Booboo Stewart is best known as Seth Clearwater in the Twilight Saga and he’s also one of Hollywood’s hardest working young actors. At twenty one he’s worked on 56 films and television shows. He’s a martial artist with two World Championships and a place in the Junior Blackbelt Hall of Fame, he’s a model, singer,
True to the spirit of The Odd Couple and Laurel and Hardy comes the poignantly funny limited BBC series Detectorists – not Detectives. Because Andy and Lance (Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones) are BFFs trying to make it in the lonely, rigid and Byzantine world of metal detection. And by Byzantine I mean Saxon. They’re
One of Canada’s best loved television comedians Gavin Crawford of This Hour Has 22 Minutes had his work cut out for him in Maureen Bradley’s heart tugging comedy drama Two 4 One. He plays Adam, a lesbian transitioning to become a man who is still involved with his ex- lesbian lover. And to make matters
The Finnish film Big Game is based on an outrageous idea that started as a joke between filmmakers. The US president’s plane crashes in the Finnish woods enroute to a conference. He is alone and finds himself in the midst of a far reaching conspiracy with only a young boy to help. Samuel L. Jackson
Al Pacino’s naturalism is a great gift to cinema. As an ageing locksmith afraid to retire and stuck on a woman who left him decades earlier, he lives alone in a small town. His closest friends are his cat and an addict, the owner of a local tanning/massage parlour (Harmony Korine). He behaves just like
The intense, richly detailed limited series New Worlds looks to the late 1600s, the turbulent Restoration period and the simultaneous settling and colonisation of America, the new world. It shows in its limited scope, why these events were happening at the same time, how it affected the political and religious refugees to America, the native