The Gift you weren’t expecting
Aussie actor Joel Edgerton creates a kooky mixture of thoughtful psychodrama and cheesy horror in this interesting examination of the ghosts that haunt us from high school
Extra! Extra! There are still a few stories in the naked city
Newspapers may be fading to black, but there's still gold in those grey pages, you just have to pan with patience
By Rod Mickleburgh
As regular readers know by now, I remain a big fan of newspapers, despite their ever-diminishing state. Why, just this week, I found all sorts of goodies distributed among their varied pages. The treasures are still there. You just have to look a bit harder and be a bit more patient these days. So I thought I would share a few.
1. I hadn’t quite realized before that the state most affected by climate change is not media-saturated, rain-starved California, but, of course, Alaska. So far, this summer, wildfires have burned through more than 20,000 square kilometres of Alaskan forestry, a swath larger than all of Connecticut. Other bad stuff, too. An excellent story from Saturday’s Vancouver Sun, written by the Washington Post’s environment reporter, Chris Mooney. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2...
What I learned at TIFF’s Filmmaker Boot Camp
Making the transition from ink-stained journalist to first-time filmmaker feels like seeing the world from the other side of a two-way mirror
By Katherine Monk
TORONTO — “Did you know everything already?” asked Cameron Bailey, artistic director for the Toronto International Film Festival, looking way too good (as always) for a man who is chronically sleep deprived this time of year.
The answer was a wonderfully wishy-washy “yes, and no.” After being a career journalist for 25 years, and after covering TIFF since 1993, when it was still called the Festival of Festivals, the idea of “learning the ropes” could have felt a little remedial.
After all, I do know what a publicist does, and I know what sales agents do, and I know personal handlers have a dominant obnoxious gene that has yet to be mapped. I’ve been writing about the film industry for so long, I’ve pretty much seen it — and done it — all.
But as I learned at ...
Making the most of a midsummer harvest
Corn and scallion salad with cilantro-mint dressing can make even the most humble produce sing with an elegant and tangy sweetness, as long as you don't overcook the corn
By Louise Crosby
I’m taking my shopping cart on wheels to the farmers market these days because the vegetables I’m bringing home are large and heavy. It’s August, and the carrots, beets and potatoes are no longer baby-size, the cauliflower and broccoli are hefty, chard comes in big ruffly bundles, and cabbages are the size of footballs. Then of course there is fresh corn, and when you’re hauling home a dozen ears at a time, two or three times a week, you don’t want to be carrying them in your arms.
Corn season is finally here and we’re getting our fill, usually just boiled for a couple of minutes then dressed with butter and the finest sea salt in the world, Fleur de sel de Guérande. As you will know, fresh corn is also delicious creamed and served as a side, added to soups and chowders, and ...
Canadian Must-Sees: Cinema Verité Defines a Real Moment
Late, and undeniably great, documentary director Peter Wintonick not only chronicled the rise of a new cinematic day in non-fiction film, he traced its roots all the way back to the New World and the camera work of Michel Brault
CINEMA VERITE: DEFINING THE MOMENT
4/5
Directed by: Peter Wintonick
Running time: 102 minutes
A documentary about the pivotal shift in documentary film, Cinema Verité follows the evolution of static, institutional non-fiction film into a flowing -- and often shaky -- vehicle of artistic expression.
Montreal-based filmmaker Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent) opens this slick yet sedate take on film history with a shot of Terrence Macartney-Filgate -- regarded as the pioneer of the Candid Eye series -- sitting on a Toronto streetcar with a digital camera, filming Wintonick’s crew as they are filming him. It’s a wonderfully reflective image that captures the essence of the self-conscious movement and sets up the history ...
Canadian Must-Sees: The Apprencticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Ted Kotcheff's adaptation of Mordecai Richler's CanLit classic brought a hint of Hollywood to the wilderness of Canadian cinema, blazing a trail for the next generation of storytellers looking to bring a slightly different eye to the Canadian experience
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ (1974)
4/5
Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctôt, Denholm Elliot, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Joe Silver.
Running time: 121 minutes
One of the first movies I can remember that actually showed me where I lived, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz somehow legitimized the Canadian experience to Canadians -- and somewhat ironically, made a bona fide star out of its American lead in the process.
Richard Dreyfuss plays Duddy Kravitz, a character born from the imagination of the late, Montreal-based shit-disturber, Mordecai Richler. Duddy is part weasel, part brass-balled hero, which means we have a love-hate relationship with him throughout the ...
