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Film

Globetrotting – Toronto

This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive. By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, November 2004 Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith, Blue Rodeo and many more have called Canada’s largest city home.  Toronto is located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and was originally populated by the Seneca and Mississauga First Nations peoples.  It became a point of European settlement, starting with the French setting up a fort in the early seventeenth century.  By the late eighteenth century, the British had colonized and named… Read More »Globetrotting – Toronto

Roadkill

This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive. By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, October 2004 Rating: ★★★★ (4.0/5) Starring Valerie Buhagiar and Don McKeller Written by Don McKeller & Bruce McDonald Roadkill is part of a rock ‘n’ roll trilogy.  This film was the beginning.  Bruce McDonald’s story and Don McKellar’s screenplay became an immediate classic Canadian film. Ramona (Valerie Buhagiar) was born and bred in Toronto.  Having lived in a big city and never really travelled, she had never even learned how to drive. … Read More »Roadkill

Wonderwall

  Between 1968 and 1975, George Harrison released six albums on the Beatles’ record label, Apple. The first record Harrison released was called Wonderwall Music, it was the soundtrack to a film directed by Joe Massot called Wonderwall. Maybe I should watch this film then. Wonderwall tells the story of obsession. A scientist is obsessed with his work. His life revolves around it and he doesn’t notice anything around him. Not his coworkers, not his apartment. He lives amongst the stacks of papers that line the walls of his apartment. Suddenly, in a rage, Professor Collins knocks a frame off his wall, exposing a hole. Through this hole he spies in… Read More »Wonderwall

Her

Her. Wow. It’s hard to write a review about a film that is just so plainly good. Spike Jonze’s latest film is about a man unable to let go of his past. He’s living a lonely life, until one day a new operating system is released, and he finds companionship and love in his new artificial intelligence. Her is an insanely beautiful love story between man and machine. It’s told extremely effectively, and Jonze proves once again that he is a master storyteller. Jonze hits screenwriter gold, where every piece of the film falls perfectly in place to advance the story. He excels at crafting this complex, but simple concept.

Llewyn performs

Inside Llewyn Davis

I was excited. I was going to the cinema for the first time in a while to see the new Spike Jonze film, Her. It was sold out. Instead we opted to see the new Joel & Ethan Coen film called Inside Llewyn Davis. Bit of a break down. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a folk singer. Davis is down on his luck. Davis is broke. Davis is couch surfing. Davis’s performing parter is not around. His debut solo record Inside Llewyn Davis isn’t selling. The film is a rock and roll road trip film. Except replace the rock and roll with folk, and make the road trip a minor part of the… Read More »Inside Llewyn Davis

Don Jon

There are only a few things I really care about in life My body My pad My ride My family My church My boys My girls and my porn.” Joseph Gordon-Dreamboat has been building quite an acting career. With Don Jon, he makes his feature-length directorial debut. Not only that, Gordon-Levitt also wrote the screenplay. Warning alarms should be going off, but he’s proven himself to be an intelligent man. When he was promoting (500) Days of Summer, Gordon-Levitt was well aware of something it seemed most of the audience wasn’t, that his character was chasing a dream, and thus treating the woman, Summer, with unrealistic expectations. Something which is so… Read More »Don Jon

Born Standing Up and The Jerk

I decided to read Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up. The book focuses on Martin’s career as a stand up comedian. It’s a strange thing to think of when it comes to Steve Martin, as he stopped performing stand up comedy before I was born. The book starts at his young days learning the craft while working at Disney Land in the magic shop, and slowing follows his career. The book is more than just a plain telling of his story, one that I don’t think had been told before, but instead Martin is writing a how-to for stand up comedians. Martin began, not as a comedian, but an entertainer,… Read More »Born Standing Up and The Jerk

Prisoners

TIFF 2013; or how I learned to queue

Prisoners You may have heard of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal who star in Prisoners, but you probably haven’t heard of Denis Villeneuve, unless you’re weird like me and enjoy uncomfortable but intelligent Quebec film.Villeneuve is probably most famous for his Oscar nominated Incendies or his docudrama about the École Polytechnique massacre appropriately called Polytechnique. Prisoners is Villeneuve’s first English-language film, and the first example of… If you want to make money, go English. In this film, two families are celebrating Thanksgiving. Their two young daughters go missing… UH OH! You think that’s the events getting bad, you’re mistaken; things go from bad to worse. Gyllenhaal plays the cop searching for the girls; he provides… Read More »TIFF 2013; or how I learned to queue

Carol Marcus

The Valkyrie Directive

For those who have seen the new Star Trek films, you’re aware of how poorly women are portrayed. As far as I can recall, we have Uhura, and… and… and… oh, there’s the green girl who Kirk bones, and Carol Marcus who seems to only be in the film to show her in her underwear. I was going to put that shot in my blog post. I decided it against it, and instead will feature a shot of the original Carol Marcus, a scientist, and mother, an ex-love, a human… Why I mention this is because The Valkyrie Directive is actually looking at women in Star Trek critically, and it’s… Read More »The Valkyrie Directive

In Review July 2013

My goal is to read 5 books, see 20 films, buy 20 albums, go to 15 concerts and attend 3 plays in the second half of 2013. I’m not doing great at my goal. Books I’ve read (0/5): Films I’ve seen (4/20): Cars 2 Children of Men Cherry 2000 Much Ado About Nothing Albums I’ve bought (0/20): Concerts I’ve attended (1/15): Poor Pilgrim Island Show Plays I’ve attended (0/3):