Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.One of the fondest memories I have of my late Uncle Larry was of him taking my younger brother and me to see movies that he absolutely hated. To please his tasteless nephews, Uncle Larry sat through...
Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.If someone out there is enjoying 2021, it’s probably filmmakers Joe Penna and Ryan Morrison. I have no window into the men’s personal lives, but given their filmography, the two really have a thing for misery and...
In a few years’ time, we’ll look back on the 2021 Academy Awards and laugh. What a fascinating spectacle to behold in the midst of . But as distinctly strange as this year’s Oscar season has been, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in prognosticating...
Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.Well, they got the title right: Chaos Walking is a complete mess of a movie, resulting in one of the most egregious wastes of resources and talent in recent Hollywood history. But before we get into exactly...
Ahead of Hollywood’s biggest, strangest night, Globe Film Editor Barry Hertz and Bigger Picture columnist Johanna Schneller battle over what the 2021 Academy Awards have to offer an industry, and an audience, in a year of unprecedented on- and off-screen dramaBarry Hi Johanna! So, this year’s Oscars are going to...
Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.I’m not a religious man, but living in Toronto circa 2021 can do strange things to a person. So: thank the almighty or whom/whatever for The Mitchells vs. The Machines.The advance media screener for the new film...
Last weekend, no one watched the Grammys.Well, not no one. But few enough that if the Grammys was a bricks-and-mortar business, they’d be thinking about hiring someone to torch the place.About 9 million Americans tuned in. Last year, it was 19 million. Five years ago, it was 26 million.The Golden...
This year’s supremely strange Academy Awards are about many things. The rise of streaming services. The long-overdue recognition of diverse artists telling diverse stories. The absolute upside-down disruption of Hollywood business. But there is another, knottier issue hiding in plain sight: China, and its iron grip on the future of...
Chances are that, if you’ve seen any films this year, it’s been from safety of your home and not in theatres, which closed or had strict capacity limits through the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services are set to dominate this year’s Academy Awards: Netflix is leading with 35 nominations (10 of...
Officially, this year’s National Canadian Film Day arrives Wednesday. But you could just as easily make the case that this past Monday marked the real celebration, given how much attention the federal budget paid to aiding the country’s film industry.First the good news, because there is a surprisingly large amount...
Alma Wahlberg, the mother of entertainers Mark and Donnie Wahlberg and a regular on their reality series Wahlburgers, has died, her sons said on social media Sunday. She was 78.“My angel. Rest in peace,” Mark Wahlberg tweeted.Donnie Wahlberg posted a longer tribute to his mother on his Instagram account.“It’s time...
You’ve seen Luke Kirby before.I mean, yes, you’ve seen him in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, where his Emmy-winning portrayal of Lenny Bruce is all studied grace: physical ticks, deadpan delivery and a devil-may-care eye-glint that bring the comedy legend to life. You’ve also recently seen him in The Deuce, where...
On the internet, the meme-ready phrase “live, laugh, love” is used to pass millennial judgment on things shallow or basic. It conjures images of tacky inspirational posters and moms who live for wine o’clock. But it can be equally comforting, knowing that a simple, consistent thing can bring joy. I...
Let’s not lie to ourselves: There is something distinctly sad about celebrating the second virtual-only National Canadian Film Day.When Reel Canada, the non-profit organization behind NCFD, was forced to go digital for its seventh edition last spring instead of the 1,000 real-deal screenings it had planned, I was expecting the...
Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.“Chinatown is an institution created by racism.” It is a phrase plainly stated early in Chinatown Rising. It’s said with neither malice nor controversy; it’s a simple fact. With that history in mind, this revelatory documentary captures...
The Nova Scotia businessman and Canadian art philanthropist Donald R. Sobey died Wednesday at the age of 86, the Empire Company announced.Sobey, the namesake of the Sobey Art Award and a noted donor to the visual arts, devoted his professional career to his family’s grocery business, but expressed a lifelong...
In the wartime Canadian comic Pat the Air Cadet, the feisty heroine flies planes and decks Nazis. The illustrator who drew this inspiring figure was also a pioneer: Doris Slater Titus was the first Canadian woman to illustrate a commercial comic book – and also an experimental abstract painter who...
A bearded seaman awakes to find his boat trapped in sea ice and climbs out into a white world full of unfamiliar threats including falling trees and a polar bear. He is about to succumb to this hostile new environment when he spies a cabin promising heat and light.Is that...
Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.What drugs is Ben Wheatley on, and how can I ensure that I never, ever accidentally ingest any myself? This was my primary concern while watching the British filmmaker’s In the Earth, a phantasmagoric experiment in folk-horror...