Alan Thicke, in one of his final roles, is exceptional as self-help guru Patrick Spencer in It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway. As Spencer, Thicke is expected to peddle encouraging apathy with a smile – using nothing more than charisma to make his pitch. To think countless hosting gigs and ironic cameos didn’t prepare the entertainer for this movie would be foolish.
Goon: Last of the Enforcers is the sequel to Goon, the surprisingly successful 2011 indie-comedy about a bouncer from Massachusetts named Doug Glatt (played by Seann William Scott) who begins a career as an enforcer for a minor-league hockey team in Halifax. In the new film, six years have passed. Doug and his love interest, Eva (Alison Pill), are now married and expecting a child but their happiness is complicated by injuries and rival players…
The original Goon (2011) was a special thing: an indie sports-comedy that was funny without being over-the-top, and heartfelt without being outright cheesy. It was also indisputably Canadian without relying on stereotypes or clichés. The film made the audience care about Doug (Seann William Scott), a dim-witted but kind bouncer from Massachusetts who uses his better-than-average brawling skills to become a professional enforcer for a minor-league hockey team in Halifax. We were invested in his…
What is a settler? An extremist? A visionary fulfilling a spiritual mission? A murderer? An invader? According to the most basic definition offered by Shimon Dotan’s The Settlers, a settler is someone who has built their home “in an area over which the State of Israel has no sovereignty”.
Kevan Funk’s Hello Destroyer, a complicated and clinical disclosure of the underlying traumas associated with hockey, was well-received at TIFF last year for a good reason: there aren’t many films brave enough to de-mythologize Canada’s national sport.
Comedians have it good. Just recently, they were given a master class by multiple jokesters in Dying Laughing, a doc that gave an up-close-and-personal view of comedy. Now, they can watch The Last Laugh, a terrific documentary about how soon is “too soon”.
Blood, Sand and Gold is touted as a low-budget blockbuster. The globetrotting adventure was made for $258,000 in less than two months, and it doesn’t show. The film isn’t modest (lavish scenery and accessories hog the screen), but the production does a commendable job disguising itself. In spite of cutting costs, Blood, Sand and Gold is still 24 karat schlock.
Window Horses, Ann Marie Fleming’s feature adaptation of her graphic novel, is an evocative stream of consciousness through history, art, and culture.
