Power Rangers
By: Nick Ferwerda How do you take one of the cheesiest television shows of all time and turn it into a solid standalone movie? Believe it or not, but Power Rangers does a commendable job at doing so.
2017
Canadian Film Fest ’17: #AnAmericanDream
Ken Finkleman (of CBC’s cult hit The Newsroom) wryly lampoons streamlined success in #AnAmericanDream.
Canadian Film Fest ’17: Filth City
Budding filmmaker Andy King has been in hot water with former Toronto councillor Doug Ford, the brother of late mayor Rob Ford who was caught up in worldwide controversy involving drug use caught on tape. The plot of King’s feature Filth City is centred around a belligerent, frantic mayor searching for a video that captures his illicit drug binging at a house party – you can see why Doug is a little mad.
It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway
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.
Wylie Writes’ Two-On-One with Wyatt Russell and Marc-André Grondin
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…
Goon: Last of the Enforcers
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…
The Settlers
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”.
Hello Destroyer
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.
The Last Laugh
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”.