There are ultimately two extremes within the canon of horror cinema: those films which are focused on artistry and only use the set pieces of horror to create atmosphere, and those films which are focused on being scary without much artistic flair. Christian Hallman’s Sensoria manages to bring these two extremes together by being neither artistic nor scary, resulting in something that just seems to exist for about an hour and twenty minutes. I considered using…
The works of people like Norman McLaren (Pas de Deux, Ballet Adagio, Narcissus) and Wim Wenders (Pina) have shown that ballet can be useful subject matter for beautiful cinema. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, this pleasurable quality somehow cannot find its way into documentaries. The most recent example of this failure to showcase ballet in the genre is A Ballerina’s Tale, Nelson George’s portrait of noted ballerina Misty Copeland – the first African-American woman to be…
Allow me to preface this by disclosing my biases: I have a strong love for Canadian cinema and coming-of-age stories, and I truly believe that Canada perfected the coming-of-age story. That being said, Philippe Lesage’s Les Démons is a fitting addition to this obscure canon.
Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights trilogy is an interesting project if only because its tone is inconsistent without harming the films. In fact, that inconsistency is what makes this project often work.
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Hitchcock/Truffaut is a perfect example of a book-to-film adaptation that has been made to relieve viewers from having to read. It’s a SparkNotes version of the eponymous book, taking bits and pieces of the writing and spacing it out with interviews so movie goers will be distracted from the lack of attention in the production.
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi What do you get when you mix together the worst parts of modern royalsploitation, teenage “girls just wanna have fun” cinema, and a hint of “war is bad, but support the troops”? Julian Jarrold’s insipid A Royal Night Out, the sort of imperialistic romantic comedy that would turn a hopeless romantic into a hardened cynic!
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Requiem for the American Dream does not have anything new to say if the viewer is familiar with Noam Chomsky’s ideas, but watching one of our greatest minds speak is always a treat.
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi The Blood in the Snow Film Festival has returned to offer us a respite from the cold. Unfortunately, this year’s short film picks are disheartening – viewers may be better off wandering the streets and suffering from frostbite. I appreciate this festival for its attention to Canadian cinema, I really do, but this year’s batch of short films feature the sort of films that make Canadians badmouth their own cinema. The majority of these films…
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Kilo Two Bravo may have surprised me, but Paul Katis’ film would have ultimately been better if it ditched the first and third acts. There is nothing new about the setup of this film: it is yet another bit of neo-white man’s burden propaganda which shows the importance of war while almost completely erasing the local victims of the aggression. It is only in the second act that the film finds its bearings – turning…
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi The Winnipeg-based Astron-6 film collective has made a career out of churning out 1980s-inspired pastiches, so it was only a matter of time before they gave giallo – the Italian horror subgenre that is equal parts noir and splatter – their treatment with The Editor. Here, the hero is a film editor with a tragic past who makes a living editing exploitation films. As he edits the film-within-a-film, life imitates art and several of…