year : 2022 11 results

Too many heroes are still forgotten, even on Remembrance Day

Column: Mickleburgh Over the years, there have been numerous books and documentaries about the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, but at a time when there is such ongoing acknowledgement of Canada’s past historical wrongs, they remain forgotten at Remembrance Day ceremonies, ignored by Veterans’ Affairs. Even the Legion. By Rod Mickleburgh It’s been a while since I attended the main Remembrance Day ceremony at Victory Square in downtown Vancouver, opting instead for the quieter, less grand but no less meaningful remembrance at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial from World War One in Stanley Park. Surrounded by trees, their leaves tinged with autumn, there is a sense of peace that appeals to me, along with the reminder of the shameful internment of 23,000 Japanese Canadians during World War Two. But this year we bypassed both and went to Mountain View Cemetery for two very different commemorations that pinpointed individual veterans in a way large ceremonies cannot. We ...
4Score

Moonage Daydream conjures David Bowie’s creative spirit via cinematic spell

Movie review: Moonage Daydream Stripping away the sycophantic commentary that often accompanies biographical exercises, Brett Morgen's Moonage Daydream quietly  opens the portal to David Bowie's central creative vessel: Himself.
3.5Score

Movie Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once Is All That

Movie Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once Everything Everywhere All at Once more than lives up to its name as we enter a particle accelerator of acting and performance that explores issues of metaphysics and personal meaning. At times slapstick, others ominously bleak, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinhart make a beautiful mess saved by the magnetism of Michelle Yeoh.
2Score

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent lands with a thud

Movie review: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Give Nicolas Cage a chance to slap himself in the face, and you know he'll go full cream pie. So why did director Tom Gormican go for a dark thriller instead of full-on movie star send-up? We can only wonder as we stare into the crater of a leaden satire.
3.5Score

The Northman Cometh, and he’s got an axe to grind

Movie Review: The Northman There’s not a lot of room for subtlety when most problems are solved by bludgeoning and dismemberment, but you can tell Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and Alexander Skarsgard are desperate to bring every nuance possible to this broad-strokes study of our stubborn primitivism.  
3Score

Movie Review: White Hot peels back preppy flannels of Abercrombie & Fitch

Movie Review: White Hot - The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch White Hot reveals how a crew of older white men branded a generation through grooming and exclusion.
4Score

The Magnitude of All Things opens the emotional floodgates

Movie review: The Magnitude of All Things Filmmaker Jennifer Abbott weaves a magical thread of connection between life and death in The Magnitude of All Things, a highly personal documentary about loss, contextualized by climate change.  
3Score

Movie review: Memory seems eerily familiar

Movie review: Memory Liam Neeson fights a sense of deja-vu as he plays a character seeking to settle a score while fighting a failing mind. Thanks to the addition of Guy Pearce as the FBI foil, the manly tango makes an impression.
3Score

Movie review: Secrets of Dumbledore spills beans… and blood

Movie review: Fantastic Beasts - The Secrets of Dumbledore The characters we came to love through the Harry Potter franchise get a decidedly dark makeover in a continuing prequel that offers deeper moral dilemmas and more cute creatures, but an overstuffed plot that drains sympathy.    
2.5Score

Movie review: Cyrano may leave everyone unrequited

Movie review: Cyrano Joe Wright's take on Edmond Rostand's classic tale of courting makes a bold move that hits a bad note, despite an inspired performance from Peter Dinklage in the title role of a man who struggles with his physical appearance.