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Exclusive: Revival, Syfy‘s upcoming drama series adaptation, based on Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s Image comic book series, has added eight to its cast in recurring roles. Gia Sandhu (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), Katharine King So (The Voyeurs), Maia Jae Bastidas (Gen V), Nathan Dales (Letterkenny), Mark Little (Mr. D), Glen Gould (Tulsa King), Lara Jean Chorostecki (Hannibal), and Conrad Coates (Fargo) join previously announced series regulars Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman, David James Elliot, and Andy McQueen. Production recently wrapped in New Brunswick, Canada.

In Revival, on one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin, the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the “revived” appear and act just like they once were. When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress (Scrofano) is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she’s left to make sense...

Warning! This article contains Spoilers for Tulsa King season 2, episode 8.The main attraction of Tulsa King is seeing Sylvester Stallone play a gangster, but the most recent episode proved that his character, Dwight Manfredi, isn't really a mobster. Functionally, of course, Dwight is a gangster. He runs several criminal enterprises, he either commands or fights most of the cast of Tulsa King season 2, and he rules Tulsa with an iron fist. Though he certainly acts like a gangster, Dwight isn't the same as an ordinary mob boss, and one moment he shared with Tyson (Jay Will) after the ending of Tulsa King season 2, episode 7 proves how different he is.

Tyson made a massive mistake by attacking Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo). He didn't wait for Dwight to find hard evidence, and he ended up attacking the wrong person. It also directly led to the gang war, even though Tyson wasn't the...

Indo-Canadian filmmaker Sanjay Patel ventures into the picturesque Northan Canada to tell the story of two greedy brothers who are forced to connect with their roots and have a first-hand experience of their Indigenous culture in “The Birds Who Fear Death.” After making his debut with Union Leader (2017), Patel seems to have polished his craft, although his well-intentioned narrative still lacks an emotional clutch, something that will hold these stories together and make their impact memorable.

In “The Birds Who Fear Death” we first meet Adam (Adam Beach), a foul-mouth middle-aged man who is extremely detached from his father William, despite him nearing his death. The detachment borderlines hate and we can see that whatever must have happened between the father-son duo was quite traumatic for him. Adam and his brother Ryan (Simon Baker), a comparatively cooler and more composed sibling, have been having financial trouble ever since they decided...

The third feature film from Bretten Hannam, writer/director of the 2015 crime thriller North Mountain and the 2021 teen drama Wildhood, is currently filming in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the project is a supernatural thriller called Place of Ghosts. Forrest Goodluck, whose credits include The Revenant, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, and Lawmen: Bass Reeves has a lead role alongside Blake Alec Miranda (To and From), his Pet Sematary: Bloodlines co-star Glen Gould, and Brandon Oakes (Diggstown).

Place of Ghosts centers on siblings Mise’l and Antle, close confidants as children who have drifted apart as adults. When a malevolent, rotting spirit of teeth and bones begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Skite’kmujuekati’k, or the Place of Ghosts primordial forest that exists outside of time, to face their violent upbringing.

Hannam, who is a Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker,...

The Revenant star Forrest Goodluck, Blake Alec Miranda, Glen Gould and Brandon Oakes have nabbed lead roles in Bretten Hannam’s supernatural thriller Place of Ghosts, now shooting in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Goodluck played Hawk, the son of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass in The Revenant. Hannam’s third feature film follows siblings Mise’l and Antle, close confidants as children who have drifted apart as adults.

When a malevolent, rotting spirit of teeth and bones begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Skite’kmujuekati’k, or the Place of Ghosts primordial forest that exists outside of time, to face their violent upbringing.

“As Mise’l and Antle descend into the darkness of the forest, the emotions and the core of the story cut a visceral path through things left unsaid, leading to a different way of understanding each other, before doing battle with the...

The Funeral

Stars: Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Cansu Türedi, Tekin Temel | Directed by Orcun Behram

Cemal, a lonely hearse driver, has been entrusted to secretly transport the body of a murdered young woman, Zeynep, to her parents’ home at their final request. But he hears strange groans from the back of the vehicle during the journey, even though Zeynep hasn’t got a pulse. As her body comes back to life, the moment he sets eyes on her, Cemal falls in love with the undead woman. So he must constantly feed her flesh by committing his own murders, even if it means dealing with the police force’s attempts to capture a serial killer.

The Funeral start strong – our protagonist tasked with keeping a body quiet for 30 days is an intriguing premise and poses a Lot of questions about how and why but all that is left behind when the the supernatural element comes into play.

This will be her "last straw." An early teaser trailer has debuted for an indie horror film titled Last Straw, which is premiering at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival coming up in October. It's also set to screen at Beyond Fest in LA as well. Last Straw marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal with a script by Taylor Sardoni, described as "a raw & relentless twist on the home-invasion thriller." Here's the full synopsis: A young waitress, working the night shift all by herself at a rural diner on the side of a back road, will wind up forced to back after being attacked by a group of masked assailants. Completely alone in the face of danger, she will have to confront them all, resorting to violence if necessary, in order to survive. She fights for her life over the course of one, long night. Starring Jessica Belkin as the waitress,...

Outlander is returning to Starz next month, and the cable channel has released a new trailer and key art for the first eight episodes of the seventh season of the fantasy series. The remaining eight installments will premiere at some point in 2024. The series has already been renewed for an eighth and final season.

Starring Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Caitlin O’Ryan, Paul Gorman, Mark Lewis Jones, Jessica Reynolds, Alexander Vlahos, Sarah Collier, Hugh Ross, Chris Larkin, Andrew & Matthew Adair, Antony Byrne, Euan Bennet, New Dennehy, Kyle Rees, Robin Scott, Robin Laing, Glen Gould, Simon R. Baker, Joanne Thompson, Caleb Reynolds, Braeden Clarke, Morgan Holstrom, David Berry, and Maria Doyle Kennedy, the series is based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling novels. The story follows a time-traveling doctor on...

Blessings are imminent, because U.S. Girls — the indie pop project of Meg Remy — return today, February 24th with the new album Bless This Mess. It’s out via 4Ad.

Turns out, while Remy was working on the follow-up to U.S. Girls’ great 2020 album Heavy Light, she was also working on something else: Twin baby boys. With a title that seems to poke fun at maternally-targeted, mass-produced Hobby Lobby wall decor, Bless This Mess captures the extremes of Remy’s emotions as a first-time mom and the nuances of procreation.

The album was made with the help of a few notable guests, including Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost! and Roger Manning Jr. of Jellyfish and Beck. One of the album’s audio engineers was Remy’s frequent collaborator Maximilian Turnbull, who just so happens to also be her husband and co-parent. Many of the takes were recorded while Remy...

Vulture Watch

Can the Frasers feel safe in their new home? Has the Outlander TV show been cancelled or renewed for a seventh season on Starz? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Outlander, season seven. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?

What's This TV Show About?

Airing on the Starz cable channel, the Outlander TV show stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, with Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Caitlin O’Ryan, Paul Gorman, Mark Lewis Jones, Jessica Reynolds, Alexander Vlahos, Sarah Collier, Hugh Ross, Chris Larkin, Andrew & Matthew Adair, Antony Byrne, Euan Bennet, New Dennehy, Kyle Rees, Robin Scott, Robin Laing, Glen Gould, Simon R. Baker, Joanne Thompson, Caleb Reynolds,...

Maple Syrup Massacre is a monthly series where Joe Lipsett dissects the themes, conventions and contributions of new and classic Canadian horror films. Spoilers follow…

Last year in October 2022, Indigenous filmmaker Jeff Barnaby passed away from cancer. Although he had only written and directed two feature films, Barnaby was a key figure in Canadian genre cinema, notably his advocacy for better and more varied forms of Indigenous representation in front of and behind the camera.

While 2019’s Blood Quantum is arguably Barnaby’s most popular film (I reviewed it for Bloody out of TIFF), his 2013 feature debut Rhymes for Young Ghouls remains an underseen gem. Both films are incredibly political and confrontational; while their genre elements help make them accessible for audiences, each film is a passionate defense of Indigenous rights and, more importantly, a call to arms against white (Canadian) settlers.

Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a period film,...

Outlander is returning in the summer of 2023, and Starz has released a trailer for season seven of the romantic drama series. The sixth season of eight episodes finished airing in May. The seventh season will have 16 installments.

Starring Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Caitlin O'Ryan, Paul Gorman, Mark Lewis Jones, Jessica Reynolds, Alexander Vlahos, Sarah Collier, Hugh Ross, Chris Larkin, Andrew & Matthew Adair, Antony Byrne, Euan Bennet, New Dennehy, Kyle Rees, Robin Scott, Robin Laing, Glen Gould, Simon R. Baker, Joanne Thompson, Caleb Reynolds, Braeden Clarke, Morgan Holstrom, David Berry, and Maria Doyle Kennedy, the series follows a British Army nurse from 1945 who travels back in time and falls in love with a Highlander in 1743.

Read More…...

Jean-Luc Godard only had contempt for Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”

Godard told “King Lear” actress Molly Ringwald that “Pulp Fiction” lacked truth, despite being one of the most popular films of 1994 and winning Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Yet Godard was unimpressed while in conversation with Ringwald.

“We chatted about recent films. He didn’t think much of ‘Pulp Fiction,’ the movie of the moment,” Ringwald recalled in a New Yorker essay, noting that they stayed in touch after the 1987 “King Lear.” “‘Not authentic,’ he declared. (That word again!) However, we both liked ‘Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould,’ a more obscure film by the French Canadian director François Girard.”

Ringwald played Cordelia in Godard’s “King Lear” and stressed authenticity on set.

“When I watch ‘King Lear’ now, I’m struck by how extremely still and vigilant I seem,” Ringwald wrote. “My back is straight and...

Tulsa King‘s second episode continues Mafia capo Dwight Manfredi’s quest to establish a criminal organization in the titular city. While back in New York, Dwight’s old Mafia pals have a major bone to pick with him….

After a quick establishing shot of the Mayo Hotel, the episode “Center of the Universe” gets right to it: Dwight is using the Internet to try to check up on his estranged daughter, Christina. He finds her records, but a pesky paywall keeps him from the information. (He can access it easily, but the paywall requires using a credit card, which...

Award-winning filmmaker and acclaimed visionary Jeff Barnaby passed away in Montreal on Oct. 13, following a year-long battle with cancer.

The 46-year-old, who was born and raised on the Mi’gmaq community of Listuguj, is widely celebrated as redefining Indigenous cinema with elements of magical realism, body horror and sci-fi.

According to a release announcing Barnaby’s passing, he is remembered as a passionate filmmaker who loved music and often created the soundtracks to his films on the fly with whatever instruments were required. He was uncompromising in his stance on Indigenous identity and storytelling, and was a valued member of the film community for his authenticity and honesty.

“In Mi’gmaq the word for ancestor and parent is the same thing, ungi’gul. Your language, your land, and your elders are time capsules as much as they are cultural touchstones,” Barnaby recently wrote, as per the release.

“As an Indigenous...

Outlander viewers will see some new and familiar faces joining the seventh season of the Starz series. The new cast members include Gloria Obianyo, Diarmaid Murtagh, Rod Hallett, Chris Fulton, and Kristin Atherton. Meanwhile, Graham McTavish, Nell Hudson, Steven Cree, Andrew Whipp, Layla Burns, and Lotte Verbeek are all returning.

A romance fantasy series, Outlander revolves around the lives of a time-traveling doctor (Caitriona Balfe) and her dashing Highland warrior husband (Sam Heughan). The rest of the cast includes Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Caitlin O’Ryan, Mark Lewis Jones, Chris Larkin, Glen Gould, Simon R. Baker, avid Berry, and Maria Doyle Kennedy on the series. The show is based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon.

Read More…...

Spoiler Alert: The following story reveals major plot points from the Season 6 finale of Starz’s Outlander.

Starz’s Outlander wrapped up its sixth season tonight leaving So many questions unanswered—yes, that was indeed the finale, one for a season that was shortened due to the pandemic.

But if there’s a fandom that’s proven to be (mostly) patient it’s those dedicated to the timeless love story of Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and her beloved Jamie (Sam Heughan), one that is threatened yet again by separation.

The episode titled “I Am Not Alone” opens as Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his men, guns drawn, arrive at the Fraser home looking to arrest Claire for the murder of Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds). But Jamie won’t let her go without a fight. A gun battle ensues leaving the couple to wait for nightfall when more will arrive ready for battle.

Once again, the Outlander series is safe from being cancelled. The popular series has already been renewed for a seventh season of 16 episodes. Could that be the end of this Starz TV show or, is it sure to be renewed for years to come? Stay tuned.

A historical time travel drama series, the Outlander TV show stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, with Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Caitlin O’Ryan, Paul Gorman, Mark Lewis Jones, Jessica Reynolds, Alexander Vlahos, Sarah Collier, Hugh Ross, Chris Larkin, Andrew & Matthew Adair, Antony Byrne, Euan Bennet, New Dennehy, Kyle Rees, Robin Scott, Robin Laing, Glen Gould, Simon R. Baker, Joanne Thompson, Caleb Reynolds, Braeden Clarke, Morgan Holstrom, David Berry, and Maria Doyle Kennedy. The story follows time-traveling 20th Century doctor Claire Fraser (Balfe) and her 18th...

This mix is a focus on moments of Johann Sebastian Bach’s neverending filmography that have stuck to memory. The opener belongs in my mind to Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (2000). “Air on D String” has over 30,000 titles featured on an IMDb search and I find myself thinking of Scorsese's After Hours (1985). Bach’s sound is sacred, a fact that two of cinema’s beloved philosophers, Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky responded to throughout their careers. This mix includes Bach in Persona (1966) and The Sacrifice (1986). The earliest use in horror, in Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with the “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Bwv 565” is now synonymous with the macabre. A piece which fans of Fantasia (1940) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) will recognize too. And an audience may feel differently about “The Goldberg Variations” upon watching Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of The Lambs (1991). The sounds of Bach...

There are two interesting performances contained within Girl, an otherwise wholly uninteresting film. On the surface, this is just a B movie that you would find once upon a time in the discount DVD bin. At the same time, you have Bella Thorne doing some of her best work to date in the title role, as well as Mickey Rourke at his most menacing. Is that enough to make the flick worthy of the watch? Not at all, but it does give it some personality that’s otherwise lacking. Thorne’s fans will appreciate what she’s doing here, so they’ll be pleased, at least. The movie is a thriller, with revenge elements thrown in for good measure. When an unnamed young woman (Thorne) gets off the bus that’s taken her back to her small backwoods hometown, she has a goal in mind. Her plan? Confront and kill her abusive father.

Life has not been kind to the unnamed girl at the center of Chad Faust’s feature debut, “Girl,” Girl (Bella Thorne), as she is only ever known in the film, is an accidental vigilante, bent on exacting a justice that will do little to truly improve her life, beyond prolonging its pain for more years to come. It’s better than the alternative, however, and when “Girl” opens, even Girl already seems worn thin by the battle to come: in short, to kill her abusive father before he can kill her and her mother (Elizabeth Saunders).

Girl hasn’t been back to her hometown — a seedy Pacific Northwest hamlet named Golden, where the shine appears to have worn off quite some time ago — since she was six years old, when her dirtbag father (John Clifford Talbot) kicked her and Mama out, adding a grievous injury to Mama’s back for good measure.

"What's with this hatchet?" Screen Media Films has unveiled the first trailer for an intense revenge thriller titled Girl, the first feature film made by Canadian filmmaker Chad Faust. This recently premiered at the Cinéfest Sudbury in Canada, and it arrives on VOD at the end of November. Bella Thorne stars as young woman (only known as the "girl") who returns to her small hometown intent on killing her abusive father only to discover someone murdered him the day before... As the girl searches for answers, she uncovers a family legacy more dangerous than she'd imagined. This also stars Chad Faust, Glen Gould, Elizabeth Saunders, and Mickey Rourke. Kinda looks like the perfect greasy role for Rourke to play. Give it a look. Here's the first official trailer for Chad Faust's Girl, direct from Screen Media's YouTube: In Girl, a young woman (Bella Thorne) returns to her small hometown...

Screen Media said Wednesday that is has acquired U.S. rights to Girl, the thriller written and directed by Chad Foust that stars Bella Thorne and Mickey Rourke. The deal comes ahead of the film’s U.S. premiere later this week at Fantastic Fest. A November day-and-date release is in the works.

Thorne plays a woman (she’s only known as Girl) who returns to her small hometown to exact revenge on her abusive father, only to discover someone murdered him the day before. As she searches for answers, she soon finds herself prey to a sinister sheriff (Mickey Rourke) and uncovers a disturbing family legacy more disturbing than she’d imagined. The pic marks Foust’s directorial debut, and he also co-stars with Glen Gould, Lanette Ware and Elizabeth Saunders.

Thomas Michael, Shayne Putzlocher and Sara Shaak are producers. Jason Moring, Dave Duckett, Joe Ferraro, Jean Pierre Magro,...

Suicide Squad star Adam Beach and Grace Dove (The Revenant) have landed on Monkey Beach, a supernatural thriller by writer-director Loretta Todd.

The Canadian indie, which is shooting in the indigenous settlement of Kitamaat and Vancouver, is based on Eden Robinson’s novel of the same name. Dove, who also stars in Netflix's How It Ends, plays Lisa Hill, a young woman with powers that foretell death who faces the disappearance at sea of her brother, a potential Olympic swimmer. Beach plays Uncle Mick.

Nathaniel Arcand, Stefany Mathias, Glen Gould, Joel Oulette and Tina Marie Lameman round out the cast.

The co-production ...

Suicide Squad star Adam Beach and Grace Dove (The Revenant) have landed on Monkey Beach, a supernatural thriller by writer-director Loretta Todd.

The Canadian indie, which is shooting in the indigenous settlement of Kitamaat and Vancouver, is based on Eden Robinson’s novel of the same name. Dove, who also stars in Netflix's How It Ends, plays Lisa Hill, a young woman with powers that foretell death who faces the disappearance at sea of her brother, a potential Olympic swimmer. Beach plays Uncle Mick.

Nathaniel Arcand, Stefany Mathias, Glen Gould, Joel Oulette and Tina Marie Lameman round out the cast.

The co-production ...

Paul Thomas Anderson fans are well accustomed to how instrumental Jonnny Greenwood’s music is to the auteur’s body of work. Whether it’s the foreboding strings in “There Will Be Blood” or the discordant percussion in “The Master,” Greenwood’s original scores expertly capture Anderson’s tones. This fact is especially true in “Phantom Thread,” which marks the fourth collaboration between Anderson and Greenwood.

Variety reports that Greenwood’s score has been included in 90 minutes of the 130-minute drama, which means you’ll be hearing the score in nearly 70% of the movie. Greenwood’s music has always been important to Anderson’s films, but it’s dominant in “Phantom Thread” in a way it never has been. In some ways it acts as a Greek chorus of sorts, changing and...

Having brought two movies to the Toronto Film Festival this week, one Angelina Jolie directed and the other she co-produces, the Oscar-winning actress on Sunday said she prefers being behind the camera, rather than in front.

"I like championing other people and finding their greatness," Jolie said during an informal conversation at the Glenn Gould Theater. She brought her fourth feature directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, to Toronto, a foreign language film set in Cambodia that first bowed in Telluride.

She's also showing The Breadwinner, an animated feature she produced and which has its world premiere...

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin on Friday paid tribute to Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba for making his directorial debut, Molly's Game, easier to shoot, despite minimal rehearsal time and scheduling.

"I was super smart to make that decision. I really can't give myself enough credit," Sorkin said with a wry smile when discussing his movie at the Toronto Film Festival as part of a master class he gave at the Glenn Gould Theater.

Sorkin, whose screenwriting credits include A Few Good Men, Moneyball and The Social Network, with his directorial debut portrays Molly Bloom, a former competitive skier who ran high-stakes,...

Vulture Watch Will John Cardinal remain on the case? Has the Cardinal TV show been cancelled or renewed for a second season on Hulu? The television vulture is watching all the latest TV cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Cardinal season two. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?   What's This TV Show About? Streaming on the Hulu paid subscription platform, Cardinal stars Billy Campbell, Karine Vanasse, Kristen Thomson, Allie MacDonald, Glen Gould, Deborah Hay, Alden Adair, James Downing, Eric Hicks, David Richmond-Peck, Alanna Bale, Gale Maurice, Robert Naylor, and James Thomas. Based on the Giles Blunt novels, this Canadian crime drama centers on demoted Algonquin Bay Police Detective John Cardinal (Campbell). When a missing 13-year old girl, Katie...

Network: Hulu. Episodes: Ongoing (43 mins). Seasons: Ongoing. TV show dates: June 16, 2017 — present. Series status: Has not been cancelled. Performers include: Billy Campbell, Karine Vanasse, Kristen Thomson, Allie MacDonald, Glen Gould, Deborah Hay, Alden Adair, James Downing, Eric Hicks, David Richmond-Peck, Alanna Bale, Gale Maurice, Robert Naylor, and James Thomas. TV show description: Based on the Giles Blunt novels, the Cardinal TV show centers on demoted Algonquin Bay Police Detective John Cardinal (Campbell). When a missing 13-year old girl, Katie Pine, is found dead in an abandoned Ontario mineshaft, Cardinal and his new partner, Lise Delorme (Vanasse), take on the investigation into her disappearance and death. As they grow more involved in the grisly case, a...

Check out the Cardinal TV show trailer. The serial killer crime drama thriller, based on the Giles Blunt novels, drops to Hulu on Friday, June 16th. Billy Campbell stars as Detective John Cardinal. You may remember him as a veteran of Syfy's Helix, as well as the oft cancelled and revived AMC/Netflix drama, The Killing. Karine Vanasse co-stars as Detective Lise Delorme, Cardinal's new partner.The Cardinal cast also includes Kristen Thomson, Glen Gould, Deborah Hay, Alden Adair, James Downing, Erick Hicks, and James Thomas. Orphan Black's Aubrey Nealon writes Cardinal and executive produces the Hulu TV series with Sienna Films’ Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny. Read More…...

A major glossy magazine that used to be devoted largely to music -- but long ago fell under the spell of Hollywood celebrity -- still continues to cover music, specializing in listicles that seem designed mainly to provoke ire in those who care more about music than does said magazine (named after a classic blues song, in case you can't guess without a hint). This summer it unleashed a list of songs that, with that aging publication's ironically weak sense of history, managed to overlook the vast majority of the history of song. To put it bluntly, if you're claiming to discuss the best songs ever written and you don't even mention Franz Schubert, you're an ignoramus. My ire over this blinkered attitude towards music history festered for months, so I finally decided to do something about it by writing about some of the timeless songs omitted in the aforementioned myopic listicle.

Early in Steve Jobs, the Aaron Sorkin-scripted, Danny Boyle-directed biopic about the mercurial Apple co-founder, the hero does something so right yet so peculiar that you understand why a cult sprung up around him. It's 1984, a few weeks after the legendary SuperBowl commercial heralding the arrival of the Apple Macintosh. The official public unveiling is minutes away. The crowd, which has been kept waiting as its creator dithers and tinkers backstage, has begun muttering and stomping its feet. Jobs is a serenely confident pill of a man, micromanaging everything,...

Music and Sex: Scenes from a life - A novel in progress by Roman AkLeff (first installment can be read here; second here; third here; fourth here; fifth here).

[Warning: the chapter below contains "adult situations." Seriously, this one's not for the faint-hearted.]

Walter’s new home, Carman Hall, was an utterly soulless pile of cinder blocks. No effort at all had been made, during its design and construction two decades earlier, to build in anything conveying the slightest sense of warmth. No carpeting in either the halls or in the suites, no wood anywhere except the doors, no decorative touches, nothing but bare straight lines. One imagined it had been designed so it could be hosed down with minimum effort between school years to as to be literally as well as aesthetically antiseptic. There was not even any accommodation made for cooking; not only were there no kitchen nooks, even hotplates were forbidden (though, given that they were horrific fire hazards, that made sense,...

Fillip Cornershop Satiediously, vol. 2 (Unheard Universe)   Following up on last year's initial Satie volume, Cornershop now delivers a unique reading of Satie's notorious "Vexations," the one-page piece which Satie said should be performed with repeats until it totaled 840 times through the printed text (or perhaps not; debate has raged since its 1949 publication). Cornershop brings the piece in at a monumental 48 hours (more traditional performances of the 840-times length range from 18 to 28 hours). 

As I was wondering how Cornershop could achieve such a performance without the aid of caffeine, which in turn would mitigate against his chosen slow tempo, I noticed a splice after the 168th time through and then, in turn, after the 336th. Shortly after the latter, and concurrent with my wife's threat of divorce, I had to stop listening, but a little math revealed to me that 1 through 168 and 169 through 336 were precisely the same length, so it appears...

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) never left Germany but became internationally respected by his peers during his lifetime and a symbol of pure musicianship for future generations. A virtuoso organist, harpsichordist, and violinist/violist who may have also played lute, as a composer his mastery of counterpoint and fugal writing remain unmatched, yet he was also open to the influences of contemporary Italian and French composers.

Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...

Paramount's "Selma" from director Ava Duvernay is picking up steam this awards season. The Martin Luther King drama has been announced to be the opening night movie of the 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. The festival will close on Sunday, January 11 with the Us premiere of "Boychoir" from director Francois Girard. David Oyelowo, who plays the beloved King in "Selma," is also being honored at the fest with Breakthrough Performance Award, Actor.

Here's the complete press release which includes the list of Easter European movies in a program titled Eastern Promises:

Palm Springs, CA (December 16, 2014) . The 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) will launch on Friday, January 2 with the opening night screening of the GoldenGlobe nominated Selma directed by Ava Duvernay. The Festival will wrap on Sunday, January 11 with the Us premiere of Boychoir directed by François Girard. New this year, the festival will focus on...

Last year, RADiUS scored at the box office and in Awards Season with its documentary 20 Feet From Stardom (nearly $4.95 million and Best Documentary Feature Oscar win). This year, it may have another non-fiction awards behemoth, hitting theaters this weekend.

Citizenfour, directed by journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras, tells the story of Nsa leaker Edward Snowden as he disclosed massive domestic U.S. government spying. The film unfolds in real time as Poitras and Guardian colleague Glenn Greenwald, working on a long-term project about government surveillance, were contacted online by a mysterious source calling himself “Citizenfour.” The film, completed in secret while Poitras was in self-imposed virtual exile, alleges even more Nsa overreaching at home and abroad than just what came out of the massive pile of U.S. documents Snowden leaked.

Another potential awards contender also arrives in U.S. theaters this weekend: Sweden’s entry for Foreign Language Oscar,...

The New York Film Festival begins this Friday and Glenn continues our pre-fest coverage by looking at 'Seymour: An Introduction'.

It’s curious that Ethan Hawke has appeared on screen this year with Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and now returns behind the camera (after Chelsea Walls and The Hottest State) to direct Seymour: An Introduction. Curious because both films get their life-source from demographics at opposite ends of the age spectrum that are both treated somewhat like lepers of cinema. Teenage boys in Boyhood and kindly old senior citizens aren’t usually treated with such respect and humility as these two Hawke projects. I have not seen Hawke's two previous directorial efforts, but this first foray into documentary is a nice step for this Hollywood stay who has clearly wrestled with being an artist in an industry that doesn't necessary encourage it.

Having said that, this “introduction” to...

Thunder and lightning and a sudden rainstorm couldn’t dampen the spirits of moviegoers as the Toronto Film Festival provided a change of pace Friday night with the world premiere of The Weinstein Company’s October release, St. Vincent. Starring Bill Murray in the best performance of his career and 11-year-old newcomer Jaeden Lieberher in the best kid role of the year, this pure family film (although rated PG-13) is about a young child of divorce who finds a companion in the off-kilter Vietnam vet who lives next door. It’s the rare movie comedy that proves the spirit of Frank Capra lives on. In an era when the entire world seems in chaos, this is a movie that makes you feel good about yourself when you leave the theater. When was the last time that happened?

If ever a movie deserved the phrase, St. Vincent is a film that...

This weekend, audiences will get the chance to groove and thrill to the exploits of James Brown in Get On Up, depicting his history as an exciting, checkered, and booty-thumping legacy. It's not the first music biopic, and it won't be the last, but it does seem to provide audiences with the charge you'd expect from a movie loaded with great tunes and almost non-stop dancing. So how about 24 hours of that? This latest marathon actually runs a little long . it'll take you from noon to 12:30 the next day. But the effort was made to avoid simply listing the best of the genre, instead focusing on a diverse and wildly different collection of stories, from legends like Bob Dylan, to curiosities like Glenn Gould, titans like Notorious B.I.G. and tragedies like Kurt Cobain. All the music you could think to imagine is right here, in the 24-Hour Music ...

A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.

The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.

Yesterday we learned that with David Fincher out of the running, Danny Boyle is in talks to direct the Steve Jobs biopic penned by Aaron Sorkin. Last night at a Tribeca Film Festival event, the screenwriter sat down with Jon Favreau — the former Obama speechwriter, not the director — to discuss his work. Sorkin told the audience that he wasn’t going to break any news about the Jobs project, but he did drop a few tidbits about the script.

“It's very, very exciting,” Sorkin said. “It's not a biopic. It's not the story of Steve Jobs. It's something much different than that." It’s safe to assume that is a reference to the script’s unconventional structure: three long scenes, unfolding in real time, that take place before the launch of three major projects — the Mac, NeXT, and iPod. I don’t know how you can title your script Steve Jobs...

This year, Robert Lepage was honoured as the recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize awarded for “a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human conditions through the arts.” Previous winners include Leonard Cohen, Yo-Yo Ma, Oscar Peterson, and R. Murray Schafer. In association with The Glenn Gould Foundation, Tiff presented a retrospective on his directorial work. One of the most famed working filmmakers in Quebec, Lepage’s influence extends far beyond the screen and he is also one of the foremost directors of the stage. Considered an important figure in the theatrical avant-garde, he brings his multi-media and theatrical approach to the screen to create unique and layered visions of the world.

Back in 1995, Lepage made his feature film debut with Le Confessionnal, a post-modern Hitchcock pastiche set in Quebec. The film is the story of the Lamontagne family and spans two different eras and the issues and crises...

Like Father, Like Son

Since the film’s premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award, Like Father, Like Son (Soshite chichi ni naru) has been featured in the 2013 New York, Toronto and Chicago Film Festivals and won Audience Awards at the 2013 San Sebastian and Vancouver Film Festivals. The film has also shown at the 2013 AFI Fest. On seeing it you will surely know why. Its universal appeal to families, sons, fathers, wives touches the hearts of everyone who sees it. Its sensitivity in treating human emotions those of parents to each other and to their own children and those of the children to their parents and other siblings is so tender and delicately handled by director Hirokazu Kore-eda, that the film stays within the viewer and grows stronger if seen again.

Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Nobody Knows, Still Walking), Like Father, Like Son has been picked up by Sundance Selects for U.S. distribution. International Sales Agent Wild Bunch has sold the film worldwide. It was produced and distributed by Fuji Television Network, Inc., Amuse Inc. and Gaga Corporation in Japan.

Like Father, Like Son centers on Ryota (Japanese star Masaharu Fukuyama), a successful Tokyo architect who willingly and consciously works long hours to provide for his wife, Midori (Machiko Ono), and six-year-old son, Keita. When a blood test reveals Keita and another baby were switched at birth, two very different families are thrown together and forced to make a difficult decision while Ryota confronts his own issues of responsibility and what it means to be a father.

After seeing the film a second time at the Crescent Screening Room in Beverly Hills (I had already seen it in Cannes) and being feted at a special dinner at Spago among the Hollywood Foreign Press, I felt very privileged to interview Kore-Eda the next day.

Sl: Having been a fan of Nobody Knows about two siblings whose mother has left them with no sign of returning (there is no father), can you tell me what is your common thread between the two films?

Kore-eda: Until recently becoming a father, I had not been very conscious of fatherhood. The children in Nobody Knows had a resonance with me. The children are projections of myself.

I grew up without a father. Hana yori mo naho was also about a Samurai without a father and Still Walking also had a troubled father. Like Father, Like Son gave me the opportunity to show when it is not good with a father.

I have a 5 year old child, just like the protagonist in the story, and through making this film I wanted to think about what blood connections really mean, an idea very close to me. In order to make the film interesting and compelling to the audience, I placed the protagonist in the situation of being a victim of switched babies.

Your films often touch on paternity. What do being a father – and fatherhood itself – mean to you?

Kore-eda: I really don’t have an answer right now. As my position in the family tree has changed, I believe my idea of fatherhood has changed as well. I will probably continue to look at fatherhood in my coming films until I figure it out.

Sl: How was it working with the children?

Kore-eda: I wanted there to be a contrast of character between the two children. The goal was to bring out their individual personalities in the film. Because the children are six, I wanted them to express confusion rather than sadness, towards their situation.

It’s difficult to elicit puzzlement from children. Most often I just let them act and did not have to explain to them. But when the boy runs away to go home to his family and when Keita thinks that his father is coming for him and he runs away, I had to explain.

On the other hand, when the boy is in the architect’s house and he keeps asking “why”, I didn’t explain anything. The actor told the story and the boy’s acting was totally natural.

Sl: How about working with Fukuyama Masuharu. How was it with him? I know he was a famous pop singer. Here he played such a cold man.

Kore-Eda: He was a pop singer and songwriter for 20 years but he is also known as an actor too. In person he is down-to-earth, straightforward, friendly and is always entertaining everyone, but his public image is cool. I was surprised on meeting him to see how friendly he was.

He has not played many roles as an ordinary, everyday type of guy, like a father.

I took advantage of his coolness and broke it down. He seemed to enjoy badmouthing people, talking about money. Together we pushed his unlikeablity, but just enough so that the audience stayed on his side. I coached him to raise his head and look down, to curl his lips in disdain, to turn his back on someone.

His fans might not like seeing him act this way, but they are only part of the audience for this film. His fans range from 20 to 40 years and are predominately female. The audience was a broad range including people in their 60s and 70s in groups, seeing it multiple times. 2.5 million have seen the film in Japan making it the most successful of all my films.

Sl: What about the idea of bloodlines (nature vs. nurture)?

Kore-eda: The actor is very conservative, a trait he got from his own father and he has to grapple with it. The man on the street today would probably choose the child they raised. On the other hand, adoption has not caught on in Japan and the importance of bloodlines is not an anomaly. Many still hold to the emphasis on bloodline and heritage. Interestingly, the Koreans who see the film would choose bloodlines even more than the Japanese.

Sl: Tell me about the music. The piano which the little boy plays and the piano music which played during the transitions?

Kore-eda: When I am working on a script I usually choose one instrument with a particular emphasis. The image I had while wring this was when the children were in the car switching families. I wanted music which was not melodic but rather percussive. I had been listening to the CDs of Glenn Gould and his music seemed to fit the image. I was afraid it would not be easily obtainable, but with Amuse and Gaga on the case, they were were able to obtain the rights.

Sl: At the end, the family became inclusive and the necessity to choose one over the other was less important. I liked that very much. Can you talk about that?

Kore-eda: The script’s last scene description was explicit. It said that the two families merged as they all entered the house so that you could not tell who was the child and who were the parents.

N.B. The publicist joined in our conversation to say how “blended” families are so prevalent today in the United States, with divorce, children from two families merging…Kore-eda liked that and said that perhaps one of his next films will deal with such a concept of blended families.

Rhymes For Young Ghouls (Jeff Barnaby, 2013) Canada

Rhymes For Young Ghouls is a tale of revenge set within the context of Canada’s Residential School era, during which older generations of Indians faced systematic oppression from the state which resulted from a policy that was effectively genocidal. Today’s indigenous communities are still reeling from the effects of these policies (one of which is cited in the opening of the film) today.

Their collective experience is summed up in a quote made by the film’s main character- Aila- who says, “This is what brings my people together…the art of forgetfulness,” when speaking about the tendency for members of their community to become reliant upon drugs and alcohol as an escape from the traumatic memories that were consequential of white subjugation. A theme that is confronted throughout the film.

Rhymes For Young Ghouls is Mi’kmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby...

Watch a new red band clip from Jeff Barnaby's Rhymes for Young Ghouls, which made its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend. The film is set against the backdrop of residential schools in the 1970s as it follows an aboriginal teen (Kawennahere Devery Jacobs) who exacts revenge on a sadistic Indian Agent. This marks Barnaby’s debut feature film, after having previously directed multiple short films, including The Colony and File Under Miscellaneous, which both previously premiered at Tiff in 2007 and 2010. Also in the cast are Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes, Mark Anthony Krupa and Roseanne Supernault.

As the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off, smaller movies hope to garner attention amongst the glittering, A-list pictures debuting. Filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, formerly known for shorts, is presenting his debut in Toronto, entitled “Rhymes for Young Ghouls.” The Canadian director casts an eye onto the abuse of Canadian Aboriginal children who were separated from their families with his first picture; a practice that went on until the 1990s with state-run schools for Aboriginals only. “Rhymes for Young Ghouls” follows 15-year-old Alia (Kawennahere Devery Jones), who has to give up her role as the local drug queen when her father, Joseph (Glen Gould) returns from prison. An exclusive clip has been released, which establishes a grim, hardscrabble world of violence, family, and pride. In this scene, young Devery Jones certainly controls the screen and grasps the horrors of the film; it should be a fairly intense performance and the scene speaks to a larger,...

Festival organisers announced the Discovery, Mavericks and Masters sections, details of the David Cronenberg: Transformation exhibition, a tenth Midnight Madness entry and introduced the Glenn Gould Studio to the festival’s stable of venues.

The programming strands feature new work from Catherine Breillat and on-stage conversations with Spike Jones, Irrfan Khan, Harvey Weinstein and Ron Howard.

The final entry in Midnight Madness will be the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching & Bitching (Las brujas De Zugarramurdi) (Spain-France).

The Glenn Gould Studio will serve as a venue for various public and industry programming during the festival and will function as a main location for the Tiff Industry Conference, set to run from Sept 6-12.

Programming will include the industry conference keynote session, Master Class, Moguls, Mavericks, Telefilm Canada Pitch This! on Sept 9 and the Doc Conference from Sept 10-11.

“As the jewel of the Canadian Broadcast Centre, Glenn Gould Studio...

Anchor Bay Entertainment has announced that their award-winning film, “Charlie Zone,” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD June 4. The film, starring Amanda Crew (“Sex Drive,” “Charlie St. Cloud,” “The Haunting in Connecticut”), Glen Gould (“Cashing In,” “Mohawk Girls”) and Mpho Koaho (“Saw III,” “Four Brothers,” “Blindness”) won four major awards at the 2011 Atlantic Film Festival. Here’s more about the film: “From Myriad Pictures, Charlie Zone is a twisting dramatic thriller set against the drug-ravaged streets of one of Canada’s roughest neighborhoods. Avery Paul, a disgraced boxer and ex-convict, is hired to abduct a runaway from a crack house in the city’s notorious “Charlie Zone,” and return her [ Read More ]

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