All entries by this author

Brüno: Putting sex in homosexuals

Jul 18th, 2009 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Poor Ron Paul. The esteemed doctor cum 2008 presidential candidate with a dedicate following thought he was being interviewed on the issue of Austrian economics (who knew he was so keen on it?). What awaited him instead when a light suddenly ‘broke’ mid-interview was a flaming homosexual entrapment. Brüno dropped his pants in a seductive dance, and Dr. Paul stormed out of the interview



VIFF highlights: Cloud 9, or Old People F*cking

Oct 7th, 2008 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Wolke Neun (Dresen, 2008), Germany At the first sight of exposed wrinkly flesh, someone in the audience I was with said out loud “what the heck is this?” That was about seven minutes into the film, and the characters were about to engage in some naked, older adulterous affair, one that has not been seen [...]



3:10 to Yuma or: The Forged Good Man

Sep 29th, 2007 | By A | Category: Featured, Film Essays & Critique

SPOILERS ALERT 3:10 to Yuma (Mangold, 2007) could have been great. It could have been about a perverse desire of the Good Man to be the criminal he sought to bring justice to, the man who could take what he could and feel free of judgment or ties to a simple life. At one point, [...]



The Lives of Others or: Lenin Listens to Beethoven

Aug 30th, 2007 | By A | Category: Featured, Film Essays & Critique

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others; von Donnersmarck, 2006) Germany This German film won the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Picture the year it released (2006). It came out of nowhere and beat out the front-runner Pan’s Labyrinth for the prize. It shocked me at the time, but having seen the film now [...]



Grindhouse: not-so-cheap thrills (SPOILERS)

Apr 7th, 2007 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Grindhouse (Rodriguez & Tarantino, 2007) Watching Grindhouse, it was clear to me who was the one with the big ego: his name wasn’t Robert Rodriguez. While Rodriguez settled for a blast-from-the-past film-to-film transfer, Tarantino made a Tarantino film – probably his most peculiar one yet, and one that, if anything, established once and for all [...]



Thoughts on Oscars + Final Predictions!

Feb 25th, 2007 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Grizzly: So, Aurens, I’m gonna cut straight to the chase and ask you; what’s your prediction for Best Picture and why? Aurens: At this point, I think I should just spin the bottle and kiss whatever film it points to. WHO THE HELL KNOWS? I used to think Babel got it in the bag, but [...]



Oscar 2007: Notes on Best Picture race

Feb 25th, 2007 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Oscar snubs are more often than not of the horrible kind – great works overlooked for more middling affairs seems like the norm. However, we often forget that Oscars also makes some smart decisions (we’ll talk as though it is of one mind, even when it really is just a voting body). This year, that [...]



Pan’s Labyrinth: One Nightmare of a Dream

Dec 31st, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Pan’s Labyrinth (del Toro, 2006) Spain You know there’s something wrong with the world when a child’s paradise is the dark and sinister underworld. In this horrifying fairytale from the Spanish director, del Toro (who seems to be following Peter Jackson’s career path), a little girl – Ofelia, played with heartbreaking grace by a relatively [...]



Analyze this: Hidden

Dec 28th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Caché (Hidden; Haneke, 2005) France Oh boy. Haneke really dropped a bomb on us with this sneaky picture. As with any psychological thriller that’s worth its price of admission, the thrill is beside the point. Although the ending leaves us hanging as to who the culprit(s) is (or are), what is even more astonishing is [...]



Text me baby, one more time!

Dec 24th, 2006 | By A | Category: Et cetera

Special Report By Elle They-Call-Me-Awesome A. Toronto (Reuters) It is no longer enough to just send her flowers by the dozens or strum a song from your worn-out emo guitar. With the advance of the internet age, you need to be able to sweet talk in proper syntax, or you’d risk ridicule, a life of [...]



Workolympic To Be Considered By Local Politician

Dec 9th, 2006 | By A | Category: Et cetera

Standard City (Reuters) – A local politician will consider a proposal by an area woman to create Workolympic. The plan would involve setting up various stadiums throughout different cities for blue and white collar workers to compete with each other while spectators jeer or cheer them on. “You know how people always complain how unfair [...]



Homosexuality and Postmodernism

Nov 7th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

While homosexual attraction and homosexual acts have existed as far back as history cares to count (the bible, other historic writings such as Greek literature and myths, and the natives’ traditional culture all have referred to a third sexual category of either a hermaphrodite or a two-spirits person), homosexuality is actually a relatively new term. [...]



McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, 1971): If you walk away, I’ll walk away

Oct 23rd, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, 1971) U.S.A. Sometimes, life hands you a wild card. A stranger comes into your life and slowly but surely makes his presence felt. You may not feel it at first, but slowly this presence occupies your very being. Before you know it, you are riding a one-way express pass the [...]



Miami Vice (Mann, 2006): A break-down

Oct 19th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Miami Vice (Mann, 2006) U. S. A. How to take Miami Vice? Since it’s a procedural film, perhaps a detail discussion of what worked and what did not work would be appropriate. Let’s start with what worked. Everyone talked about the dream-like cinematography – which, I suspect, would look even better on a High Definition [...]



A Woman Under The Influence (Cassavetes, 1974) U. S. A.

Oct 18th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Mabel Longhetti is just a little bit different, her husband insists. The extent of this difference, like a pendulum, swings back and forth throughout the film. When we first meet Mabel, unless we look carefully at the way she would get on her kid’s scooter, there seems to be little that would distinguish Mabel from [...]



To Be (The New World; Malick, 2005)

Oct 16th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

The poster of The New World, interestingly, is shot from the perspective of a Native American, or as referred to in the film, a Natural. In this revealing shot, Malick establishes The New World as The Western Civilization, and The Old World as, by default, The Naturals’ World, where human feet are firmly planted in [...]



Adaptation (Jonze, 2002)

Oct 16th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

“To begin… To begin… How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. So I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana nut. That’s a good muffin.” The writer in me instantly recognized the [...]



Some Men Suffering from Whitegirlitis

Oct 11th, 2006 | By A | Category: Et cetera

London, Ontario – Recently scientists have mapped the DNA of a bacterial mutation that gives its hosts – mostly men – the inclination to find White Girls most date-able. This monumental work will help scientists find a cure for a disease that, up to now, has been attributed to racism, uncultured ignoramus, or blindness. Whitegirlitis [...]



Nobody Knows (Koreeda, 2004)

Oct 11th, 2006 | By A | Category: Film Essays & Critique

Children are like three legged puppies or desperate baby seals: they are so well equipped with the ability to tug at your heartstrings that you either reject them outright for the sake of your sanity or you make disgusting googly noise at their every turn. Because of this uncanny ability, films with children as central [...]