The idea of the sugar daddy romancing and supporting young women is as old as the hills. The films of the Depression when money was tight visited it again and again. According to filmmaker Carly Stone, sugar daddies are with us still and her new film goes inside for a peek. Stone’s film The New Romantic stars Jessica Barden as… View Post
Canadian environmentalist and conservationist Rob Stewart launched a movement with the 2006 release of his painstakingly made documentary Sharkwater on the devastation of shark habitats and their dwindling numbers. Stewart attracted people to the cause, to save the ocean’s largest predator that does great good in the biosphere. He swam with sharks when he was young and as an adult became their… View Post
First Man, the Neil Armstrong story starring Ryan Gosling, is an enormous, painstaking and beautiful film that captures the excitement of the space race in the 60’s. It was important for the US government to get a man on the moon to establish US dominate of space and to beat the Russians who had achieved an impressive space record. The… View Post
The talk of the town since its debut at TIFF, Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born is the fourth iteration of the old chestnut in which a celebrated male performer is eclipsed by his newbie wife’s burgeoning career. Lady Gaga and director co-star Cooper have electricity and chemistry to spare, they fit nicely into each other’s universe and the action builds naturally… View Post
The TIFF films Fahrenheit 11/9, Sharkwater Extinction and Jennifer Baichwal’s stunning documentary Anthropocene are the trinity of enlightened environmental films that must be seen. Each is an alarm warning us that our future and the planet’s ability to sustain us are not certain. Baichwal, Nic de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky documented the state of the environment over years, releasing Manufactured Landscapes, Watermark (as well as… View Post
Michael Moore’ returns to form with an eviscerating portrait of Donald Trump with TIFF favourite Fahrenheit 11/9. The Trump era, he says is “the death of idealism, like a bad parent, there is no protection” and we’ve known this since Trump became president 11/9/16. Moore looks for the root causes of Trumpism and its paid audience ethos, his love of… View Post