Seymour: An Introduction, the new documentary from actor/director Ethan Hawke, focuses on pianist Seymour Bernstein, but it’s really an in-depth look at the search for greatness. Without taking attention away from Bernstein, who’s given a treatment bordering on hagiographic—and deservedly so—the film becomes a guide to those seeking answers to[Read More…]
Film and TV
Inside the Echo Chamber
We are in the midst of a culture war where the personal and the political are becoming increasingly intertwined. A new discourse of social consciousness is emerging as the generation that was born in a world with ostensible equity across racial, sexual, and gender lines comes of age and realizes[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: A fresh perspective? It’s a boat time
The airing of the show Fresh Off The Boat (FOTB) on ABC was met with much fanfare and hype. The show—based off the life of chef Eddie Huang, as numerous blog sites were quick to note—was the first TV show in American mainstream media starring Asian Americans since All-American Girl[Read More…]
Iran gets spaghetti westernized in latest film
Director Ana Lily Amirpour is billing A Girl Walks Home at Night Alone as Iran’s first vampire spaghetti western, as though vampire spaghetti western is a popular genre in Hollywood. While entirely in Farsi and featuring an Iranian cast, the film was shot in southern California, which barely passes for Iran. The[Read More…]
Pop rhetoric: #sixseasonsandamovie: Community’s self-fulfilling prophecy
Depending on how you look at it, the fact that Community will premiere its sixth season on Yahoo! Screen today is either an astonishing achievement or a preordained inevitability. On one hand, the unconventional sitcom has been fighting off (and eventually succumbed to) cancellation since 2011. Yet, while Community may[Read More…]
It feels good to let go
Co-produced by legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (of Volver (2006) fame), Wild Tales will make you laugh, shake your head, and turn to the stranger next to you to make eye contact. In his first feature-length film, Argentinian director Damián Szifron threads the common theme of revenge through six disconnected[Read More…]
Peer Review: Practical Procrastination
Recent McGill graduate and entrepreneur Thomas Brag had wanted to start a YouTube channel for a long time—ever since he discovered the class “Marketing and Society,” taught by Just for Laughs founder Andy Nullman. The class teaches you how to properly start a YouTube channel; however, even with the benefit[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: In defence of the Oscars
The Academy Awards took place this Sunday, which means critics have begun complaining about who did and did not go home with the statue of a naked gold man. This criticism will likely build upon the backlash that occurred after the nominations were announced, with the argument being that The[Read More…]
Timbuktu : The jarring reality of a not-so distant land
In a world where the social fallout from militant and extremist religious groups is often reduced to sound bites and headlines from overseas, it is all too easy for the West to overlook the daily lives of residents in war-torn regions in favour of more glamourized news. In Timbuktu, director Abderrahmane[Read More…]
Oscar Shorts 2015
Even the more informed moviegoers among the masses will often reach the short film portion of their Academy Awards ballots and have no idea where to start in terms of picking the two winners. The critical buzz that accompanies Oscar season largely ignores these compressed works—and the Tribune is here[Read More…]
