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…]
Film and TV
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…]
California dreamin’: Kevin Costner discusses new sports flick
In the farming town of McFarland, California, Jim White decided to start a cross-country team with boys who seemed to be able to run forever. These teenagers were not your typical, promising athletes; they were the sons of poor immigrant farmers—some even lacked the means to buy running shoes—helping their[Read More…]
Dark creatures and light humour in What We Do in the Shadows
Comedy, in a lot of ways, is the most subjective genre in any medium. Something that one person finds hilarious could fall completely flat for another—and both would be correct in their opinions because comedy comes from the realm of visceral, indescribable feelings, and gut reactions. Even more subjective is[Read More…]
Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour stops in Montreal for nine-film showcase
"Even though it is abbreviated, these three days represent what is happening in contemporary moving picture culture,” said David Dinnell at the opening of the 52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour in Montreal. “Even just tonight contains most of the field’s genres,” he continued. “The nine pieces from six countries[Read More…]
