“The world itself is just one big hoax,” protagonist Elliot Alderson says in the pilot episode of Mr. Robot. This summer’s critical darling, the show tells the story of Alderson, a socially-awkward, morphine-addicted hacker extraordinaire. Alderson looks at his world and sees an obvious problem: Much of it appears to[Read More…]
Film and TV
The extended reign of Stephen Colbert
SInce the days of Johnny Carson, the format of late night talk shows hasn’t changed much. Working with some variation of the ‘opening monologue, guest one, guest two, pre-recorded bit, musical guest, goodnight’ formula has proven to be ironically versatile. A revolving door of new hosts has also helped prevent[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Revisionist Stonewall nothing more than a whitewashing of queer history
The trailer for Roland Emmerich’s film, Stonewall, was released earlier this summer to a flurry of criticism over the blonde-haired, blue-eyed cis-gender boy it revolves around. Although the film attempts to authentically portray a dramatized version of one of the most significant events in LGBT history, it largely omits queer[Read More…]
2015 Emmy Predictions
The 2015 Emmy nominees are so full of familiar faces to the degree that the newcomers are negligible. When picking winners, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) tends to keep awarding old favourites or layers accolades on one standout newbie. To acknowledge both Emmy traditions and hopes-against-hope, the[Read More…]
McGill 101: Finding your niche in McGill’s creative community
One of the best parts of university is that it allows you to find your niche. No matter how specific your interests are, there is probably already a club at McGill devoted to it; however, the sheer amount of variety can be overwhelming, so here are several clubs focused specifically on[Read More…]
The best films of 2015 (so far)
Here's our list of the best films of 2015 so far: 15. Slow West Though Western films have long become stale, a fresh spin on its familiar tropes comes out every few years to show the genre still has some life left in it. In this period piece, a young[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Don Draper’s last stand
**SPOILERS** A man sits alone at a hotel restaurant smoking a cigarette. He's classically handsome in a way that went out of style with black and white cinema. It's 1959, and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the most talented advertiser in a city full of talented advertisers. Years later, the[Read More…]
Summer Film Preview
Tomorrowland (May 22) Brad Bird of The Iron Giant (1999) and Ratatouille (2007) brings one of the summer’s only blockbuster films that isn’t a sequel or an adaptation. George Clooney stars as a fading former boy genius who teams up with a troubled, yet brilliant teenage girl to discover the secrets[Read More…]
Peer Review: Mountain of Servants
Sometimes, amazing things can be the product of pure chance and timing. This is exactly the case with Daniel Lombroso’s documentary, Mountain of Servants, which documents the Syriacs, a dwindling minority in Eastern Turkey. Lombroso is a U3 Political Science major here at McGill University who grew up in Westchester[Read More…]
10,000 hours in 84 minutes
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…]