Film and TV

Summer Entertainment Report Cards: TV Shows – Entourage

Going into the show’s seventh season, Entourage followers have been anxiously waiting all year for some new excitement in the life of Vincent Chase and the boys. After leaving off last season with Vince filming in Rome and Eric finally proposing to Sloan, Vince begins shooting a new movie in which he’s persuaded to do his own dangerous driving stunt.

FILM: A new Versailles

Audiences have been eagerly awaiting Sofia Coppola’s new film since her last offering, the critically acclaimed Lost in Translation debuted. Unexpectedly, Coppola brings us from the neon lights of the streets of Tokyo to the glittering hallways of Versailles.

FILM: Scorsese scores (finally)

All things considered, Martin Scorsese hasn’t made a decent feature film in over a decade. Gangs of New York seemed excessively brutal and utterly pointless, Bringing out the Dead sank like a stone and The Aviator, for all the accolades draped over it, hardly served its biographical purposes adequately and was a remarkably boring film.

Film fest turns 35

The Festival du Nouveau Cinema is the oldest of its kind in Montreal, celebrating its 35th birthday this October. The festival opens tomorrow with Philippe Falardeau’s Congorama and closes Oct. 26 with a spotlight on the Spanish cinema screening of Pedro Almodovar’s Volver.

FILM: Cutting-edged comedy

Dear Journal, what can I say? He drove a cool car, remarks a certain 13-year-old boy by the name of Augusten Burroughs in the new movie adaptation of the memoir Running With Scissors. Having read Burroughs’ reminiscences of a homosexual boy with a 35-year-old boyfriend growing up in western Massachusetts in the late 70s, I was readily expecting golden phrases such as the former in the film’s adaptation.

Putting Canada back on the television map

Tuesday evening saw the debut of CBC’s latest prime time original broadcast, the brainchild of Chris Haddock, nationally revered creator of decade-spanning Canadian success Da Vinci’s Inquest. His new series, Intelligence, examines a new facet of West Coast criminality, this time turning the camera towards the perpetrators rather than the victims and investigators.

TELEVISION: My superpowers trump your superpowers

The newest and most highly anticipated show from NBC’s fall lineup premiered Monday night. Heroes enacts everybody’s dream fantasy – to wake up in the morning and discover an amazing superpower. Along the lines of a televised X-Men, the show follows nine characters around the globe who find themselves in just that situation.

FILM: LIttle trailer park called home

Canada’s favourite foul-mouthed trio hit the big screen last Friday after an excruciatingly long period of anticipation for fanatical devotees. The film, surprisingly, did not disappoint. The “surprisingly” modifier is used hesitantly because, let’s face it, 90-plus minutes of rampant alcoholism, recreational drug use, petty criminality and enough vulgarity to make Lenny Bruce blush has the potential to get old fast.

FILM: The truth will set you free?

In The Last Kiss, a Hollywood remake of the 2001 Gabriele Mauccino film L’Ultimo Baccio, Zach Braff finds himself almost-30 and on the verge, looking dazedly around in the suspended moment before he walks quietly into baby-and-coupledom for the rest of his life.

TVMcGill shines a spotlight on student films

With online video clips already a welcome distraction at the library, it’s hardly surprising that the Fokus Film Festival’s popularity has expanded exponentially in the past four years. The festival, hosted by TVMcGill, showcases the works of film-savvy, creative McGill students and awards prizes to the best films in each category.

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