I loathed Django Unchained—Tarantino’s masturbatory exercise in self-aggrandizement. Yet even I can admire the beauty of one particular shot from the film, when a rich ruby blood spurt sprays across a field of snow-white cotton. Not only did this visual reinforce the horrific human toll of commodification—it also looked downright[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Lacklustre return to the Emerald City
Disney is once again whisking movie-goers away to the Land of Oz, but this time the journey is anything but magical. The opening credits—a topsy-turvy Victorian circus—promise creativity: a quirky take on a bygone era, drama, suspense, and great visuals. But the best is over before the film begins, and[Read More…]
Spotlight on Haiti emphasizes hope over despair
The streets of Port-au-Prince are just around the corner from McGill—or at least as much of them as anyone can expect to see without traveling to Haiti. They are put on display in Haiti: Chaos and Daily Life, an exhibition by Montreal photographer Benoit Aquin now showing at the McCord[Read More…]
The corner man packs a power punch
Cornered, a play by Jim Burke, carefully confines its characters, Vinne (Christopher Moore) and Rex (Howard Rosenstein), within a boxing ring. Despite their restricted space, Moore and Rosenstein keep their witty back-and-forth fresh and captivating. Vinne and Rex encounter challenges beyond the difficulty of working within a small square box[Read More…]
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away
Australian alternative rock band Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have been a consistent musical force over the past 30 years. Their newest album, Push the Sky Away, proves that they’re still relevant, using haunting, minimalistic instrumentation to create an eerie atmosphere that holds steady over the album’s nine tracks.[Read More…]
Kate Nash: Girl Talk
Kate Nash seems to embody what London is all about. Although she was born in the northwest of the city, her thrift-shop dresses are more East End and Shoreditch, with their small art galleries and open air markets. When she released her first album Foundations, her distinctive cockney accent and[Read More…]
Maston: Shadows
Frank Maston has created a fast-paced, intriguing, and peculiar album with his band Maston’s latest release Shadows, one calling to mind The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and 2012’s breakthrough act Tame Impala. The album is whimsical and dreamy, zipping through to its conclusion before you know it—only one of the[Read More…]
What does it mean to be a fan?
It’s a question that is asked hundreds of times per day: “Are you a real fan?” For everything that can be enjoyed, there are those who scrutinize their fellow fans, and attempt to create a distinction between ‘true fans’ and those who are merely capitalizing on the act’s popularity in[Read More…]
An accessible opera brings mixed results
Rather than deter crime, religion may stimulate it. That is the controversial conclusion of a new criminological study published last month, which found that criminals—sometimes with rudimentary if not outright false understanding of religious tenets—often use faith as a justification for their crimes. This finding was in the forefront of[Read More…]
Dead Man Down is dead in the water
In the land of action-thrillers, there is a fence. On one side lies territory that is ‘edgy,’ ‘atmospheric,’ and ‘cool.’ The other side is ‘stifling,’ ‘slow,’ and ‘boring.’ Nicolas Winding Refn found himself on the former side of this fence with Drive and Bronson, and the latter with Valhalla Rising.[Read More…]
