EIFF: Necessary Evil an existential comedy with horns
Fans of The Good Place might be interested in another existential comedy, Necessary Evil – making its premiere at the Edmonton International Film Festival on Friday night. The web series (aiming for TV) is a bit darker in its hour-long pilot episode Soul Purpose. It’s set in a hell that actually looks like hell – […]
EIFF REVIEW: Gone Doggy Gone a howl
The most sympathetic character in Gone Doggy Gone is the dog. Ooh, but Laila is such a sweet little crumbcake! With her wee sweaters and booties and her adorable little baby puppy carriage, and her humans wipe her butt with baby wipes because she sleeps in their bed, literally coming between man and wife, and […]
Is Glen Campbell Alzheimer’s documentary exploitive?
Director James Keach’s documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the country music legend’s farewell tour following his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in the summer of 2011. While chock full of joyful moments, it’s hard to watch the rapid descent of the great musician into dementia, as documented during a scene at the Mayo Clinic […]
EIFF REVIEW: Doc celebrates Memphis history
How do you watch a 90 minute documentary about the recording sessions for an album no one knows about, coupled together with countless anecdotes about people most music fans have never heard of, filmed in a city that was once crucial to the development of the American 20 century musical and cultural identity, but isn’t […]
INTERVIEW: Shannon Tweed on Hollywood
“Conquered Hollywood? It might have conquered me,” says the delightful Shannon Tweed on how she and countless other Canadians found success in American show business. The reality show star is just one subject in the new documentary Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood, along with people like Neve Campbell, Tommy Chong, Howie Mandel, Alan Thicke […]
EIFF REVIEW: The downside of altruism in One of a Kind
Can humans help themselves by helping others? Veteran French auteur Francois Dupeyron explores this very complex question in his 17th film One of a Kind (original French Title: Mon âme par toi guérie, or My Soul Healed By You). It screens Saturday, Sept. 27 at 2 pm as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival. […]
EIFF REVIEW: Belgian bluegrass drama hard to watch in more ways than one
There are a number of worthy ideas you can take away from The Broken Circle Breakdown – the gala closer of the Edmonton International Film Festival, Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 pm in the Empire City Centre 9 Cinemas. One, it’s pretty much the best romantic melodrama about Belgian bluegrass singers you’ll ever see. The […]
EIFF REVIEW: Spinning Plates feeds heart and soul
Towards the very end of Joseph Levy’s acclaimed documentary Spinning Plates, airing Oct. 3 as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival, there is a defining moment. World-renowned chef Grant Achatz compares his ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Chicago restaurant to those hometown spots run by his parents when he was a kid. He says, “It’s the same […]
EIFF REVIEW: Furry friends forever in Furever
The only thing missing in Furever is a visit to another country whose citizens aren’t so privileged, maybe one that doesn’t spend $52 billion a year on cats and dogs. In some places, people think we’re crazy for pampering what’s for dinner. It’s strangely ironic that the only place in the world you can get […]
EIFF REVIEW: Sex After Kids a riot of awkward encounters
It was a stroke of genius to cast veteran Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent as a sexual therapist in Sex After Kids, a comedy which to name is to know. It plays Saturday, Sept. 28 as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival. But it is really necessary for him to tell us, “Kids are not […]
EIFF REVIEW: The Auctioneer like an Alberta landscape painting
Farm equipment doesn’t fetch much money at auctions these days. As Hans Olson’s languid but visually beautiful documentary The Auctioneer suggests, the family farm is dying out on the Prairies, and with the surging popularity of the Internet as a buying and selling source, so is auctioneering. Thus we see Vegreville auctioneer Dale Menzak also […]
EIFF REVIEW: Muscle Shoals does its namesake proud
The great electric blues guitarist Otis Rush had some cracking albums in his day – and like his live gigs, they always started out with something smoking that really set the tone. In 1969 it was an album called “Mourning in the Morning.” Like most things musical, attempting to describe its incendiary, note-stabbing kickoff, all […]
