Melissa McCarthy’s extraordinary performance as Lee Israel, the literary swindler and forger, is inspired, complete and unforgettable. Her portrayal of the Hollywood biographer turned criminal in Can You Ever Forgive Me? is touched with genius and pathos, an extraordinary piece. She’s not sympathetic and she certainly doesn’t become sympathetic, but McCarthy’s touching hardass earns our attention as a wounded person with no idea how to reign herself in. McCarthy proves her… View Post
Twin seventeen year olds Maryam and Nivaal Rehman of Whitby, Ontario are living out their commitment to making the world a better place. As long standing members of the United Nations GirlUp initiative, they connect with other girls via YouTube and social media to inspire, discuss and promote their causes including girls’ education and the environment. Maryam and Nivaal have… View Post
The idea of the sugar daddy romancing and supporting young women is as old as the hills. The films of the Depression when money was tight visited it again and again. According to filmmaker Carly Stone, sugar daddies are with us still and her new film goes inside for a peek. Stone’s film The New Romantic stars Jessica Barden as… View Post
Canadian environmentalist and conservationist Rob Stewart launched a movement with the 2006 release of his painstakingly made documentary Sharkwater on the devastation of shark habitats and their dwindling numbers. Stewart attracted people to the cause, to save the ocean’s largest predator that does great good in the biosphere. He swam with sharks when he was young and as an adult became their… View Post
First Man, the Neil Armstrong story starring Ryan Gosling, is an enormous, painstaking and beautiful film that captures the excitement of the space race in the 60’s. It was important for the US government to get a man on the moon to establish US dominate of space and to beat the Russians who had achieved an impressive space record. The… View Post
The talk of the town since its debut at TIFF, Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born is the fourth iteration of the old chestnut in which a celebrated male performer is eclipsed by his newbie wife’s burgeoning career. Lady Gaga and director co-star Cooper have electricity and chemistry to spare, they fit nicely into each other’s universe and the action builds naturally… View Post