Movie Review – Tusk

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Tusk (2014)
Written & Directed by Kevin Smith

tusk film

Wallace Bryton is a cruel man. He co-hosts a podcast, The Not-See Party where he and his partner Teddy mock whatever viral videos are currently fresh in the collective psyche. His most recent acquisition, The Kill Bill Kid (an allusion to The Star Wars Kid) brings him to Manitoba in search of an interview. That opportunity goes bust, and he scrambles for a replacement, a touch of the strange to return to his listeners. A posting in the men’s room at a bar leads Wallace to the large manor home of Howard Howe, a reclusive man with stories to tell. Howe was a sailor for many years who regales Wallace with meeting Hemingway days before D-Day and his own eventually shipwreck in the waters of the North Atlantic. It was in those waters he befriended a walrus, nicknaming him Mr. Tusk. This friendship is the motivation behind Howe’s twisted plans for Wallace.

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Movie Review – The Captive

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The Captive (2013)
Written by Atom Egoyan & David Fraser
Directed by Atom Egoyan

the captive

In rural Ontario, a young girl named Cass vanishes from the back of her dad’s truck. Her father, Matt, and mother, Tina spend the next eight years going through stages of grief and disbelief about the well-being and whereabouts of their daughter. Detectives Cornwall and Dunlap pursue the case as part of their assignment on the Child Exploitation division and discover Cass being used as bait to lure other young girls into a child predator ring. The various people involved in this complex web slowly spiral closer and closer, with Matt pursuing who he believes to be the man behind his daughter’s kidnapping.

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Comic Book Review – The Flash by Mark Waid Book Two

The Flash by Mark Waid Book Two
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Greg LaRocque

flash mark waid book two

Wally West has finally found his footing as The Flash when out of nowhere the long-thought-dead Barry Allen has returned from the dead. Barry returns to his role as The Flash running alongside Wally and the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. However, something is wrong with Wally’s resurrected mentor, and he feels himself being pushed away. It will take some speedster allies to help get to the truth behind Barry’s return. There are also brief ventures to Gorilla City with a Green Lantern team-up as well as a handful of one-off stories, but the main draw here is the year-long Barry Allen story.

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Movie Review – Loveless

Loveless (2017)
Written by Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

loveless

Zhenya and Boris are in the final days of their acidic and hateful marriage. When they are forced to be around each other in their Moscow apartment, they fill the bitter silence with mouthfuls of venom spewed at each other. One thing that is agreed upon is that their twelve-year-old son Alyosha is going to be sent to a “boarding school” that will primarily act as an orphanage. Zhenya wants to move on with to her new life with an older, wealthy and established man while Boris has already gotten his twenty-something girlfriend pregnant. Alyosha is destined to be forgotten. One morning, Zhenya discovers that their son hasn’t been to school in two days and appears to have not been in the apartment during that time either. They realize he is missing and contact authorities. The subsequent search forces these two hate-filled people to spend hours together, but don’t expect a reconciliation.

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Comic Book Review – The Flash by Mark Waid Book 1

The Flash by Mark Waid Book 1
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Greg LaRocque

flash waid one

Since the tragic death of Barry Allen during the Crisis, Wally West has held the mantle of The Flash. On a visit to his grandfather’s, Wally uncovers an old scrapbook made by his late aunt Iris chronicling his days as Kid Flash. This triggers a series of flashbacks that retells Wally’s first short-lived run as Kid Flash (he would later go on to a much more prolific tenure as a member of the Teen Titans). Further, we get a series of adventures that have Flash teaming up with Aquaman and the return of the classic Rogue Abra Kadabra. There are also two large size annuals included that tie into the universe-wide events of Armageddon 2001 and Eclipso: The Darkness Within.

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Movie Review – American Psycho

American Psycho (2000)
Written by Guinevere Turner & Mary Harron
Directed by Mary Harron

american psycho

1987 in New York City was a time of gross consumption and wealth. Patrick Bateman is an investment banker who spends his life dining at exclusive restaurants amongst people whom he seems to regard with vile disdain. When Bateman becomes enraged by a social slight or what he perceives as personal digs at himself, he unleashes his anger in a private and extremely violent manner. Bateman stabs a homeless man to death and stomps his dog into oblivion. Later, he gets a colleague extraordinarily intoxicated and brings him home, only to hack the man apart with a chrome plated ax after opining on the virtues of Huey Lewis’ “Hip to Be A Square.” How long can Bateman sustain such an existence, especially as he feels his sense of individual self-being drowned out by the culture around him.

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Comic Book Review – The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1

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The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1
Written by Joshua Williamson
Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico

flash rebirth book 1

Everything changed when the original Wally West returned, emerging from the timestream when his Uncle Barry Allen aka The Flash remembered him. Now the speedster hero of Central City recalled that there was a reality before this one and that some unseen force is manipulating the memories and realities of the people around him. He doesn’t have much time to dwell on this when a sudden speed force storm grants his powers to dozens of everyday people. This includes police detective August Heart and STAR Labs scientist Meena Dhawan. Is this the work of the criminal organization The Black Hole or the newly emerged speedster villain Godspeed?

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