Movie Review – Tusk

a24 visions

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.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Tusk”

Movie Review – The Captive

a24 visions

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.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Captive”

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.

Continue reading “Comic Book Review – The Flash by Mark Waid Book Two”

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.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Loveless”

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.

Continue reading “Comic Book Review – The Flash by Mark Waid Book 1”

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.

Continue reading “Movie Review – American Psycho”

Comic Book Review – The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1

rebirthreviews

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?

Continue reading “Comic Book Review – The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1”

Movie Review – The Candidate

rwbcinema

The Candidate (1972)
Written by Jeremy Larner
Directed by Michael Ritchie

the candidate

Marvin Lucas is an election specialist looking for a viable Democratic candidate to oppose incumbent California Republican Crocker Jarman. Lucas finds his candidate in Bill McKay, a lawyer, and advocate for some liberal causes (labor, desegregation, environmentalism). McKay is promised that Jarman will inevitably win and the young man can speak his mind. Lucas just wants an opposing voice in the race. However, McKay begins to find himself being tweaked and shaped by a political machine that is interested in appealing to an open center. This results in the lawyer speaking platitudes he fundamentally disagrees with. As the countdown nears to election day, McKay finds himself increasingly at odds with Lucas and his poll numbers rising.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Candidate”

Comic Book Review – Green Lantern: Mosaic Part 3

gl mosaic

Green Lantern: Mosaic Part 3
Green Lantern: Mosaic #10-18

gl mosaic hal jordan

It is not an understatement to say that Mosaic stood out a series unlike much else DC Comics was publishing in 1992. If we do a quick survey of the company at the time, we see this was the start of a significant shift in the type of storytelling DC was doing. In the wake of 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths the major characters were given fresh reboots and, while there would occasionally be crossover events, most large-scale events felt reasonably contained. 1987’s Legends was more an event based around themes rather than plot. Millenium and Invasion were kept relatively small and with little to no effect on the broader scale of titles. This allowed a bit more creator freedom which we can see in Gerard Jones’ work with the Green Lantern franchise.

Continue reading “Comic Book Review – Green Lantern: Mosaic Part 3”

Movie Review – Suburbicon

Suburbicon (2017)
Written by Joel & Ethan Coen
Directed by George Clooney

suburbicon

It’s 1959 in the city of Suburbicon, USA, and the first black family has moved in. This event is causing quite the stir, and the “well-meaning” people of the town just don’t that black people are ready to live in their neighborhood yet. When The Mayers don’t seem to get the message the citizenry begin to escalate matters. Meanwhile, the next block over Nicky Lodge’s life is turned upside down when two strange men barge into the house in the middle of the night. They end up killing Nicky’s mother leaving his father, Gardner, a widow. Thankfully, Nicky’s aunt and his late mother’s sister Margaret is there to help.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Suburbicon”