Last and definitely not least in my yearlong look at cult films from the 1950s to the 1970s is Billy Wilder’s award winning film noir drama Sunset Boulevard. While on the run from repossession men seeking his car, down on his luck screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) stumbles into the mansion of faded silent film star Norma Desmond …
Blindspot
I’m a week bit late with my (technically) November blindspot selection, in which I watched Jean-Luc Godard’s 1964 film Bande à part, known in North America as Band of Outsiders. Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) are two friends who come up with a plan to steal a large stash of money at a villa in Joinville, outside of …
This month I watched John De Bello’s 1978 B-movie satire Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Genetically modified tomatoes unexpectedly become sentient and begin killing people around the United States. While the President’s press secretary Jim Richardson (George Wilson) wants to ensure the public that there is no real threat, the President (Ernie Meyers) decides to form a task …
This month I watched Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 English language debut Blow-Up. Thomas (David Hemmings) is a highly successful London photographer, who one day begins taking pictures of a loving couple in a park. When, the woman lover, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) discovers this she is infuriated and demands that Thomas give her the film. With his curiosity peaked, …
I move from cars to motorcycles this month with 1969’s Easy Rider. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are two freewheeling bikers, who have just completed a cocaine drug deal. With the money stashed away in the gas tank of Wyatt’s chopper, the two go set off from Los Angeles to New Orleans, hoping to arrive …
This month I watched the 1971 car chase movie Vanishing Point. Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a former race car driver, now working as a car delivery man, who is tasked with delivering a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver, Colorado to San Francisco. While scoring Benzedrine pills to stay awake for the trip, Kowalski makes a bet with …
This month I watched this African-American retelling of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy (Diana Ross) is a 24 year old Harlem schoolteacher, who chases her dog Toto out into a snowstorm and ends up being carried away by a whirlwind into the magical land of Oz. Accidentally killing Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy is given …
This month I watched Ken Russell’s 1975 film based on the rock opera by The Who. Tommy (Roger Daltrey) has been supposedly death, dumb, and blind since witnessing as a kid his stepfather Frank (Oliver Reed) kill Tommy’s father, who was thought to have been killed in war. Frank and Tommy’s mother Nora (Ann-Margret) try in …
This month I delve into the film that immortalized James Dean. Jim Stark (Dean) is a rebellious and angst-ridden teen, whose family just moved into town. Jim befriends fellow outsider John ‘Plato’ Crawford (Sal Mineo) and feels an attraction to local girl Judy (Natalie Wood). However, Jim is targeted by a local gang, whose leader Buzz (Corey Allen) …
This month I watched a debut studio effort by sexploitation king Russ Meyer with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella “Pet” Danforth (Marcia McBroom) are members of an all-female rock band, who travel along with Kelly’s manager boyfriend Harris Allsworth (David Gurian) to Los Angeles to seek …
Warning: This post contains SPOILERS It didn’t take long for me to get to this month’s selection, which is Charles Laughton’s 1955 film noir The Night of the Hunter. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is a corrupt, self-described preacher in 1930s West Virginia, who has married and killed many widows for their money. While serving a month-long sentence …
I’m kicking off my 2018 edition of the Blindspot Series with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 surrealist fantasy The Holy Mountain. A Christ-like thief (Horacio Salinas) finds his way to the home of The Alchemist (Alejandro Jodorowsky), a mysterious figure living in a tower. Along with seven other individuals, each representing a planet of the solar system, The Alchemist …
As an appropriate end to my yearlong venture through classic Canadian cinema, this month I watched Don McKellar’s 1998 apocalyptic dark comedy Last Night. In six hours time, the world will come to an end at the stroke of midnight. Patrick (Don McKellar) is content with facing the end alone in his apartment. However, he comes …
Back in 2013, I did a cult film themed Blindspot series, picking films from the book “101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die.” For my 2018 edition of the series, I have decided to return to the book and pick 12 more cult films to see. This time around, I decided to focus …
Before he moved to Hollywood with films like Sicario and Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve made a film about one of the darkest moments of Canadian history with Polytechnique. On December 6, 1989, a lone gunman (Maxim Gaudette) walked into École Polytechnique in Montreal and shot 28 people, killing 14 women, before killing himself. This semi-fictionalized recreation of the …
This month I delve into the Canadian tax shelter era with the 1977 wilderness survival/horror film Rituals. Harry (Hal Holbrook), Mitzi (Lawrence Dane), Martin (Robin Gammell), Abel (Ken James), and D.J. (Gary Reineke) are five doctor friends, who go for a camping trip in an isolated stretch of wilderness. After the first night, the the men’s …
This month, I watched the 1994 dramedy Double Happiness, by Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Mina Shum. Jade Li (Sandra Oh) is a young Hong Kong born woman living in Vancouver with her strict Chinese family. Jade’s parents (Stephen Chang and Alannah Ong) frown at her ambitions to be an actress and they would rather that she find a …
This month I watched 1989’s Roadkill, which is one of the earliest films from “Toronto New Wave” director Bruce McDonald. After rock band Children of Paradise disappear while on tour, promoter Roy Seth (Gerry Quigley) sends intern Ramona (Valerie Buhagiar) to track them down in Sudbury. However, Ramona soon loses track of the band and has to …
It’s a bit of a lighthearted pick for me this month, as I chose to watch Deepa Mehta’s 2002 Indo-Canadian romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood. Rahul Seth (Rahul Khanna) is a rich Indian man in Toronto, who is essentially blackmailed by his family to find an Indian girl to marry, or else his younger sister Twinky (Rishma Malik) can’t go through …
With it being Pride Month in Canada, culminating with this weekend’s Toronto Pride Parade, I figured that an appropriate selection for this month’s Blindspot would be Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2005 breakthrough film C.R.A.Z.Y. Born on Christmas Day to conservative Christian parents Gervais (Michel Côté) and Laurianne (Danielle Proulx), Zachary Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin) is the second youngest of a family of …
This month I watched M. Butterfly, which is the only film directed by David Cronenberg that I had yet to see. René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) is a French diplomat stationed in Beijing, China during the 1960s. René meets and falls in love with Chinese opera singer Song Liling (John Lone). The affair lasts for many years, with René …
The month I delved into The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand’s Oscar-winning follow-up to 1986’s The Decline of the American Empire. Seventeen years after his womanizing ways brought an end to his marriage with Louise (Dorothée Berryman), Rémy (Rémy Girard) is terminally ill with cancer and bedridden in hospital. This results in Rémy’s estranged son Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau) to …
Sorry for being a bit late for this month’s Blindspot entry, which takes a look at Guy Maddin’s 2003 musical comedy The Saddest Music in the World. Set in Winnipeg during The Great Depression, baroness Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) announces an international competition to find the saddest music in the world. Eager to join is failing …
This month I look at what is arguably the breakthrough film for up-and-coming Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan. Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupaud) is a Montreal novelist and literature teacher, who’s in a passionate relationship with Fred Belair (Suzanne Clément). One day on her birthday, Laurence reveals to Fred that she is a transgender woman, who no longer wants …
It is time for me to kick off the 2017 edition of the Blindspot Series, where I will watch films from Canada’s top filmmakers in celebration of the country’s 150th anniversary. First up is Atom Egoyan’s award winning 1997 drama The Sweet Hereafter. A small town is reeling after a tragic school bus accident that …
I conclude my yearlong exploration of classic horror with Hammer Films 1959 adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. Following the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, Dr. Richard Mortimer (Francis de Wolff) seeks the assistance of Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) to protect the remaining Baskerville heir Sir Henry (Christopher Lee) from the apparent curse placed upon the …
I’m continuing with Hammer Films this month, as I look at their version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. After inheriting his family’s wealth, Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) uses the money to fund his research, assisted by his longtime friend and tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart). However, Paul becomes increasingly concerned when Victor becomes obsessed with creating a new …
It is time once again for me to announce the films that I plan to watch over the course of the next year as part of the Blindspot series. Since a huge event next year is Canada’s 150th anniversary as a country, it is a no-brainer that I would set out and watch films I …
Earlier this year, I wrote about the Univeral Monster films from the early 1930s. Now I shall fast-forward to the late 1950s when a number of those monster films were remade by a British film production company known as Hammer Films. I shall begin my look at Hammer Films with their 1958 version of Dracula, …
This month I cover not one, but two areas of classic horror, as I wrap up my mini retrospective of Vincent Price films with 1959’s House on Haunted Hill, directed by infamous horror maestro William Castle. Frederick Loren (Price) invites a group of five strangers over to an allegedly haunted house for his wife Annabelle’s (Carol …
This month, I continue with the films of Vincent Price and one of this most well-known films. One night, François Delambre (Price) receives a call from his sister-in-law Helene (Patricia Owens) confessing that she killed her husband Andre (Al Hedison) in a mechanical press. In defense of this supposed murder, Helene tells François and Inspector Charas …
This month I will begin covering films from horror icon Vincent Price, beginning with 1953’s House of Wax. Prof. Henry Jarrod (Price) is the sculptor and curator of a wax museum in 1890s New York. Jarrod’s business partner Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) sets fire to the wax museum to collect the insurance money and Jarrod is …
I’m back to talking about the Universal Monsters this month as I checked out 1932’s The Mummy. On an Egyptian archaeological expedition in 1921, led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), the mummified remains of ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep (Boris Karloff) are unearthed. When a scroll accompanying the mummy is read by Sir Jospeph’s assistant, …
There’s a slight change of plans with this month’s blindspot selection, with me opting to jump ahead and watch Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s King Kong, instead of my originally scheduled pick of The Mummy. It’s a bit of a stretch to lump King Kong in with my theme of classic horror, with the film …
Continuing with the Universal Monsters, this month I delve into James Whale’s Frankenstein. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) has secluded himself as he seeks to create new life out of exhumed human remains, assisted by his hunchback assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye). Frankenstein succeed in bring life to a creature (Boris Karloff), however quickly finds that this monster is …
This month I move away from silent horror and into the heyday of Universal Studio’s monster films, as I watched 1931’s Dracula. Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) is an ancient vampire from Transylvania, who travels to England with his lunatic slave Renfield (Dwight Frye) and moves into Carfax Abbey in London. The Abbey is next door to …
After jumping ahead in time last month, I rewind back to German Expressionist cinema for one of the earliest horror films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) is a mysterious sideshow performer, whose main attraction is the sleepwalking somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt). However, following a string of mysterious murders, including that if his best …
It is time for me to begin a new round of the Blindspot series, with this year’s theme being classic horror. I start my journey off in the silent era and the 1925 film version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring “The Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney. Underneath the Paris Opera House lives …
Now it is time for my final entry in this yearlong celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival. It has become the general assumption that winning the TIFF People’s Choice Award automatically means that the film is destined for at least an Oscar nomination. This was not the case for the …
It is time for the penultimate edition of this yearlong celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival. This month, I will be looking at Lee Daniels’ Precious (Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire), which won the TIFF People’s Choice Award in 2009 and went on to be nominated for six Academy …
Happy Halloween! Today, is the perfect day to announce my line-up for the 2016 edition of the Blindspot series, which will be Classic Horror. This came about from a recent realization that even though I consider myself a fan of horror films, I haven’t seen many of the classic films that were released in the …
With it being October, I decided that I would take a break from watching winner’s of the TIFF People’s Choice Award and watch the film from the popular Midnight Madness programme. Specifically, I decided to watch a film from the very first Midnight Madness in 1988, which would the horror-comedy Brain Damage. A young man named …