Films That Matter
Star Pick with Kurt Angle
It was an absolute pleasure to meet and get a quick interview with the great Kurt Angle this past summer in Ottawa. First making a name for himself on the amateur wrestling circuit, it all culminated with a gold medal win (with a broken neck, no less) at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia. The ultimate achievement for most amateur athletes, this was not the end for Angle, but only the beginning. Just a mere two years later, he had signed on to the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE or World Wresting Entertainment), a leap that would soon find him taking professional wrestling by storm. Making his television debut in November of 1999, he was a natural, not only at the wrestling, but also on the mike.
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Star Pick with Kurt Angle
The Right AngleRockyJanuary 1, 2025It was an absolute pleasure to meet and get a quick interview with the great Kurt Angle this past summer in Ottawa. First making a name for himself on the amateur wrestling circuit, it all culminated with a gold medal win (with a broken neck, no less) at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia. The ultimate achievement for most amateur athletes, this was not the end for Angle, but only the beginning. Just a mere two years later, he had signed on to the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE or World Wresting Entertainment), a leap that would soon find him taking professional wrestling by storm. Making his television debut in November of 1999, he was a natural, not only at the wrestling, but also on the mike.
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Wise Gals
Three Wise GirlsSeptember 13, 2024It’s funny how things have changed so much over the years, but at the same time, human beings seem to have changed so little. Single men complain about women, while single women complain about men just as much... something discussed quite frequently in the romantic dramedy Three Wise Girls (1932), directed by William Beaudine and based upon Wilson Collison’s novel “Blonde Baby”. Cassie Barnes (Jean Harlow) is a small town soda jerk... and with her shapely body and platinum blonde locks, she attracts all the wrong kinds of men. Having had enough of the lecherous men back home, she makes the move to New York City, quickly finding work (and a whole new crop of creeps) while working the ice cream and soft drink game.
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Virtue Signaling
VirtueDecember 18, 2023A Pre-Code romantic crime drama from Columbia Pictures, 1932's Virtue, directed by Edward Buzzell, got off to a bit of a bumpy start... for when star Carole Lombard (on loan from Paramount) met studio president Harry Cohn (known to be blunt, opinionated, and rather colourful with his language), he told her that her hair was too white – making her look like ‘a whore’. Lombard, no shrinking violet, promptly responded with: “if anyone would know a whore it would be you”. Though the two would soon earn each other’s respect (something that would last for the rest of their lives), this really is a perfect story that exemplifies the edgy themes and style found in these Pre-Code movies. Opening with a black screen that hides the visuals of a criminal sentence, a Judge rather kindly orders several prostitutes to vacate the city, but if they return, they shall be punished to the full extent of the law.
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Star Pick with Amanda Bearse
Marcy’s PlaygroundTo Kill a MockingbirdJune 18, 2023It was an absolute pleasure to meet and interview Amanda Bearse at CAPE 2022 (Cornwall & Area Pop Event). A multi-talented actor and director, she is perhaps best remembered as troublesome neighbour Marcy in the long running television sitcom Married... with Children (she appeared in an impressive 259 episodes, while she also sat in the directorial chair 31times). Yet, two years earlier, she appeared in what must have seemed at the time to be a horror quickie that would come and go... except the annals of cinema history were not done with Fright Night – it becoming a true cult classic of the 1980s that is still growing its viewing audience today. After wrapping Married, she decided to step behind the camera more often than not, directing numerous television series, including The Jamie Foxx Show, Dharma & Greg, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Reba, Mad TV, to name but a few. For the first time in awhile, she is back in front of the camera with last year’s Bros and the upcoming comedy Tapawingo.
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Spiels, Fabels, and Other Stories
The FabelmansFebruary 23, 2023Like a reflective revery, Steven Spielberg looks back at his own life with the 2022 Academy Award nominated (seven selections, including Best Picture) feature film The Fabelmans. Co-written (along with Tony Kushner) and directed by Spielberg, he creates a throwback style picture, something along the lines of the moving I Remember Mama (1948)... a sweeping retrospective of love and death, bullying and forgiveness, familial unity and division, over several decades. The Spielberg name becomes Fabelman, with Sammy replacing the name Steven (Gabriel LaBelle; as a younger child, Mateo Zoryan). We open with his parents, the weak tech genius Burt (Paul Dano) and artsy centre of attention Mitzi (Michelle Williams – in an Oscar nominated role) taking him to his first movie – 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth.
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Take the World in a Loveless Embrace
The LovelessJune 7, 2022Back in the late 1970s, then first time co-writer/co-director Kathryn Bigelow, along with Monty Montgomery, were fortunate enough to have spotted one Willem Dafoe on the stage – a member of the Wooster Group experimental theater company. Asking him to be a part of their movie, it would also become the actor’s first credited role. That film would eventually be called The Loveless (1981)... prior to that, it was known as US 17 and Breakdown. Set in the 1950s and infused with a post-punk flair, the narrative follows Vance (Dafoe), an enigmatic nihilist with an intoxicating allure. A quiet biker wearing black leather and equally as dark Brylcreem’d back hair, he oozes an indifferent quality of danger and sexuality. Living on the edge of life (or perhaps more accurately, a knife), he’s the type of conundrum that stops to help a lady with a flat tire, only to nab a controversial kiss and then take the money from her wallet for payment as he departs... leaving her all shook up in more ways than one.
