Reviews of the Bosch

The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck is one of those books that if you’re not assigned to read it in school, you probably never will on your own time. For me, books like it or  Catcher in the Rye  or  Fahrenheit 451  will just always live in that territory, just as I’m sure  The Great Gatsby  or  To Kill a Mockingbird  do for others. Fortunately, a number of these books have been made into movies, and some quite swiftly. Less than a year after its’ publication, a movie version of  The Grapes of Wrath  was released by 20 th  Century Fox in 1940. And I wonder if this wasn’t just to capitalize on the success and popularity of that Pullitzer Prize winning novel, but also to ensure a movie came out at a time when the plot was still extremely relevant and resonant. The United States was only then just coming out of the Great Depression after all, and there were still families all over living life stories comparable to the Joads. Ti...

It’s been said before that Nicolas Cage is a force of nature; a figure unlike anyone else in Hollywood who’s become a pop culture phenomenon of an entirely unique sort in an entirely unique way. And yet the man himself is by most accounts gracious, and takes in stride the sometimes unfair notoriety of his persona. Because one can never fully tell how sincere or ironic a particular image of Cage is. And yes, he’s made bad movies and delivered questionable performances, but he’s also one of those rare actors willing to make big choices with his craft. He’s often cited German Expressionism as a particular influence, and it can be seen in so many of his most famous moments. But last year, he starred in Pig , a far quieter and less wild movie than he typically works in, and it produced one of the best performances of his career. In a way it proved he can do whatever he wants, and he doesn’t much care about that public image anymore. Which is why it was surprising that he chose to star i...

There’s a reason the old stories never die. A boy, heir to the throne, is called to heroism in lieu of the death of his father at the hands of a traitorous uncle. Cast out of the kingdom he was once to rule, his mother made to wed the murderous villain, he must become a man before returning and righting the wrong done to his family honour. He must avenge his father, he must save his mother, and he must kill his uncle. It is a story we’re all familiar with, likely in its’ most ubiquitous form: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , arguably the most famous play in the western canon (others will probably identify the story most with The Lion King  -to each their own). But Shakespeare, for all his brilliance, was of course not the originator. His source was Saxo Grammaticus’ record of the tale of Amleth, a Scandinavian legend that itself is likely not the first telling of this classic story of revenge and family honour. It is simply too primal, too universal, too raw -a story that has always ...

I’ve been thinking again about Canadian cinema, where it is now and what even is it? Canada’s film industry has not much changed in the five years since I last discussed its’ limitations and lack of breadth. Significant resources have still not been allotted to homegrown Canadian film projects and most of our best talents continue to migrate south. Distribution has barely changed -few cinemas across the country will play Canadian content (and when they do they’ll tend to be movies that are mostly watered down versions of American fare like The Grizzlies and Percy ); and in this streaming age the onus is even more on finding the good stuff yourself where possible without much of a mechanism for word of mouth to tell you what that is. The good stuff is still coming of course. Something like Tracy Deer’s Beans  had enough of a reach through unfortunate timeliness to the point of being that rare Canadian film to launch international careers. Its’ star Kiawentiio is set to play the li...

We may be in the early stages of a mini resurgence of the pirate genre and I am here for it. The sudden popularity of Our Flag Means Death  perhaps speaks most significantly to this, but this new Doctor Who special also really reminded me how fun pirates are and how maybe we should make movies about them again. True, “Legend of the Sea Devils” is mostly just playing in the Pirates of the Caribbean  sandbox of combining swashbuckling adventure with the paranormal, but it does so while also emphasizing the diversity of pirate history to a degree that series never did. High seas piracy was a thing for centuries and belonged to many different aesthetics and cultures. Madam Ching, who is showcased here played by Crystal Yu, should get a more thorough examination in the manner that Blackbeard has. It’s very interesting. I wish I could say that this episode was, which is certainly working with a lot of cool elements. Firstly, it brings back the Sea Devils, one of the last memorable r...

There’s a very careful line to be walked making a movie about a mass shooter. It’s not a job I envy of any director though the motivation must be highly scrutinized. What is to be gained by dramatizing such a story, by highlighting such a figure? These are the vital questions that need to be answered to prevent the movie from being merely an exercise in either nihilism or bad faith. And that heavy task probably accounts for why this subject matter hasn’t been attempted so much, at least not from the point-of-view of the perpetrator. Gus Van Sant won the Palme d’Or for his Columbine movie Elephant and since then nobody’s really felt the taste for it, especially in the United States where mass shootings are extraordinarily common. Australia on the other hand… Australia has had one major incident of this type and it famously led to an extreme crackdown on gun laws in that country -albeit laws that director Justin Kurzel  would like to emphasize (though only in postscript) aren’t being...

Everything Everywhere All at Once . That is the name of the movie. It is also an accurate description of the movie. Truly, few modern films have embraced the limitlessness of the form, in ideas, in scope, and even in expression to the degree that this latest effort from directors Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan (collectively known simply as “Daniels”) does. It is deranged  and it is beautiful, it is disturbing and it is entrancing, it is stupid and it is profound. It is indeed everything, everywhere, all at once -and it is one of the best high concept movies of the last several years. Though nobody could’ve guessed the exact form it would take, it is the logical next step for Daniels, who got their start making absurd music videos (anyone remember “Turn Down for What”?), before breaking through into feature filmmaking with the equally bizarre Swiss Army Man  in 2016 -a.k.a “the Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie”. That film also was stuffed with a good deal more meaning and a...

There’s a big movie coming out. A new entry in what was once one of the most lucrative, ubiquitous film franchises, but now one that nobody wants to talk about. I know no one who’s interested, there’s hardly any conversation about it on film twitter -which is somewhat surprising given its’ scale, budget, and franchise interconnectivity. But this was also inevitable in light of the recent reputation downfall of its’ particular boy wizard I.P. It can’t be understated how quickly, deeply, and thoroughly the Harry Potter brand has been sullied in the last couple years almost entirely on the back of its author and her crusade against transgender rights and dignity. This was disgusting enough on its’ own, but it also became something of a lightning rod for unflattering critical analysis of her work. Because whatever you may believe pertaining to Death of the Author theory, any work of art is informed in some degree by the biases of its’ creator. Suddenly everyone was taking not...