Category: Cinema

Something about those European crime thrillers

I haven’t blogged in a while, and there are loads to say as to what I’ve been up to the past few weeks – they’ve been packed with meetings with people involved in organizing the Waterfront Night Market in July – but I won’t go too much into that today. Today, I am here to promote this amazing Belgian thriller that I just finished watching!

Korean food and the Academy Awards

Two things:

  1. I love Korean food. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also cheap and healthy. And it’s so difficult to get all three when eating out.
  2. I haven’t seen over half of the Academy Award nominated films – including Gravity and American Hustle – and I feel incredibly guilty about it.

‘About Time’: Treasure each moment as it passes

I got to attend a super advance screening of Richard Curtis’ About Time last night thanks to Scene Creek! So top secret, there were even Universal Pictures Canada employees in the audience! As Rachel McAdams’ biggest fan in Toronto (hah), this was a huge treat, so I was incredibly excited about seeing this movie! But I’m rather exhausted after a long day of grad photos, group project meetings and classes, so this is a largely unedited review of what I thought about this film…

‘Prisoners’ is intense, dark, and one of the best movies this year

I finally took some time out of my hectic school/work schedule for some “Me Time” – some desperately needed work/life balance – to go watch Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners. Here’s what I wrote in my Rotten Tomatoes review (which generally are more blabbing than proper reviewing – forewarning):

This is one of those movies where you have to pay attention all the way through. The director – who’s Canadian! – makes it easy for you by slowly guiding you through the story.

The performances, of course, should be mentioned because you have never seen Hugh Jackman like you have seen Hugh Jackman in this movie. I was a little wary going into this movie that Hugh and Jake Gyllenhaal were a little too young for their roles, but they both did extremely well. Gyllenhaal, for one, does less of his “Zodiac” I-need-to-know performance, but does a more subtle performance. As for Jackman, he just goes off the charts in this role. There are some spectacular scenes he’s in that really impress you – I would say it’s his most emotionally intense role yet, but I haven’t seen all his movies, so I can’t say that for sure!

This year’s TIFF experience was exhausting

TIFF ended 15 days ago, and I am just writing my TIFF experience blog now. Sigh. I’ve had such a hectic schedule since the end of August, I’m not sure why I decided it would be a good idea to start a brand spankin’ new blog. Perhaps I underestimated the workload for the first month of school… Though actually, it’s less about the “first month of school” but more “first month of the last year of undergraduate school”. I have always been involved with extracurricular activities at school, but because I am in my last year, I’ve felt greater pressure to add more to my resume to ensure I can start my career as soon as I graduate. This meant trying to juggle positions at two part-time jobs, one student group, four school courses, and briefly, a two-week volunteer position all at the same time. Chaos.