Reviews
Beyond These Walls, the debut EP by Toronto-based power popsters BLANKS, is so great I wish it were a full-length album. Packing a new wave-...
Articles By Alisha Mughal
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![Toronto Indie Rockers BLANKS Are Set to Break Out with Debut EP 'Beyond These Walls']()
Toronto Indie Rockers BLANKS Are Set to Break Out with Debut EP 'Beyond These Walls' Published Aug 07, 2020 -
!['Ash' Is a Visually Stunning Film That's Designed to Test Your Morals Directed by Andrew Huculiak]()
Reviews'Ash' Is a Visually Stunning Film That's Designed to Test Your Morals Directed by Andrew Huculiak Published Jul 23, 2020Ash, written and directed by Andrew Huculiak of Vancouver band We Are the City, has been gaining much acclaim as it makes its rounds through...
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!['Catch and Release' Is a Scathing Statement on How Dangerous the Pro-Life Agenda Can Be Directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert]()
Reviews'Catch and Release' Is a Scathing Statement on How Dangerous the Pro-Life Agenda Can Be Directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert Published Jul 14, 2020How far have we come in this century in the fight to make abortions legal and accessible? Catch and Release, directed by Dominique Cardona a...
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!['Guest of Honour' Creeps Up on Viewers with Its Complex Narrative Layers Directed by Atom Egoyan]()
Reviews'Guest of Honour' Creeps Up on Viewers with Its Complex Narrative Layers Directed by Atom Egoyan Published Jul 08, 2020Guest of Honour, is a curious gem that really creeps up on you. Throughout, it evades categorization in the subtlest ways, again and again....
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![Toronto's Sahara Celebrate the Good Times with a Hint of Melancholy on 'Pure Glass']()
ReviewsToronto's Sahara Celebrate the Good Times with a Hint of Melancholy on 'Pure Glass' Published Jun 25, 2020Taking '80s synthpop and filtering it through a glittering shoegaze veil, Toronto-based band Sahara's debut full-length album, Pure Glass, i...
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![Hot Docs Review: 'The Chimney Swift' Shows Inhumane Labour from a Child's Perspective Directed by Frédéric Schuld]()
ReviewsHot Docs Review: 'The Chimney Swift' Shows Inhumane Labour from a Child's Perspective Directed by Frédéric Schuld Published Jun 10, 2020The Chimney Swift is simultaneously two different tales. The narration is a story gleaned from the actual accounts of adult chimney sweeps i...
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![Hot Docs Review: 'All Her Dying Lovers' Tells the Haunting Story of a Unique Form of Nazi Resistance Directed by Anna Benner and Eluned Zoe Aiano]()
ReviewsHot Docs Review: 'All Her Dying Lovers' Tells the Haunting Story of a Unique Form of Nazi Resistance Directed by Anna Benner and Eluned Zoe Aiano Published Jun 10, 2020Short film All Her Dying Lovers tells the story of an unnamed Czech nurse who put up a unique but tragic form of resistance against Nazi occ...
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![Hot Docs Review: 'Consuming Contemporary' Shows How Culture Is Safe-Guarded by the Upper Class Directed by Ana Aleksovska]()
ReviewsHot Docs Review: 'Consuming Contemporary' Shows How Culture Is Safe-Guarded by the Upper Class Directed by Ana Aleksovska Published Jun 10, 2020On the face of it, Macedonian short documentary Consuming Contemporary is about an older woman, Sunchica, enriching herself through coordina...
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![CFF Review: Cringe-Inducing Documentary 'Shoot to Marry' Learns Nothing from Its Own Mistakes Directed by Steve Markle]()
ReviewsCFF Review: Cringe-Inducing Documentary 'Shoot to Marry' Learns Nothing from Its Own Mistakes Directed by Steve Markle Published Jun 05, 2020Shoot to Marry is only about 70 minutes long, but it should be shorter. Ostensibly a comedic documentary about finding love, this film is di...
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![CFF Review: 'Hazy Little Thing' Exposes the Darkness Behind the Glamour of Social Media]()
ReviewsCFF Review: 'Hazy Little Thing' Exposes the Darkness Behind the Glamour of Social Media Published Jun 03, 2020We all know the repetitive cycle of social media — the way we scroll through Instagram, not because we're looking for something in particula...
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![Hannah Gadsby's 'Douglas' Is Hilarious, Even as It Gets Bogged Down by the Weight of Expectations]()
ReviewsHannah Gadsby's 'Douglas' Is Hilarious, Even as It Gets Bogged Down by the Weight of Expectations Published May 26, 2020Hannah Gadsby's latest Netflix special, Douglas, is rigidly controlled, in a way diametrically opposed to the organic build and flow of her...
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!['Easy Land' Tenderly Explores the Canadian Immigrant Experience Directed by Sanja Zivkovic]()
Reviews'Easy Land' Tenderly Explores the Canadian Immigrant Experience Directed by Sanja Zivkovic Published May 20, 2020Watching Easy Land, viewers will find themselves wanting to protect each character in it — but at the same time, there's something about it...
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![Netflix's 'Trial by Media' Puts Journalistic Bias Under the Microscope]()
ReviewsNetflix's 'Trial by Media' Puts Journalistic Bias Under the Microscope Published May 15, 2020"If it bleeds, it leads" is a saying drilled into you in journalism school. What it means is that death and fear-mongering tend to make the...
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![James Irwin Gets Back to His Cosmic Country Roots on 'Stars Blue Wheel']()
ReviewsJames Irwin Gets Back to His Cosmic Country Roots on 'Stars Blue Wheel' Published May 15, 2020James Irwin's fourth album, Stars Blue Wheel, is haunting and sombre, but fights tooth and nail to find the light. The multi-talented Tor...
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!['Saint Frances' Shows Real Life Through the Female Gaze Directed by Alex Thompson]()
Reviews'Saint Frances' Shows Real Life Through the Female Gaze Directed by Alex Thompson Published May 08, 2020We know we're not supposed to flush tampons down the toilet, but we also know exceptions in cases of emergency tend to be made. This is demo...
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![Indoor Voices Send Out 'Echoes' of Healing]()
ReviewsIndoor Voices Send Out 'Echoes' of Healing Published May 06, 2020Close your eyes and lean your head back against something soft and safe when you listen to Echoes, the latest release from Indoor Voices, th...
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!['A' Is a Harrowing, Beautiful Fever Dream of Loneliness Directed by Mitchell Stafiej]()
Reviews'A' Is a Harrowing, Beautiful Fever Dream of Loneliness Directed by Mitchell Stafiej Published Apr 28, 2020For a while after watching A, I was in a funk. It left me reeling as if from a fever dream and feeling on the brink of migraine for a few da...
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![Hazel English Gives Us the Pep Talk We Didn't Know We Needed on 'Wake UP!']()
ReviewsHazel English Gives Us the Pep Talk We Didn't Know We Needed on 'Wake UP!' Published Apr 22, 2020Hazel English's debut album, Wake UP!, is a delightful triumph that incites self-discovery and love — it's like a soothing, sunbaked day by...
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![Winnipeg Shoegazers Juniper Bush Are Delightfully Dark on 'Healing Through a Sonic Figure']()
ReviewsWinnipeg Shoegazers Juniper Bush Are Delightfully Dark on 'Healing Through a Sonic Figure' Published Apr 14, 2020Juniper trees look like petrified clouds, shocks of green with branches all reaching towards the sky, but they're short and close to the gro...
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!['The Way Back' Has Too Much Ben Affleck, Not Enough Sports Directed by Gavin O'Connor]()
Reviews'The Way Back' Has Too Much Ben Affleck, Not Enough Sports Directed by Gavin O'Connor Published Mar 06, 2020We like sports movies because they string a compelling narrative of triumph punctuated with melodramatic music through an already viscerally...
