Articles by Travis Mackenzie Hoover

The Band's Visit

Eran Kolirin

PUBLISHED Feb 14, 2008

By all rights, this gentle comedy shouldn’t really work — the thought of cute Egyptians finding hospitality in a remote Israeli town conjur...

Normal

Carl Bessai

PUBLISHED Feb 7, 2008

It’s from Canada. It’s called Normal. What are the chances that the title would be ironic? Sure enough, Carl Bessai’s latest is a bubbling...

Tragic Ceremony

Riccardo Freda

PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2008

Note to travellers: never trust a prospective host who’s backlit. This is the lesson learned the hard way by some hapless young people who...

The Stanley Kramer Collection

PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2008

Stanley Kramer made the worst films masquerading as the best: bloated, arrogant, condescending message movies that dishonoured their subjec...

We Own the Night

James Gray

PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2008

James Gray is the kind of guy whose movies are roundly ignored on their initial releases but heaped with praise by a renegade faction of cr...

In The Valley Of Elah

Paul Haggis

PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2008

With Crash, Paul Haggis assumed the role once played by Stanley Kramer: a hero to phoney liberals and a punch line to real ones. Still, In...

Touch

Paul Schrader

PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2008

The combination of a cool novel by Elmore Leonard and uncool screenwriter/director Paul Schrader seems like a good idea on paper. Who bette...

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Taggart Siegel

PUBLISHED Feb 4, 2008

If an organic farmer reminiscing on his life is your personal definition of boring, prepare to redefine your prejudices. The Real Dirt on F...