Melora Koepke

This American Life: Mike Judge’s Extract is another wry social satire for the masses-maybe When Mike Judge walks into our interview in Los Angeles last week, all I see at first is a mild-looking bald man in a peach dress shirt greeting me in a shy, halting, almost-Midwestern mutter. But then, as I look closer […]

Father figure: Oldman as debauched-wolf-killer in RRH remake. Ratings: You can’t live with ‘em, and you can’t make a studio movie without ‘em. When director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) decided with her production team that she’d like to rejig the ancient folktale of Little Red Riding Hood as teen entertainment for the Twilight demographic, with […]

Women on the Verge: Sucker Punch puts weapons of destruction in the hands of babes A sucker punch is synonymous with what’s called a “dirty hit,” or misogynistically, a “bitch move.” It’s a hit that takes the recipient unawares, usually from behind. But Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch is nothing if not full frontal (though not […]

Dirty oil, sold dirt cheap: Montreal filmmaker Shannon Walsh’s H2Oil digs deep into Alberta’s multi-billion-dollar oil industry As Canadians, we are the proud owners of what may be the most environmentally destructive undertaking of our or any other era. The multi-billion-dollar industry that extracts oil from the Athabasca oil sands is internationally controversial and environmentally […]

Montreal director makes dreams come true in her first feature, The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom Next week, Tara Johns’ first feature, The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom, will close the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois – a huge honour for any film, especially a first feature from an anglo filmmaker, shot and set […]

Shot in Halifax: HwaS is transgressive independent cinema at its very best…or worst, depending on the time of day Forget lobster, bar fiddles and the Cabot Trail – once Hobo With a Shotgun hits screens next week, Nova Scotia may soon be famous for gore-spattered urban decay. The aptly named debut feature directed by 28-year-old Jason […]

Expectations are high for Due Date, screenwriter/director Todd Phillips’ follow-up to last year’s The Hangover, a dirty little flick set on the seedy side of Sin City, starring semi-unknown actors, that became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The Hangover‘s most memorable quality, besides the Phil Collins/Mike Tyson cameo, wasthe wildcard in a movie of wildcards: Zach […]

Delicate Essence: Jean-Pierre Jeunet finds his muse for Micmacs à tire-larigot Bienvenue chez Les Ch’tis was a monster hit in Canada and the United States, bringing French comedy films back into the limelight – though some might say that Ch’tis, though undeniably hilarious, was rather broad, and that indeed, France has a subtler and richer […]

Earth Angel: Vincenzo Natali’s Splice explores potentialities of our genetic future Splice, Toronto director Vincenzo Natali’s (Cube) more-than-a-decade-in-the-making film about the near-future of genetic engineering, is by far the best Canadian film this year, and possibly the best sci-fi monster movie since Aliens. Though, in Natali’s words, it’s more like “a monster movie spliced with […]

Socalled Life: Filmaker Garry Beitel takes a kaleidoscopic approach to Josh Dolgin in The Socalled Movie It sounded like a great idea for a documentary: In 2007, the Montreal rapper and producer Socalled, a.k.a. Josh Dolgin, along with his parents, organized a klezmer/heritage cruise down the Dnieper River from Kiev to Odessa. On the chartered […]