Melora Koepke

Montreal filmmaker Denis Villeneuve brings the Polytechnique massacre to the screen Twenty years ago this December, as they finished up their last week of classes before the Christmas break, fourteen young women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique were killed by twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine, who entered the school with a semi-automatic machine gun sheathed in a garbage […]

Nighthawk in the light of day: Tom Waits gets Real Gone on latest album and leaves the piano at home “Hi, I’m calling from Tom Waits’ office,” says the pleasant publicist voice on the other end of the line. “I’ll put Tom through now. Are you ready?” Tom Waits has an office? It strikes me […]

A comprehensive online guide to Montreal written for National Geographic Traveller’s Places of a Lifetime franchise: “Je me souviens” (I remember) is Quebec’s provincial motto, and history is present everywhere in Montreal, a city teeming with architecture and culture from the past three centuries. Canada’s second largest, third oldest, and most cosmopolitan city is also a […]

Almost Grown: Paul Merrick, whose firm is one of several designing Vancouver’s Olympic Village, thinks his beloved city is finally outgrowing its architectural adolescence. If cities are like human bodies, as Paul Merrick says, then West Vancouver is the city’s long left arm thrown out into Burrard Inlet. Marine Drive, the road that hugs much […]

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 […]