Flop and Fizzle #6: SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD
by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer
Scott Pilgrim likely didn’t connect with audiences because it was a mashup of too many genres. But this is precisely why the film is so great.
Vinyl Video: The neurodivergent appeal of THE SPARKS BROTHERS
by Raine Petrie, Staff Writer
Thematically, The Sparks Brothers explores obsession, aloofness, rejection from mainstream society, and the need to be understood and taken seriously.
Romance Week: THE GRADUATE, Scott Pilgrim, and Me
by Matt Campbell, Contributor
The Graduate and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World may not seem to have a lot in common, aside from having famous soundtracks and being literary adaptations.
A. Freedman's Top 10 Movies of 2021
by A. Freedman, Staff Writer
However we watched them, in whatever form, in whatever place, the movies had a lot to offer us this year, as they do every year.
Victoria's Top 15 Movies of 2021
by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer
Even as things become a little scary again, there were some memorable films and some lovely experiences with the people I care about.
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is a terrific passion project from Edgar Wright
by A. Freedman, Staff Writer
Wright makes a sandbox, and then slowly populates it with the horrifying realities of being a young woman trying to make a career in entertainment…
TIFF 2021: ALONERS, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, and THE HUMANS
by Jaime Davis, The Fixer
It’s been a frenzied first few days in Toronto as I’ve watched more films in theaters in three days than I have in almost two years. Here are some highlights from the first half of TIFF ‘21.
THE SPARKS BROTHERS provides an overview of an odd musical career but not much more
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, The Red Herring
After spending over two hours learning about Sparks, I get the sense that the brothers Mael prefer an air of mystery.
Baby Driver
Directed by Edgar Wright (2017)
by Sandy DeVito
It's fitting that in the opening moments of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, Baby (Ansel Elgort) mocks playing at violin during the symphonic break-down of The Bellbottoms' track by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; in many ways this is Wright's own mock symphony. More so even than any of his other films, all of which rely heavily on music to tell their stories (from the iconic Don't Stop Me Now zombie fight in Shaun of the Dead to the opening performance by Sex Bob-omb in Scott Pilgrim to Sisters of Mercy's Corrosion leading us out of the apocalypse and into the credits in The World's End), for this film, music is the story; it is the three acts and all of the bits in between. The dialogue is made into music with Baby's DJ tapes, characters speak in song lyrics, Baby never takes off his earbuds if he can help it, there's even a scene where he insists on starting a song over again before a bank heist, to the confusion of the con-men in the car with him. There's irony in his foster dad being deaf, but even that relationship, as Wright so deftly displays, has its music, albeit a kind you can't hear with the naked ear; that music is an ephemeral one, pure in timbre, floating in the air around them without noise. Love is music, maybe the purest kind of music there is, and if Baby Driver has one unifying theme, that's it, baby.
Read MoreShaun of the Dead
Directed by Edgar Wright (2004)
by Billy Russell
Upon its initial release, 2004’s Shaun of the Dead was described as a zombie parody that was a little bit more than just a zombie parody. It was also a romantic comedy, dubbed a Rom-Zom-Com (romantic zombie comedy), but really, it’s much more than that — it’s much more than some flashy descriptor or ultra-specific genre moniker. Shaun of the Dead is, at its core, a movie about friendship. It’s about friendship in all its forms.
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