Last Thursday was the night of the latest Pitch Talks event, held in Toronto at the Phoenix Concert Theatre. It was a star-studded affair (for baseball nerds) headlined by none other than the Toronto Blue Jays team president, Mark Shapiro. Here is a recap of the night.
There’s a governing principle in screenwriting that says a scene should work to raise a question or answer one. The best scenes strive to do both. In this way, a movie pulls the viewer along, introducing new information to urge us from one moment to the next. Good films make us want to know more. There’s an implicit trust that forms here, a pact between audience and filmmaker; the film reassuring that if you give up your time, you will be rewarded with something. But when a movie tosses out more questions than it answers, when its mystery grows beyond proportion, the audience is asked something slightly different. Here, faith is required.
Nap Eyes are a bit of an anomaly in the current musical landscape: a deconstructionist Canadian garage band from East of here (Halifax/Montreal) whose songwriting is strong, and whose playing is raw and articulate. Moreover, they’re getting a fistful of nice press from people who seem genuinely eager to explain what they like about the group.
What to Watch is the Same Page’s monthly film recommendations column where we help you decide which movies you should give your time to. For each week there’s a winner and a runner-up, with a brief write-up for each, to give you some idea of what each quality film is about and why you should maybe (or definitely) check it out.
In our newest monthly feature (an homage to the great Jonah Keri), intrepid Blue Jays fan Dan Grant takes a look at the current team roster and ranks what he finds within. An important distinction to make is that this set of rankings is not one designed to judge overall talent, current skill, potential upside or even strength of character. It is one simply designed to reflect how important the performance of the ranked players are to the success of the team, both in the recent past and near future. From top to bottom, who’s hot, and who’s not? And more importantly still, who needs to be?
There are many things in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that will instil a deep sense of disappointment. By far the most egregious thing is the piss poor representation of women in this film.
Yes, they’ve done it. After all the interminable hours of filming, the painstaking special effects and post-production work, the waves of advertisements, the man-hours spent marketing and doing press junkets, the rolling thunder of pre-release hype and anticipation, it is here: A film that makes you feel immensely sorry for Ben Affleck. Or, as it’s more commonly known: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. We made it.
What do you get when J.J. Abrams produces a film in the Cloverfield universe, sets it in a bunker, and lets loose just a small cast that includes John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead? You get 10 Cloverfield Lane.
There are a few questions still to be answered at Blue Jays camp in Dunedin. The biggest of these — the lodestone, if you will — is just who will slot in as the fifth starter to begin the 2016 campaign.
Pitting the Avengers against each other on two sides (one supporting government regulation of superhero activity and the other opposing it), Civil War looks every bit as big as an ensemble Avengers film. It’s certainly poised to begin a new chapter of Marvel cinema, introducing new characters and establishing a plot line that isn’t just about our favorite heroes taking on a new villain together. All that said, however, there’s still a great deal we don’t know about this film. But here’s a bit of what we hope to see.
Same Page Team 