By Marie-Renee Goulet (****) Available on Crave (HBO) How does Aaron Sorkin do it? The first time I had this thought was watching the first four seasons of The West Wing (1999-2003) and thinking: “how can this one man write like this week after week?”. This was the equivalent of writing 11 feature films a…
By Marie-Renee Goulet Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other For a few years now I’ve had to resort to audiobooks. My eyesight started to go, and thanks to years of using a smart phone, I have the attention span of a fly. I can still listen for hours, though. Once in…
By Marie-Renee Goulet I can’t imagine a more daunting task for an actor than to portray someone as well known as Jim Morrison. He is surrounded by myths he created himself; he lied about his life before joining The Doors declaring his parents dead (they weren’t) and two siblings nonexistent. Morrison acted a lot and…
By Marie-Renee Goulet (***) Sunny Daze is a redemption story about a formerly famous musician who was given talent, success, and love in spades but whose demons are slowly but surely taking all away. It is about friendship, family, loss and our individual need for accountability and responsibility. Sunny’s (Jason Wiles) days are reduced to heavy…
By Marie-Renee Goulet (***) Rarely can we study a global disaster movie for its accuracy by having the “opportunity” to live through the said global disaster. Contagion (2011) is a movie about the spread of a deadly virus that rapidly becomes a worldwide pandemic. I revisited the film back in March during the first shut…
By Marie-Renee Goulet (***) Documentary on Apple TV+ 11 BINGE WORTH EPISODES If you have itchy feet after spending nearly a year at home like me, you might consider binging on Long Way Up (2020). Actors and best friends Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their usual support crew meet for the third time, for an…
By Marie-Renee Goulet The festival stopped rolling this past Sunday. We’ll now have to wait another year for the next tales of distant journeys, ground-breaking expeditions, and remarkable achievements, told by adventurers, photographers, authors, and filmmakers from around the world. Here are this year’s competition winners. I watched films on this list and did not write…
By Marie-Renee Goulet BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL World Premiere **Awarded Best Film – Mountain Environment & Natural History 58 minutes, United Kingdom – Mountain Environment & Natural History I had the chance to visit Scotland a few years ago. I remember making the following comment to a friend: “The Highlands are so beautiful that it…
By Marie-Renee Goulet North American Premiere (At the request of the filmmaker, this film is available only in Canada) 47 minutes, UK – Adventure & Exploration This film is an interesting study of the darker side of risky pursuits and their impact on loved ones when things don’t go as planned. This is the story…
By Marie-Renee Goulet 2 hours, 26 minutes – 8 Mixed Films – Mountain Sports For 20 years, these have been some of my favourites. I remember going to the festival for the first time not fully grasping that it was about celebrating Mountain life and/or alternative lifestyles. Like most of us, I came from a…