By John H. Foote (****) Watching the opening of La La Land (2016) at TIFF in 2016, the sensational Oscar-winning musical from Damien Chazelle, I was stunned by the wild originality of the film, and over the course of the picture, its wide-eyed innocence and sweet-natured energy drew me in and swept me away with…
By Alan Hurst For many around my age, Walt Disney’s production of Mary Poppins (1964) represented their first movie-going experience. It was magical in 1964, and again on future viewings during subsequent re-releases in 1973 and 1980. And with the advent of home video, it’s been a staple in many libraries as well (and for…
By Nick Maylor (***) Vox Lux is an exploration of tragedy, both societal and personal. Raffey Cassidy stars as Celeste, a teen who witnesses (and is a surviving victim of) a school mass shooting. Using her time in rehabilitation to learn her way around a keyboard with the help of her sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin),…
By Alan Hurst The advance buzz for the Bradley Cooper helmed remake of A Star Is Born (2018) is positive to the point of hysteria. It did well at the Venice Film Festival and is one of the big-ticket attractions for TIFF. It stars Cooper and Lady Gaga and word is that both give superb…
By Nick Maylor I’m trying to focus here on films that have not started production and are still in the early stages. I also am avoiding films that are merely rumoured, as the following entries all appear to be confirmed to be going ahead. There’s cool stuff coming, folks. Here they are (in no particular…
By Alan Hurst The idea to compile a list of some of the great production numbers from the last 90 or so years (basically since the advent of sound) came to me while watching – yet again – That’s Entertainment! (1974). The success of this documentary took a lot of people by surprise 44 years…
By John H. Foote When discussing the Great Directors of the Seventies, his name is often not in the discussion or on the list, but it most certainly should be. Bob Fosse directed films which explored performance, celebrity and the behind the scenes of that world or the manner those living in that…
By Alan Hurst Broadway has always been a major source of inspiration for film musicals. In the thirties Hollywood lured the great composers of the day to write film scores: Irving Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter among others. Broadway performers – including Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Fred…
By Alan Hurst (This is an updated version of an article originally posted in July 2017.) Doris Day – one of my favourites since I was a kid – turns 97 on April 3, as good a reason as any to look back at her film career. By all accounts still doing well in her…
By Alan Hurst June 22, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Judy Garland. She was only 47, but seemed to have packed multiple lifetimes into that short span of years. She had achieved significant success in films, records, on stage, and on television, but the well-known struggles were equally part of her…