Category Archives: Cinema, video & DVDs

Trajectory to Elysium

Posted on August 20, 2013 by barczablog

I try not to give away the plots of films I review.  As I write my second piece within a week of seeing Elysium, I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who has not yet seen it. The … Continue reading →

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Jobs

Posted on August 18, 2013 by barczablog

Jobs is Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple.  While Steve Wozniak may have been the better programmer/designer, Jobs was a visionary. I can’t help recalling The Social Network, the film that told us about Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild Facebook.  … Continue reading →

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Elysium

Posted on August 17, 2013 by barczablog

Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009) is the most original film I’ve seen in a long time, a mash-up of science fiction tropes and some very political elements.  I wrote about it in passing in a long rambling essay (long even … Continue reading →

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Whose dream?

Posted on August 5, 2013 by barczablog

We’re in the summer of Wagner’s Bicentennial.  Frank Castorf’s new Ring cycle has opened at Bayreuth, which led to the inevitable boos from the audience. Inevitable?  Two of the greatest Bayreuth productions of the past few decades were booed at … Continue reading →

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The End, Mr Trotsky

Posted on July 28, 2013 by barczablog

I went to see This is the End, a very funny movie about the end of the world.  It’s full of famous actors I know and love: Seth Rogen, of Funny People, Superbad and Knocked Up James Franco, of the … Continue reading →

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Ai Weiwei Never Sorry

Posted on July 26, 2013 by barczablog

How apt that I begin writing about this film with an apology. I went looking for Ai Weiwei Never Sorry when I heard of this film, that had been shown at TIFF.  I sought an introduction to the artist, because … Continue reading →

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Robert Carsen’s Dialogues des Carmelites

Posted on April 23, 2013 by barczablog

Premiered in 1997 at Nederlandse Opera, seen at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and La Scala in Milan, Robert Carsen’s production of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites is better than a new production, because it’s an acclaimed classic.  And now … Continue reading →

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$5.99 or $4000.00?

Posted on December 9, 2012 by barczablog

Psycho-therapists in films can be very funny, very painful, and yes, painfully funny.   Sometimes what we’re given is patently false & artificial, but occasionally we see something with more than a grain of truth. Hollywood knows psychiatry the way it … Continue reading →

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Goon

Posted on July 8, 2012 by barczablog

If you were to ask a Canadian to name the best hockey film, they’d have a fairly short list to work with.  Where baseball has generated a fairly long list of films, some sentimental, some colourful, portraying various aspects of … Continue reading →

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Melancholia

Posted on March 20, 2012 by barczablog

I am watching Melancholia for the second time.  Had I been able to get tickets when it came to the Toronto International Film Festival I would have seen it on a big screen.  Even on a small screen it’s quite … Continue reading →

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