By BERNIE FLETCHER Woodbine Park is a great place to listen to music at a festival, walk your dog, watch the ducks frolic on the pond or fly past majestic, snow-capped peaks on a truly humongoose Canada goose. Wait…what? Talk about a wild goose chase! Mountains? No problem! All you need is a bit of […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner quote in the film. Recent news headlines can make us feel like we’re trapped in an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale: repression in Iran, Hockey Canada scandals, domestic violence and sexual assault trials. One of the directors of Handmaid’s, Mike […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER This year’s Toronto International Film Festival played host to powerful female voices such as Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Viola Davis. One of the most anticipated films was Women Talking which brought together the creative energy of author Miriam Toews, filmmaker Sarah Polley and actor/producer Frances McDormand. The […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Have you ever read a good novel and wondered how it would be adapted to the screen? What would the characters look like? How would the director deal with flashbacks? Two of Canada’s most acclaimed filmmakers, Sarah Polley and Clement Virgo, tackle controversial issues in movies which premiere at the Toronto International […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Marilyn… Elvis… we know them by their first names even after all these years. Their legends live on in two new biopics. Elvis is a summer hit while Blonde is a highly anticipated film coming to Netflix in September. One Beacher knew and liked them both on their brink of stardom. “Your […]
“Whose woods these are I think I know…” — Robert Frost Do you recognize these woods in the photo? Bonus points if you can guess the occasion. Is it a royal celebration? A ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new park? No, it’s just the Kids in the Hall up to their old tricks in a new […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER The Pentaverate, the new six-episode Netflix series created by Scarborough’s Mike Myers, ends with the words, “Dedicated to local journalists everywhere.” It’s also a heartfelt homage to our late, great Beacher Glenn Cochrane. Myers plays eight wacky characters, including the hero of the tale, a mild-mannered television reporter from Toronto. Ken Scarborough […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER It’s Hockey Night in Canada. The NHL playoffs are here and long-suffering fans hope to see the Toronto Maple Leafs end their 55-year Stanley Cup drought. Go Leafs Go! The name Dolores Claman may not ring a bell, but everyone knows her iconic music, The Hockey Theme, her gift to Canada’s sport. […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Who gets to tell their stories? Books and movies help us to look at the world through different eyes and feel empathy for others. Two new films give us a vision of Toronto’s diverse communities. Scarborough is centred around three children who attend a literacy program run by a wonderful social worker […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER If laughter is the best medicine, we could all use a laugh these days. Many of us have hunkered down at home watching comedy classics with a “maple” flavour like Ghostbusters, Airplane and Back to the Future…comfort food for the soul in troubling times. What do you remember about 1972, the year […]
