Andrew Vallance

Some years ago I wrote a review for The Whale. It is a dark, depressing movie which, while technically superb, gives a cynical view of humanity and asks its audience to watch for almost two hours as an incurably decent character is not only tortured by his inner demons, but is also mistreated by...

The original Road House is a cult classic. It was released in 1989 and was the story of Dalton, a Zen Buddhist bouncer from Los Angeles who is hired by a wealthy Missouri bar owner who wants to clean up his wildly violent establishment and restore its reputation. Directed by Rowdy Herrington and...

In 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released. It gave the history of Wolverine, one of Marvel’s most popular heroes. Unfortunately, it was a legendarily terrible film, and one of the most annoying aspects of it was the movie’s portrayal of Deadpool, another Marvel hero played by Ryan Reynolds. The...

In the 1980s Eddie Murphy was a comedic superstar. He was first introduced to the American viewing public when he performed on Saturday Night Live in 1980. He was young and talented, and he was hilarious. His first appearance in a Hollywood movie was in 1982, when he acted opposite Nick Nolte in the...

In 1993 Tales of the City was premiered on PBS. Based on the short stories of August Maupin, it was a groundbreaking mini-series which dealt with the adventures of Marianne Singleton, a 20 something from Ohio who gets swept up in San Francisco’s Bohemian lifestyle and gets embraced by the city’s gay...

May Day (May 1), or international workers day, a holiday that is mainly celebrated in Europe. It is meant to be a celebration of unions and the working class. The first May Day was celebrated in 1890. Because I favour unions as a means of ensuring the rights of workers to a safe and secure workplace...

I like action cinema. It is an embarrassing thing for a progressive person to admit, but I am partial to gun play, fist fights and explosions in film, and I have enjoyed everything from The Fifth Element to The Bourne Ultimatum. Of course, the Golden Age of violent films was in the 1980s. In that...

In 1990, Pretty Woman was brought to the big screen. Released by Touchstone Pictures, a now defunct division of Disney, Pretty Woman tells the story of the relationship between Vivian Ward, a sex worker played by Julia Roberts, and Edward Lewis an extremely wealthy businessman played by Richard Gere...

Many Canadian cities have Improvisational theatre scenes. Calgary has Loose Moose Theatre, founded by the late Keith Johnstone. There is also Black Box Academy in Saskatoon, Spontaneity Theater in Halifax, Garden City Improv in Victoria and, of course, Second City in Toronto. It also needs to be...

The Nazi Party was a far right, ultra nationalist political party which was founded in Germany in 1920. It came into power in 1933 while being led by Adolf Hitler, who took over Germany by exploiting pre-existing German Xenophobia. The Nazi party would eventually go on to facilitate the Holocaust...