Tag Archives: movie recommendations

Documentaries with Depth

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I am not so deluded as to think that the majority of people turn to a nice, juicy, critical analysis of a real-life topic in the form of a full-length film on a Friday night. I’m probably in the (very cool, very sophisticated) minority with my love of a good documentary. It’s pretty rare for me to find someone who shares my appreciation for a good talking head. (Not to be confused with the iconic David Byrne band). I have a friend who is my twin in many ways. In fact, we refer to each other as “my twin.” We once spent a night eating tacos, playing Dance, Dance, Revolution, and watching a cult documentary. The classic documentary structure is so ingrained in us that we don’t even notice it anymore. The lower thirds, the montages, the expert talking heads/family members/witnesses/celebrities. Of course, some documentaries do it better than others. The choice of subject is important, to start with. The ones that captivate my attention foray into a completely unexplored topic. Sure, I’ll catch the odd true crime documentary that’s trodding over familiar territory, but those ones have their own, unique appeal. In general, I want to know something I’ve never known before. The following documentaries are in our physical collection or we provide access to them through the Kanopy streaming app. They might not be the most flashy or spectacle-driven media in existence, but if you give one a chance, it might just prompt you to do your own deep dive into the granular detail of reality.

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New York’s Younger Cousin in Film

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IMDb

Toronto is perched atop a deep seam of film lore. As you probably know, it’s a city that stands in for other cities. The historic streets coupled with bright, piercing skyscrapers provide a versatile backdrop for all sorts of productions — period and modern alike. Talking with my fellow HOTS Blog team member Royce the other day helped me come up with the idea for this blog post. So, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. Wait. One sec. Let me try that again. Let’s explore Toronto’s history of film production, taking a tour of the spots that are now famous for their inclusion in film and TV. Starting with Serendipity. I have warm, fuzzy memories and the softest of spots for this 2001 rom-com starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack (who coincidentally has a distinctly mullet-like hairdo in this movie). When it premiered, 9/11 had just happened, so it was one of the films that ended up using CGI to remove the Twin Towers after its initial release. The film’s commercial success was affected as well, as people avoided crowded, public places in the aftermath of the attack. It developed a following in the years after, though. Now, it seems to regularly make the cable rounds on weekend evenings, enticing viewers with the promise of well-intentioned twee. And, I mean, Eugene Levy is in it. According to Good Housekeeping, the elevator scene where the pair test whether they are fated to be a couple was actually filmed at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel downtown, not the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Toronto is always pretending to be New York. The latter is like an older cousin who lets you borrow their ID to get into a bar. The reviews for this movie are not great, with a 58% on the Tomatometer. Sometimes you wonder if critics are affected by their moods when they review a film. I understand this kind of thing is not for everyone, but even Ebert wasn’t won over by the combined charisma of two Hollywood stalwarts. I don’t get it. It’s an incredibly light story about two people that have a compulsion toward self-sabotage. (Don’t worry about fate. Ever. Especially when it comes to romance. Life decisions should never be made by an amorphous, hypothetical concept. They should be made by people. Okay, I’m off my soap box now.) To be honest, the most winning element of this movie might be the way it romanticizes New York — an almost otherworldly metropolis with a sheen of fictionality to it. They did film in Toronto, but there’s plenty of shots of the city that never sleeps.

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Valentine’s Day Read/Watch Lists Are Like a Box of Chocolates…

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Full disclosure, I fear I don’t have a romantic bone in my body. I actively avoid picking up anything “spicy”, meet-cutey, or romantasy (which is all the rage right now), and romcoms tend to make me give the screen a very long stink eye. But to be fair to myself, before you judge me too harshly, it isn’t for lack of trying. Earlier last year I thought to myself “hey, maybe you’re being a little too picky, why not give romance another try”, and I ventured out of my carefully crafted book and film mountain to see what was out there to discover in the pink, red, and heart shaped world of romance. I gave it fifty pages before my instincts kicked in, so one spite-read book with a sadly squandered premise later, I returned to my mountain sure in the fact that the genre just wasn’t for me.

That’s all to say that maybe I’m not the best person to come up with a Valentine’s Day related post. But time’s ticking and it’s only two days away so here we are, you and me, in between a rock and a Hallmark card shaped place. So, I hope you’re ready for a very sincere, from the bottom of my heart, extremely unconventional Valentine’s Day book and movie review where the most overdone romance tropes are turned on their heads. And hey, if you, like me, are tired of the parade of overwrought lovey-doveyness that springs up like weeds at this time of year, maybe these picks will be right up your alley.

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