NEW: I spoke w/ Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault about why the CBC isn't being targeted for 15% cuts after all, how the long-rumoured Telefilm/CMF/NFB merger is inching toward reality, why permanent Telefilm funding ain't in cards, and, yes, Eurovision. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti...

It was a true pleasure and delight to sit down and talk about my new FAST & FURIOUS book with @theankler.com's @richardrushfield.bsky.social for this week's Rushfield Lunch! (I was too excited to eat, though I do drink an awful lot of water during the segment.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdBC...

How did a film many assumed would be a clunker spawn a $7B franchise and reshape Hollywood? @theglobeandmail.com's @hertzbarry.bsky.social, author of "Welcome to the Family," breaks down the Fast & Furious phenomenon with @colinellis81.bsky.social

NUREMBERG is a cross between the Alec Baldwin miniseries Nuremberg and the Alec Baldwin sitcom 30 Rock. Regrettably, this new film features zero Alec Baldwin content. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

MARTY SUPREME: When Abel Ferrera is your most traditional supporting actor, you know you’ve got all-time “where’d they find that guy???” epic on your hands. Spiritually and thematically, the best Hanukkah movie ever made. (Also: The Safdies really love Tokyo sports tournaments.)

Tune in tonight @tvotoday.bsky.social!

Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell's MEASURES FOR A FUNERAL closes out (or maybe expands) the Audrey Benac cinematic universe with tremendous ambition and haunting mystery. A revealing, rich coda for Canadian film's most rigorously obsessive collaborators. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

DIE MY LOVE underwent edits between its Cannes premiere and this week's theatrical release this week. But whatever changed (and I couldn't clock much) didn't fix a facile exercise in endurance – The Emperor’s New Clothes of naked-for-naked sake acting. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

NEW: Good-ish news for Canada's cultural sector in 2025 Federal Budget, including $150M over 3 years to Telefilm (but not long-promised permanent funding increase), $150M for CBC to "strengthen its mandate" (but no update on 15% budget cut instructed earlier in year), and $26.1M over 3 years to NFB.

PREDATOR: BADLANDS doesn’t bleed. But we can still kill it, if we band together. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

I had a blast talking all things FAST & FURIOUS (including a very interesting discussion of Brian and Mia’s favourite restaurant) with the 2 Fast 2 Forever podcast ahead of WELCOME TO THE FAMILY’s Nov. 25 pub date. Fastest 106-minute listen of your life, guaranteed 💨 www.cageclub.me/the-fast-and...

We’ll always have Ontario’s Ring of Fire

We are all Doug swallowing a bee

Toronto tomorrow morning, either way

All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun and the Max Fischer Players www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

On Nov. 25, Toronto has a new Family Day: Join me and @elamin.bsky.social at @hotdocs.bsky.social for a ride-or-die evening full of Vin and vigor as we discuss my new book WELCOME TO THE FAMILY: THE EXPLOSIVE STORY BEHIND FAST & FURIOUS. Tickets: hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil...

Vancouver’s cinema scene gets its own Westwood Fox Village Theatre moment as Park Theatre, which Cineplex was set to abandon Oct. 26, will be taken over by @riotheatre.bsky.social team alongside private investors including Osgood Perkins, Mike Flanagan, Sean Baker & Finn Wolfhard.

Some say this was all foretold

So many babies about to be conceived on the Gardiner

On Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind, or Ocean's Unleavened. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE finally gets a theatrical release date: Feb. 13, 2026. (Unless Matt and Jay go back in time and Butterfly Effect a new release strategy altogether.)

SPINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE is a loss for the Boss. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Ontario should build its own Ticketmaster rival. Totally analogue, box offices located only inside Eglinton LRT stations. Every event is April Wine. No cash accepted, just Ford Bucks. Etc.

Best action-movie news of the season: TIFF will screen the entire 230-minute cut of S.S. Rajamouli’s BAAHUBALI: THE EPIC starting Oct. 31. (Though it’ll be the Hindi dub, not the original Telugu/Tamil version.)

"I joke that it might be good if all governments banned their filmmakers from travelling, so that they can simply have time to make more films!": I sat down with Palme d'Or winner Jafar Panahi to talk about pushing the limits inside, and now outside, Iran. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

This all feels like a Matt and Jay scheme …

Now’s the time, Blue Jays: release the Villeneuve spider!

What if the real AI was the slop we made along the way?

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE: Nuke it from orbit www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Someone needs to save Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons from their respective cases of Stockholm Syndrome, because BUGONIA is another Yorgo bust. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Attention Windsor & Detroit-area film fans, I'll be at Windsor International Film Festival Oct. 25 for a *free* on-stage conversation about my new book, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY: THE EXPLOSIVE STORY BEHIND FAST & FURIOUS, and what happened when Diesel met Detroit windsorfilmfestival.com/film/ST00004...

Elbows Up, Thumbs Down: Canada has, in a backward way, been gifted by the White House a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not just support homegrown culture, but to strengthen and revitalize it for decades to come. And we’re *blowing* it. My long-read essay for this Saturday's @theglobeandmail.com:

KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR will be released across Canada via Cineplex Pictures (the distribution arm of the exhibition giant, which has an output deal with Lionsgate) on Dec. 5, with “select presentations in 70mm and 35mm.”

NEW: Cineplex just sold Cineplex Digital Media, its digital place-based media division, to a U.S.-based signage company, continuing the Canadian movie theatre giant's shedding of assets over the past two years. Going theory: it's leaning itself up for a sale.

“It was 27 days and the adrenalin was high – I just didn’t want to screw it up”: Sat down with Rose Byrne to talk about IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU, and how she delivered the performance of the year. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Is Letterboxd the healthiest of the unhealthy apps?

Ontario Science Centre temporary space at Sherway Gardens is great … if it was free. But at $15/ticket (no matter age) and no in/out policy (and no food, in a mall) turns it into an embarrassment. Spanish signage also suggests material procured from a U.S. museum on the cheap?

"If I don't see at least two movies a day, I don't feel well": I sat down with FRANKENSTEIN's Guillermo del Toro to talk about everything from his enviable viewing habits to his love of the "architecturally undisciplined" Toronto. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Watched the first three episodes of THE CHAIR COMPANY waiting for a delayed red eye to board, and it disturbed/bemused me so much I spent the entire flight wide awake. If frequently checking my own seat. Any way, been far too nervous to watch the rest, but looking forward to it.

Canada’s Steven Kostanski is a master of turning ‘80s trash into treasure. But his reboot of DEATHSTALKER slays just a little too hard. Excellent work from Daniel Bernhardt, who could’ve easily gone the Bruce Campbell route but chooses something different. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

On TRON: ARES, which has a head like a hole. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

With little fanfare (and no real programming changes), Disney+ Canada today added a "Hulu" tab to its mix, retiring the old "Star" branding that served Hulu-less international markets. Oh, and also a monthly $3 price hike for a standard subscription.

_____ō͡≡o˞̶_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________just me racing to tell you___________ __________TRON: ARES is very stupid_____ _____________but_______________the NIN soundtrack____rules_____ō͡≡o˞̶__

The world isn’t ready for Best Supporting Actor Kevin O’Leary

Like many, just patiently killing time until the release of Nick Vallelonga’s THAT’S AMORE!

THE SMASHING MACHINE deserves to launch Dwayne Johnson into the Oscars pantheon − which makes it a shame that The Rock is cooking something that smells like a whole lotta BS on the film's press tour. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...

Two Canadian dates for NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE THE TOUR ahead of film's early 2026 theatrical release: Montreal, Cinema Du Musee, Oct. 29 Vancouver, Rio Theatre, Nov. 10 No Toronto stop b/c that city was covered with #TIFF25. Also: "Canadian merch details to come"