Simon's Movie Reviews

When it came out in 2001 after almost going straight-to-video, Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko earned the distinction of becoming one of the 21 st century’s first cult films. This was back in an era when cult status had to be earned through word of mouth, late night viewing on cable, as well as VHS rentals just as the DVD market was killing it. Kelly’s certainly has all of the ingredients required for underground discovery: a bizarre plot involving time travel, striking imagery, a soundtrack filled with hits of the era, a first time director and an eclectic cast. Looking back on the movie’s plot now one might think it’s the result of a fever dream. I know I watched this thing sometime in the mid-2000s, probably when it was playing on TV one night, and that it involved a jet engine falling from the sky and not smushing Jake Gyllenhaal to smithereens because a freaky-looking rabbit got him out of bed at the right time. I also remember that what bothered me the most was not the rabb...

Having left this world much too soon Heath Ledger will forever be remembered for his Oscar-winning role as The Joker in The Dark Knight . Had he died earlier his defining role would have probably been the much more restrained Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film that boldly went where few love stories went by having the two lovers be male. The fact that they were cowboys gave the film the unfortunate moniker “the gay cowboy movie,” but it is much more than that. Take away the fact the two main characters are men and you have one tragic love story regardless of gender. The film begins in the 1960s, a time when homosexuality was a something that had to be kept secret for one’s own safety. Today gay marriage is legal in certain countries, but unfortunately there was still a lot of backlash towards a movie about two gay characters when it was released. I remember a fellow student in college saying he was upset he paid money to go to the theatres and see THAT ...

Hundreds of movies have been made about serial killers and the police officers hunting them down, but David Fincher’s “Zodiac” (2007) stands apart because of its more grounded approach. It chronicles a police investigation that begins in San Francisco in 1969 and ends in 1991. Along the way we follow smart police officers who do their best to narrow down a long of list of suspects, and reporters who try to figure out what to do when the killer sends them letters detailing his crimes. These are all intelligent people trying to outsmart a cerebral killer. Yet there is also a surreal sense of humor as the story unfolds. The manhunt and one of its detectives ended up being the inspiration for “Dirty Harry” starring Clint Eastwood. Imagine sitting in a movie theater watching an actor playing that detective who is watching the movie that was inspired by his work. When I first watched that scene and the rest of the movie, it was my first time watching a movie at Toronto’s Scotiabank T...