Leah Rae reviews Hagiography, a slim book of saintly verse filled with mystery and well-crafted poems.
Leah Rae
Reviews
The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab
This edge-of-your-seat film follows a Spanish chef on his quest to win the prestigious cooking competition, the Bocuse D’Or. Review by Leah Rae.
Leah Rae
Reviews
The Cold Panes of Surfaces
In his book of poetry, The Cold Panes of Surfaces (Nightwood), Chris Banks takes the incidental moments of our lives and raises them, with stunningly precise language, to the level of the divine. In lines like these: “Today, field crickets with hum-b
Leah Rae
Reviews
The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Translation from Canada and Ireland
Leah Rae reviews The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Translation from Canada and Ireland: "Finally, a comprehensive collection of fair-to-middlin’ verse for the multilingual."
Leah Rae
Reviews
The Milk of Birds
Gary Michael Dault’s The Milk of Birds (Mansfield Press) is an exercise in brevity—each of the one hundred poems in the volume contains between fifteen and forty words. Dault presents the reader with images of nature and nature as metaphor in poetry
Leah Rae
Reviews
Wristcutters: A Love Story
As the film begins, the main character, Zia, is listening to a Tom Waits record and cleaning his room in preparation for suicide. Too bad he misses a spot; the last thing he sees before he dies on the bathroom floor is a dust bunny in the corner. So
Leah Rae
Reviews
The Bindery
In my life I have only written one fan letter that began: “I have never written a fan letter before.” It was addressed to Shane Rhodes, and I wrote it after reading his poetry collections Holding Pattern (NeWest Press) and The Wireless Room (NeWest P
Leah Rae
Reviews
Far Side of the Moon
Philippe, the crater-ridden far side of the moon, is a loser—he works as a telemarketer and still lives in his mother’s apartment while he tries to prove his thesis: that the 1960s space race was an exercise in narcissism.
Leah Rae
Reviews
Made Beautiful by Use
Sean Horlor’s debut book of poetry, Made Beautiful by Use (Signature Editions), contains lines that must be read out loud. The line “cologne in glass bottles,” for example, is so simple; but say it, “cologne in glass bottles,” roll it around on your
Leah Rae
Reviews
Maelström
Forget Jaws—the greatest fish to appear on screen is in the Québécois film Maelström, a good argument against the use of computer-generated images and a testament to the ever-creepy power of the puppet.
Leah Rae
Reviews
Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase
According to Hollywood legend, it was Harry Houdini who gave Buster Keaton the name “Buster” after watching the young Keaton tumble down a flight of stairs. This myth is debunked in Marion Meade’s biography Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase (Da Capo P
Leah Rae
Reviews
Chomsky and Co.
Chomsky and Co. breaks all the rules of documentary filmmaking, and not for the better.
Leah Rae
Reviews
Edison and Leo
Gimli back my eighty minutes!
Leah Rae
Reviews
A Christmas Tale
A Christmas Tale offers a decidedly French take on la famille dysfonctionnelle.
Leah Rae
Reviews
Anatomy of Keys
In the basement of an antiques store around the corner from the Geist office in Vancouver, there is a large bank of antique cabinets, each drawer of which contains a different trinket. You can find magic tricks and hand creams and wind-up toys and so
Leah Rae
Reviews
Sartre for Beginners
What I remember most vividly from Existentialism 101 was nausea—not Sartre’s famous novel, but a classmate of mine who spontaneously vomited during a discussion of Nietzsche.