As a film critic, I am quite pleased with my recent HotDocs 2010 review of the documentary Kings of Pastry, in which I likened the art of pastry making to an act of structural engineering. At Cinefranco 2010, I reviewed Le Coach. I’m still quite fond of my analysis of La Naissance des Pieuvres from the 2008 Cinefranco festival, my review of Sam Mendes’s film Revolutionary Road, my TIFF 2008 coverage of the documentary 7915 km, and my review of the great Steven Soderbergh’s Che Part I and Part II. And of course there was my first brush with greatness, meeting Mr Soderbergh himself, in my very early review of Bubble.
My most prized discovery was the Patterns Trilogy, which I covered at both the Worldwide Short Film Festival and at TIFF; I was the #1 hit on google for this film for quite some time.
As a jazz critic, my review of Chris Potter’s Underground performance at the 2009 jazz festival is among my best, as is my review of the jazz greats from the festival: Sonny Rollins, Charlie Haden with Ethan Iverson, and Dave Brubeck. This article was picked up by Ethan Iverson’s Bad Plus website. I also interviewed jazz pianist Geri Allen and jazz bassist Brandi Disterheft.
Some of my favourite films that I’ve covered (though perhaps not always my best writing) can be found through my Top Ten Lists of 2006, 2007, and 2008. I also quite enjoyed Encounters at the End of the World and Jellyfish, the recent animated film Up and I go weak at the knees for early John Cusack films. And I haven’t had a chance to document many of my other favourite films.
My engineering readers will probably want to know my thoughts on The Simpsons Movie and Star Trek, though both reviews seem a little clunky to me now.
Most of my favourite jazz musicians are reviewed or interviewed on this site, under “jazz”, including Dave Brubeck, Keith Jarrett’s trio, The Dave Holland Quintet, and Branford Marsalis.
