Spielberg classic Jaws among this years’ varied Gimli film fest lineup

Even aside from the long-awaited return of Jaws to the shores of Lake Winnipeg for the annual sunset screening series (July 24, 9:30 p.m.), the 2026 lineup for the Gimli International Film Festival is scary good.

Author George Toles on daily writing and keeping his eyes open

Since 2008, George Toles has not missed a single day of prying original prose from his mental file cabinet.

What's up: Summerween, Palette of Colour, When We Became Folk Fest, First Fridays, The Tallest Pop Up

Summerween at DalnavertDalnavert Museum, 61 Carlton St.Today to July 12Tickets $10-$69 at friendsofdalnavert.caGot any fun Summerween plans?

Haven’t heard of it? It’s the relatively recent cultural phenomenon in which Halloween lovers celebrate all things spooky in the summertime. Which makes sense, really; nothing like a well-timed crack of thunder during a ghost story.

Dalnavert is leaning into both the unofficial holiday and its designation as an “allegedly” haunted house and is hosting 10 days of Summerween programming, which kicks off today with Death at Dalnavert tours at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., exploring Victorian death customs, and Secrets & Spectres: A Dalnavert Mystery, a Victorian horror escape-room style experience, at 6:30 p.m.

Visitors can hear Tales of Victorian Madness (Saturday, 7-9 p.m.), featuring readings of Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat in the parlour with specialty cocktails. Or perhaps spend an evening Gossiping With Ghosts (Friday, July 10, 7-9 p.m.), using communication mediums favoured by the Victorians, or having Dinner with Drac (Sunday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.), a screening of the 1931’s Dracula with a corresponding three-course meal.

Director brings Métis identity, language to silver screen

TORONTO — Métis culture has been around for centuries, but films set in the Métis world remain rare.

The new movie Blood Lines is intended to help fill that gap. Written and directed by Métis actor Gail Maurice (best known in these parts for playing the fiery title character of the locally lensed 2024 drama Aberdeen), it is set in an Ontario Métis community.

Maurice stars as Léonore, a mother who seeks to reconnect with her grown daughter Beatrice (Dana Solomon) after years of alcohol-fuelled neglect.

Beatrice is unforgiving, and is soon distracted by the presence of a new woman in the community. Chani (Derica Lafrance) has come to town searching for her biological family. Clearly enamoured, Beatrice offers to help.

Michael J. Fox and father of Nickelodeon slime among Order of Canada appointments

Michael J. Fox wears his Order of Canada pin everywhere.

He wears the little white pin on talk shows; he wears it to meet up with friends — his fellow Canadian New Yorkers Martin Short and Lorne Michaels make sure of it, he quips. And he wore it when he accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the final days of Joe Biden's presidency.

"My intrinsic Canadianism is a bigger part of me than my relationship with the States," he says on a video call from New York, Emmy Awards lined up on the shelf behind him.

The actor and Parkinson's advocate has worn the white pin for 16 years, since he was first named an officer of the Order of Canada. But he'll soon be able to upgrade to the red version of the snowflake-shaped insignia as he's promoted to companion, a higher rank within the order, whose living membership is capped at 180.

Winnipeg co-ops among models examined in film

We see theatre artist Debbie Patterson making her way toward the Old Grace Housing Co-operative’s entrance in her wheelchair, then settling inside for a steaming cup of tea. The co-op is her home.

“Well, I’ve always loved this neighbourhood and wanted to stay in this neighbourhood. I lived in a big, three-storey Wolseley house and then got MS and couldn’t do the stairs,” she says in a voiceover.

“Having a place I could move into that was completely accessible was just a godsend at a perfect time when I needed to stop living in my house, so I could stay in my neighbourhood and continue to be in a safe place.”

It’s one of the opening scenes of Meeting a Moment: The Art of Social Architecture, directed by Danielle Sturk and produced by Leslie Stafford, which appears on CBC Gem today and airs on CBC TV Saturday.

Supergirl? More like So-so girl

I like Supergirl, played in this new DCU outing by Australian actor Milly Alcock (House of Dragons).

As superheroes go, she’s pretty relatable. Her place is a mess. She eats cereal for dinner. She wears a vintage Blondie T-shirt. She gets into fights in bar parking lots. And all that casual, scruffy attitude can’t hide a moral backbone made of steel.

That’s why I wish her movie was better.

James Gunn’s planned multi-project DCU reboot got a solid start with last year’s Superman. This Supergirl- centred followup isn’t all bad. It has a lot of feel-good fan-service and fun, friendly charm, and Alcock is a standout as our fabulously messy heroine.

Cutting comedy, frilly diversions

Do not go gentle into that good small-screen summer. There are difficult decisions to be made, philosophically and narratively, and intense Bear-ish drama to be endured.

The beauty of the bleak

Summer has officially begun, and the Dave Barber Cinematheque is ringing in the season with a seven-day festival full of despairing, shocking and unpleasant cinema.

Lead film programmer Olivia Norquay could hardly wait for Bleak Week.

Started in Los Angeles by the American Cinematheque in 2022, this year, the festival is expanding to 73 cities and nearly 100 theatres across the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. Each venue then plots its own program of “uncompromising” films that “wholly embrace a cinema of despair in pursuit of unpleasant truths and raw empathy.”

Norquay — who selected 17 films from directors such as Béla Tarr (The Turin Horse), Agnès Varda (Vagabond), Michael Haneke (Funny Games) and Barbara Loden (Wanda) — says that even though this is the first year of participation for Winnipeg’s only downtown movie theatre, programming bleakness is nothing new at the Dave Barber Cinematheque.

Kevin Alves on the emotional Vancouver set of ‘Yellowjackets” final season

"Yellowjackets" actor Kevin Alves says there's been "lots of tears of joy" since he and his co-stars received the final two scripts for the survival saga last week.

"Reading that was a lot of emotional stuff for everybody," the Toronto-born Alves says by phone from Vancouver, where the series has been shooting since February. 

"You know, seeing how the show's ending and that was really beautiful.... The environment on set has been incredible with the support people have given each other."

Alves says filming is expected to continue for another month-and-a-half, but he's coy about what that could involve for the stranded teen characters who appeared to finally make contact with the outside world in the Season 3 finale.

Never mind playing catch — there was plenty of bonding to do with dad at the cinema

My dad didn’t teach me how to hammer a nail, change the oil in a car, or tie a knot that wouldn’t slip. But afternoons shared with him in a dark cinema shaped who I am in ways I was slow to fully appreciate.

Poignant lead performances anchor tense Aussie horror

Bleak, beautiful and sad, this small Australian film combines art-house horror with a queer coming-of-age story. This is a monster movie in which the monster is homophobic hatred.

Naim and Ryan (Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) are two teenage boys first seen doing teenage-boy stuff — breaking into an abandoned factory and goofing around.

We sense almost at once that all their wrestling and grappling is displaced desire. Ryan is a popular kid and Naim is a wary outsider, but a relationship grows between the two — tentative at first, then tender and passionate.

These adolescent feelings are complicated by the fact their families belong to a fundamentalist religious sect that dominates their tough small town.

Movie Review: ‘Leviticus’ makes a demon out of desire in an auspicious debut for Adrian Chiarella

What if the object of your desire was also the thing that's trying to kill you? Not slowly irritating you to death for leaving the toilet seat up again. We mean actively trying to strangle you.

That's the intriguing premise behind the horror-satire “Leviticus,” an auspicious feature film debut for writer-director Adrian Chiarella that's both deeply scary and a queer revolt.

Named for the book of the Old Testament often used to justify homophobia, the movie explores the burgeoning relationship between two young men that is shattered when so-called “conversion therapy” — a scientifically discredited practice — unleashes a demon that stalks them. Some have called the movie “It Follows” meets “Heated Rivalry,” but that's a disservice to Chiarella's ambition.

The film centers on Naim (Joe Bird, the breakout star of A24’s “Talk to Me” )and Ryan (newcomer Stacy Clausen), who we watch fitfully, awkwardly fall for each other, slowly exploring their sexuality and stutter-stepping into their true selves. Wrestling turns to flirtation, which becomes longing and tenderness.

From YouTube to Hollywood: Digital creators are remaking the movie business

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the most promising young filmmakers in the movie business are arriving in Hollywood already experts at entertaining audiences and going viral.

The twin sensations of “Obsession” and “Backrooms” — both by 20-something YouTubers-turned-filmmakers — has put a new spotlight on an increasingly well-trod path to the director's chair.

Hollywood executives are scouring platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram to find the next Steven Spielberg. There, young aspiring filmmakers are not only working on their craft but building a relationship with audiences that can transfer to the box office.

“These filmmakers are in a dialogue with their audience from the word ‘Go’. Their subscribers have direct input in each iteration of these things,” Mike De Luca, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chair, said at a conference last month. “By the time you get to the movie, they’ve had a billion test screenings.”

‘Obsession’ is a sensation. Everyone, including Curry Barker, is trying to figure out what it means

NEW YORK (AP) — Days before “Obsession” opened in theaters, its 26-year-old director, Curry Barker, made a bet with his manager and agent. They said if the movie opened above $20 million, they would all get tattoos.

“Obsession” fell just short. It debuted with $17 million. They were still thrilled. Barker made the horror film with just $750,000. It was enormously successful. But then something unexpected happened. The following weekend, “Obsession” easily cleared $20 million. And then it did again and again and almost a fourth time — an almost unheard-of staying power.

“It was just like: Holy cow. I didn’t think that was an option,” Barker says. “Now we’ve said if it hits $300 million, we’ll all get the tattoo. We had to make a new milestone. And I think we’ll reach it.”

Over the last month, “Obsession” has sent shock waves through Hollywood. Barker’s microbudget thriller has grossed $286 million worldwide, and it’s still going. On its fifth weekend in theaters, it was second only to Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” with $19 million. In North America, it has outgrossed “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.” It’s the biggest hit in the 24-year existence of Focus Features, which has had to postpone the video-on-demand release. It ranks among the most profitable movies ever made.