Tomb Raider lacks punch in relaunch

Tall Shadows brings original compositions to Faust screening

In a time of plague and crisis, a good man makes a deal with the devil, in hopes of saving his community from death and destruction. But when his community turns on him, he finds his newfound power too much to resist.

The German folktale of Faust and his bargain with Mephisto dates back to the 15th century, while Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragedy was first published over 200 years ago.

In 1926, F.W. Murnau’s German-expressionist take on the tale debuted on the silver screen. A century on, viewers remain entranced with the fantastical images of Faust, Mephisto, demons riding skeletal steeds through the heavens, and more, created using cutting-edge practical effects for the time.

Just in time for Halloween, Montreal-based avant-goth duo Tall Shadows will bring Murnau’s Faust to the Park Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 28, performing an original score in celebration of the classic silent film’s 100th anniversary.

U of W, former professor sued over alleged sex assault

A woman who studied and worked at the University of Winnipeg has filed a lawsuit against the post-secondary institution and her former professor — a convicted sex offender — who she alleges drugged and sexually assaulted her.

The woman, a former international student from the United Kingdom and teaching assistant at the university, claims her professor and “mentor,” Derek Spencer, put a date-rape drug in her drink and groped her following a Christmas party for professors and graduate students in 2019.

“The assailant secretly placed a date-rape drug in her drink without consent and sexually assaulted her while she was in an altered and vulnerable state,” reads the woman’s statement of claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

“She suffered grave psychological and physical harm as a result.”

Inappropriate late-night texts to students costs teachers their jobs

Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner has cancelled two certificates this month because of inappropriate late-night messaging with minors.

Police HQ report ‘outrageous’: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew says public inquiry findings that taxpayers were overcharged more than $40 million for the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project and two city leaders broke the public trust are “outrageous.”

Inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang’s report, which was released Monday, concluded former mayor Sam Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, while the city’s former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Smorang also found the city was overcharged $43.3 million for the project, with $42 million of that going to key contractor Caspian Projects.

“It’s outrageous that people who were elected betrayed the public here in the city. It’s outrageous that there were people in business who ripped you off, ripped me off — I was paying property taxes in Winnipeg at the time — and ripped all of us off to the tune of $43.3 million. That’s crazy,” said Kinew.

Play asks the cutting questions

An IKEA nursery awaiting its tenant is the first stage into which visitors are allowed entry in playwright Jordi Mand’s The Cut.

We see an antique rocker and unmarked boxes strewn about, with a table lamp — an unofficial Ner tamid, eternal candle — sitting on the unblemished carpet in the centre of the room. Sarah (Hallie Seline) and Andrew (Wade Bogert O’Brien) have a lot to unpack as they settle into their own home: two shelves of biography waiting for a third.

The box of books from Sarah’s parents is opened early.

“Something From Nothing? Goodnight Bubbala?” Andrew laughs, turning the volumes cover-out on the wall of his future son’s room. “What are they building? A Jewish bookshelf?”

Outbreak should never have happened

The headline offered a vague sense that something had been accomplished, but it most certainly did not describe anything worth celebrating:

“Manitoba declares measles outbreak over.”

The news item in the Oct. 17 Free Press noted provincial public health officials had confirmed Manitoba’s last laboratory-confirmed case of measles was identified in August, and that the absence of any new cases since had allowed for the aforementioned declaration.

The end of the outbreak — which began in February 2025 and included a significant stretch this year during which Manitoba experienced more measles cases than any other province — is certainly worth noting. But it bears reminding that the real story here is that this province, and others across Canada, experienced a resurgence of this highly communicable but successfully eradicated disease in the first place.