Standing ovation for "Palestine 36' at TIFF World Premiere + Full Q & A

Doug Ford's hot air is not good governance! We just don't have any good alternatives...

Is there any major policy area Doug Ford's PC government in Ontario is actually managing well?  

The health care sector?  Nope.  It's a disaster getting worse every year, hallway medicine exploding, health professionals overworked/underpaid and leaving the profession, millions still without a family doctor.  The pride of Canada's health care system has been reduced to a simple mantra: "Hope you don't get sick anytime soon because you'll go through hell if you do."  

The education sector? Nope.  Schools are still falling apart.  Teachers are constantly fighting with the province.  Parents still need to fundraise so their kids receive more than the absolute basics, which they aren't even receiving.  Not to mention the strained post-secondary sector, which is on death's door due to underfunding from Ford, who froze tuition fees in 2018 and stopped thinking about post-secondary education after that.  

Transportation is a nightmare with our roads falling apart, and traffic gridlock gripping most of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.  Long-needed transit expansions are delayed, delayed, delayed.   The Eglinton Crosstown line has yet to open under Ford's management.  This is especially galling because this was supposed to be an Eglinton subway route that should've opened 30 years ago, but thanks to another stupid Conservative, Mike Harris, was cancelled and literally filled in.  

Harris also gave us the ripoff 407 highway which was supposed to alleviate GTA congestion but never did because Harris sold if off at discount prices to an international conglomerate that gouges Ontarians for every cent who dare to use it.  Now Ford is trying to build even more highways, which will only fill up too and make the gridlock here even worse.  Ford's solution - attack bike lanes in downtown Toronto.  

Ontario is a shit show right now.  A failed democracy in many ways.  Our leadership has utterly failed to show backbone, push us forward and fix our collective problems.  You can't truly blame the people for voting for folks when nobody on the ballot has seriously been trying to provide leadership.  

Dalton McGuinty did some nice things, but also some dumb things.  Most people missed the nice things he did because, unlike Ford who knows how to communicate, McGuinty was a meek communicator unable to counter the immense hate machine stacked against him on the right.  Kathleen Wynne was all flash and promise, but ultimately a total political failure because she had no idea how to govern well and bring the people along with her in her decision-making.  She alienated voters instead and let the neo-con hate machine overpower her completely.  The near destruction of her Ontario Liberal Party is testament to that fact, and the OLP is still struggling to get back on its feet.   

The latest Abacus poll which puts Ford's PCs at 53% with the OLP way back at 27% and the NDP struggling at 12% shows us the dire state we're in.  

Why does such a mediocre state of affairs inspire such happiness from Ontarians?  Because Ontarians are easily distracted from that mediocrity by Doug Ford's constant hot air about Donald Trump's threats against Canada.  Ford is of course mostly powerless to do anything about the threat.  He can only enunciate outrage and express the sentiments many Ontarians are also feeling about the horrid dictator to the south.  One policy area Ford has gotten right - banning American booze from Ontario shelves - is a winner I do truly support.  I used to drink American whisky bourbon as my spirit of choice, but have now given Canadian whisky another chance, not to mention Irish whisky and others.  I'm super happy with the Canadian stuff, and I got to say I'm not going to go back to buying Kentucky bourbon after this trade dispute ends (should it ever.)  Sorry, Americans, your president has fucked you over on this one.  I'm sure Ford will stick to his guns on American booze because it literally is the only thing he is doing to stand up to Americans. 

Ontarians are looking past the immensely sorry state of their own province and the many horrors Ford has created here to give him love and support. 

Of course, Ontarians can be forgiven a bit for all of this because of the weak state of Ontario's opposition parties.  Never an easy gig getting attention from Ontario's opposition benches, it's still true that the NDP official opposition has no idea how to do anything else but its usual NDP echo chamber pontificating.  The NDP isn't seizing on the cost of living crisis we are in by getting out there, proposing bold policies and pushing Ford to do better.  We never hear from Marit Styles. 

And Bonnie Crombie, OLP Leader, remains as vacant and flailing as she was during the February provincial election campaign.  Elected by her party to bring them back to contention, Crombie reportedly spent the first few months of her leadership on vacation in Florida in 2024, not organizing in Ontario, not doing the hard work she had signed up for by taking the leadership.  Instead of rebuilding the OLP team, she simply re-hired the same D Team that had run the party into the ditch.  Much help and advice was offered, but rejected by Bonnie's team - who couldn't put out a single press release without a spelling or grammar mistake in it - because Bonnie and her people knew better. 

In May 2024, when rumours got really loud that Doug Ford would likely call an early election to take advantage of Justin Trudeau's unpopularity, it seems Bonnie didn't get the memo.  Riding associations that had been dormant were left that way.  Despite declaring a nomination emergency around that time, the OLP didn't bother to actually recruit or nominate much of anybody for months.  By the time the early election got called in January 2025, the OLP barely had any candidates.  The ones nominated were not government quality.  There wasn't a star or credible potential cabinet minister among them.   

In Toronto Centre, a riding which should've been high on the OLP's list to retake from the NDP, the association had been left dormant and by the time the election was called, had zero potential candidates willing to step forward.  What a disaster!  Of course, the local unknown / sacrificial lamb who did step forward still got 36% of the vote in the election behind Kristyn Wong-Tam's 45%, showing this riding was winnable had the OLP bothered to organize.  

The total lack of good OLP candidates and serious organization meant the 30% of the provincial vote the party won (mostly thanks to the many Ontarians not fooled by Doug Ford's big anti-Trump show, as well as the near collapse of the NDP vote outside of its incumbent ridings) oddly translated into only 14 seats, one or two of which were damn lucky splits.  Barely enough for official party status again in the legislature.  Crombie, who promised to carry Mississauga where she had allegedly been a popular mayor, lost her own Mississauga seat and all other seats in that city.  The OLP failed to win any 905 seats except for one lucky split in Ajax with a local candidate who was actually from Davenport in downtown Toronto.  

It's true as long as Ontarians are stressed about the impacts of Donald Trump's lunacy, and Doug Ford continues to hit the nail on the head with his communications expressing our fears and outrages, the populist premier of Ontario will remain hard to beat.

One thing for certain is the OLP under Crombie will never be able to do it.  Crombie has been exposed as an empty shell with no discernible messages or values to inspire those of us who are horrified by Ontario's sad state of affairs.  Do any of us really believe life under Crombie would be any different or better than it is under Ford?  Not really. 

Hence, the bad poll results.  Putting the NDP aside, who could finally get smart and learn how to appeal to the economic interests of those struggling and gain some economic credibility if they stopped gunning for the far left, I do think the OLP remains the only other potential governing party in Ontario.  

Should Ontario Liberals decide to get real and smart, they'll dump Crombie next month at their Annual General Meeting and find someone capable of reaching Ontarians where they are.   And help get us all out of this mediocre mess Ontario has fallen into.   

Happy Pride Weekend: Cherish our Freedoms in Canada while Hungary cracks down on Pride; Trans kids aren't just here to be abused by their parents, rules Alberta court

Pride march in Budapest on Saturday

Thousands marched in the streets of Budapest this weekend in defiance of corrupt conservative dictator Viktor Orban, favourite strongman of Donald Trump and Stephen Harper.  

It was a true Pride protest targeting Orban's crackdowns and anti-gay laws which banned such parades earlier this year in a clear crackdown on democratic freedoms ahead of a national election next year when Orban will face a strong opposition challenger.

As Toronto Pride parades launch this weekend, I can't help but think of my sisters and brothers in Hungary, or any part of the world where such public signs of affection between queer people including parades like ours are banned by intolerant and misguided governments.  

Bravo to the queers standing up for their rights amidst despicable government power!  

Right here at home, we had a victory of sorts out of Alberta this week when a court ruled that Premier Danielle Smith's draconian law banning all gender-related medical care for trans youth should be put on hold.  

"Justice Allison Kuntz, in a written judgment Friday, said the Alberta law raises serious issues that need to be hashed out in court, and issued a temporary injunction against the law before it fully came into effect.

Trans rights flag held at Ottawa rally this year 

"Kuntz wrote that a temporary stop is needed to prevent what she calls "irreparable harm" coming to young patients while the issue is debated.

"The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice that they are already subjected to," Kuntz wrote in the judgment.

When weighed against parents' rights to control their children before they're 18, even to force them to live lives they can't lead authentically, it seems heartless and abusive to use government power to enact a one-size-fits-all policy for all trans youth.  In many cases, for the sake of the health of the youth, trans-related health care is very necessary to help the child survive.   

Opposition to trans youth freedoms is grounded in the same sort of ignorance that used to demand all gay and lesbian youth stay closeted and sexually inactive in their teen years because they didn't want us to do anything we'd "later regret".  As if being gay and young was only just a phase, and that youth who think they are non-binary or actually another gender are just having a flight of fancy that can be ignored until they're 18. 

No, ignoring the problem and burying your head in the sand, Danielle Smith's solution for everything, is not the way to go.   

"The law, passed late last year but not fully in effect, would have prevented doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to those under 16.

"Kuntz wrote that denying access to this care not only risks causing youth emotional harm but also exposes them to permanent physical changes that don't match their gender identity.

"Intentionally or not, the ban will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth," she wrote.

"Gender diverse youth will bear the entire burden of that speculation."

"2SLGBTQ+ advocacy groups Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation took the case to court, and in a statement Egale said the decision was a "historic win."

Zohran Mamdani has struck a blow to the Democratic party’s centrist-do-nothing establishment

Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani

I was thrilled this week when New York Democratic assemblyman Zohran Mamdani shocked his party's centrist-do-nothing establishment and won the Democratic primary to run as mayor in New York City this fall.  This Guardian article by Moira Donegan describes well how Mamdani's immense skills and message won the day over a party establishment foolishly deadset against him. 

The centrist-do-nothing establishment, which has long dominated the New York Democratic Party, almost turned the deeply blue state red in the last couple of elections due to its incompetence and corruption.  They tried it again this year, so wedded to their bad instincts and lust for easy power, by endorsing the thoroughly discredited former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for mayor of NYC.  Cuomo, of course, resigned as governor a few years ago in disgrace over multiple sexual harassment allegations, and was generally seen as a centre-right friend of big business. 

Name recognition and the old 'inevitability factor' was supposed to sweep Cuomo into the mayor's office this year so he could accomplish...not sure what he hoped to accomplish, to be honest.  Centrist-do-nothings usually simply want to seize office in order to make sure nothing else is done with it to upset their powerful status quo or solve any major crises so that tax and regulation levels remain comfortable for the establishment and wealthy.  Sure they say progressive things on the campaign trail, and then they do nothing for the people once in office.  

This Democratic Party approach in the U.S. has led to defeat and enabled fascism with the second victory by Donald Trump last November.   

In a country so broken and corrupt, with its democracy in tatters and its government unable to deliver basic life improvements for its citizens like universal health care, affordable housing, jobs and growth, voters have sadly turned to the strongman liar psychopath now sitting in the White House.  

Establishment Democrats seem to be the dumbest political strategists on the planet.  They resemble establishment "centrists" or "progressives" the world over: always hostile to anything resembling non-market solutions, creativity or outside the box thinking that actually works.  

These establishment folks are just about hanging on to their own power and acting as gutless as possible.  Their answer to the Trump threat has been to abandon progressive ideals and even occasionally pretend to embrace some of the hate, thinking a lighter version of Trump is exactly what voters will want in 2028.  

California Governor Gavin Newsom whose recent move throwing trans people under the MAGA bus is a shining example of a Democratic establishment schmuck embracing hate because he thinks it'll make him more popular.  

Those centre-right Democrats couldn't be more wrong.  When voters are ready to throw MAGA out, they won't be looking for something similar.  They'll be looking for its antidote.   The candidate who most authentically embodies that antidote to Trump will be the next Democratic President.  If the Democrats again pick a centrist-gutless-do-nothing as their candidate in 2028, voters will reject them again and we'll have President Vance or, universe help us, Dictator Trump.  

I've been waiting for a left-wing American Democrat like Mamdani to come around for some time.  We haven't had up until now a so-called 'democratic socialist' candidate this talented at communicating his basic messages, which have resonated strongly with the base of NYC Democrats.  

When a candidate, whether they be a socialist, or a business Liberal, shows superb charisma and an incredible ability to communicate and connect with ordinary, struggling voters' concerns, it's up to us on the moderate-progressive left to recognize it. 

When someone shows us they know how to answer the tough questions, allay fears, inspire confidence and unite voters, we should embrace such candidates, not shun them.   

Mamdani was smeared in this race with lies about his positions on Israel, which showed how low his opponents would go to stop him.  A billionaire-backed Super PAC ran ads that even darkened his beard to make him look more sinister, clearly Islamophobic.  Mamdani was fearless in his own defence and seemed to get more popular after those negative ads were released against him.  Voters, at least in New York City, aren't that stupid.   

The old ways of selecting safe, uninspiring Biden-esque or Clinton-esque Democrats have clearly failed.  Donald Trump came back and crushed this version of the Democratic Party.  

How?  Because those do-nothing centrists did nothing to make the lives of ordinary Americans much better.  If some policies were passed here and there that were supposed to benefit those voters, it matters not because most voters weren't aware of the policies or how they'd benefit from them.  Biden ended up being the worst Democrat for governing in the modern era thanks to his old, bygone approach to politics.  He expected his good deeds would be communicated honestly and widely via the mainstream media to all voters who had no other options but to watch the nightly news on ABC, NBC, or CBS.  Nope, in fact about half of voters were getting their information from Fox News and the right-wing fantasy blogosphere.  

America is a broken country, the gap between its rich and its poor and middle class is widening, its place in the world is sinking under its crazy Trump leadership, its health care system remains horrendous, its education system a joke, its gun violence out of control, the list goes on.   

The policies espoused by so-called Democratic socialists like Mamdani include universal child care, rent control, free or more accessible city buses.  Yes, left wing policies designed to provide real benefit to those struggling out there.  These policies could work as Mamdani is promising a modest tax increase on the richest of New York City to pay for them.  That sort of tax increase might not work so well in most major cities, but the elites of New York literally have nowhere else to ascend, so fleeing the best city in the world due to a 2% tax increase seems unlikely for most.  The rich will barely notice it, but they will notice when more New Yorkers, able to afford their rents and the cost of living, boost the economy and unite the city in new ways.  For once, Democrats have a mayoral candidate in New York willing to fight for working people's needs, not just the wealthy and privileged.  That benefits everybody, not just working people, Mamdani has convincingly argued.

I am fundamentally a pragmatic progressive.  I will occasionally support moderate, centre-right Liberals when it makes sense, as it did this past year in Canada with Mark Carney.  Carney captured the zeitgeist with a few genius lines about standing up to the American bully and defending Canada's sovereignty.  It was an existential moment he met, and progressives, centrists and some conservatives lined up behind him as the clear choice to lead Canada. 

This doesn't mean that blue Liberalism is the only way to go.  It only means it's working in Canada for now.  It could also be working even better, were Carney to listen to some good, progressive advice like this.  

But a moderate, centre-right approach I think won't necessarily work well in the U.S. right now.  What will work?  Someone authentically capable of convincing struggling, working class and middle class Americans that Democrats understand their pain and will be fighting - FIGHTING - to make their lives better at every turn.  

Mamdani achieved that and is on his way to becoming New York mayor and a new Democratic star.   America needs this kind of progressive change.  

So-called centrist-do-nothings tired of losing to fascist Republicans had better get smart and learn to love the Zohran Mamdanis of their party.     

Toronto's Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ film festival wraps as Pride Month kicks off!

Happy Pride Month to all as we start off June!  

I am feeling even more proud than usual at the moment after having just seen a slate of decent queer films at the just-wrapped 2025 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, a great event every late spring in our community. 

This year’s Inside Out festival did feel more like a community film festival again with films programmed to appeal to the audience, while not sacrificing quality.  As a paid member, Inside Out now offers six complimentary tickets to their screenings, which is a great bargain for a film lover like myself and an excellent way to promote memberships.  I grabbed 7 tickets overall as that’s all my schedule could handle and I am happy to give you my thoughts on some of them below.  

I missed the Brazilian feature flick Baby, which screened on the opening night of this year's festival, as I had some birthday celebrations to attend elsewhere that evening.  But this one is high on my list to hopefully catch soon as I heard a lot of positive word of mouth about it.  

Of the seven screenings I attended, I have to say that the Canadian documentary Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance by director Noam Gonick was the best and most rewarding.  A thoughtful, engrossing documentary, it chronicles using crucial archival footage the fights over the years by various segments of Toronto’s and Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ community at resisting and overcoming societal and police oppression to become stronger and liberated - to eventually take to the streets proudly as we do every year through Pride parades.  First, the queers of the 60s and 70s fought back against constant police attacks, and used the experiences of the 1960s civil rights movements as inspiration.  One segment’s gains inspired another still oppressed segment, such as 2S individuals to also fight back and earn respect.  Toronto had its Stonewall in the early 80s after the community fought back against police raids of our bath house spaces.  These attacks on our community served to unite us together in solidarity, one of the key themes of the film.  

Parade: Queer Act of Love & Resistance

This film delicately, honestly and powerfully proves that firm activism willing to take risks and push ourselves out into the open has been an effective tool for winning over both public support and our own self-respect.  Conservatives are still taking aim at trans people the world over, and our fight for each other continues.  Solidarity is key.  

The final chapter tells the story of Black Lives Matter, when activists both queer and Black led the parade in 2016 and brought it to a halt to protest the presence of the very folks who’ve been our sworn oppressors: the police.  That action actually led to the ban on uniformed police officers in the Toronto Pride parade, an event originally founded as a protest against police oppression.    

Our community still gets targeted by regressive police, more interested as ever in protecting private property than they are for community safety for 2SLGBTQ+ people.  That ban needs to stay in place, and if certain conservative elements object, they need to take a history lesson.  Watching Parade: Queer Act of Love & Resistance would be a great start. 

Sauna

The Danish feature film Sauna stood out as my favourite narrative drama feature.  The wonderfully honest film chronicled an absolutely beautiful but less than bright young cisgendered man's touching and awkward romance with a trans man in unvarnished, modern day queer Copenhagen.  Played by Magnus Juhl Andersen, our cisgendered hero Johan says very little, letting the audience guess at his motivations as he, recently out of the closet, stumbles into the arms of William, a transitioning trans male student, played beautifully by Nina Terese Rask.  Despite a few dumb mistakes, Johan's heart seems genuine.  A lost soul trying his best to navigate what can often seem like a cruel, indifferent modern gay community, Johan's efforts to support his new love seem often misguided and naive, but ring true as deeply relatable.  

Some Nights I Feel Like Walking

Some Nights I Feel Like Walking from the Philippines was a disturbing but touching story of four young men stuck at the edges of Manila where they typically trade off their bodies to make money and to survive.  After one of their friends overdoses, they struggle to deliver his dead body back to his family, eventually realizing only they are each other’s family, the ones keeping themselves alive, not the indifferent society in which they find themselves. 

The short narrative film Coming & Going was the best short I saw in the ‘I Know Who You Did Last Summer’ shorts screening.  Delightful, well-written and well-acted, I was hooked from start to finish watching a unique one-week romance blossom over its 23-minute running time.  

Other films entertained but were less stellar.  

In Ashes

In Ashes attempted to show the depths of craziness that heartbreak can cause as one young man obsesses over and stalks his ex-boyfriend of a few months in a series of ridiculous actions that baffle everyone who knows him.   The downward spiral is sad to watch, but also one to which many can relate.  We’ve all been there, but perhaps hopefully behaved better than this!  The cop-out ending though where he simply finds another stunningly cute young man now devoted to him seemed more like a fairy tale than realistic.  I was hoping to see a message that promotes the notion that our obsession with relationships is what's driving us crazy.  

Sandbag Dam from Croatia was a touching, well-crafted ode to the impossible choices queers have to make between devotion to family and personal liberation.  

Ponyboi

Ponyboi from the U.S. has its strengths, including a strong performance by lead River Gallo as an intersexed person struggling to break free from cycles of violence and disrespect in their New Jersey life and reconnect with family.  All the acting was bang on and I’ve rarely seen as authentic a depiction of the Jersey vibe than here.  But the script was overwrought and sought to squeeze in way too much.  I’m all for character arcs, but did everyone need to have major life epiphanies all within the same 24-hour period depicted in this film?  This felt a lot like it was trying too hard to be some new queer, intersexed version of Pulp Fiction, and didn’t quite succeed.   Kudos though to the film for finally getting cutie Dylan O’Brien to show off his butt in one nice scene near the film’s beginning.  

Today's tonic: "Let’s drop the phoney Alberta versus Canada nonsense. The province has met the enemy — and it is them"...

Today's tonic: "Let’s drop the phoney Alberta versus Canada nonsense. The province has met the enemy — and it is them" by Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver.

 

"In 2014 the industry hired 128 workers for every million barrels of oil produced. Last year, thanks to self-driving trucks, automated facilities, and downsizing, that number halved to just 61.

 

 "So it’s no surprise residents of my home province are cranky.

 

 "Their economy produces more GDP per worker than any other. The economic pie they bake is bigger than ever. But the average Albertan’s standard of living is lower than a decade ago.

 

 "It wasn’t Ottawa that laid them off, cut their pay, froze the minimum wage, drove up electricity and insurance costs, and put their health care at risk. It was the enemy within.

 

 "Alberta’s oligarchs aren’t speaking for the province, they are speaking for themselves.

 

 "And the sooner the rest of the population can get past the phoney Alberta versus Canada narrative, the sooner they’ll start toward a genuine solution to their woes: namely, winning a fairer share of the abundant wealth they already produce."

Today's other tonic: "ANALYSIS: Did Mark Carney just shake up Ontario Liberal politics?"

Today's other tonic: "ANALYSIS: Did Mark Carney just shake up Ontario Liberal politics?

"In removing Nate Erskine-Smith from cabinet, the prime minister might have complicated Bonnie Crombie’s hold on the Liberal leadership," by John Michael McGrath.   

"Erskine-Smith’s sudden free agency would be the kind of thing that could cause Crombie-skeptical Liberals to crystallize and successfully demand a new leadership contest. But he has his own detractors in the Ontario Liberal Party as well (obviously, or he would have won the 2023 leadership race.) It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that there are three broad camps in the Ontario Liberal party right now: people who want Crombie to stay, people who want Crombie to go — and people who want Crombie to go but equally don’t want to see Erskine-Smith win the next leadership race. Which side of the question that third camp eventually aligns with may determine Crombie’s fate."

Today's tonic: "Mark Carney is already staring down a history-making decision"

Today's tonic (and similar posts, where I highlight important articles published elsewhere) is back. 

 "Mark Carney is already staring down a history-making decision," by Irwin Cotler and Sir Bill Browder.  

There are many sane voices still at work around the world despite the corrosive powers of Putin, Trump and several others.  

"Seizing Russia’s frozen assets is not only legal, but is financially feasible, strategically sound, morally right, and popular among Canadians. It will strengthen international law by setting two important precedents. The first is that the right to human life and the obligation of states to uphold international peace and security ranks higher than the right for states to enjoy absolute protection of their property without accountability — no matter how else they might violate international law."

UPDATED: My Favourite Films of 2024!

Demi Moore in The Substance

UPDATED: I wanted to see a handful more movies before I published my annual list below, but today I'm ready.  (As I see more flicks from 2024 after the initial post, I will assess them accordingly, and if they break into my top list, I'll include them below.) 

As dear followers of my annual list already know, I like to pick great films that impacted on me the most this past year, films that left a deep intellectual, emotional or psychological impression on me, that spoke to my values or desires or fears in truly unique ways this year, movies I will never forget.

2024 was a truly great year for feature films with so many good projects bursting into my top ten, with many left out.  

This is not some objective, film critic list of the best of the best.  These are merely my favourites of 2024:

1) The Substance - Never have I seen a wilder, more hilarious, more brutally honest satire than this body horror comedy.  The post-Trump victory was the perfect time for this jaw-dropping exploration of female self-hatred to surge into the zeitgeist and devour its horrible male characters.  Just when you think it's gotten as crazy as it can, it amps up the crazy even more, beautifully telling a unique parable about the psychological and physical damage caused by a fading Hollywood starlet, played to perfection by Demi Moore, who experiments with a black market drug that promises to transform her into the body of her youth.  It doesn't go so well.  It's supremely bloody and totally bonkers by the end, but I loved it.  I wouldn't normally pick a movie filled with this much female nudity as my top pic, but all of it is completely appropriate and serves the narrative perfectly, and in fact enhances the experience.  And yes, there is at least one uber hot man's ass in close-up in this too, so it's fair on that scale as well.  Directed by the brilliant French director Coralie Fargeat, this masterpiece puts a very big mirror in front of modern society and it looks pretty darn horrible and disgusting.  

2) No Other Land - After this documentary won the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, I tracked it down online months later and was impressed by its harrowing, deeply moving and unforgettable storytelling.  As of August 2025, it has yet to earn American distribution thanks to the gutless turds who run American distribution companies like Netflix, Amazon, and others who'd rather suck up to their fascist president than present some Oscar-winning truth to American audiences.  This film follows Palestinian activist filmmaker Basel Adra as he partners with Israeli journalist and activist Yuval Abraham over years to document Israel's atrocious ethnic cleansing of Basel's community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank.  It's one thing to have a conceptual understanding of the evils conducted by terrorist Jewish settlers alongside Israeli Defense Forces, as well as the sytemic discrimination faced by Palestinians, but it's quite another to see in this film ordinary family after ordinary family cleared out of their homes minutes before bulldozers smash them down.  In development since 2019 when they started filming the atrocities hitting his community, the biggest success of this film is knowing the film collective's hopes to open the world's eyes have come to fruition, bearing witness and making more of the world understand the truth of Israel's ongoing horrible mistreatment of its occupied Palestinian captives.  

3) I'm Still Here - Fernanda Torres carries this quietly devastating Brazilian drama about a wife and mother coping with her husband's unjust arrest by military police during that country's dictatorship.  The immense inhumanity of the violent authoritarian regime's actions against its citizens, ripping an innocent family apart, is laid bare in fine detail here.  Very deserving of the Best International Feature award it won at the Oscars in March.   

4) Anora - Girl meets boy and gets swept off her feet.  But this time, the girl is a street smart sex worker living in New Jersey, and the boy a wayward son of Russian oligarchs.  As the hot young couple's brief paradise unravels in tragically hilarious fashion, one can't help but forgive the leads for daring to try to break away from the empty nonsense that is their lives.  Of course, the slightly funny tone of the piece is a decent cover for the harsh realities that undermine the road to a happy ending.    

5) Dune: Part Two - Mesmerizing, engrossing re-telling of the classic book, with an emotional resonance and excellent acting that was missing somewhat from Denis Villeneuve's first part of this trilogy.  

6) Wicked: Part One - It's all here: the characters, the music, the storytelling, the colourful sets and costumes, the deep emotions, the superb acting and singing, this film hits all of the right notes and then some.  I can't wait for Part Two.  

7) Monkey Man - I finally caught this amazing gem recently after missing its initial release back in the spring.  I was blown away by the frenetic energy, pace, and the extreme but beautifully choreographed violence in this shockingly good directorial debut by Dev Patel, who's never looked hotter in the lead role.  This isn't some sweet retelling of Slumdog Millionaire, that's for sure.  This brutal satire / thriller shatters the racist hypocrisies of Modi's India.

8) Challengers - Sexy and fascinating exploration of a troubled throuple consisting of two mostly straight and very hot young men and the female object of their desire.  All three share a passion for tennis, and their pursuit of that passion from their teen years to early adulthood acts as an appropriate metaphor for the setbacks and triumphs they inevitably face.  

9) Alien: Romulus - Finally, a terrific, tragic and scary Alien movie, a wonderful tribute in some ways to the best originals (1979's Alien, and 1986's Aliens), and a much deserved addition to the franchise.  This one is probably the third best of the franchise, if you ask me.  

10) Nosferatu - This brilliantly crafted, beautifully shot new vampire horror classic took my breath away.  From the first moments of the young heroine's plight to the stunning conclusion, I was riveted throughout. It also helped to have beautiful actors Nicholas Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson to stare at.

11) A Real Pain - A quiet, engrossing journey shared by two Jewish-American cousins played by Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed) and Kieran Culkin (in a hilarious turn well-deserving of the acting accolades) who've grown apart in their adulthood as they take a historical tour of Poland on their way to see the house where their late grandmother used to live.  It often had the same vibes as Before Sunrise, one of my favourite movies, as the characters explore the surprising sentiments and memories the experience evokes.  

12) Nickel Boys - A beautiful exploration of the friendship between two young black men incarcerated in a brutal reform school for alleged delinquent boys, based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive.  The film's style of oscillating between beautiful POV shots from the perspectives of the two main characters is compelling and really helps the viewer become engrossed in their experiences.  Ultimately, I found this story about racial injustice and wrongful imprisonment to be slightly more accomplished than the similarly-themed Sing Sing.

13) September 5 - A superbly made and true-to-life depiction of the ABC Network sports journalism crew covering the 1972 Munich Olympics that was forced to switch gears to broadcast live news coverage after terrorists took the Israeli Olympic team hostage.  That live TV coverage became the first "breaking news" event ever, seen by more people than the 1969 moon landing.  As someone who has worked recently in media including in the technical backrooms covering the Olympics, it was a real hoot for me to watch the authentic workflows and retro-technology at play here amid the tense drama.  

14) Sing Sing - A modern day, non-homophobic, deeply moving new version of Shawshank Redemption, in some ways.  Colman Domingo and the whole cast of mostly actual male prisoners explore the joys of being fully realized human beings while incarcerated.  This is a radical reminder that all people, not just those who have managed to stay out of the American injustice system, are deserving of basic human dignity.   If you can see beyond your right-wing prejudices, you might enjoy it.

15) Conclave - A well-done, well-acted, earnest story about a secret meeting of Catholic cardinals struggling to decide on the future of their entire faith.  The spectre of its mostly male cast playing politics and manipulating each other to earn the papal crown irritated on some sexist levels amid the political climate we're now suffering through, but this film's surprise ending proved most cathartic and satisfying. 

OTHER FILMS I SAW IN ORDER OF APPRECIATION:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Fierce, violent, colourful, engrossing, perhaps not quite as accessible as its Mad Max predecessor.  Anya Taylor-Joy does almost as good a job as Charlize Theron did in the same role.)

Gladiator II (Liked it better than the original, and Paul Mescal is a hero for the 2020s (ie. he's not an asshole like Russell Crowe has turned out to be.))

On Swift Horses (A surprisingly resonant and sexy queer film that nicely explores the struggles of both queer men and queer women in its bygone era.) 

The Last Showgirl (Pamela Anderson blows it out of the water with this heartfelt performance as an aging Las Vegas showgirl who's taken immense pride in her work even as the world around her abandons her.  There are some very touching and occasionally sad moments in this little gem, especially the relationships with her female showgirls and her adult daughter who resents her career choices.) 

A Complete Unknown (Timothee Chalamet beautifully (what role could he not play beautifully) captures the spirit of Bob Dylan and may be on his way to winning his first Academy Award in March.) 

La Chimera (Little known gem spoken mostly in Italian explores a sexy English archaeologist played by Josh O'Connor who joins a collective of grave robbers trying to find fortune and maybe some long lost love by looting Etruscan tombs in central Italy.) 

Piece by Piece (A wonderful documentary about Pharrell Williams that just happens to be told beautifully with stop motion Lego.). 

The Brutalist (Super accomplished and ambitious, this masterpiece explores the tragic search for success and acceptance in America experienced by a genius architect and later his suffering wife escaping post-war Europe.  I liked it but found it slightly empty emotionally.) 

Unstoppable (Inspiring, feel good biopic about a one-legged champion American wrestler played to perfection by Jharrel Jerome.). 

Nightbitch (Amy Adams goes a bit nuts while isolated with her newborn baby in this nicely entertaining comedy-drama.) 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (An excellent and fitting sequel to the strange, quirky original.).  

Babygirl (Nicole Kidman does her usual intense thing, but ultimately I found this story of a dissatisfied woman's rebellion from her boring marriage and sex life rather timid.  The setup didn't quite deliver the radical payoff needed to make this more than a simple story about a woman who walks a bit on the wild side before coming back.)

Queer (Daniel Craig chews up the scenery here and is fascinating to watch from start to finish.  While the film is beautiful from an art direction perspective, the narrative is empty, and we simply don't care much about this drug-addicted man, and we care even less about his superficial and mostly silent boy toy who accompanies him for reasons never explained.  The nudity in it was certainly exceptional, I can definitely attest to that.) 

Juror #2 (Nicholas Hoult finds out he may have played a major role in a tragedy in this decent moral tale by director Clint Eastwood.). 

Fly Me To The Moon (Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson entertain in this frothy, simple tale of faking the 1969 moon landing for the masses.)

Maria (Angelina Jolie is great in this role, but the movie is a bore and not nearly as interesting as I think the filmmakers and star assumed it would be. )

The Idea of You (I liked the idea of older and still beautiful Anne Hathaway having an affair with a much younger boy band star played by the super sexy Nicholas Galitzine, who's also excited me in recent years playing gay roles including in Red White & Royal Blue and Mary & George.)  

Killer Body Count (A better than most horror centring around a teenage girl's struggles to explore her perfectly healthy and horny sexuality while surrounded by a bevy of super hot young men at some kind of a Catholic anti-sex intervention camp.  Of course, this being a silly horror, any one who reaches orgasm soon finds themselves massacred by a mysterious killer.  The unique and radical angle here: it's the young men who all without exception strip naked and let the camera ogle their smooth physiques before they perish, while ladies are mostly spared.  If you've been waiting your whole life to see some anonymous naked young hunk show off his ass in a horror movie while being sliced literally in half, this is the flick for you.  An entire industry of genre movies did the same thing to women for decades, so to finally see this one give the boys a taste of their own medicine was a thrill.)

The Program (A compelling documentary that explores the alleged U.S. government program designed to study the multiple sightings of alleged Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) or UFOs in parts of America, including groundbreaking congressional hearings into the subject in recent years.  This doc is fair and raises several compelling questions without crossing over into wacko territory.)

Saturday Night (Not many funny or joyful moments here, and a whole lot of filler - who would've thought the last 90 minutes before the first Saturday Night Live broadcast would be so boring?  I do love Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, but I'd love Gabriel LaBelle in anything.).  

Damsel (Mildly entertaining, but not enough to recommend.) 

The Exorcist (Oh my God, please avoid this horrible, totally unscary and ill-conceived film that shows Russell Crowe has no idea how to identify a good script before signing on.)

 

OTHER FILMS I WANT TO SEE ASAP, IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE:

The Room Next Door

The Life Of Chuck

The Apprentice

We Live In Time

Hard Truths

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Emilia Perez

Heretic

The Order

Rumours

The End

Scoop

Kraven: The Hunter

The Piano Lesson

Inside Out 2

The Return

Memoir of a Snail

The Wild Robot

All We Imagine As Light

A Different Man

Blitz

Megalopolis

Lee

Twisters

Poolman

Small Things Like These

Despicable Me 4

Red One

Argylle

The First Omen

Oh, Canada

Y2K