Mark Hanson

Toronto

Film Writer and Curator at Slant Magazine

#1 Aspen Extreme fan Product Manager @BayStreetVideo

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Articles

Scott Goldbaum Teaches the Fingerstyle Technique Behind “Taste and Tame”

1 week ago | acousticguitar.com | Joey Lusterman |Doug Young |Mark Hanson |Luke Edwards

Scott Goldbaum is an in-demand session and performing guitarist who has collaborated with artists such as Sting, Dashboard Confessional, and Keith Urban. With “Taste and Tame,” an ethereal acoustic rock original, Goldbaum employs a deft tremolo picking-inspired fingerstyle pattern that creates a quiet intensity. It’s a challenging song, both technically and emotionally; Goldbaum composed the music and lyrics after he was diagnosed with a severe heart arrhythmia.
Histrionic, Doom-Laden Navel-Gazing

3 weeks ago | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

Accompanying the Weeknd’s album of the same name, Trey Edward Shults’s Hurry Up Tomorrow plays, in many ways, like an extended music video, with a thinly sketched plot painted in broad and illusory strokes. The Weeknd, né Abel Tesfaye, plays a fictionalized version of himself who begins to suffer from sudden voice loss while in the midst of a world tour and encounters a mysterious and troubled young fan named Anima (Jenna Ortega), who’s fleeing a traumatic past.
Brian Skiba's Painfully Anonymous Western

2 months ago | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

Writer-director Brian Skiba’s Gunslingers is the filmmaker’s second western to reach theaters this year, following Guns of Redemption just last month, and it feels no less hastily assembled.
Steven Soderbergh's Spy Thriller Is a Cool Cucumber

Mar 7, 2025 | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is the kind of old-fashioned caper that the filmmaker can make in his sleep, and unfortunately in this case, it feels as if he did just that. Like the Ocean’s series, the film seeks to pay tribute to a bygone era of genre cool—to a brand of popular escapist cinema where beautiful people casually navigated high-stakes situations while trading blithe bon mots.
A Blazing Middle Finger to Bourgeois Society

Mar 2, 2025 | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

The vapid bourgeois class will always be prime fodder for a ribbing in a world that continues to be systematically dismantled by capitalist oligarchies. Case in point: The Visitor, Bruce LaBruce’s hilariously deranged art-porn reimagining of Teorema, proves that the Canadian provocateur is the ideal person to bring Pier Paolo Pasolini’s subversive spirit into the present moment.
Mel Gibson's By-the-Numbers Thriller

Jan 23, 2025 | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk takes off under promising conditions for fans of no-frills action flicks. After tracking down sardonic mob accountant Winston (Topher Grace) in Alaska, dogged U.S. Marshal Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) must accompany him back to New York to testify against his high-profile gangster boss. Enter a vigorously gum-chewing Mark Wahlberg as Daryl, the local pilot who will be transporting them to Seattle in his small plane.
Looking Into The Abyss: The Horror In The High Desert Films

Oct 9, 2024 | splittoothmedia.com | Mark Hanson

Much like the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, the barren plains and disused railway yards of North Nevada have accrued their own aura of extremely bad vibes throughout the Horror in the High Desert films. Begun as an early-Covid lockdown experiment by indie filmmaker Dutch Marich, the first installment popped up on Tubi without much fanfare in 2021, but it quickly grew a cult fanbase that latched on to the film’s irresistible new urban legend.
Partial Lunar Eclipse, Harvest Supermoon, Cat's Eye Nebula, And More: Best Astrophotos Of The Week [16-24 September]

Sep 24, 2024 | orbitaltoday.com | Mark Hanson |Javier Galvez |Jans Scheepstra |“Between Windmills

The week of 16-24th September was full of celestial events. Particularly, the night of 17-18 September combined a full moon, supermoon and a partial lunar eclipse visible across the UK and other parts of the world. In the UK, observers enjoyed the eclipse from 1:41 am to 5:47 am. The next such event will be visible in the United Kingdom in 2026. So, if you missed it, hurry up to look through our weekly collection of the best astrophotos.
Hugh Grant, Creepy Deflator of the Faith

Sep 12, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’s Heretic suggests a Saw film with a cheeky religious twist. In this case, the twisted Jigsaw-like sadist behind the pitiless battle of wills is Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), a mysterious atheist who lives in a small ornate rural home that will serve as the playing field, while the participants, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), are young Latter-day Saint missionaries going door-to-door selling the word of God.
Going to the Dogs

Sep 11, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Mark Hanson

At one point in writer-director Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, Amy Adams’s “Mother” says via voiceover: “Motherhood isn’t all sunshine and baby powder. Motherhood is fucking brutal.” That sentiment may be more widely acknowledged today, yet it’s still largely minimized, even by women experiencing that anguish firsthand.