Will Sloan

Toronto

Journalist at Freelance

Co-Host at Michael and Us

Modern-day folk hero. Once met Dolph Lundgren. World-famous for @ImprtCinemaClub and @MichaelandUs. [email protected]

Articles

Toronto's Neon Dreams Cinema Club is all about vibe

1 month ago | torontotoday.ca | Will Sloan

Has the front page of Netflix got you feeling blah? Looking for a more adventurous cinematic experience? In RepWatch, film critic and podcaster Will Sloan talks to programmers who bring their personal stamps to Toronto’s thriving repertory cinemas. __Since debuting at the Royal Cinema in 2015, Neon Dreams Cinema Club has become one of Toronto’s most popular and longest-running repertory screening series… but like anything that has lasted a decade, it has grown and evolved.
RIP JDB

1 month ago | willsloan.substack.com | Will Sloan

The passing of Joe Don Baker inspired a little bit more of an outpouring on social media than I expected. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, since he definitely acted in a lot of movies that a lot of people have seen. People who grew up renting at Blockbuster might recognize him as the heavyset Texan from Fletch, The Natural, Cape Fear, Mars Attacks!, Cool Hand Luke, Congo, and three James Bond movies where he played two different roles.
The Cinema Snob Movie (2012)

1 month ago | willsloan.substack.com | Will Sloan

I am going to ask for your kind indulgence as I take a little of your time to discuss The Cinema Snob Movie (2012). I understand that this is beneath both you and me. The Cinema Snob Movie is the vanity project of a minor YouTube personality, produced on a nonexistent budget with an all-amateur cast and crew, and which was self-distributed on the internet and DVD. Today it is accessible only on archive.org, its official purchase links having long ago been scrubbed by its makers.
ICYMI: Cinema goes to camp at Drag Me to the Movies - tonight!

1 month ago | torontotoday.ca | Will Sloan

Has the front page of Netflix got you feeling blah? Looking for a more adventurous cinematic experience? In RepWatch, film critic and podcaster Will Sloan talks to programmers who bring their personal stamps to Toronto’s thriving repertory cinemas. __As so much of film culture has migrated to streaming, movie theatres have been in an existential crossroads. Why leave the house to see a movie that’s right there on your TV? Why buy a ticket to see the same digital file in public?
RepWatch: Cinema goes to camp at Drag Me to the Movies

1 month ago | torontotoday.ca | Will Sloan

Has the front page of Netflix got you feeling blah? Looking for a more adventurous cinematic experience? In RepWatch, film critic and podcaster Will Sloan talks to programmers who bring their personal stamps to Toronto’s thriving repertory cinemas. __As so much of film culture has migrated to streaming, movie theatres have been in an existential crossroads. Why leave the house to see a movie that’s right there on your TV? Why buy a ticket to see the same digital file in public?
Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal returns, with too much of a good thing

2 months ago | theglobeandmail.com | Will Sloan
Smorgasbord

2 months ago | screenslate.com | Will Sloan

When Jerry Lewis returned to movie screens after a decade-long absence with Hardly Working (1980), he opened the film with a rapid-fire montage of highlights from his ‘50s and ‘60s comedies. These clips showed a young, impossibly energetic dynamo backed with all the resources of the Hollywood Dream Factory. Clearly intended to re-establish Lewis’s pedigree, the montage couldn’t help but render Hardly Working an accidental meditation on its star’s diminished status.
The Making of "Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA"

2 months ago | willsloan.substack.com | Will Sloan

My book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA is now available for pre-order from its publisher, OR Books. I hope you will consider purchasing it. If you are at all curious about the director of Glen or Glenda? and Plan 9 from Outer Space, I hope to offer a lens through which to better appreciate him. If you are already well-versed in his classics, I am excited to introduce you to the full scope of his career.
Ed Wood

2 months ago | orbooks.com | Will Sloan

sub-heading: Made in Hollywood USA —Guy Maddin —Drew Friedman —Willow Maclay —Bob Blackburn, editor of Blood Splatters Quickly: The Collected Stories of Edward D.
A King in New York (1957)

2 months ago | willsloan.substack.com | Will Sloan

Early in Donald Trump’s first term, I felt compelled to revisit Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), as I recall there being something of a vogue for it in left-of-centre cinephile circles. Perhaps we were all looking for past examples of right-wing rulers being defused by humour.