That Shelf

4 days ago | thatshelf.com | Emma Badame

The animated feature documentary, from Seth and Peter Scriver, explores the complex bond between two half brothers, one Indigenous, one white, spanning bustling 1980s Toronto to the present day isolated First Nations community of Shamattawa, in northern Manitoba.

1 week ago | thatshelf.com | Deirdre Crimmins

Horror films have always been about more than the plot. Crushing grief, fear of globalism, and anxiety over female empowerment are just a small smattering of what lies beneath films like Hereditary, Dracula, and Ginger Snaps. Not only have text and sub-text been hanging out together in the horror genre since its inception, so has the awareness of these secondary forces in media. Reading a film for what it is hiding behind its surface is as old as cinema itself.

1 week ago | thatshelf.com | Emma Badame

There’s no shortage of film festivals for the discerning movie goer to attend these days and with Hot Docs, Inside Out, ImagineNATIVE and more crowding the calendar this spring, that’s particularly true for film fans in Southern Ontario. One small but mighty (and growing every year) gem comes to us courtesy of the village of Blue Mountain, about two hours north of Toronto.

2 weeks ago | thatshelf.com | Victor Stiff

Are there any film series that catch more flak than Disney’s live-action remakes? There’s a vocal swath of critics who talk about the Dumbo and reimaginings like they’re crimes against humanity. They decry remakes as creatively bankrupt while finger-wagging at Disney for greenlighting rehashes instead of original concepts. I often watch these films in morning press screenings with a handful of other critics, and we crowd around multiplex lobbies afterwards, debating what worked and what didn’t.

2 weeks ago | thatshelf.com | Rachel West

After four years, Netflix returns to Shadyside with Prom Queen, a new installment in the Fear Street franchise. Following the decades-spanning Fear Street: 1994, 1978, 1666 horror trilogy from 2021, this latest franchise edition firmly sets itself in the 1980s, bringing with it hairspray, sequins, and way more dismemberment than expected. Based on the beloved Y.A. book series by R.L. Stein, Prom Queen borrows from the author’s 1992 book of the same name.