CINEMA | 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' Maximizes Action

"There is more to them than meets the eye."

Paramount Pictures / Skydance

Director Steven Caple Jr. capably extends the Transformers franchise into the '90s after the surprisingly fun 1987 set prequel Bumblebee. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts introduces the popular animal-based robots called "Maximals", first introduced in the Vancouver-produced 1996 animated series Beast Wars, as both a direct sequel and prequel to all six of the previous Hasbro toy-based films.

IMBIBE | Crudo Bar x On the Terrace x Acquafarina Restaurant

Downtown—(May 17, 2023) Michelin Guide recommended Italian fine-dining restaurant Acquafarina recently installed Chef Jefferson Alvarez as its Culinary Director earlier this year alongside reestablishing his weekly Chef's Lab meals (served on Tuesdays) while making a string of other moves behind the kitchen since then.

CINEMA | A Spectacular 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'

"He's barely a villain of the week!"

Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Animation

Acclaimed Oscar-winning co-writers/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller return to the animated Spider-Verse world for the spectacular multiversal superhero sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This is a visually wondrous and maximalist adventure jam-packed with heart and tons of emotional resonance.

SCREEN | Sydney Sweeney Interrogates 'Reality' on HBO

"I knew it was a secret. But I also knew I pledged service to the American people."

HBO Films / Seaview Productions

Playwright Tina Satter adapts her acclaimed off-Broadway stage play Is This A Room, dramatizing the 2017 interrogation of former NSA translator turned whistleblower Reality Winner, for the screen directly based on the 107-minute FBI audio transcript retold verbatim. Reality is a gripping reenactment of these real-life proceedings concerning the leaking of government intelligence confirming Russian interference in U.S. elections.

WEEKENDER | Vancouver International Wine Festival 2023

"The wine world is here."

Waterfront—(April 28, 2023) The 44th annual Vancouver International Wine Festival returned for eight wine-soaked days of fun. Known as "the largest wine festival in the Americas", VIWF wined and dined thousands of attendees at its various tastings, pairing meals, and signature events across the city.

CINEMA | Greta Lee Revisits Her 'Past Lives' x SIFF 2023

"That's just something Koreans say to seduce someone."

Seattle International Film Festival

Past Lives, Korean-Canadian playwright turned filmmaker Celine Song's transcendent semi-autobiographical debut feature inspired by her own experiences immigrating from Seoul to Toronto before settling in New York City, stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as childhood sweethearts, Na Young (Nora) and Hae Sung, who reunite as adults and contemplate their diverging directions in life and love. It's a stunning film about possibilities and reconciling your choices.

CINEMA | Julia Louis-Dreyfus Feels Bad – 'You Hurt My Feelings'

"You were lying to be encouraging."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Indie dramatist Nicole Holofcener reteams with her Enough Said star Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the biting marriage comedy You Hurt My Feelings. Ostensibly a relationship story about over-sensitivity, Louis-Dreyfus stars as Beth, a professor and memoirist turned budding novelist, who has a personal and professional crisis when she learns her loving but otherwise milquetoast therapist husband, a witty Tobias Menzies, may have been less than honest about his compliments.

CINEMA | Furious Times Ten – 'Fast X' Drives Into Car–nage

"It's like a cult with cars!"

Universal Pictures / Original Film

French action filmmaker Louis Leterrier takes over the directorial reigns from longtime Fast & Furious franchise director Justin Lin, who previously helmed five entries and remains credited as co-writer/producer, after abruptly departing the tenth film only a week into production. Fast X (aka Fast & Furious 10) is an ultra-maximalist sequel directly addressing the events of Fast Five. It takes the "family" to unhinged levels of car-based cinematic carnage and mayhem across the globe.

SCREEN | Leaving Los Angeles – 'This Time' x LAAPFF 2023

"It forced us to make these very intense relationships so quickly."

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Asian-American writer/director Sebastien Tobler's Los Angeles-set and filmed indie romance, the generically titled This Time, follows (quite literally) grown-up former high school sweethearts turned Indonesian expats who accidentally reunite after twenty-three years apart and spend the afternoon catching up while walking and talking around the streets of Pasadena.