Just in time for the coming games in South Korea, we flashback to the events leading up to the Winter Olympics nearly 25 years ago on this week’s End Credits. We go for a skate with the new bio-pic about Tonya Harding, and we take a spin on some news items from the past week. Film critics are top of mind with one getting into Twitter trouble, and other taking a critical look at one of the most controversial subjects of the current #MeToo movement. Plus, while we’re talking about black superhero movies, why aren’t we talking more about that kickboxing vampire movie?
This Thursday, February 8, at 10 am, Adam A. Donaldson and Vince Masson will discuss:
1) Thread Count. In a strange twist, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper was suspended from his job for a week because it was revealed that he had bought Twitter followers six times. Yes, you can buy Twitter followers. A lot of celebrities, athletes, and other influence makers do it, but should journalists? How about people in the movie review business? Roeper said that he was trying to build his brand, but is his job to build his brand, or is it to review movies? And can you imagine having to re-build your Twitter account again fro scratch?
2) Re-Allenate. There have been so many implications from the #MeToo movement, and one of the lesser ones is the question of what we’re supposed to think now of the artistic work of those accused. Enter Woody Allen. New York Times movie reviewer A.O. Scott wrote last week his thoughts about Allen’s filmography in the wake of #MeToo and persistent allegations about child abuse and Allen’s own difficult personal history. Can we separate the artist from the art? Should we render Allen’s films to the dustbin of history, or should we look at them anew with what we’ve learned?
3) Blade Rerunner. Marvel’s Black Panther comes out in a couple of weeks, and there’s no doubt it’s a game changer, but what about the first black Marvel hero that came to the big screen? As a Washington Post piece reminds us, long before we had Black Panther, we had Blade. The 1998 horror-action flick starred Wesley Snipes as the vampire-hunting “Daywalker”, and while it had a hand in creating the modern era of comic book movies, it almost seems like we’ve forgotten these contributions as part of the conversation of superhero movies. So have we forgotten about Blade?
REVIEW: I, Tonya (2017). In 1994, figure skate Tonya Harding watched all her Olympic dreams implode when her rival was attacked, and the perpetrator turned out to be associates of her husband. She became a national joke in the process, but now Harding’s unbelievably true story is being told in all it’s not so glorious glory starring Margot Robbie as the title subject. Follow Harding through the school of hard knocks, with a barely caring mother played by Academy Award nominee Allison Janney, to near Olympic champion and all the messed up ups and downs in-between.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Thursday at 10 am.
End Credits 
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