What to Watch. . .
The Crash (2026) on Netflix is a documentary about 18-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla. In July 2022, just after her high school graduation in Strongsville, Ohio, she drove her car with her boyfriend and their pal into a brick wall – at 100+ miles per hour. It looked deliberate. Charged with a double homicide, Shirilla then makes a full recovery and “talks back” in her own defence. Fascinating. Watch a short video here.
Ladies First (2026) is also on Netflix and features Borat – or comedic actor Sacha Baron Cohen. I don’t like Cohen and I really don’t like his pro-Israel politics. But a summer night desperation sets in and I thought it would be good for a laugh. The plot goes like this: a wealthy, privileged company director (Cohen) believes he needs to “front” a woman in management because clients are calling his company out. He promotes one capable woman and will not even listen to her ideas. By a twist of fate, he is knocked on the head and now sees women run the corporate world and the most he can aspire to is secretarial work. The woman he promoted becomes his boss. I’d say the only part worth watching is the middle 20 minutes. Otherwise—it’s a pedantic take on an old-fashioned subject– at least the way Cohen handles it. Here’s the trailer.
BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 feature film by Spike Lee. I always have time for Lee, an innovative, angry, Black director in the US. This film tells the story of Ron Stallworth, who was the first Black officer allowed to join the Colorado Springs, Colorado police department in 1972. He links up with a white cop; they agree to infiltrate and stop the KKK in their racist firebombing attacks. The film is a must-see. It’s on Netflix– here’s the trailer.
Anatomy of a Scandal (2022) on Netflix is six episodes and well worth watching. I think I saw this British drama and even reviewed it before here – but four years later it packs a punch. This is a psychological thriller and a great courtroom drama. A British cabinet minister is friends with the Prime Minister and on the verge of having a major promotion. James Whitehead is a clever, handsome, privileged 40-something family man. He and Olivia, his parliamentary researcher, have a brief affair; when he needs to end it – for family reasons! – she accuses him of rape. The writing, the fast pace and not knowing how it will end will push you to watch the series. Here is the trailer.
Desire, a feature film from Mexico, is terrible. Billed as an erotic thriller, it’s on Netflix. Lucero a big lawyer, her rich husband and privileged kids celebrate at their 20th wedding anniversary party. But then Lucero, falls in love with her teenage daughter’s swim coach. The coach, years younger than Lucero, is mad about her and won’t let her go. You can imagine what happens – but understand all’s well that ends well! Here is the trailer. But unless you like acting that is about as subtle as a morality play, this film does not work.
Beast – on Kanopy is a feature film from 2017. A 27-year-old woman works as a tour guide on Jersey. She wants to break free of her parents’ suffocating embrace, and have a deep love affair. However there is mystery, and several deaths that start to plague the island. A character study—not bad– here’s the trailer. It’s on Kanopy.
A series, Life, from the BBC (2020) isn’t bad. The lives of people in four flats in an old house in Manchester amounts to more than a soap opera. There’s the successful retired surgeon and his wife who had to leave him. There is a college lecturer a widower who is grieving his dead partner. There is a young woman pregnant and distrustful of her choice in men. And a woman who has changed her name, her accent and background just to pay the rent. Well-acted, and gripping. The BBC takes diversity seriously: not only are different racialized groups represented, but the actress — young mother to be –has only one arm. Amazing, good acting and well done. Here’s the trailer.
If you like Nordic Noir, Trom (2022) is for you. In the capital of the Faroe Islands, Hannis Martinsson a 60-year old investigative journalist is set to meet his long-estranged daughter, Sonja. But the day before, he finds her dead from drowning. Sonja, an activist, leads an anti-whaling group in a place where fishing and whaling are the major industry. Hannis suspects a local business tycoon is behind Sonja’s death and sets out to prove it. Six part series is On Netflix. Here’s the trailer.
A Toxic Love Story is a new true crime doc on Netflix. Fascinating –as are most of the documentaries on Netflix. A young woman, Michelle, escapes from her fiancé, a US marshal –a controlling and dangerous man. He takes his revenge on her; he masterminds a plot to have Michelle jailed for threatening and scaring his new partner. What really took place is far different than we initially understand. Worth a watch; trailer is here.
And Soon the Darkness is a 1970 film that takes place in rural France. Two young English nurses, go on a bicycling holiday in the height of the hippy days. Their knowledge of French is dismal, when they encounter a man who maybe a rapist and murderer in a small village. One cyclist is found dead, and the other has to figure out what has happened. This film is a bit long and winding, but a fascinating coming of age of young women, trust and the halcyon days of the 70’s. Well done, it’s on Kanopy and here’s the trailer.
Don’t Forget Gaza
On June 14, the Atlantic Jewish Council and the Jewish Film Festival hosted a screening of UNraveling UNRWA at the Halifax Central Library. Members of Independent Jewish Voices-Halifax and other anti-Israeli genocide groups were there to protest the showing. We had signs that said No Pride in Apartheid, How do you Hide an Israeli Genocide? Blame UNRWA, and Stop Starving Gaza-Stop Arming Israel. The establishment Jewish community had privately rented the auditorium when the library was closed (on a Sunday evening) to seat about 50 guests who had paid $10 each for a ticket. The film is a smear against the 15,000 employees of UNRWA who risk their lives to work in the West Bank and in Gaza to provide shelter, food, deliver health care and education to children. The pro-Israel documentary insists that many UNRWA staff are in Hamas; there is staff involvement in terrorism that hinders peace; UNRWA staff help Palestinians cling to their right of return –which only agitates the Palestinians; UNRWA exaggerates the refugee ‘problem’ and allows them to remain as refugees forever and continue to “whine” about Palestinian “victimhood”. All these lies and distortions are part of this film. The film’s baseless assertions would have been funny if Israel had not killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, since Oct. 2023. The Palestinians who survive, are suffering a living death. Here’s a video of our demonstration that I took —
What to Read . . .
Storm the Ballot Box (2026) by Jo-Ann Roberts. If you’d like to read a Canadian journalist/activist’s account of putting progressive politics and democracy on the ballot, read this lively and short book by Maritimer and former interim leader of the federal Green Party. Roberts was also deputy leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia. Nice photos and a good story.
Canadian HR Reporter has published an interesting article “Narcissistic Leaders More Likely to Resist Remote Work”. This article equates narcissistic bosses with opposition to remote work. — as it notes:
“Executives who crave control and admiration are the ones driving return-to-office mandates, according to new research that HR professionals should weigh when leadership challenges flexible work policies without a clear business rationale… The pursuit of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility.”
I read Luigi: The Making and the Meaning (Dec. 2025) by US journalist John H. Richardson. This recent biography is about Luigi Mangione, the young manwho allegedly shot and killed the insurance executive on a New York street in Dec. 2024. A fascinating short read, Richardson doesn’t just look at Luigi’s background (which is a mix of environmentalist, survivalist and academic), the author looks at rebellion in the US today; he looks at grievances within the American body politic. A good investigative book!
“In Mexico you could say we were poor. … In Madrid, though, people still looked at us like we were poor, but also like we were scum.”
from Eating Ashes
Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro is well worth reading. Navarro, a Mexican writer who lives in Spain, is considered one of the best novelists writing in Spanish. Impoverished and terrified of kidnapping and gangland shootings in Mexico City, a single mother moves to Madrid; she leaves her teenaged daughter and preteen son with her parents—promising to send for them later. When the kids arrive, they find a hostile city and a Europe keen to sideline and keep out people who move there from the colonies. The Spaniards’ racism and xenophobia means even though the Mexicans speak Spanish – they are relegated to off-the-books cleaning and care jobs. As the girl says,
“In Mexico you could say we were poor. … In Madrid, though, people still looked at us like we were poor, but also like we were scum.”
The sister tries to care for the “on the spectrum” brother, but he won’t go to school, has no friends and he falls deeper into depression. The book takes a tragic turn, and one for which the girl can’t forgive herself or her mother. The reality of immigration, of race, of European intolerance and of the disinterest by the family and Catholic church are part of this novel.
Actually, I can compare it to the soppy bestseller, The Maid (my review is here ). The Maid has an all-too familiar story with a happy ending. A young woman cleans hotel rooms and helps solve a (weak) murder mystery. Though somewhere ‘on the spectrum’, she manages to find love, acceptance and even a better job. Eating Ashes is a real life book about colonialism, resentment and the hard world of emigration and poverty. A much better book!
Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel (2022) is excellent. Montreal writer, academic and left journalist Marc Raboy travels to Argentina to find relatives of the branch of his Jewish-Ukrainian family that emigrated there after WWI when his branch of the family moved to Canada. He finds records of his cousin, Alicia Raboy, a radical journalist whom he never met – who in 1976 was ‘disappeared’ by the military regime in Mendoza, Argentina. In her mid-20s at the time, Alicia was never seen again. Her well-respected writer and publisher husband, Francisco Paco Urondo, was killed that same day in a police ambush. The couple left behind an 11-month-old baby, Ángela. The authorities placed her first in an orphanage, but her quick-witted grandmother rescued her. At 51, Ángela worked with Raboy to retrace her mother’s steps as a member of the Montoneros guerillas. Alicia’s execution was at the apex of Argentina’s nine year Dirty War. Fascinating, and well done.
Working at Inglis, the Life and Death of a Canadian Factory by David Ovel and Susan Meurer (Lorimer, 1994) has aged me and others. I used to work at Inglis, the appliance factory in Toronto’s west end in 1974. In the machine shop, I drilled holes in parts for dishwashers. In 1968, Whirlpool in the US owned 33% of Inglis – 20 years later, Whirlpool, now the majority owner, shut down the plant. This book offers a pictorial account of Inglis’ history, and the 19 week strike in 1974. About 1,000 workers at the plant (and in the office) were represented by the Steelworkers who didn’t seem to realize that Whirlpool was sending washing machines and dishwashers across the border — thus undermining our strike. The sister plant workers in Michigan were remarkably silent; the employees probably worked overtime to punch out the appliances. This book is a pictorial account of the “old working class” in Toronto. In 1986, several years before Inglis shut down, USW Local 2900’s president Mike Hersh wrote this song “I’m not alone”.
Son of Elsewhere (autobiography, 2022) by Elamin Abdelmahmoud is excellent. Many of you have heard the CBC Radio One program, Commotion, and will recognize the host, Abdelmahmoud. He came to Canada from Sudan as a grade 8 student. Knowing no English at all, he and his mother moved to perhaps the “whitest” city in the country, Kingston Ont. His experience as a Black student, a Muslim in high school, at Queen’s University and at work in Toronto’s media and entertainment scene is revealing and well-sketched. Abdelmahmoud is a lively and self-aware writer – who sees the pride and pitfalls Canadians have when it comes to ‘multiculturalism.” From the book,
“In grade 8 as a new Canadian student, an immigrant from Sudan, [my] father said, according to the teacher at their first parent teacher interview, with perfect seriousness,”If these grades don’t improve, I am sending [him] back to Sudan.”
Brilliant.
London Falling (2026) is a new book by Irish-American writer Patrick Radden Keefe. You won’t put it down. He wrote an initial article in the New Yorker here which piqued my interest, but the book is dazzling. A 19-year-old Londoner, Zac Brettler, pretends to be the son of a vastly wealthy dead Russian Oligarch. Zac is pushed or jumps from a luxury apartment balcony to his death in the Thames River. This is a whodunit with meaning and with substance. Who really runs London? Why are the police and the political classes so reluctant to reign in the oligarchs, and what does it mean when a mob of Putin’s enemies become power brokers for the British establishment? Wow. Worth reading.
Another ruined dinner party... 