Danita Steinberg
About Danita Steinberg
I love old musicals, Bette Midler, and great horror films. I'm a student, barista, bookworm, wannabe foodie, cinephile, and celebrity stalker. If I'm at home, I'm in my pajamas. I think everyone should laugh more. Follow me on twitter @danita_35
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Last entries by Danita Steinberg
  • 17 May 2013
    Review: Mud
    Ellis and Neckbone are two 14-year-old best friends, looking for adventure and purpose in their small Southern town. They find it in a man named Mud, an outlaw on the run from bounty hunters and police, as they befriend him and agree to help him reunite and run away with...
    Archived in Issue 4 Volume 5: May 2013 LGBT Cinema Issue Archive Major Theatrical Reviews RSS
  • 13 May 2013
    Spotlight On: Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival
    Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. And spring in Toronto, as it turns out, is also the time for film festivals. Commonly referred to as Inside Out, it is also known as the Toronto LGBT Film Festival. The festival runs from Thursday, May 23 to Sunday, June 2,...
    Archived in Columns Issue 4 Volume 5: May 2013 LGBT Cinema Issue Archive RSS Spotlight On
  • 01 May 2013
    Hot Docs Review: Brave New River
    Brave New River is an environmental documentary about the transformation of the Rupert River after Hydro-Québec diverted 70 per cent of its water to five hydroelectric stations in 2009. Seen through the eyes of the Cree people who live around the river, Brave New River examines the pros and cons of hydroelectricity developments. The...
    Archived in Festivals Hot Docs Hot Docs 2013 RSS
  • 29 Apr 2013
    Canadian propaganda films and their posters during World War II
    In times of war, countries and governments turn to propaganda to inform, recruit, and entertain the masses. When thinking of the word propaganda, we may not necessarily think of Canada. Personally, my mind goes straight to Nazi Germany, where the truth was distorted and manipulated. I think of Leni Riefenstahl’s...
    Archived in Blog RSS Writer Blogs
  • 26 Apr 2013
    Hot Docs Review: When I Walk
    When I Walk follows filmmaker Jason DaSilva as he is diagnosed with severe multiple sclerosis at 25. He loses complete use of his legs quickly, going from traveling the world to having a hard time just traveling New York City. The documentary is Jason’s personal account of the disease, his struggles,...
    Archived in Festivals Hot Docs Hot Docs 2013 RSS
  • 25 Apr 2013
    Hot Docs Review: Softening
    Softening is about as personal a documentary as you’re going to find. It is more of a cinematic essay than anything else, and a moving one at that. When her son, Teddy, was born with extensive brain damage, Kelly O’Brien had to begin coming to terms with the challenges and...
    Archived in Festivals Hot Docs Hot Docs 2013 RSS
  • 16 Apr 2013
    Toronto Jewish Film Fest Review: Oma and Bella
    Meet Regina Karolinski and Bella Katz, two octogenarian best buds who happen to be the subject of the documentary Oma and Bella. The film follows them in their daily lives, as they hang out, cook traditional Jewish food, spend time with friends, and reminisce. Being Holocaust survivors, Regina and Bella...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals RSS2
  • 13 Apr 2013
    TIFF Kids Review: Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion
    Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion is about an eleven-year-old boy on a mission to uncover the mystery surrounding his grand-cousin, Cecilia’s death. Victor’s family has recently moved into his great uncle’s mansion, and when his parents leave Victor under the watch of his sisters, Victor has a chance to...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals RSS
  • 10 Apr 2013
    TIFF Kids Review: The Zigzag Kid
    Nono Feierberg is the 13-year-old son of one of the world’s most famous police inspectors. Growing up motherless, Nono just wants to follow in his father’s footsteps, but recent shenanigans have left him on a train to stay with his strange uncle. While on the train, Nono receives a mysterious...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals RSS2
  • 09 Apr 2013
    Cinema Revisited: Why the Maysles Brothers are golden gods of documentary filmmaking
    Since the 1930s, classical Hollywood cinema had been highly censored, and predominantly escapist. The 1960s were about to change all of that, at least as far as documentaries were concerned. Enter Robert Drew, a Life magazine photojournalist, whose goal was to adapt methods of photojournalism to filmmaking. With technological advancements...
    Archived in Cinema Revisted Columns RSS
  • 08 Apr 2013
    TIFF Kids Review: Buta
    Buta is about a lonely young boy of the same name, growing up in a mountain village with his grandmother. He is bullied by boys at the river he stops at to collect river rocks for a larger than life art project he is creating. Buta befriends an old man...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals RSS2
  • 22 Mar 2013
    Review: From Up on Poppy Hill
    The latest from Japan’s leading animation studio, Studio Ghibli, brings us the charming story of From Up on Poppy Hill. Written by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by his son, Goro, the film is a coming-of-age tale about a group of students trying to save their club house from being torn...
    Archived in Independent & Repertory Reviews RSS2
  • 20 Mar 2013
    TFS Essential Canadian Cinema: I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
    Patricia Rozema’s debut film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing is one that seems omnipresent when people begin making lists of classic Canadian films. The story centres on the ever-whimsical Polly (Sheila McCarthy), a naïve amateur photographer in Toronto who becomes embroiled with the beautiful and sophisticated Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon) after Polly’s...
    Archived in Columns Essential Canadian Cinema RSS
  • 19 Mar 2013
    Canadian Film Fest Review: The Disappeared
    The Disappeared is about six men lost at sea, struggling to survive in two life boats with little food or water. As they try to reach land, the film chronicles their ups and downs, and their overall camaraderie. This is a movie we have all seen before. The Disappeared never goes above the...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals
  • 19 Mar 2013
    Canadian Film Fest Review: The Storm Within (aka Rouge Sang)
    The Storm Within takes place in British occupied Quebec on New Year’s Eve in 1799. A husband leaves his wife and three children, promising to be back by nightfall to celebrate. Anxiously awaiting his return, there’s a knock at the door. Instead of finding her husband, Esperance finds five British soldiers...
    Archived in Festivals Other Festivals
  • 13 Mar 2013
    The TFS List: female buddy films
    The genre of the “buddy film” is historically male dominated, and has continued to be male dominated with films like Wedding Crashers and The Hangover being hugely successful. A lot of female friendships on film are the premise for sappy sob fests (I say that lovingly and as a huge...
    Archived in Columns The TFS List
  • 08 Mar 2013
    Review: Shepard & Dark
    Shepard & Dark is the story of actor/playwright Sam Shepard and his best friend, Johnny Dark – a friendship spanning over 40 years that is documented in letters and photographs. As they come together to compile and edit these letters and photographs to sell, Shepard and Dark both wonder how much...
    Archived in Independent & Repertory Reviews
  • 08 Mar 2013
    Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
    Oz the Great and Powerful is another addition to the many stories about Oz, about a circus magician being thrust into the land of Oz, just in time to save all the good people from the wicked witches. Starring James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, and Mila Kunis, and directed by...
    Archived in Major Theatrical Reviews
  • 08 Mar 2013
    Review: Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation
    New Canadian doc, Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation, chronicles the folk music scene during the 1960s and 1970s in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of New York City. With interviews from Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Pete Seeger, and a handful of others, this documentary offers a nostalgic look at a...
    Archived in Independent & Repertory Reviews
  • 22 Feb 2013
    Review: Dark Skies
    Dark Skies  is about a middle class family, who are struggling financially and emotionally, as they start to notice strange events happening in their home on a nightly basis. As they come to terms with the truth, they begin to unite as a family to fight against the unwelcome visitors....
    Archived in Major Theatrical Reviews
Last Comments by Danita Steinberg

This week from Grolsch Film Works

Graffiti in the Movies

Last week saw the release of Gimme the Loot, the SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner by Adam Leon, which sees two graffiti artists seek revenge after their replica of the…

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