Photo Credit: Actinolite Restaurant / Instagram The end of the school year is upon us, and graduation (for my 3L friends) is only months away, so for those of you looking to splurge a little to celebrate graduation or any other special occasion, I have compiled a short list of three fantastic restaurants for your consideration. 1. Actinolite Restaurant 971 Ossington Ave | Canadian | $$$$ Named...
I like to think that the loveliest things in life come in pairs. It’s why my favourite number is two—the smallest number needed to create a relationship. Have you had the chance to go by Scholars Walk recently? I’m sure you would know this pair regardless. They arrive in early spring each year when the ice has barely melted and the winds are still chilly. With fluffed feathers and white...
Photo Credit: United Artists Whenever a beloved franchise is adapted to the big screen, impassioned debate about its faithfulness to the original soon follows. Fans of established works are often dissatisfied with material changes to the tone, plot, or message of the original. However, approaching a film with this frame of mind is deeply flawed and reductive. Film is an art form of its own, and...
At first glance, the exhibition looked like any other—until you realized the artists had not chosen the displays. A bot chose them. Each week, the bot was given a Bitcoin allowance and left to wander the darknet, where it made purchases and mailed them to the gallery. No human intervention, no curation. Just transactions unfolding at random, inching closer to the illicit. Ten ecstasy pills...
› Still of Morrisseau From The Photo Credit: Art Institute of Canada Paradox of Norval MorrisseauPhoto Credit: Art Institute of Canada As the founder of the Woodland art style, Norval Morrisseau did not just paint; he redefined visual storytelling. His work spoke of legends, political messages, Anishinaabe ancestral knowledge, and the interwoven relationships between people, animals, nature, and...
Is human consciousness a blessing or a curse? Greek gods Hermes and Apollo debate this at Toronto’s oldest watering hole, The Wheat Sheaf Tavern, when they decide to make a wager. Apollo thinks animals would be more unhappy if they were given human consciousness. Hermes thinks otherwise. To settle this bet, they find a veterinary clinic around the corner and grant human consciousness to...
For the fourteenth consecutive year, I have undertaken the task of watching, ranking, and reviewing all of the films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars. For the past two years, I have shared my reviews with readers of Obiter Dicta. I initially assumed that most would overlook these contributions; however, to my surprise, they have garnered some...
Forty-one years after Daniel LaRusso’s famous crane kick knocked Johnny Lawrence to the mat, Cobra Kai is taking viewers back to where it all began. The latest entry in the Karate Kid franchise released its final episodes on Netflix this past 13 February, a long-awaited conclusion to what its creators attested would be “the biggest season of Cobra Kai yet.” Season 6, Part 3 seems like a world...
A personal movie list is exactly the kind of writing no one asked for that’s been a hallmark of the Obiter Dicta. After a small dip into our archive, I was inspired by a past senior editor’s list featured in a 1999 edition of Issue 71. Considering that I’ve been writing for a captive audience about my favourites of the silver screen since I was in 1L (my compliments to the patient editors of...
Imagine rushing to campus for another 8:30 a.m. class, unaware that a strand of your hair has fallen while you’re on the TTC. Before you know it, a stranger has picked it up, reconstructed a detailed 3D portrait of your face using your hair’s DNA, and put it on display in a gallery. You never consented to this likeness, yet your genetic identity has been pieced together, analyzed, and made public...
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is not just a memoir—it’s a philosophical exploration of life, death, and the meaning we ascribe to both. As a reader, it’s nearly impossible to finish the book without confronting your own relationship with mortality. That’s what makes it such an important work. It asks us to sit with discomfort, to look directly at life’s fragility, and to think deeply...
Nosferatu is the latest project from famed writer-director Robert Eggers. Widely regarded as the industry’s foremost horror director, Eggers offers his take on the 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Murnau. While reviewing the film, this article will comment on how a filmmaker’s background and style serve as a critical determinant of a remake’s success. In...
In 2000, Eva and Franco Mattes made an extraordinary decision: every single piece of information on their personal computer was made accessible to the public, in real time. Through a single link, anyone could access and download their digital life. Emails—both personal and professional—were left in plain view, waiting to be read. Financial documents, private conversations, artist contracts...
Photo Credit: Janus Films Imagine a world that has sunken beneath a great flood, leaving a lone sailboat to roam its vast waters. The only ones on board are a unique group of animals, who must put up with each other as they set sail for distant stone pillars—their most likely chance of weathering out the flood. Such is Flow, a 2024 film directed by Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis and brought to...
Osgoode’s Sikh Students Association wishes everyone who celebrates a blessed Gurpurab! 2024 marked the 555th anniversary of the birth of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Guru. Guru Nanak’s teachings emphasize the oneness of God but also place a strong focus on the values of equality, humility, and selfless service. As we reflect on the significance of this milestone, here are five key...
Photo Credit: Warner Bros-Seven Arts Sam Peckinpah is the sort of director that proves the trope of distinct creative genius as a product of erratic and troubled people. Perhaps some would be amazed that self-loathing and alcoholic idiosyncrasy could be such a strong conduit of filmic success—but if you know great artists, you know that eccentricity is raw material for much brilliance...
Not home or work, but rather the “third place”—that café, library, park, or diner—is one of the most overlooked necessities of modern life. These are the spaces where we exist without agenda, where we don’t have to justify our presence with productivity. Yet, as cities grow denser and our lives busier, the third place is quietly disappearing. The third place is special precisely because it...
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has gained a reputation as a moment to remember in music history. The tour became the highest-grossing tour ever and has broken multiple attendance records at various venues worldwide. The Eras Tour movie received an unprecedented number of Golden Globe nominations and became the highest-grossing concert film of all time in the United States. So now, with six sold-out...
Ayumu Fujino, a young mangaka (manga artist) lauded by her peers, is in for a shock one day when a guest artist’s detailed drawings outshine her often popular comic strips. A chance encounter reveals that said artist—a reclusive student named Kyomoto—is a big fan of her work, leading to an unlikely friendship full of laughs, tears, and plenty of manga. Such is the Japanese anime film Look Back, a...
Photo Credit: Karthikeya Gautam Most of my photos are shot on the Pentax Spotmatic, which is a 35mm film camera with an M42 screw mount. I like to pair it with a 50mm f/1.4, which is the original lens manufactured for this piece, and one which, in my opinion, works like a charm on it. Before I get into my history with this camera, it would be a disservice not to provide a brief rundown of its own...
Photo Credit: Focus Features I’ll be honest—when I first saw the trailer for Conclave, it did not seem like my cup of tea. Knowing nothing except that it follows the classified process of electing a new pope, I was expecting a repetitive and preachy commentary on theology. But after devouring director Edward Berger’s brutal yet beautiful 2022 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, I...
As a general rule, I try to leave the house as little as possible. Continuously enabling me in this endeavour—no, lifestyle— is the fact that I am a second year law student. One of the greatest things about being a 2L is that I have even less occasion to leave the house than when I was a 1L. Some find this surprising given that 1L was more work and therefore required more time spent at home...
“Wanna try out my fuzzy pink handcuffs?” Sabrina Carpenter sings in her song “Juno.” This lyric has inspired an impromptu moment of fan engagement during Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour where she hands out fuzzy pink handcuffs to someone in the venue’s pit for being “too hot.” How exactly impromptu is this seemingly spontaneous moment, and are there any legal risks of liability artists...
One of my favourite reads and a book that has made the greatest impact on me is The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. Brown is a social work graduate, researcher, and storyteller whose research focuses primarily on shame, empathy, and courage. She has spent time researching and discussing the concepts of “wholeheartedness” or “wholehearted living.” She shares that wholehearted living includes...
On 31 October 2024, The Sims 4, one of the most downloaded games ever, released its seventeenth expansion pack (and its seventy-second pack in general): “The Sims 4: Life & Death.” This got me thinking about my lifeline when it comes to the Sims, the series developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. I remember buying the base game around 2018, a time when I wanted to focus on...