Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 5, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba C2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 ARTS ● LIFE I ENTERTAINMENT For educators, the festival has developed a 50-page program- ming guide, along with several free modules on its website. “There’s a huge demand for comics as a literacy tool,” Beiko says. It’s not just at the elementary or high school level: the festival is partnering with Red River College Polytech to launch a micro-credential program in comic foundations taught by lo- cal artists Rhael McGregor and Natalie Mark. Beiko says the festival does its best to keep costs low. While attendance for guests is free, the cost for presenting artists— $25 for half a table, $50 for a full table — is minuscule in compar- ison to corporate comic conven- tions. At those events, running a table typically costs $400 to $1,000, Beiko says. “At every turn, we’re trying to make opportunities for artists to have thriving careers. Everyone at the festival who’s exhibiting owns all their own (intellec- tual property). You won’t see Spider-Man or Batman, what you’re going to see is all original creations.” ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Métis artist Mike Zastre Series about struggling newspaper wants to be The Office, but lacks depth Mockumentary follows now-familiar stylebook I N the Peacock (Showcase in Can- ada) mockumentary The Paper, an unseen documentary film crew arrives in a midsize city in order to capture — fly-on-the-wall style — the daily life of office drones. If the premise sounds familiar, that’s intentional. The series comes from Greg Daniels, who adapted The Office for U.S. television, and he’s collabo- rating with Michael Koman (whose writing credits include several years on Saturday Night Live) to recapture some of what has given The Office such a popular second life on stream- ing, even a decade-plus after its last episode aired on NBC. Instead of a nondescript paper company in Scranton, the setting for The Paper is a struggling newspaper in Ohio called the Toledo Truth Teller. Or as the passive-aggressive managing editor (Sabrina Impacciatore) calls the digital version in her syrupy Italian accent: TTT online. But instead of covering Toledo news, the daily paper has been reduced to a combination of “local ads, clickbait, four AP stories and local high school sports scores.” The shoestring staff is mostly administrative and the paper itself — once a legitimate news oper- ation, 50 years ago — now only exists as a tiny subsidiary of a company that otherwise makes its profits from the sale of toilet paper. There appears to be no interest among executives to change the status quo, but for reasons that go unexplained, a gung-ho editor-in-chief (Domhnall Gleeson) has been hired anyway, and he hopes to inspire his minuscule staff to shed their down- trodden outlook and actually go out and report the news. As a group, they are earnest but lacking any journalism skills. I sup- pose the process of watching them gradually figure it out is supposed to be endearing and funny, but I don’t find anything humorous about their floundering, considering … (gestures at the real-world need for journalism amid perpetual news industry layoffs). The staff have other jobs at the Truth Teller, mind you — three of whom are accountants, including Oscar Nuñez, the one holdover from The Office — but their new editor says eagerly that they are “more than wel- come to volunteer (their) time at this newspaper.” Then, glancing over at his boss: “Is it OK if we borrow a few hours a week from these guys’ other duties if they want to participate?” Not to be a stickler, but that’s not volunteering — not if they’re being allowed to do journalism during their paid workday. But since this is strictly a matter of “if they want to partici- pate,” I guess that part is voluntary? I have such a knee-jerk reaction to this word because so many of us are struggling to hang on to the paying journalism jobs that remain. The suggestion that this isn’t a pro- fession, but something people should do on a volunteer basis, really rankles. So I don’t love that detail, although I doubt most viewers will give it a second thought. This is me asking you to give it a second thought. You’ll note NBC isn’t carrying The Paper, but has instead put it on its par- ent company’s streaming platform. I don’t know if that says anything about whether executives have confidence in the show or not, but we do know this much: NBC, once home of the vaunted ’90s-era comedy block known as Must See TV, is not currently a hospitable network for comedies. That’s probably for the best. I want to see comedies back on network TV, but The Paper only brings to mind newsprint that’s been left out in the rain: too soggy to be of any interest. It doesn’t help that the show uses the same title as the very funny and far superior 1994 movie The Paper starring Michael Keaton as the editor of an often chaotic and ridiculous (and therefore realistic) New York City newsroom. I highly recommend watch- ing that instead. If your curiosity remains about this TV endeavour (which has already been renewed for a second season, baffling- ly enough), it’s worth considering why The Office works as well as it does. The fortunes of a paper company are never treated as high stakes because they simply aren’t; Dunder Mifflin is yet another faceless corporation and people work there because it’s a job. Not a job they want to lose, but a boring nine-to-five nevertheless, with all the attendant drudgery that implies, which is why it doesn’t seem weird when they’re blowing off work and pulling pranks during those eight hours each day spent under the fluo- rescent lights. A newspaper is a different proposi- tion. The aim of any news outlet should be to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and if you value the work of newspapers — and I hope you do; you’re reading this review in one! — then the stakes are considerably higher, which is why the central prem- ise that animated The Office doesn’t graft so neatly onto The Paper. You could argue the same is true of NBC’s St. Denis Medical, which is also a mockumentary; I think the problem exists there and is fundamentally hold- ing that show back, as well. There’s another reason The Office is an example of Hollywood catching lightning in a bottle: the character (and performance) of Steve Carell’s Michael Scott. As branch manager, he has no interest in actually managing anything or anyone; he’s incapable of it because of his childlike need to be liked. A ri- diculous figure, he’s a cuddlier version of David Brent in the British original starring Ricky Gervais, the latter of whom played up the character’s reptilian and annoying personality. Michael Scott may be a fool who makes you shake your head, but he’s weirdly likable. Other mockumentaries following in the wake of The Office have also used the annoying-outrageous boss template, more successfully on Abbott Elementary than St. Denis Medical. A show like Parks and Recreation abandoned that formula altogether and I respect that The Paper also wants to change things up by putting a dedicat- ed but somewhat hapless Jim Halpert equivalent in charge. A worthy experiment, but one that ultimately doesn’t work. — Chicago Tribune NINA METZ TV REVIEW THE PAPER Starring: Sabrina Impacciatore, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Nuñez ● Showcase, Thursdays ★★½ out of five AARON EPSTEIN / PEACOCK Domhnall Gleeson (standing) stars as a gung-ho editor-in-chief in The Paper. COMICS PREVIEW ● FROM C1 Devine has elsewhere de- scribed how Odjig’s work in the 1980s assumed a personal turn, saying, “She began to exhibit work that didn’t necessarily speak about either her ‘Indi- anness’ or the history of her people, but about her feelings as a human being.” Odjig’s $2 coin features two works from just before that period. The colourized version has a cropped version of The Folk Singer (1977) at its centre, while the outer rim features an extract from her monumental The Indian in Transition (1978). Considered a masterpiece, the painting may loosely bring to mind Picasso’s sprawling tab- leaus, though is iconic Odjig. Odjig ran an art gallery in Winnipeg for many years, a hub for what became the Profes- sional Native Indian Artists Incorporation — better known as the “Indian Group of Seven” — of which she was the driving force. For her impact as an artist and organizer, she received the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Award as well as five honorary doctorates. At the conference, Somerville ended his speech with a quote by Odjig reflecting on her own legacy. “If my work as an artist has somehow helped to open doors between our people and the non-Native community, then I am glad,” he recited tearfully. “I am even more deeply pleased if it has helped to encourage the young people that have followed our generation to express their pride in our heri- tage more openly, more joyfully than I would have ever dared to think possible.” conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca TOONIE ● FROM C1 John Candy documentary kicks off Toronto International Film Festival TORONTO — The 50th Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursday with fans lining up in the morning hoping to score last-minute tickets and soak in the lively vibe, as organizers prepared to officially kick off the fest with a John Candy docu- mentary designated as the opening night film. Candy’s family is set to walk the red carpet for the world première of John Candy: I Like Me, alongside executive producer Ryan Reynolds and director Colin Hanks. They’re among the Hollywood heavyweights attending the festival over the next 11 days, with Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Sydney Sweeney and Dwayne Johnson also on the guest list. Reynolds and Hanks held court at an afternoon news conference to discuss their documentary about the Canadian comedy hero, which includes interviews with a who’s-who of comic stars, including Conan O’Brien, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Bill Murray. Candy’s son and daughter were also on hand to pay tribute to their famous dad, who died at age 43 in 1994 after suffering a heart attack while filming in Mexico. “It’s great to be back in Toronto and his hometown,” Jennifer Candy said. “It’s the perfect place to debut and première the documentary, surround- ed with all of our friends and family and all the people who loved our dad.” In the morning, some cinephiles waited outside the Lightbox to grab tickets to an edgy world premiere starring U.K. pop singer Charli XCX titled Erupcja, which nobody seemed able to pronounce with any certainty. The indie film was set to screen that afternoon. Ben Jeffries was one of the first in the rush line. He hoped that by show- ing up six hours early, he might get one of the last seats inside the cinema. “I’m a huge fan of Charli and I have been dying to commit myself to one movie and meet new people. I’m happy to be standing around in the middle of the festival. I feel like I’m a part of it,” he said. One of the friends Jeffries met was aspiring filmmaker Michael Ashby, who flew from Sebring, Fla., with plans to outdo his experience at last year’s TIFF when he caught 28 films and got hooked on the scene. “That was my first festival, and then I did Sundance online, the Florida Film Festival in Miami, Cannes, and now I’m back here,” Ashby, 21, said. Ashby showed up on opening day sporting a white T-shirt that read “Joachim Trier Summer.” It was identical to the one famously worn by actress Elle Fanning on the red carpet of Cannes earlier this year, and a reference to both Charli’s “Brat Sum- mer” and Norwegian filmmaker Trier, whose Oscar contender Sentimental Value is also screening at the fest. This year’s milestone edition of TIFF will feature 291 films from around the world, with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine among the buzziest crowd-pleasers. Also in the lineup are some political- ly charged films, including Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, about a Palestinian photojournalist who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in April, as well as The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, which follows a re- tired Israeli soldier who saved his fam- ily during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. The festival runs through Sept. 14, when it closes with the People’s Choice Awards — a prize often seen as an early predictor of Oscar success. — The Canadian Press, with files from David Friend ALEX NINO GHECIU CHRIS PIZZELLO / ASSOCIATED PRESS John Candy: I Like Me was produced by Ryan Reynolds (left) and directed by Colin Hanks. ;