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EMAIL normk19@hotmail.com URL Montreal Film Journal LOCATION Montréal, Qc BIOGRAPHY Kevin N. Laforest is a Montreal based critic. A film school graduate, he's also written a novel ('Qu'importe') and is a proud member of the World Badass Committee. He insists he invented the question mark. QUOTES "The days go on and on... They don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people." -Travis Bickle "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return." -The truthful magical sitar FAVORITES FIVE FAVORITES Mark L. Lester's COMMANDO (1985), for how shamelessly plot-free and action-packed it is, for Schwarzenegger at his brutish, impulsive best, for even more intentional self-mockery of the action genre than Die Hard (also written by Steven E. De Souza). Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER (1976), for the most involving character study I've seen, a harrowing narrative which never fails to floor me, a disturbingly real portrayal of a psychopath by De Niro and glimpses of hope and beauty through Cybill Shehperd and Jodie Foster, plus brilliant visuals and Bernard Herrmann's last great score. Robert Zemeckis' FORREST GUMP (1994), for the way it coasts through 30 years of recent US history through the eyes of a naive but endearing American Dreamer, but also explores the darker side of said Dream with the Jenny character, all experimentation and drugs, and how it somehow finds true love between these two opposites to shattering effect. Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION (1994), for its infectious love of pop culture at large, for its always exciting non-linear narrative, for countless iconic characters and quotable dialogue, for how after all the laughs and shocks it actually presents us with spiritual redemption, and it earned it. Cameron Crowe's SAY ANYTHING (1989), for the former music reporter turned filmmaker's unequaled romantic sensitivity and knack for music cues, for being one of the only teenage-oriented movies to have soul and wits, for giving us a love story both extraordinary in its beauty and realistic in its shortcomings.