CITIZEN WATCH CANADA have launched a brand-new collection of watches in Canada, including their Accutron, Alpina, Bulova, Citizen and Frederique Constant watches. You won’t believe your eyes. Literally something for everyone and extremely fitting there’s even an official Thor watch!

See some of the new pieces:

Reintroducing The Bulova Parking Meter Chronograph

Today, Bulova is proud to present the Archive Re-edition of the original 1973 Chronograph “31008-6W” timepiece, popularly known as the “Parking Meter.”

The new Bulova Parking Meter Chronograph boasts the same “Parking Meter” case shape with top pushers and unique crown positioning as the original. This new timepiece is a Limited Edition of individually numbered 5,000 pieces, available now for $750.

Channel a Timeless Chic with the new Bulova American Girl

Striking a delicate balance of femininity and powerful charm, our new American Girl “K” timepiece is inspired by the original ladies’ design from 1957 that has become an instant style sensation.

Reimagined from the Bulova Archives with a new elegance, the limited-edition American Girl timepiece features a faceted gold-tone stainless steel design with a petite tonneau-shaped case and white dial finished with a double-domed sapphire crystal. Limited to 2,000 numbered pieces worldwide and presented in an elegant red keepsake case with white satin lining. Available now for $750.

Accutron x La Palina Spaceview 2020

Recreating the stunning visual impact of the original open dial design with the exact-same signature green accents, the Accutron x La Palina Spaceview 2020 boasts a brown open-work dial with signature Accutron green accents and brown outer ring, light green super luminous markers, hour and minute hands and warm yellow second hand.

Finished on a matching brown alligator strap, the watch comes with a humidor set with a cigar cutter and ten cigars. This is a limited edition set of 222 and is available for pre-order now with shipping in October for $6,500.

Frederique Constant Austin Healey 70th Anniversary ​

2022 marks the 70th anniversary of Frederique Constant’s long-standing automotive partner, Austin-Healey, and is renewing its intangible loyalty with two exclusive limited editions. For the occasion, its new mechanical chronograph, the Vintage Rally Healey Chronograph Automatic, has adopted the “British racing green” colour of the legendary vintage car with the NOJ393 number plate.

With a bicompax dial and two racing red hands, this timepiece is produced in two versions: the first, limited to 10 watches with the 70 figure visible at midday, and the second, with a run of just 700 watches, with the “12” in its normal place. Available now for $4,095.

Show You’re Worthy with the new CITIZEN Thor Watch

Just in time for this summer’s biggest blockbuster – Thor: Love and Thunder, this new men’s watch from Citizen’s Marvel Classic Avengers Collection brings the mighty hammer down. The black 3-hand dial with date features luminous hammer head markers on the hours, glowing hands, an encircled hammer, and a dynamic jagged lightning bolt crossing the watch face.

The black stainless-steel bracelet has a fold over clasp with push buttons. This exceptional watch has Eco-Drive technology and is powered by any light, but maybe avoid lightning bolts. Available now for $450.

Embrace Art Déco with the Frederique Constant Classics Carrée Ladies Watch

The Classics Carrée Ladies represents the utmost of elegance bringing timeless sophistication among Frederique Constant’s collection. Influenced by Art Déco, this is the only square design in the Frederique Constant collection. Inspired by the elegant and fashionable women of the late 1920s, this design cuts off from the mainstream and offers a different, vintage style.

The seamless lines and elegant polished case reveal a classical white dial showcasing intricate “clous de Paris” decoration and traditional Roman numeral indexes. The new Classics Carrée Ladies is a timeless, classic piece perfect for all occasions, where a touch of glamour is important making you feel elegant, graceful but at the same time supporting a stylish and vintage look. Available now for $895.

Transcend Borders with the Frederique Constant Worldtimer Native Edition

This new launch is dear to Frederique Constant’s history, which itself crosses continents and transcends borders. A true travel icon presented for the first time in 2012, the Classic Worldtimer Manufacture, now a must, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. To mark the event, on top of the 2 models launched in March 2022, the Native Edition is the latest member of the family. The Native Edition will remain as the most innovative in term of design, thanks to the light blue city disc with 24 cities printed in 9 languages English, Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Brazilian. Limited to 100 pieces, available now for $5,750.

“Sea” Green with the Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Green

Alpina’s diving watches are brought together in the Seastrong collection, presenting strong and readable features true to the Maison’s legacy. Designed to please water sports lovers, these models perpetuate the brand’s proud tradition established over the last century and can be used at depths up to 300m underwater. This Heritage green model features a green dial with sunray finishing an applied silver color indexes. Available now for $2,195.

Prices are in Canadian dollars. More here.

So proud of our LILYISTHATYOU! Not only does she release her new Single “COMPETITION” today, she is also the EQUAL Ambassador on Spotify. The feature spot goes to a female Artist who is a voice for the LGBTQ+ community. Lily takes on the persona of “Lola” for this new era which has her tackling her demons and traumas.

When asked to share her story with EQUAL, Lilyisthatyou says “My story starts with poetry. It starts with being a young, anxious, depressed 13-year-old who was already lost in social media and substances to distract from the issues at home and in my head. My songwriting now reflects what I have grown out of and what I have grown into being. I write about forgiveness for the past and fill my songs with affirmations that will help me find comfort in the strong woman I have become because of the sexual abuse and addiction in my past. I want to tell it in a way that makes others feel less ALONE. I want my story to be one of hope and relatability for young women growing up, looking for ways to understand what holds them back and how to let go of the judgement the world has taught them to view themselves. I want how I share my story, piece by piece, character by character, to be the brutal truth.”

Check-out “Competition“:

Her debut EP THE CHARACTER arrives July 29, 2022. Pre-save here.

(Photo/video credit: Spotify/Warner Music)

By David Baldwin

It is the mid-90s and Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) has just been arrested for a multitude of offenses. The high school football star and son of retired cop Big Jim Keene (the late Ray Liotta in one of his last filmed roles) is encouraged to take a plea deal with the hope of getting out jail quickly. Instead, the judge makes an example of Jimmy and sentences him to ten years with no chance of parole. Months later, he is offered a deal: elicit a confession from suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) – who is currently residing in a maximum security prison for the criminally insane – and get out of jail early, or turn it down and wait out the remainder of his sentence.

BLACK BIRD is inspired by true events and comes with the added pedigree of being written and created by Dennis Lehane, the acclaimed Novelist behind titles like Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island. The first two episodes make for a compelling set-up for the six-episode Mini-Series, introducing us to all of the players and setting the stakes sky high right from the start. The transitions from present to past and back again are a little clunky in some areas while being downright riveting in others. Hauser, who has truly honed his craft over the past half-decade, is incredible as Hall, creating a character that we are immediately unsure of. Is he telling the truth? How does he know certain details, but not others? Why is he so soft spoken? I had a lot of questions and uneasy feelings about him, and the series plays right into all of that and allows Hauser the freedom to dig deep and explore Hall’s idiosyncrasies. I will not call it his best work yet (not when his turns in I, Tonya and Richard Jewell still exist), yet I look forward to being endlessly fascinated by his performance and genuinely hope it sticks the landing.

And yes, it is just as gut-wrenching and heartbreaking to see Liotta on-screen after being taken from us less than two months ago. He is absolutely mesmerizing in his supporting role. Such a tremendous loss.

Sadly, I cannot speak highly of the rest of the Series at this point. The first two episodes are slickly-produced and look great, but also feel unnecessarily dragged out. Whole swaths of scenes could have been trimmed down to mere montages, mere pieces of dialogue or excised entirely. What that boils down to is the hard truth that these early episodes do not make a great case for why BLACK BIRD exists as a prestige Mini-Series and not a two-and-a-half-hour film. Egerton’s accent is great and he gets to show off his acting range (and his ridiculously sculpted abs, which I have to assume are in place for his rumoured desire to play the MCU’s Wolverine), but does not really wow. His chemistry with Sepideh Moafi’s FBI Agent Lauren McCauley is fiercely palpable at least – as is the edginess Moafi brings to her character. Greg Kinnear is solid as Detective Brian Miller, but again, is not really afforded the chance to wow.

BLACK BIRD may prove to be compelling, must-watch Television. There are certainly hints of greatness parsed throughout these early episodes and I do look forward to keep watching, if only for Hauser. My fear is that the next four will be just as stretched thin and padded-out. But I genuinely hope I get proven wrong.

The first two episodes of BLACK BIRD premiere Friday, July 8, 2022 on Apple TV+, with each new episode arriving every Friday throughout July.

B.J. Novak writes, directs and stars in VENGEANCE! Check-out the new Poster and Trailer!

Synopsis:

VENGEANCE, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with. With an ensemble cast that includes Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron.

Universal Pictures Canada and Focus Features release VENGEANCE Friday, July 29, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Focus Features)

After raves in Cannes, James Gray’s ARMAGEDDON TIME now has a release date! The Film starring Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway is in theatres October 28, 2022 via Universal Pictures Canada and Focus Features. Thinking we might see this on the Festival circuit in Toronto?

Synopsis:
From acclaimed filmmaker James Gray, ARMAGEDDON TIME is a deeply personal coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream.

ARMAGEDDON TIME, written and directed by James Gray, stars Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Tovah Feldshuh, John Diehl, Andrew Polk, and Ryan Sell. Producers on the project are Anthony Katagas via his Keep Your Head banner, Marc Butan via his MadRiver Pictures banner and Rodrigo Teixeira via his RT Features banner. The film is executive produced by Lourenço Sant’anna, Alan Terpins, Marco Tulio Kehdi, Prodigo Films’ Francisco Civita and Beto Gauss, Gustavo Debs.

By Mr. Will Wong

Lana Condor has propelled herself into this generation’s official Stream Queen, finding tons of success with the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Franchise. And now she branches into the dark side, yet still managing to be light in another Netflix venture in darkly-comedic Series BOO BITCH. She even serves as Executive Producer.

The eight-episode Series centers on Helen (Condor) who is agreeable, but barely noticed at school. In fact year after year, despite demanding a correction, her classmates still confuse her as “Helen Who”. Determined to get noticed, she and her best friend Gia (Zia Colletti) devise a master plan to live their best lives, taking on new personas, and Helen becoming Erika! But much to her demise, she discovers that she might now actually be a ghost!

While BOO BITCH falls into some of the similar “disregarded teen girl who blossoms” tropes as others before, its choice to have Erika ponder mortality, life and regret, adds an element of meaningfulness to it. The Series explores consequence to action and atonement, and this helps Erika win us over despite her intentions on the surface being superficial. If there’s one thing beneath all the teen drama and politics that you can take away here, it is that you too should be living your life to the fullest!

Condor as always is an engaging lead and has about of fun with it. BOO BITCH‘s biggest revelation though, is Aparna Briell who plays Queen Bee Riley, who is threatened by the arrival of Erika. She possesses some of that energy of Euphoria‘s Maddie and makes bad look investing! These episodes fly by rather quickly, a perfect, breezy weekend binge!

BOO BITCH streams July 8, 2022 on Netflix.

Set to take place again this year between August 25-28, 2022 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre, FAN EXPO CANADA returns once again! Even more celebrity guests have been added to the schedule, including, a just-confirmed Charlie Hunnam!

List of those confirmed so far:

• JEFF ANDERSON (Clerks, Zack and Miri Make a Porno)
• SEAN ASTIN (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Goonies)
• JACOB BERTRAND (Cobra Kai, Kirby Buckets)
• BILLY BOYD (The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
• LEVAR BURTON (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Perception)
• GINA CARANO (The Mandalorian, Deadpool)
• ANTHONY DANIELS (Star Wars universe)
• ASHLEY ECKSTEIN (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
• ROBERT ENGLUND (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
• GIANCARLO ESPOSITO (The Mandalorian, Breaking Bad, The Boys)
• TREVOR FEHRMAN (Clerks II)
• DAVID FOLEY (The Kids in the Hall)
• TYLER HOECHLIN (Superman & Lois, Teen Wolf)
• CHARLIE HUNNAM (Sons of Anarchy, The Gentlemen)
• RYAN HURST (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, The Mysterious Benedict Society)
• MARTIN KOVE (Cobra Kai, The Karate Kid)
• PEYTON LIST (Cobra Kai, Bunk’d)
• CAITY LOTZ (Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow)
• JES MACALLAN (Legends of Tomorrow, Mistresses)
• JASON MEWES (Clerks)
• DOMINIC MONAGHAN (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Lost)
• BRIAN O’HALLORAN (Clerks)
• LANA PARRILLA (Once Upon a Time, Why Women Kill)
• EMILIO RIVERA (Sons of Anarchy, Mayans M.C., On My Block)
• MICHAEL ROOKER (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead)
• THEO ROSSI (Sons of Anarchy, Army of the Dead)
• KATEE SACKHOFF (The Mandalorian, Another Life, Battlestar Galactica)
• WILLIAM SHATNER (Star Trek)
• KEVIN SMITH (Clerks)
• BRENT SPINER (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels)
• BITSIE TULLOCH (Superman & Lois, Grimm)
• CARL WEATHERS (The Mandalorian, Rocky, Predator)
• MING-NA WEN (The Book of Boba Fett, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
• ELIJAH WOOD (The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
• WILLIAM ZABKA (Cobra Kai, The Karate Kid)

For a complete list of guests, info and tickets, visit: fanexpocanada.com

After its Premiere at Sundance, HONK FOR JESUS. SAVE YOUR SOUL is set to hit theatres this Summer.

Synopsis:

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a satirical comedy starring Regina Hall as Trinitie Childs – the proud first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch, who together with her husband Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown), once served a congregation in the tens of thousands. But after a scandal forces their church to temporarily close, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must reopen their church and rebuild their congregation to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen

Universal Pictures Canada & Focus Features will release HONK FOR JESUS. SAVE YOUR SOUL. in theaters on Friday, September 2, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Universal Pictures Canada)

The fourth annual SiriusXM Top of the Country competition is set to take to Calgary as part of the CCMA’S COUNTRY MUSIC WEEK 2022, airing live on SiriusXM! A huge headliner also is set to be announced. The top three finalists have been selected based on public vote!

Meet your Top Three:

Shantaia

• 2019 SCMA Emerging Artist of the Year, Shantaia hails from a small town, Spiritwood, Saskatchewan. Currently living in Nashville, Shantaia has written with some of the biggest writers and has opened for Kane Brown, Chris Lane, Ryan Hurd, Charlie Major, Emerson Drive and more, and has played festivals all across Canada, and Americanafest. Her newest single, Broke to Brand New has just hit Top 40 on Billboard and Mediabase in Canada, making it her highest-charting single yet.

SACHA

• With the release of her sophomore EP, WE DID, featuring her viral hit track “What The Truck” (with The Reklaws), the fastest-ever Canadian country song in history to go GOLD, SACHA is just getting started. Named to CMT’s Next Women Of Country 2021 and Sounds Like Nashville 2022 Artists to Watch, SACHA has been featured in major North American press including CMT, Rolling Stone Country and Billboard and has also appeared on multiple A-list editorial playlists.

Josh Ross

• Josh Ross is an emerging singer-songwriter based in Nashville. A native of Waterdown, ON, Josh packed up and moved to Nashville right after college. Spending the past 2 years dedicated to developing his writing and voice, Josh independently released ‘Tall Boys’ in August which has amassed over 2.5M streams. On Feb 11th, he released ‘First Taste of Gone’ and it has already cracked the Top 40 at Canadian radio and he’s just getting started.

(Photo credit: SiriusXM)

A new Trailer and Poster have arrived for Apple TV+‘s upcoming Animated Feature, LUCK!

Synopsis:

From Apple Original Films comes the story of Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world, who when she stumbles into the never-before-seen Land of Luck, sets out on a quest to bring some good luck home for her best friend. But with humans not allowed, her only chance is teaming up with the magical creatures who live there to do it. “Luck” is produced by Skydance Animation. 

Apple Original Films’ “Luck” features the voice talents of stars Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Eva Noblezada, Simon Pegg, Flula Borg, Colin O’Donoghue, John Ratzenberger and Adelynn Spoon. The animated feature is directed by Peggy Holmes from a screenplay by Kiel Murray, with John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and David Eisenmann producing for Skydance Animation.

LUCK will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on August 5, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Apple TV+)