New York Minute
Directed by Dennie Gordon
By Sarrah Young

A day in the life of 17-year-old twins Jane and Roxanne Ryan, New York Minute follows the two girls as they deal with various mishaps along the way. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen basically play themselves, and get to dress up a lot. Great.

Jane is every parent’s dream: responsible, reliable, smart and hoping for a scholarship to Oxford University. She dresses conservatively and is soft spoken. Each morning she rouses her sister, makes coffee and prepares breakfast for their father, a doctor. Since their mother has died, she has taken the responsibility of running the house on her shoulders and never lets her sister forget it. Roxanne is a musician of sorts, meaning she bangs around on a set of drums for a few seconds to make us believe she’s a drummer. She’s constantly skipping school, dresses like Avril Lavigne and keeps a boa constrictor as a pet. Basically, she’s the exact opposite of her sister.

Since they both need to go to New York — Jane to present her carefully prepared Oxford dissertation and Roxanne to attend a video shoot and promote her band — they decide to travel together. Things fall apart as soon as they get on board the train. Mix in a misplaced microchip, a truant officer obsessed with catching up with Roxanne and a couple of cute boys and you have yourself a movie. Sort of.

The real star of the movie is Eugene Levy. Playing the truant officer obsessed with catching Roxanne and bringing her in for punishment, Levy does a great job reminding the audience why they’re sitting through the movie. Sure it’s got some fun parts, but if it wasn’t for Eugene Levy’s character being responsible for much of the mayhem, this would be completely unwatchable. (Warner Brothers)
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"For people to trust you and believe you, they have to see you a little bit. I'm not afraid to expose myself in that way," says Sara Quin, of sibling duo Tegan and Sara. The petite brunette has just led me into the heart of the east Vancouver jam space where she and her identical twin Tegan are rehearsing for upcoming tours. The room we're in is expansive, chilly and draped in darkness aside from a single strip of light in the middle of the room; she drags a sofa under the wimpy illumination and offers it to me, taking a straight-backed chair opposite for herself. "If we were a genre film," she continues, "we'd be a documentary."... Read More
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