Not Recommended for You
Zine, Roxanne Hudon, 36 pgs, [email protected], ballzmontreal.com, $5
“Carpe Yolo” wraps the zine Not Recommended For You (NRFY) in a sorta snippy fashion, and it makes for a good exclamation for an effort that has much utility. NRFY was published by Montreal-based anti-publisher Ballz Montreal. It’s basically a public service announcement from writer Roxanne Hudon, a movie fan who spent (assumedly) quite a bit of time enduring the less savoury bits of Netflix and writing about them. She writes capsule reviews for various films and television shows, and offers her point of view as to why you should probably avoid them. This zine features big names: Nicolas Cage, Kate Bosworth, Dolph Lundgren. The tone of NRFY is gosh darn direct. Let’s just say Hudon doesn’t care much for any of the films and programs featured, and she’s ready to let the world know. She blends colourful language, sharp words and a few well-placed spoil-ers in her reviews. The common thread: she thinks all this stuff sucks. In 2017, you’d typically find these kinds of words on somebody’s Facebook page or a low-trafficked WordPress blog. Props to Ballz Montreal and Hudon for being true to da hard copy and becoming the zine equivalent of a punk rock Leonard Maltin. (Cam Gordon)