John Semley
VICE
Toronto, ON, Canada
Contact John
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by John:
The Next Step for Legal Mushrooms—Losing the Trip
Bob Marley’s family and others are getting in on the non-psychedelic, CBD version of magic mushrooms. → Read More
Canada Is Allowing People With Depression to Do Psychedelic Mushrooms
A B.C. woman is believed to be the first non-palliative patient to be allowed to do shrooms legally. → Read More
After Legal Win, What’s Next for Magic Mushrooms?
Canada granted permission for psilocybin to be used for end-of-life therapy. But it’s just the beginning. → Read More
I Miss My Completely Unremarkable Local Dive Bar
I fear for the future of mom-and-pop bars like Jenny’s. → Read More
You're Socially Isolating. Is Now a Good Time to Trip on Psychedelics?
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many people at home, alone. Psychedelics are one way to travel without going anywhere. → Read More
Tripping through Greece with mixed emotions
Exploring the great deals, and historical complexities, of Europe’s Florida → Read More
This Albertan YouTuber Is the Bob Ross of Stealth Camping
In a time of dadcore lifestyle clothing and reality survival television, Steve Wallis is taking camping back for the people with "boondocking" videos. → Read More
Europe, by train: Renewing the romance of rail travel
Drained of literary notions, or the vagabond charm of gap-year backpackers, John Semley writes that travelling by train in Europe still has plenty to offer → Read More
Review: Ari Aster’s new horror movie Midsommar lacks, well, genuine horror
Title: Midsommar Written and directed by Ari Aster Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter Classification R; 140 minutes Im Midsommar, a young American couple, (Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor), fly to a rural town in Sweden for a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival after experiencing a death in the family. Not long after the couple's arrival, their trip unfolds into a hallucinatory… → Read More
Review: The new Shaft features a complicated man, and absolutely no one will understand
The latest Shaft is a film that, in its neediness to be liked, says everything and nothing → Read More
Review: Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die is a welcome return of the living deadpan
At its best, the film feels like an extended SCTV parody of a zombie movie, which should be taken as a high compliment → Read More
Review: Dark Phoenix fails to rise from the ashes of the burned-out X-Men franchise
Dark Phoenix feels less like a grand finale and more like a rushed ending hammered out under a tight deadline → Read More
Meet the trailblazing music director who helped rocket Elton John to success in America
In an environment still ruled by men, CKLW 's Rosalie Trombley became the girl with the golden ears – and those ears would be among the first to pick out John’s Bennie and the Jets for radio dominance → Read More
Penny Lane’s highly endearing documentary Hail Satan? will exorcise your demons
Lane’s documentary concerns itself with a more newfangled iteration of Satanism, in order to recast Satan not as the embodiment of all evil and earthly sin, but as a radical, adversarial avatar → Read More
There are no miracles to be found in Christian drama Breakthrough
The much-publicized claim that Breakthrough, a new Christian drama executive-produced by NBA all-star Steph Curry, is “based on a true story” demands some investigation → Read More
Game of Thrones is coming to an end, but its successors live on
With the wildly-popular fantasy series wrapping this season, here’s a survey of some shows that have attempted – or are planning – on capitalizing on cultural appetite for all things nerdy that Game of Thrones did much to cultivate → Read More
Shazam! amounts to hollow toys smashing against other hollow toys
Featuring a charmless lead and dense with CGI computer code, Shazam! relies on dopey performances and grating ‘awkward humour’ → Read More
Review: Tim Burton’s Dumbo has a lot to say about Tim Burton’s dumb oeuvre
Dumbo offers little in the way invention, novelty or anything beyond the hardened cliches of family movie schmaltz → Read More
Review: Jordan Peele’s terrifying Us takes you out of the sunken place, and into the fire
The fertile mind of comedian-cum-master-of-horror Jordan Peele develops a genuinely thrilling, heart-in-the-throat-scary horror movie in Us → Read More
Dipping into the elliptical with Oscar-nominated Cold War’s Pawel Pawlikowski
Pawlikowski’s new film repeatedly dips into the nature of a relationship beset by breakups and remarriages, by the separation of time and space, and by absence and reconciliation → Read More