Tag: drama
GODZILLA MINUS ONE Review: Big G Is Back And Better Than Ever
In the immediate aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II, the country has a new terror to contend with, a monster unlike anything the world had ever seen, and there is no one to save them but themselves in...
SALTBURN Review: Titillation of Flesh, Nothing More
Emerald Fennell's new film stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike.
NEXT GOAL WINS Review: Michael Fassbender Takes On the Worst Soccer Team in the World
Coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is assigned to rehabilitate the world’s worst soccer team in Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi’s comedic interpretation of the true story of American Samoa’s journey from last place losers to global inspiration. After suffering a...
SHIN ULTRAMAN: Raven Banner Acquires Japanese Sci-fi Epic, Preps Release on Blu-ray in December
Is this a first? It kind of feels like a first for our friends at Raven Banner Releasing. They have announced that they have acquired the Japanese Sci-fi epic, Shin Ultraman. They will release the film digintally here in Canada...
RADICAL Review: Sometimes Superheroes Don't Wear Capes, They Teach Instead
Based on Joshua Davis’s 2013 article for Wired, “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses,” Radical, a stirring, poignant drama co-written and adapted by Christopher Zalla (Blood of My Blood), literally and figuratively revolves around Jose Urbina Lopez...
PRISCILLA Review: A Girl's Truth of the Dark Side of Graceland
I doubt Sofia Coppola would ever deny that she grew up very privileged - which is likely why most of her films centre around privileged people, especially white women. This is not a negative, of course - many artists stay...
WAIKIKI Review: The Slow Disintegration of Paradise
I think often that many people don’t realize that part of what we’ve made it be, to be a part of society, comes from having the financial means to participate. The less a person is able to do - whether...
San Sebastian 2023 Review: GAMMA RAYS Illuminates Youth Immigrant Lives
Directed by Henry Bernadet, the dramedy from Canada stars Chaimaa Zinedine, Chris Kanyembuga, Yassine Jabrane, Hani Laroum and Océane Garçon-Gravel.
BFI London 2023 Review: PARADISE IS BURNING (Paradiset brinner) in a Vigorous Drama about Sisterhood
Directed by Mika Gustafson, the Swedish drama stars Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, and Safira Mossberg.
STRANGE WAY OF LIFE Review: Can Love Survive The Years and the Desert
In a small desert town, on the fringes of the American West, where civilization has yet to envelope the people, two men rekindle their passion after years apart. But any blaze is at risk of combusting too quickly, leaving only...
Camera Japan Rotterdam 2023 Review: NEW RELIGION
Horror comes in different flavors, from fun slashers to controversial gore, but the Japanese have a decidedly special brand, with some very unsettling, creepy productions. Just over 20 years ago this brand became an international craze, after the worldwide breakthrough...
Camera Japan Rotterdam 2023 Review: GOLD KINGDOM AND WATER KINGDOM
In the Netherlands, we only get the most successful anime films in the cinema, the record-breakers. For all the others, you need to check the festivals, and thankfully the Camera Japan Festival always has at least a few titles in...
Now Streaming: The Unavoidable Cinema Of Cyrus Frisch
The films Dutch director Cyrus Frisch has made thus far are controversial, erratic and politically engaged. With the recent re-release of his films Dazzle (original title: Oogverblindend), Blackwater Fever, and Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad...
THE TASTE OF THINGS Trailer: Daring You Not To Get Hungry
Vietnamese-born French director Trần Anh Hùng's is famous for films like The Scent of Green Papaya, Cyclo and Norwegian Wood. His newest film The Taste of Things won him the prize of Best Director at Cannes this year, and has...
Toronto 2023 Review: FINGERNAILS, Love (And Cinema) Fails By Playing It Safe
It is a solid time-wasting (and futile) exercise looking at couples and making a judgement call if they are ‘right for one another.’ Or to guess if they will ‘last.’ In my family, it is kind of a sport. Well...
Toronto 2023 Review: SHAME ON DRY LAND, A Sweaty And Oblique Euro-Noir
Around midway through this unique Swedish-Maltese co-production, Shame On Dry Land, a question is asked of the main character, “Been a long day?” Dimman, the uncertain, never in control, anti-hero responds, “Yea, it never ends.” This is not a bug...
Vlissingen 2023 Review: THE TASTE OF THINGS
The Film By the Sea Festival in Vlissingen focused this year on French cinema, and on literary book adaptations. With Trần Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things they scored a double-whammy, as it falls in both categories. A loose adaptation...
Toronto 2023 Review: WORKING CLASS GOES TO HELL, Serbian Justice Served Slow And Absurd
Early in Mladen Djordjevic’s tragicomic satire, Working Class Goes To Hell, a young girl eats her lunch in the husk of a dead factory. A faded mural “Long Live Labour Day” peels off the burnt out walls above her. She...
DUMB MONEY Review: The GameStop Short Squeeze of 2021 Gets Its Own Movie
Director Craig Gillespie's newest biographical comedy-drama stars Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D'Onofrio and Seth Rogen.
Toronto 2023 Review: THE BOY AND THE HERON, Sumptuous Miyazaki-San, Studio Ghibli Career Retrospective
From the opening air raid sirens and fiery infernos of World War II Tokyo bombings to the bucolic countryside house and its magical surroundings, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli has come full circle in its 40 year history animated mastery....