In Cinemas: Friday, December 18, 2015 — Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Sisters, Don Verdean

December 18, 2015 flawintheiris

I saw Carol at a preview screening on Monday where they announced it would be opening this week, but the gods of distribution are fickle. No sign of it in cinemas this week, and my investigations suggest it will now open on Christmas Day. For a very advance review, you can go here. So, after…Read More

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens review — A New Hope In This Series

December 18, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by JJ Abrams | Written by Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams, and Michael Arndt, based on characters by George Lucas | 135 min | ▲▲▲△△ A friend of mine was struggling to manage his expectations of the return of the Star Wars franchise. "The movie doesn't need to be better than the original trilogy," he remarked,…Read More

10 Things I’ve Noticed About Star Wars (Since I Grew Up)

December 16, 2015 flawintheiris

I started with Star Wars. It was the defining myth of my childhood. I was six when the first movie came out, nine and 12 with the second (The Empire Strikes Back) and third (Return Of The Jedi), respectively. More or less the perfect ages to get swept up in it all. To secure my…Read More

Carol review — Forbidden love unwrapped

December 15, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Todd Haynes | Written by Phyllis Nagy, adapting Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price of Salt | 118 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime, Crave, CBC Gem I've enjoyed Haynes' work since I went to see Safe one day in 1995 in a largely empty cinema in Toronto and felt a chill I've rarely experienced at…Read More

Reviews From The Vault: Vol. 4 — Five Star Features

December 13, 2015 flawintheiris

From 2005 to 2009 I was a programmer on CKDU 88.1 FM, every Sunday morning hosting The Love & Hate Movie Show. I talked about what I was seeing and revisited some of my favourite films of old, pretty much what I do now here on FITI. I still have a lot of the scripts…Read More

LENS ME YOUR EARS Ep. 17 — James Bond 007

December 12, 2015 flawintheiris

On this week's episode of the podcast, Stephen Cooke and I discuss our longtime affection for Ian Fleming's superspy, having caught the movie franchise's most recent entry, Spectre. We each offer our five favourite Bond films, as well as a couple of our least favourite. And we welcome our first ever guest, Luckas Cardona, who advocates…Read More

In Cinemas: Friday, December 11 2015 — Brooklyn, In The Heart Of The Sea, Snervous Tyler Oakley, Die Hard

December 11, 2015 flawintheiris

It's not that Brooklyn is necessarily old-fashioned in its story beats, but there is something very traditional about the tale of a young woman leaving her family in Ireland in the early '50s, moving to America and finding love in a New York borough. See it for Golden Globe-nominated Saoirse Ronan. As my Lens Me…Read More

Brooklyn review — Romance in the diaspora

December 10, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by John Crowley | Written by Nick Hornby, adapting a Colm Toibin novel | 111 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave Saoirse Ronan is on point as Ellis, the young woman who in John Crowley's 1950's-set diasporic drama travels from rural Ireland to Brooklyn, New York for a new life, and inevitably, first love. This…Read More

Reviews: Mississippi Grind, Heist, Kilo Two Bravo

December 7, 2015 flawintheiris

Recent releases available on VOD and Blu-Ray that didn't screen in Halifax cinemas. Mississippi Grind Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck | 108 min | ▲▲▲△△ Ben Mendelsohn is Gerry, a scruffy, hard-up gambler in Iowa who "owes money to everyone." On one of his losing streaks he connects with Curtis (Ryan Reynolds),…Read More

CTV Atlantic Morning Live: Friday, December 4

December 5, 2015 flawintheiris

Heidi Petracek and the kind folks at CTV had me on Friday morning to discuss a few new movies, including the excellent Creed and Spotlight, and the somewhat less excellent Legend and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. We also previewed A Royal Night Out. You can go here for the clip.Read More