Category Archives: Science Fiction/Fantasy

LENS ME YOUR EARS on Blade Runners and Ridley Scott

November 23, 2017 flawintheiris

I'm thrilled to announce the arrival online of the Blade Runner 2049 episode, where Stephen Cooke and I discuss the recent sci-fi picture still in cinemas, the original from back in 1982, and films by filmmaker, Ridley Scott. The British director is prolific and still very busy. We mentioned he was working on that JP Getty…Read More

Blade Runner 2049 review — Epic sci-fi sequel is beautiful, cold, and essential

October 6, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Denis Villeneuve | Written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, with characters from the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep | 163 min In its DNA, in its circuitry, any sequel looks back at the original. A good sequel moves forward more than it looks back, while that rare beast,…Read More

Preparing for Blade Runner 2049

October 4, 2017 flawintheiris

It's hard to overestimate the lasting impression of Blade Runner in my film life. I can't remember the first time I saw it. It was released 35 years ago, on June 25, 1982. I was not yet 12, but I must have seen it shortly after it was first released, probably drawn by the idea…Read More

#AIFF2017 Day 7: Geek Girls, Novitiate

September 21, 2017 flawintheiris

Geek Girls Here's a message to documentary filmmakers: Your project may not be entirely feasible if you make yourself the centre of it and not once, but twice, you show footage of yourself calling possible interviewees, while your voice-over says something like, "Many experts and celebrities I'd hoped to speak to bailed out at the…Read More

#AIFF2017 Day 6: Loving Vincent, How To Talk To Girls At Parties

September 20, 2017 flawintheiris

Loving Vincent An animated film that boasts (in its opening crawl) 100 artists hand-painted the thing. I'm not sure what the point is knowing that up front unless to direct viewers to the visuals rather than the somewhat less impressive script. Loving Vincent uses a mix of actors on sets, rotoscopic animation, and CGI to create…Read More

New On Canadian Netflix: June/July 2017

July 24, 2017 flawintheiris

Here are a cross-section of a number of mildly-to- solidly recommended films recently made available on Canadian Netflix. (You can click on the movie titles to read my original reviews where I’ve written them in the past.) *One note: In May I recommended Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, a film when I first saw it back…Read More

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets review — Looks good, but isn’t

July 22, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Luc Besson, based on the comic by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézieres | 137 min Luc Besson's opulent, Métal Hurlant magazine-loving style made his big-budget science-fiction party The Fifth Element a cult favourite in the two decades since its release. As Valerian is his first genuine space opera since then, stuffed full of…Read More

War for the Planet of the Apes review — Simian epic elevates monkey movie franchise

July 15, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Matt Reeves | Written by Reeves and Mark Bomback | 140 min A prequel to the classic, The Planet of the Apes, from 1968, seemed like a weird idea, but when has that ever stopped anyone in Hollywood. No, that's not even a question. Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, from…Read More

The Bad Batch review — Post-Apunkalypse Now

June 27, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour | 118 min | On VOD Iranian-American auteur Amirpour's first feature was the dreamy, black-and-white vampire picture A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, shot in California with her actors all speaking Persian. It was a stylish statement of intent from a Jarmusch-esque filmmaker, and its follow-up—though in English…Read More

Alien: Covenant review — Mostly very familiar territory. Mostly.

May 21, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Ridley Scott | Written by John Logan, Dante Harper, Jack Paglen, and Michael Green | 122 min | Disney + The Alien series, which bloodily thrust its way into existence in 1979 with Ridley Scott's original, is very much its own genre—described narrowly as somewhere between a haunted house in space and a slasher movie…Read More