Category Archives: Thriller

Identifying Features review — A descent into darkness

January 27, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Fernanda Valadez | Written by Valadez and Astrid Rondero | 95 min | On Demand This Mexican film paints an astonishing, powerful portrait of a national nightmare made personal. It's a deeply affecting, if brutally bleak journey. It tells the story of one woman seeking the fate of her son who has disappeared…Read More

Promising Young Woman review — Righteous retribution, served hot

January 17, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Emerald Fennell | 113 min | Netflix Cassie (Carey Mulligan) works at a coffee shop and lives with her parents, Susan and Stanley (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown). She's just turning 30, though she's not really paying attention to those kinds of milestones. She used to be a medical student. Not…Read More

Swallow review — Open wide!

December 30, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis | 94 min | On Demand Swallow is a single-minded psychological thriller that reaches for the unbearable queasiness of body horror, but in such a discreet way as to undercut the suggestion of genre. That's fully to its credit. It stands as a character study and a bloody, bold…Read More

Sean Connery: 10 Of His Best Non-Bond Roles

November 4, 2020 flawintheiris

Sean Connery died on Saturday, October 31, at age 90. The Scottish actor was the first cinematic James Bond, and for many will always be the greatest — defining the mix of suave, stylish, sexy, and ruthless for a generation of fans. While so much of what he did with that character is easy to…Read More

Enola Holmes review — Teen sleuth a cheerful tonic

September 29, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Harry Bradbeer | Written by Jack Thorne, based on the book by Nancy Springer | 123 min | Netflix What if Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) had a sister (Millie Bobby Brown), a teenager as clever and willful as the mythical detective? What if she was raised in a rambling country mansion by a…Read More

#FIN2020 Review — Deux (Two of Us)

September 23, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Filippo Meneghetti | Written by Meneghetti, Malysone Bovorasmy, and Florence Vignon | 99 min | Hoopla, On Demand I'd read this described as an Amour for same-sex seniors, but that's more than painfully reductive... it's also plain wrong. Deux has something else going on. In its delicate heart it's a late-life lesbian love…Read More

The Burnt Orange Heresy review — Thriller paints secret delights

September 1, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Giuseppe Capotondi | Written by Scott B Smith based on the novel by Charles Willeford | 99 min | On Demand and Crave Plus Here's something that will give you an idea of my cinematic dietary preferences: I'll solidly recommend a flawed European thriller with more than a little Hitchcock and Highsmith in…Read More

Inception — 10th Anniversary review

August 17, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan | 148 min | Netflix and In Cinemas/IMAX As part of a month-long retrospective look at 10 years of this blog, I’m rewatching a few films from a decade back. I began writing FITI around Labour Day 2010, and though I'd seen Inception by then I never did a…Read More

Atlantic Film Festival 2014 revisited: Nightcrawler and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby reviews

August 14, 2020 flawintheiris

I'm looking back at reviews from the past decade on the FITI blog, and I stumbled on this review from the 2014 Atlantic Film Festival, one of those days at the cinema where I was lucky enough to see two excellent features back to back. Here's my thoughts from the day: Originally posted on September…Read More

Lucy In The Sky review — Spaced out, but compelling anyway

August 11, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Noah Hawley | Written by Hawley, Brian C Brown, and Elliott DiGuiseppi | 124 min | Crave Plus Given the chance, I'd rather watch an interesting, ambitious failure than some glossy, machine-tooled entertainment, and that's exactly what you get with Lucy In The Sky — the former, that is. The film is very…Read More