Category Archives: Recommended

About Endlessness review — Droll, melancholy anthology concludes Swedish filmmaker’s career

May 17, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Roy Andersson | 78 min | Carbon Arc Cinema Before watching About Endlessness I knew about the work of this Swedish auteur mostly by his festival features like Songs From The Second Floor and A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting on Existence, films that never got theatrical distribution here and…Read More

The Disciple review — A life in art, its glory and disappointment

May 13, 2021 flawintheiris

The Disciple | Written and Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane | 130 min | Netflix An earlier version of this review was posted on FITI in September 2020 as part of my coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. Back in 2015, Carbon Arc Cinema screened Chaitanya Tamhane’s first feature, Court, the delightfully droll satire of the Indian criminal…Read More

Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time review

April 29, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed at Lili Horvát | 95 min | On Demand, TIFF Digital Lightbox The central question the film, with its clumsily long title, is this: "Is what we perceive as real... real?" It's a question of confidence in our own version of reality. This is an entirely compelling question, one that seems especially…Read More

The 2021 Academy Awards: The Weirdest Ever?

April 23, 2021 flawintheiris

If you're a movie nut — and you probably are if you're visiting this somewhat obsessive film review site — then you'll know this has been a most unusual awards season. This year's Oscars, airing on Sunday night, April 25th, have been extended two months from their usual late-February date, and with cinemas in most…Read More

Nomadland review — Beautiful, elemental, and essential

April 9, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder | 107 min | Disney Plus and Crave Plus A version of this review first appeared on Flaw In The Iris in September 2020, when it screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. There's no ignoring the accolades heaped upon…Read More

The Father review — Hopkins and Colman powerful in dementia drama

March 21, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Florian Zeller | Written by Zeller and Christopher Hampton, based on a play by Zeller | 97 min | On Demand We're all too familiar with pandemics in 2021, far too familiar. This particular ongoing pandemic has underlined the frankly abysmal way we treat senior citizens in this country, our elders who are…Read More

Rose Plays Julie review — Irish thriller leaves generational scars

March 19, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy | 100 min | Carbon Arc Cinema A deceptively simple story transforms before our eyes into a deeply suspenseful thriller. The filmmakers' confidence is evidence in all departments, but especially cinematography, editing, score, and the performances. Rose Plays Julie is a stunner. Rose (Ann Skelly) is…Read More

His House review — Refuge no respite from ghosts

March 4, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Remi Weekes | Written by Weekes, Felicity Evans, and Toby Venables | 93 min | Netflix It's a horror, but initially, the horror comes from the way the English system treats a couple, Bol and Rial Majur (Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku), refugees who've escaped from South Sudan, made the dangerous journey across…Read More

I Care A Lot review — Crime comedy full of wonderfully loathsome people

March 2, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by J Blakeson | 118 min | Amazon Prime in Canada Marla Grayson is a terrible person. I mean, one of the worst ever in a feature film. I'd put her up there with the dude who eats people in Silence Of The Lambs, both bad lieutenants, any Sith Lord you'd care to…Read More

Lapsis review — Amusing sci-fi satire connects

March 1, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Noah Hutton | 108 min | Carbon Arc Cinema A deliciously grim tech comedy, Lapsis imagines a near future — which is today, let's face it — where grunt workers who labour for a massive computer conglomerate compete against each other, and automatons, by stringing cables through the woods between cube…Read More