It’s hard to believe the Terrence Malick picture, Knight of Cups, only lasted a week in cinemas. I think the way his work is going it very much needs the cinema experience to appreciate. It won’t be the same in your living room. This week I really enjoyed Midnight Special and Demolition—check back soon for my full review of that film.
It’s a hell of a thing to get a feature film made in Nova Scotia these days, but one that takes a hard look at the realities of race in this province? That’s a fucking miracle. And that’s putting aside that the film is as good as Across The Line. I saw it at the Atlantic Film Festival when it was called Undone, and I really liked this low-budget drama about an NHL prospect dealing with racism in his Cole Harbour high school, starring Stephan James. Everyone who lives in this town who cares about film and local filmmaking should be going to see this picture. It’s out at Bayers Lake.
https://youtu.be/lFogMKi7_gQ
The return of Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer’s comedy franchise, Barbershop: The Next Cut,also starring Nikki Minaj, Eve, and Common, is at Bayers Lake and Dartmouth Crossing.
Criminal has not been getting very positive notices, but when I see a cast as talented as this one in a spy thriller—including Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot, and Tommy Lee Jones—usually there’s something to recommend it.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a feature in Hindi open, but here’s one. A thriller called Fan, about a man obsessed with a celebrity, but the fan and the star are played…. by the same guy! The trailer is impressive:
I Saw The Light is the Hank Williams biopic starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen. Hiddleston is totally compelling in an award-worthy performance—he sings and apparently learned how to play guitar for the role—and the film looks gorgeous, but it does nothing to elevate the musical biopic beyond anything we’ve seen before. For more of my thoughts on the film, go here.
The Disney classic animated film The Jungle Book was a favourite of mine as a kid, and the advance reports about this “live action”—actually heavily CGI-ed—feature are positive. I’ll be seeking out a non-3D screening sometime in the next week.
Regression is a psychological thriller that arrives with no hype at all, but Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke and the director of The Others? Might be worth a look.
Just three more weeks of Carbon Arc before the winter/spring season comes to a close. On Friday night we’re showing My Golden Days, the newest film from French auteur Arnaud Desplechin. For more on him, check out my recent blog post. It’s a 7pm.
