Now on Canadian Netflix: October/November 2017 reviews

December 4, 2017 flawintheiris

Here are a cross-section of a number of mildly-to-firmly recommended films now available on Canadian Netflix. (You can click on the movie titles to read my original reviews where I’ve written them in the past.) You may note the exchange of a vowel in my post title: Previously in these Netflix-related reviews I've tended to…Read More

CTV Morning Live: December 1, 2017 — Justice League, Three Billboards, and more…

December 3, 2017 flawintheiris

On Friday morning the eminently delightful Heidi Petracek invited me on CTV Morning Live once again to talk movies. In five or so minutes we discussed five features now in cinemas. Not much time to get into it, but we do our best to give the viewers a sense of whether the pictures are worth…Read More

Roman J. Israel, Esq. review — Legal thriller pivots on faith

November 30, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Dan Gilroy | 129 min Gilroy the writer-director gave us the impressive Nightcrawler in 2014. Gilroy as just the screenwriter goes a lot further back than that—he was one of the scribes on the largely forgotten Mick Jagger science-fiction picture Freejack in the early '90s, with some interesting fare since then. Based…Read More

Thelma review — A Norwegian queer supernatural thriller? Cool.

November 29, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Joaquim Trier | Written by Trier and Eskil Vogt | 116 min | On Demand We open on a little girl and her father walking in the wintry woods, hunting. A deer appears, and Dad raises his rifle. But instead of aiming at the doe, he points the weapon at his daughter, a…Read More

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri review — McDormand’s great in dark comedy

November 27, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh | 115 min | Crave Plus It'll be a surprise to no one that Irish/Brit filmmaker McDonagh, of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths fame (not to be confused with his brother, John Michael, who gave us Calvary and War On Everyone) got his start in theatre. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing…Read More

Carbon Arc’s 2017 Fall Season

November 26, 2017 flawintheiris

Another rousing collection of films screened at Carbon Arc Cinema from the end of September through November. Halifax's Independent Cinema series will now take a break. We will be back in early February with another collection of international and independent films. I wasn't able to see all the screenings this fall—I missed The Midwife, The Teacher,…Read More

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

Justice League review — Not a disaster, but DC does no justice to its heroes

November 23, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Zack Snyder | Written by Snyder, Chris Terrio, and Joss Whedon | 120 min Growing up, I was more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy, with the exception of Batman,Teen Titans, and Keith Giffen's work (with Paul Levitz) on The Legion of Superheroes and (with JM DeMatteis) his comedic take on Justice League…Read More

Lady Bird review — The greatest hits of adolescent upheaval

November 21, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Greta Gerwig | 94 min Greta Gerwig, the queen of the New York indie—witness Frances Ha, Mistress America, and Maggie's Plan—takes her turn as a writer/director in this tale of a willful teenager in the wilds of 2002 Sacramento, California. Tonally very much of a kind with those movies she's starred…Read More

My Friend Dahmer review — A chilling tale of growing evil

November 20, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Marc Meyers | Written by Meyers, based on the graphic novel by Derf Backderf | 117 min "New house rule: We eat our mistakes," says Joyce (Anne Heche), Jeff Dahmer's mother. With that frightening pronouncement, we fall into this lovely looking, though deeply strange, pit detailing the awkward teen years of the infamous…Read More