It’s 2025. For those who are new to FLAW IN THE IRIS, or FITI, welcome to this film review blog. I’m Carsten Knox, Halifax writer, broadcaster, and arts reporter.

This project has been my way of keeping track of what’s new in my cinema diet since September 2010. I make a change now and then, but if you go back to the early days of the blog you’ll see it’s fundamentally the same as it’s always been. I see something and scrawl my opinion on these pages.

A few years ago I brought in the triangle rating system. It’s like a star system some critics use, anointing a film with a rating from one ▲ for a terrible movie to ▲▲▲▲▲ for an exceptional one.

It’s an imperfect way of indicating the success of a picture. For example, I’ve compared a number of films I’ve given ▲▲▲to and recognized there’s quite a bit of span between them in terms of what that rating represents. So, what’s the solution? Maybe cut the ratings altogether, and I considered that, or try  to make them more precise.

That’s what I’m going with, the latter choice. From here on I’ll be offering the occasional 1/2 ▲ for movie reviews, effectively doubling the kinds of ratings I will apply to movies. I’m not sure whether anyone has strong feelings about this one way or another, but I expect it will impact the ratings I give in the extremes: fewer ▲▲▲▲▲ reviews, for example, when ▲▲▲▲1/2 is available. I think it will also provide a little more nuance that might be helpful.

For a broader look at what these ratings mean, check out this post. Thanks for reading!