Hello faithful readers! One of the things I do around this time of year as I’m busy assembling my official Top 10 movies list — it should be ready in a few days — is offer up 10 others I really love that IMHO deserve more attention. My work as senior programmer at Carbon Arc Cinema in Halifax gives me a look at a lot of terrific features that more people should catch up on, and I always stumble on a few through the year where I don’t understand why they didn’t find bigger audiences. If you haven’t seen these, please seek them out. (I include where to stream them in parentheses where available.)
Maybe the best Canadian movie this year, from first time feature filmmaker R.T. Thorne, is a post-apocalyptic drama about a family of farmers in the bush who have cordoned off their property trying to keep roving cannibal raiders out. The performances are sharp, especially Michael Greyeyes, who deserves to be a big star in Canada, and the electric Danielle Deadwyler, who is the tough-as-nails matriarch of the family. (VOD, Hoopla, Crave)
This one may not be under-the-radar for long, as it’s been nominated for a couple of Golden Globes, and could earn an Oscar nod or two. I’d be thrilled if Ethan Hawke got a Best Actor nomination — he’s transformed as Lorenz Hart, the alcoholic, wildly talented lyricist of the Great American Songbook, living through one of the worst nights of his professional life, when erstwhile collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), is having a huge hit on Broadway with Oklahoma!, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. (VOD)
Here’s a movie that stayed with me a lot longer than I expected. Ostensibly it’s an awkward love story between a Toronto librarian (the excellent Britt Lower of Severance fame) and a Slovenian Canadian cab driver, this goes all sorts of places you won’t expect in its exploration of urban loneliness. (VOD, Crave)
A terrific procedural thriller based on a true story of American Nazis tangling with the FBI, including career performances from Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. (Prime)
Crackling with what Empire Film Podcast reviewer Helen O’Hara calls competence porn, this features Riz Ahmed as a broker between whistleblowers and corporate interests, protecting parties with his skill and anonymity, and Lily James is one of those whistleblowers with remorse. A terrific, modern New York thriller. (Prime, VOD)
Santosh explores sexism and power in rural India, where a woman becomes a police officer, taking over her dead husband’s job. A dark vision of living under the patriarchy. (VOD)
Also a likely Oscar nominee in Best International Film, this is a sprawling period picture set under the Brazilian authoritarian regime of 1977, with a tech expert who returns to his hometown and gets involved with a resistance movement while trying to reconnect with his son. (In Cinemas)
One of the only Nova Scotian pictures to get national theatrical distribution this year, with Elevation Films, Jason Buxton’s dark portrait of flawed masculinity makes for uncomfortable, gripping viewing. (VOD, Crave)
David Cronenberg’s newest film came and went, but for fans of his special peculiarity, it’s a must see. Vincent Cassel is Karsh, a tech bro whose wife (Diane Kruger) died years before. To ease his grief he’s come up with a way families can witness the slow decay of their loved ones’ bodies in the grave via a screen on the tombstone, or an app on their phones. What follows is part tech thriller, part satire on conspiracy theorists, and, yes, part body horror. (VOD, Crave, Criterion)
When The Light Breaks
An Icelandic drama where a young man dies unexpectedly and his secret lover must hold her tongue when his grieving girlfriend arrives on the scene. A gorgeous, unexpectedly powerful film. (Coming soon)
