Category Archives: Film Festivals

#AIFF2023 Reviews: Close To You, I Used To Be Funny

September 23, 2023 flawintheiris

Close To You | Directed by Dominic Savage | Written by Savage and Elliot Page These were the final two films of my Atlantic International Film Festival for 2023, and, strangely, they were both shot in and around Toronto and both feature lead characters named Sam. It's an inscrutable omen, but I decided to review them…Read More

Lunenburg Doc Fest Review: Unsyncable

September 22, 2023 flawintheiris

The Lunenburg Doc Fest runs from September 21 through the 28th, with a broad selection of quality documentary features. Click here to check out the program. Unsyncable | Written and Directed by Megan Wennberg Nova Scotia filmmaker Megan Wennberg's carving out a career driven by curiosity — the best motivation for a documentary filmmaker —…Read More

#AIFF2023 Reviews: Red Rooms, The Promised Land

September 20, 2023 flawintheiris

Red Rooms | Written and Directed by Pascal Plante A creepy outlier from Quebec, this is not the serial killer thriller you may have come to expect, nor an outright exploitation horror — more a creepy character study. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) is a whiz with numbers and makes some coin from modelling, living alone in…Read More

#AIFF2023 Reviews: Anatomy Of A Fall, La Chimera, Fallen Leaves

September 18, 2023 flawintheiris

Anatomy Of A Fall | Directed by Justine Triet, written by Triet and Arthur Harari Sandra and Samuel (Sandra Hüller and Samuel Theis) have a difficult marriage — both are creative people but Sandra is a lot more successful as a novelist. We meet them on a fateful morning. Their son, who is blind (Milo…Read More

That’s a Wrap: #TIFF2023

September 16, 2023 flawintheiris

Not a bad festival tally for me — 23 films in little over a week. With more than 200 features screened trying to plot trends from having watched 10% of the festival is a fools errand, but I'll say stories told from the perspective of women was something I very much enjoyed — good to…Read More

#TIFF2023 Reviews: Stop Making Sense, American Fiction

September 15, 2023 flawintheiris

Stop Making Sense | Directed by Jonathan Demme | Written by Demme and Talking Heads Whatever superlatives that've been attached to this classic 1984 Talking Heads concert film it deserves, but anyone who really wants to see it should do their best to check it out in its current form: a 4k restoration with at…Read More

#TIFF23 Reviews: Dream Scenario, The Critic, A Difficult Year

September 14, 2023 flawintheiris

I almost never do this, but today I walked out of a screening. Maybe if it had been earlier in the festival I would've stuck it out, but after about 25 minutes I'd completely lost my patience with a rambling, non-sensical movie. I won't say what it was but if you check a wired indie…Read More

Atlantic International Film Festival Preview #AIFF2023

September 13, 2023 flawintheiris

Great to see the return of the Atlantic International Film Festival for 2023, and an edition where the awkward branding of FIN has finally been dismissed. I understood what they were trying to do with it, to unite all the various elements of the festival's schedule through the year — including programs for kids and…Read More

#TIFF2023 Reviews: Queen Of My Dreams, Hit Man, Wildcat, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon

September 13, 2023 flawintheiris

Queen Of My Dreams | Written and Directed by Fawzia Mirza I gather the Cape Breton-raised filmmaker Mirza brings a lot of autobiography to this light, charming film. Azra (Amrit Kaur) is a queer woman living in Toronto with her girlfriend (Charlie Boyle) when her father dies suddenly while visiting Pakistan. Azra must go to…Read More

#TIFF2023 Reviews: The Pigeon Tunnel, Limbo

September 12, 2023 flawintheiris

The Pigeon Tunnel | Written and Directed by Errol Morris “Evasion and deception were the necessary weapons of my childhood,” wrote David Cornwell aka John le Carré in his autobiography. Master documentarian Errol Morris helps explain why in this fascinating and impressively concise doc, just over 90 minutes. Cornwell's father was a con artist, constantly…Read More