Category Archives: Crime

Ballad of a Small Player review — Quit while you’re ahead

November 21, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Edward Berger | Written by Rowan Joffe, based on the book by Lawrence Osborne | 101 min |▲1/2 | On Netflix An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI during coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival 2025 In living memory has there been a film where the cinematography and production design…Read More

It Was Just An Accident review — The lingering damage of authoritarianism

October 31, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jafar Panahi | 105 min | ▲▲▲ An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI in September during the Atlantic International Film Festival 2025 The movie that wins the Palme d'Or comes weighted with expectations that sometimes end up being too heavy for the picture to carry — by no…Read More

After the Hunt review — Crimes and misdemeanors

October 19, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Written by Nora Garrett | 138 min | ▲▲▲ It's rare to see a big Hollywood feature tackle a culture war subject — whether it's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion or #MeToo — but After the Hunt touches on both. It's a bit messy, and bit of a melodrama, which is…Read More

Roofman review — Channing Tatum’s gentleman thief is a charmer

October 12, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Derek Cianfrance | Written by Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn | 126 min | ▲▲▲▲ Right off the bat, what makes Roofman so terrific is it's another tale about America today — even as it's set a few years in the past, there's something undeniably current about this story, which is based in fact.…Read More

#AIFF2025: Little Lorraine

September 13, 2025 flawintheiris

The idea of turning a song into a feature film is long overdue. I can think of a dozen candidates for future features, from artists like Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Rush. If this Cape Breton picture spawns more of this kind of thing, that will be a hell of a legacy. It is, indeed,…Read More

Caught Stealing review — It’s just as simple as that

August 26, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Darren Aronofsky | Written by Charlie Huston, based on his book | 107 min | ▲▲▲▲ In the mid to late 1990s, a swath of crime thrillers were made in the wake of the broad success of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and QT’s script for Tony Scott's True Romance. Many…Read More

Honey Don’t! review — Fab lesbian b-movie comedy noir

August 25, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Ethan Coen | Written by Coen and Tricia Cooke | 89 min | ▲▲▲1/2 In February of last year we got a scrappy, shaggy lesbian comedy from the husband and wife team of Coen and Cooke — Drive Away Dolls. It suffered a little in comparison to the many classics Ethan Coen made…Read More

Maalik review — Indian gangster pic goes big

July 12, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Pulkit | Written by Pulkit and Jyotsana Nath | 149 min | ▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime If you go into this expecting a Hindi-language Scarface, you won't be too far off — a lot less cocaine but more drama, romance, and impromptu musical interludes, the kind of thing you'd expect from a big-budget…Read More

The Critic review — An ovation for Ian McKellan

June 29, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Anand Tucker | Written by Patrick Marber, based on the novel Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn | 101 min | ▲▲▲ | on Kanopy A version of this review appeared in FITI during the Toronto International Film Festival 2023. A film to luxuriate in — Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie, Shopgirl) returns with…Read More

Ballerina review — Bloody mayhem en pointe

June 12, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Len Wiseman | Written by Shay Hatten and Derek Kolstad | 124 min | ▲▲▲ Expectations were mid with this long-awaited spinoff of the John Wickiverse, which has already seen a TV series come and go. The full title here is the abysmal From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, but who has…Read More