Category Archives: Drama

My Mother’s Wedding review — Welcome to the sisterhood

August 7, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Kristin Scott Thomas | Written by Scott Thomas and John Micklethwaite | 95 min | ▲▲▲ I watched this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023, when it was called North Star, and revisited it recently a second time. The fact it's coming out almost two years after its festival run in…Read More

Sorry, Baby review — Intimate and honest about healing from trauma

July 29, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Eva Victor | 103 min | ▲▲▲1/2 A potent, difficult drama about the ways sexual assault can ruin your life and linger for years. The writer/director, Eva Victor, is also the lead actor — where that kind of move could be dubbed a vanity flex, this film feels like anything but.…Read More

The Surfer review — Nicolas Cage hangs loose

June 18, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan | Written by Thomas Martin | 100 min | ▲▲1/2 | on VOD This is a tribute to the Ozploitation movies of the 1970s and '80s, like Ted Kotcheff's Wake In Fright, while also being that self-contained thing that's becoming a genre unto itself: A Nicolas Cage movie. He doesn't discriminate much…Read More

Materialists review — Celine Song’s fascinating follow-up to Past Lives

June 14, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Celine Song | 116 min | ▲▲▲▲ The playwright-turned-filmmaker Celine Song — who made her mark with her Oscar-nominated first feature Past Lives in 2023 — has returned with a terrific, if more mainstream, movie: Materialists featuring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. The trailer would have you believe this…Read More

The Life Of Chuck review — King adaptation hits and misses

June 11, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Mike Flanagan | Written by Flanagan, from a Stephen King short story | 111 min | ▲▲▲ A version of this review first appeared on FITI in September 2024 as part of coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. Filmmaker Mike Flanagan brings to the big screen his third Stephen King story after…Read More

Bonjour Tristesse (1958, 2025) review — Youth and age, beauty and regret

June 4, 2025 flawintheiris

(2025) Written and Directed by Durga Chew-Bose, who adapts the Françoise Sagan novel | 110 min | ▲▲▲1/2 | At Carbon Arc Cinema (1958) Directed by Otto Preminger | Written by Arthur Laurents, adapting the novel by Françoise Sagan | 94 min | ▲▲▲ | VOD Preparing for this new adaptation of the famed novel…Read More

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life review — The pleasure of a good movie

May 29, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Laura Piani | 98 min | ▲▲▲▲1/2 Every once in awhile we get a performance that's so electric you're amazed how this fully fledged talent has appeared seemingly out of nowhere. That presumption is quickly diminished by a glance at the wealth of experience in the performer's IMDB file, and further…Read More

The Uninvited review — Hollywood and Time

May 20, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Nadia Conners | 97 min | ▲▲ | VOD This is a talky, Tinsel Town satire of the sort where a group of entitled people gather, indulge in substances and discuss issues of age and paths not taken. It’s cut from the cloth of California Split or The Anniversary Party. Rose (Elizabeth…Read More

Sharp Corner review — Ben Foster excels in chilly local thriller

May 9, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Jason Buxton | Written by Buxton, adapting a short story by Russell Wangersky | 110 min | ▲▲▲1/2 An earlier version of this review ran in September 2024 during coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. What's likely to be this year's most high-profile Nova Scotian-made feature, courtesy of a national distribution deal…Read More

The Knox Office: The Shrouds, On Swift Horses, and two great documentaries

April 28, 2025 flawintheiris

On last weeks CBC Information Morning I opened The Knox Office to talk movies. I reviewed the David Cronenberg film, The Shrouds, and On Swift Horses, the new drama starring Jacob Elordi, two new movies in cinemas. I also talked about two documentaries now available elsewhere — the hummingbird documentary Every Little Thing and the…Read More