Category Archives: Drama

May December review — A movie doing a lot of things well

December 5, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Todd Haynes | Written by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik | 117 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | On Netflix Early on in the film the camera dollies in as Gracie looks in the fridge, accompanied by a dramatic, doomy piano score flourish, and Gracie says, "I don't think we have enough hotdogs." If that…Read More

Saltburn review — Gorgeous and lurid, fascinating and flawed

November 23, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Emerald Fennell | 127 min | ▲▲▲▲△ Best Original Screenplay Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell made a big splash with Promising Young Woman, has written and directed a follow-up that disguises its genre for much of its running time in a series of narrative lock boxes and red herrings. Is it a romance?…Read More

Fingernails review — It’s a vibe

November 10, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Christos Nikou | Written by Nikou, Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis | 113 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Apple TV+ For a lot of us secular folk, love is the last vestige of spirituality in our lives — if you don't count astrology. This movie imagines an alternate but completely recognizable world where a…Read More

The Holdovers review — A new Christmas classic

November 8, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Alexander Payne | Written by David Hemingson | 133 min | ▲▲▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime Alexander Payne is the director of wry, gentle, and humanist American features like Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska, and Downsizing. His new film, The Holdovers, might be the best one yet. He and his collaborators have…Read More

Fair Play review — A bloody portrait of power, ego and sex

October 10, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Chloe Domont | 113 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Netflix Fair Play is an adrenalized New York picture the likes of which we haven't seen in awhile. It's got the bones of something like Margin Call, set in that world, but it's entirely its own beast — making its own inquiries and…Read More

The Royal Hotel review — Outback adventure turns to horror

October 6, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Kitty Green | Written by Green and Oscar Redding | 91 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave A review of this film first appeared on FITI during TIFF in September. This exceptional new drama from Kitty Green, the director of The Assistant, reunites her with the breakout star of that one. Julia Garner. Garner's…Read More

She Came To Me review — This is a weird one, approach with caution

October 5, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller | 102 min | ▲▲△△△ Rebecca Miller has had a compelling, if shaggy career as a filmmaker. Prominently for those of us in this part of the world, in 2005 she wrote and directed The Ballad Of Jack and Rose, shot in PEI and starring her husband, Daniel Day-Lewis.…Read More

Carbon Arc Cinema review: Scrapper

October 3, 2023 flawintheiris

I'm the new Artistic Director at Carbon Arc Cinema, part of a group of programmers who choose the films we screen. Written and Directed by Charlotte Regan | 84 min | Carbon Arc Cinema Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a willful, self-determined 12-year-old. She lives in a council estate in suburban London, alone since her mother…Read More

The Knox Office: Flora and Son, The Great Seduction, and Jawan

October 1, 2023 flawintheiris

On Friday I returned to my column on CBC radio's Information Morning. The Knox Office is my biweekly chance to review films on the radio, and on this edition I share reviews of three international films screening in cinemas and online. You can go here to listen to the clip. (And for a flashback to…Read More

Carbon Arc Cinema review: Passages

September 28, 2023 flawintheiris

I'm the new Artistic Director at Carbon Arc Cinema, part of a group of programmers who choose the films we screen. Directed by Ira Sachs | Written by Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias, and Arlette Langmann | 91 min | Carbon Arc Cinema This is the first feature to screen at Carbon Arc Cinema under the auspices…Read More