Category Archives: Drama

Brooklyn review — Romance in the diaspora

December 10, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by John Crowley | Written by Nick Hornby, adapting a Colm Toibin novel | 111 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave Saoirse Ronan is on point as Ellis, the young woman who in John Crowley's 1950's-set diasporic drama travels from rural Ireland to Brooklyn, New York for a new life, and inevitably, first love. This…Read More

Reviews: Mississippi Grind, Heist, Kilo Two Bravo

December 7, 2015 flawintheiris

Recent releases available on VOD and Blu-Ray that didn't screen in Halifax cinemas. Mississippi Grind Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck | 108 min | ▲▲▲△△ Ben Mendelsohn is Gerry, a scruffy, hard-up gambler in Iowa who "owes money to everyone." On one of his losing streaks he connects with Curtis (Ryan Reynolds),…Read More

Spotlight review — Celebrating the power of the press

November 26, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Tom McCarthy | Written by McCarthy and Josh Singer | 128 min About 15 years ago a group of investigative reporters from the Boston Globe started to dig into reports of Catholic priests abusing children, and that the executive in the diocese were complicit in covering it up, relocating the priests to other parishes…Read More

Creed review — Franchise finds new life in boxing scion

November 24, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Ryan Coogler | Written by Coogler and Aaron Covington, from characters by Sylvester Stallone | 132 min | Amazon Prime This movie has no business being this good. This is the seventh feature in the Rocky series, a 30-year franchise that's already shown us everything its got: Read its last rights back in 1990 with the…Read More

The Rocky series review

November 23, 2015 flawintheiris

With Creed on its way, I thought it was a good time to revisit the evergreen boxing movies about the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, a Philadelphia fighter from the streets played by an actor/director/screenwriter whose own success story mirrors his character's arc. Back in the mid-'70's, a jobbing actor named Sylvester Stallone took his shot at the…Read More

Secret In Their Eyes review — Moody crime remake missing original’s flavours

November 23, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Billy Ray | Screenplay by Billy Ray, adapting The Secret In Their Eyesscreenplay by Juan José Campanella and Eduardo Sacheri | 111 min A warning: Foreknowledge of the Argentine Oscar-winning drama may diminish one's appreciation of this Hollywood remake. But those who have seen the original—here absent the title's definitive article, but otherwise…Read More

Carbon Arc Reviews: The Second Mother, When Marnie Was There, Phoenix, The Wolfpack, A Poem Is A Naked Person, The New Girlfriend, Tangerine, Court, Dough, Jimmy’s Hall, The Russian Woodpecker

November 16, 2015 flawintheiris

This fall I've been part of the talented crew who program films and help out at Carbon Arc screenings taking place at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Here are my thoughts on each of the films we screened. (Carbon Arc Cinema returns in the first week of February, 2016.) The Second Mother Written…Read More

Our Brand Is Crisis review — Confused Message Sinks Comedy

November 3, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by David Gordon Green | Written by Peter Straughan from a documentary by Rachel Boynton | 107 min. Neither fish nor fowl, as they say, this is a political dramedy that features both Sandra Bullock vomiting into a wastepaper basket and discussions of how politics can eat away the soul. This struggle to sustain…Read More

Burnt review — There’s Sizzle in this Steak

October 28, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by John Wells | Written by Steven Knight, from a story by Michael Kalesniko | 100 min There was a time when Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) was a hotshot chef in a high end Paris restaurant, but he lost it all to his attitude and addictions. After more than two years of detox and…Read More

Grandma review — Lily Tomlin Rules, OK?

October 22, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Paul Weitz | 79 min Elle is the world's coolest grandmother. She's tattooed, she swears, she's a poet, an out lesbian, and drives a 1955 Dodge Royal. When granddaughter Sage shows up on her front doorstep looking for money for an abortion, you know Grandma's gonna be crotchety, but she's gonna…Read More