Category Archives: Drama

While We’re Young review — Generations unite and divide in Brooklyn

April 27, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach I'm sure I'm not the first person to remark on this, but to me, at his best, Baumbach is a next generation Woody Allen, though the filmmaker's milieu is among the hipsters of Park Slope and Williamsburg instead of the dustier denizens of the Upper West Side or Fifth Avenue. It helps distinguish…Read More

The Age of Adaline review — Aggressively hokey cinema cheese

April 24, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger, Written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz This movie is finally in cinemas—it feels like the trailer has been running for an eternity. I saw it with a very appreciative (and, if I may say, mature) audience on Thursday night. I was not as appreciative. That's not to say…Read More

True Story review — Jonah and James’ theatre games

April 16, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Rupert Goold, Written by Goold and David Kajganich from the book by Michael Finkel Back in 2002, a New York Times Magazine writer named Mike Finkel got caught in a professional lie—he invented a character for a magazine cover story. Reeling from that career-killing event, he got a call about a guy named Christian…Read More

Danny Collins review — Al Pacino back in tune

April 11, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Dan Fogelman Al Pacino won an Academy Award for his leading role in Scent Of A Woman. That was 22 years ago. The performance defined his whole Whoo-HAH persona. While the movie was popular, I don't think anyone really thought it was representative of his best stuff—the award was more of a body-of-work recognition,…Read More

Woman In Gold review — Art and justice wins over stale script

April 9, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Simon Curtis, written by Alexi Kaye Campbell, based on the story of E. Randol Schoenberg and Maria Altmann Sometimes a story is powerful enough, and a cast potent enough, that it overcomes the poor choices of a movie's screenwriter and director. This is one of those times. Based on the actual tale of…Read More

Cast No Shadow: Q-and-A with director Christian Sparkes

April 1, 2015 flawintheiris

Opening Friday, April 3, in Halifax is Cast No Shadow, an already award-winning feature from Newfoundland. It took a host of gongs at the Atlantic Film Festival: Best Atlantic Film, Best Director (Christian Sparkes), Best Screenplay (Joel Thomas Hynes), Best Actress (Mary-Colin Chisholm), Best Actor (Percy Hynes White), and Best Cinematography (Scott McLellan). It was…Read More

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel review — More of the same, and less

March 8, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by John Madden, written by Madden and Ol Parker If you're a big fan of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, I would be lying if I told you the sequel doesn't deliver more of what made the first one a hit: A wonderful group of talented, mostly British actors working through a predictable script about…Read More

Focus review — Stylish, fun, and sometimes unfocussed

February 28, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa The con artist movie is a special kind of beast. It only works if we're fooled along with the mark. Knowing what we're in for, we're pretty hard to fool. So, just having achieved that, having met the intricate demands of this particular thriller subgenre, is…Read More

50 Shades of Grey review — Gives soft porn a bad name

February 19, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, written by Kelly Marcel from the novel by EL James | 125 min | Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave I knew this picture was in trouble when early on the heroine of the piece, college student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), dressed in her unpretentious print blouse, arrives at a phallic glass and…Read More

Still Alice review — Julianne Moore shines in Alzheimer’s drama

February 18, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, from a novel by Lisa Genova Sometimes a movie is most effective just by being singular. Still Alice is such a case. It's a story that can be summed up like this: An academic gets early onset Alzheimer's and this is what happens to her. Julianne…Read More