Category Archives: Historical Drama

From The Vault: Restoration (1995) review

November 16, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Michael Hoffman | Written by Rupert Walters, based on a novel by Rose Tremain | 117 min | ▲1/2 | DVD, on VOD in the United States Sheer, hardheaded curiosity forced me to track down this feature — a lost Miramax picture from the mid-'90s, star-studded and Academy-awarded (for Art Direction and Costume…Read More

Hedda review — Nia DaCosta’s modern update on Ibsen

November 8, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Nia DaCosta | Written by DaCosta, based on the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen | ▲▲1/2 | On Prime Nia DaCosta bounces back from the good time but bad box office of The Marvels with an adaptation of Ibsen, something more tragic and arty, with all the associated ambitions. It's best at…Read More

Nuremberg review — Post-war potboiler goes off the boil

November 5, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by James Vanderbilt | Written by Vanderbilt, based on the book The Nazi And The Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai | ▲▲ Vanderbilt's name wasn't one I was immediately familiar with before this feature, but his credits as a producer or writer are diverse — David Fincher's Zodiac, a couple of the less memorable Spider-Man…Read More

Eden review — Paradise found and lost

October 26, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Ron Howard | Written by Howard and Noah Pink | 129 min | ▲▲▲ | On Prime An earlier version of this review appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival 2024. It's taken awhile for Ron Howard's survivalist melodrama (written by Haligonian Noah Pink, who also did Tetris) to arrive after it premiered…Read More

Blue Moon review — An ode to art, loneliness, and beauty

October 22, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Richard Linklater | Written by Robert Kaplow | ▲▲▲▲ | Crave An earlier version of this review ran during the Toronto International Film Festival in September. We open on Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke, the production working hard to diminish his height and looks) dying alone in the rain in a New York alley…Read More

What do The Dead Zone, Wayward, and Run The Wild Fields (and Schitt’s Creek!) have in common?

October 14, 2025 flawintheiris

OK, so stay with me, because this is an odd one. I'm talking about David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone (1983), starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, and Tom Skerritt, the new Netflix miniseries, Wayward, starring Mae Martin, Sarah Gadon, and Toni Collette, and a made-for-cable film called Run The Wild Fields (2000), that stars Sean Patrick Flannery and…Read More

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale review — A fond farewell

September 28, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Simon Curtis | Written by Julian Fellowes | 123 min | ▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime Just when you might have thought Downton Abbey departed the cinematic stage, it's back for one last hurrah. This is after the better-than-it-needed to be Downton Abbey: A New Era and the just OK Downton Abbey, the first two…Read More

Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight review — A memorable child performance

July 20, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Embeth Davidtz | Written by Davitz, adapting the memoir by Alexandra Fuller | 98 min | ▲▲▲ 1/2 Davidtz is a South African actor — terrific in Schindler's List, Junebug, and Mad Men, amongst other film and television — turned director in this confident, if awkwardly titled debut. It's set in Rhodesia -…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

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