Category Archives: Historical Drama

Killers Of The Flower Moon review — Crime epic gazes into the abyss

October 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Written by Scorcese and Eric Roth, based on a book by David Grann | 206 min | ▲▲▲▲△ It's finally here, the much buzzed-about epic (in scope and length) crime drama/western from Martin Scorsese. The film based on the true story of the Osage, a Native American community who in…Read More

The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan review — Pistols or blades at noon?

August 26, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Martin Bourboulon | Written by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, based on the story by Alexandre Dumas | 122 min | ▲▲▲△△ | For rent on VOD and Digital For French cinemas, this is a huge-budget adaptation of the beloved Dumas adventure story, and the first to be done in French…Read More

A Cult Of One: The Bounty (1984)

July 30, 2023 flawintheiris

This is a semi-regular segment on FITI that shines a light on a feature distinctly unloved, or underloved, and for one reason or another deserves reappraisal. Directed by Roger Donaldson | Written by Robert Bolt and Ian Mune, from the book Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian by Richard Hough | 132 min | Tubi, VOD,…Read More

The Knox Office: Barbenheimer!

July 24, 2023 flawintheiris

On Thursday I spent five hours in the dark out at Bayers Lake... and on Friday morning I was on CBC Information Morning with my semi-regular movie review column, the Knox Office. This time I spoke with Preston Mulligan about the weekend's two big blockbusters — Barbie and Oppenheimer. To listen to the conversation, click…Read More

Oppenheimer review — Haunting atomic drama echoes through time

July 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Christopher Nolan | Written by Nolan, based on the book American Prometheus by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird | 180 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime The return of Nolan to serious, biographical work about men and war — following his spectacular Dunkirk — shows his ambition hasn't diminished one whit. This is a…Read More

Daliland review — Salvador Dali was never this conventional

June 9, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Mary Harron | Written by John Walsh | 97 min | ▲▲△△△ | VOD and Digital Platforms There's three things the director of I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, and The Notorious Bettie Page knows about: 1) Weirdos, both the dangerous and harmless variety, 2) Biographical movies, and 3) Art. This should make…Read More

BlackBerry review — Glitchy software scuppers tech comedy

May 11, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Matt Johnson | Written by Johnson with Matthew Miller, from a book by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff | 119 min | ▲▲△△△ BlackBerry has the distinct disadvantage of being the third movie this season serving as a biography of a product. The first two were the entertaining 1980s international caper Tetris, about…Read More

Till review — Potent drama reminds audiences of prevalent racist systems

May 3, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Chinonye Chukwu | Written by Chukwu, Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp | 130 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime For those who don't know — and, if not, why? — Emmett Till was an African American teenager living in Chicago with his mother in 1955 when she sent him to visit his extended…Read More

You Can Live Forever review — Queer lovers in a dangerous time

April 20, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts | 96 min | ▲▲▲△△| Crave It's the early '90s — only 30 years ago but a very different time for gay rights in Canada. Following the death of her father, an Ontario teen, Jamie (Anwen O'Driscoll) has been sent to live with her aunt and…Read More

Riceboy Sleeps review — An essential Canadian story of the struggle to be Canadian

April 10, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Anthony Shim | 117 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave It's 1990. A young woman, So-Young (Choi Seung-yoon), has come to Canada from South Korea, following the suicide of her husband, with her son Dong-Hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang), who's just going into Grade One. You really feel for the kid — the…Read More