Category Archives: Historical Drama

Indignation review — Literate drama and tragedy

Directed by James Schamus | Written by Schamus, adapting the novel by Philip Roth | 110 min | ▲▲▲▲△ A refreshing counter-program offering in these dog days of summer, Indignation  is a literate, thoughtful, and affecting drama from a filmmaker best known as a producer and screenwriter, a creative collaborator to Ang Lee on films like The…Read More

Reviews: Equals, Anomalisa, Race

Equals Directed by Drake Doremus | Written by Doremus and Nathan Parker | 101 min | ▲▲▲△△ | On iTunes Every so often a feature comes to online platforms that disappoints: Not because of the narrative quality of the film, but because it has such a gorgeous production design you can't help but wish you could watch it…Read More

Carbon Arc Reviews: The Winter/Spring 2016 Season

Regular readers will know that for most of the past year I've been working at Halifax's Independent Cinema, Carbon Arc. At the beginning of 2016, I took on the role of Writer-in-Residence, writing on the site blog about the films we were watching and describing audience reactions. Reaching out to a growing community of cinephiles. At…Read More

Born To Be Blue review — The thrill is gone

Written and directed by Robert Budreau | 97 min. | ▲▲△△△ I've come to the end of my patience with the conventional musical biopic. It takes some directorial imagination to upend the cliches and do something fresh in the genre, as Bill Pohlad did last year with a dual narrative in the Brian Wilson picture Love & Mercy.…Read More

Trumbo review — Blacklist blues

Directed by Jay Roach | Written by John McNamara, adapting a book by Bruce Cook | 124 min | ▲▲▲△△ One thing you can count on: Hollywood's interest in itself never flags. In this case, the interest is reasonably warranted: 25 years in the life of Dalton Trumbo, an esteemed screenwriter who had the poor fortune…Read More