Category Archives: War

Megan Leavey review — Only dog lovers need attend

June 9, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite | Written by Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo, and Tim Lovestedt | 116 min Megan Leavey is based on the true story of a US Marine and her bomb sniffing German Shepherd, both of whom were deployed to Iraq. In the documentary Blackfish Cowperthwaite awoke the world to marine parks' cruelty to cetaceans, so it…Read More

The Wall review — Spare sniper drama misses its target

May 13, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Doug Liman | Written by Dwaine Worrell | 89 min Joining the ranks of the Iraq War movie genre—largely unloved but for The Hurt Locker and American Sniper— comes The Wall, a much smaller picture from director/producer Liman, whose specialty tends to the massive blockbusters The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs Smith, and Edge of…Read More

Their Finest review — Keep Calm and Make Movies

April 20, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Lone Scherfig | Written by Gaby Chiappe based on the novel by Lissa Evans | 117 min It's the Blitz in London: Mrs Cole (Gemma Arterton) is a Welsh lady married to an unemployed painter (Jack Huston). She lands a job working for a film company, alongside curmudgeonly screenwriter Mr Buckley (Sam Claflin)—hired…Read More

New on Canadian Netflix: February 2017

February 20, 2017 flawintheiris

In an effort to keep you, good reader, up to date with films now available on platforms aside from the big screen, I had a look at the past few weeks of new releases on Canadian Netflix and I’ve got a few films for you to consider. (You can click on the movie titles to…Read More

LENS ME YOUR EARS: The Occult, Alien Invasions, and Roger Ebert’s Great Movies

January 30, 2017 flawintheiris

Movie maestro Stephen Cooke and I got together in November and December at the CKDU studios in Halifax to record a few new episodes of our podcast Lens Me Your Ears. They air on every second Tuesday at 5:30pm, or you can listen to them here on iTunes and on Stitcher. On the episode on…Read More

Reviews: Anthropoid, Solace, Tumbledown, A War, The Dressmaker

January 5, 2017 flawintheiris

Anthropoid Directed by Sean Ellis | Written by Ellis and Anthony Frewin | 120 min | On Netflix 1942, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Two Czech expatriot soldiers Jan (Jamie Dornan) and Josef (Cillian Murphy) parachute into the countryside outside Prague. Their mission: To manage dialogue in painful Czech-accented English and be terribly good-looking in period costume, connect…Read More

Allied review — Wartime spy drama a clunky bomb

November 24, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Written by Steven Knight | 124 min Zemeckis is a disciple of Spielberg, the creator of high-end Hollywood entertainment like Back To The Future, Forrest Gump, and Contact. More recently he's been as interested in computer generated imagery as in story and character, with films like last year's The Walk. It was a picture…Read More

Hacksaw Ridge review — Blood, Guts, and Conscientious Objection

November 3, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Mel Gibson | Written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan | 131 min Mel Gibson's fifth feature as director is a roaring return after a 10 year break, one that very much cleaves towards his favourite themes of individual heroism, faith, and martyrdom. You know it's a Gibson when the hero must abide…Read More

#AFF2016 — Land Of Mine, My Life So Far, A Man Called Ove, Denial reviews

September 21, 2016 flawintheiris

Land Of Mine (Under Sandet) Written and Directed by Martin Zandvliet | 100 min It was announced the other day that Land of Mine will be the Danish submission for consideration as the Best Foreign Language film at next year's Academy Awards. (So was A Man Called Ove last week declared for Sweden, making today a Scandinavian…Read More

Eye In The Sky review — Death from Above 2016

April 19, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Gavin Hood | Written by Guy Hibbert | 102 min | ▲▲▲△△ What is one little girl's life worth weighed against the imminent death of dozens? That's the morality play at the centre of Eye In The Sky, a clever, well-structured drama stretched taut around a single event. Col. Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren, typically sterling)…Read More