Category Archives: Recommended

Carbon Arc Reviews: The Second Mother, When Marnie Was There, Phoenix, The Wolfpack, A Poem Is A Naked Person, The New Girlfriend, Tangerine, Court, Dough, Jimmy’s Hall, The Russian Woodpecker

This fall I've been part of the talented crew who program films and help out at Carbon Arc screenings taking place at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Here are my thoughts on each of the films we screened. (Carbon Arc Cinema returns in the first week of February, 2016.) The Second Mother Written…Read More

Grandma review — Lily Tomlin Rules, OK?

Written and directed by Paul Weitz | 79 min Elle is the world's coolest grandmother. She's tattooed, she swears, she's a poet, an out lesbian, and drives a 1955 Dodge Royal. When granddaughter Sage shows up on her front doorstep looking for money for an abortion, you know Grandma's gonna be crotchety, but she's gonna…Read More

Sicario review — At Hell’s Border

Directed by Denis Villeneuve | Written by Taylor Sheridan | 121 min Kate (Emily Blunt, convincingly tough and vulnerable) is a straight arrow FBI agent on the anti-kidnap squad working in Arizona with partner Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya, another talented Brit import), mopping up at the margins of the Mexican drug cartel business, which usually means…Read More

Top 10 of 2005 and 2006

In a couple weeks this blog will be five years old. Accordingly,  through the coming fortnight I'm gonna be taking a few looks back. As I've done before, I've stumbled upon some material from the vaults: My list of the best movies of 2005 and 2006, a list I put together for my four year movie broadcast…Read More

Amy review — You know she was so good

A documentary by Asif Kapadia Kapadia has said he wasn't particularly a fan of the British singer Amy Winehouse, who died in July 2011, before he made this doc. That claim of objectivity—this isn't a fan letter of a movie—is something to keep in mind while watching. With dozens of interviews with people in Winehouse's inner circle,…Read More