Category Archives: Canadian

Blood Quantum (2020) review — Zombie pandemic movie a solid brain eater

April 19, 2023 flawintheiris

Friday night (April 21st) at 9pm, Carbon Arc Cinema (in partnership with the Hellifax Horror Fest) will show this terrific zombie picture from the late Mi'kmaq filmmaker, Jeff Barnaby, as part of a celebration of National Canadian Film Day (which technically was Wednesday). Advance tickets are sold out but a few will be available at…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

Simulant review — Replicant cinema

April 8, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by April Mullen | Written by Ryan Christopher Churchill | 95 min | ▲▲△△△ | Crave For awhile now I've been impressed by the influence of the Charlie Brooker science fiction show, Black Mirror. Since its debut as a deeply cynical but scarily prophetic tech-anxiety sci-fi series, I've detected the reach of its potent…Read More

Geographies of Solitude review — Sable Island paradise

March 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Jacquelyn Mills | 103 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | CBC Gem We barely hear a voice for the first 10 minutes of this documentary. Instead, we get the pleasure of images and sounds from Sable Island, the almost mythical crescent sandbar off the coast of Nova Scotia, home to seals and horses and Zoe…Read More

Brother review — A powerful story unlike what we usually see in Canadian cinema

March 20, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Clement Virgo | Written by Virgo from the novel by David Chariandy | 119 min | ▲▲▲▲△ Clement Virgo is the director of solid dramatic features like the Halifax-set boxing picture Poor Boy's Game, Lie With Me, and Rude, and quality television like The Wire and Book Of Negroes — he's carved out…Read More

Interview with Ashley McKenzie, Queens of the Qing Dynasty writer and director

March 9, 2023 flawintheiris

Years ago when Ashley McKenzie was helping put together a student film festival at Saint Mary's University she asked me to be on an awards jury. I couldn't tell you what year that was, but that's where we first met. It's been an absolute delight to see McKenzie find her voice as a filmmaker in…Read More

Alice, Darling review — Anna Kendrick impresses in indie drama

February 2, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Mary Nighy | Written by Alanna Francis | 90 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Digital/VOD After a career with her charm light turned up high, it's great seeing the way Anna Kendrick douses that star power for something more nuanced and internal. This modest Canadian/American indie allows her to stretch in a way the…Read More

Infinity Pool review — Gleeful bad-trip movie goes off the deep end

January 30, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg | 117 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Crave I'm not the first critic to recognize the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with the younger Cronenberg, son of David. Consider his first two features — Antiviral and the remarkable Possessor. The son's thematic concerns are similar to the…Read More

Bystanders review #AIFF22

September 23, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Koumbie | Written by Koumbie, Taylor Olson, and Lisa Rose Snow | 90 min The script for Bystanders has won The Michael Weir Award for Best Atlantic Screenwriting, and it's well-deserved. Bystanders has a script I'd call courageous, how it wades into issues other writers might hesitate to consider. It's the story of…Read More

#AIFF22 Preview

September 14, 2022 flawintheiris

Regular readers will know I'm in Toronto right now seeing films at the 2022 edition of Toronto International Film Festival, but I can't help but feel a little wistful to be missing the launch of the Atlantic International Film Festival — recently known as FIN, though that branding seems to be a little less prominent…Read More