Category Archives: Canadian

Dreamland (2019) review — More like drearyland

May 29, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Bruce McDonald | Written by Tony Burgess and Patrick Whistler | 92 min | On Demand This movie brings a luxurious score and engrossing sound design, it's gorgeously shot in a medieval European town, and stars Stephen McHattie, Henry Rollins, Juliette Lewis *and* includes vampires? There's nothing here that doesn't sound like fun…Read More

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes review — wildlife, social justice documentary

May 26, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Alison Reid | 83 min | on Crave, and available through June 4 as a virtual screening at Carbon Arc Cinema What's surprising about this delightful documentary is its split focus: it both celebrates Canadian giraffe expert Dr Anne Innes Dagg for her passion and accomplishments as a giraffe researcher, and takes a…Read More

Tammy’s Always Dying review — Mother/daughter drama halfway there

May 4, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Amy Jo Johnson | Written by Joanne Sarazen | 85 min | on Demand and Crave Plus I feel for the creative team on this one for having hitched their project to a lead who is now radioactive. I do my best to ignore the tabloid storm around a performer, but the zeitgeist-goosing…Read More

Blood Quantum review — Zombie pandemic movie a solid brain-eater

April 28, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jeff Barnaby | 96 min | Netflix, CBC Gem This is an impressively bloody and authentic pre- and post-apocalyptic zombie picture from the Mi'kmaq filmmaker who gave us Rhymes For Young Ghouls. Regular readers of FITI and listeners to one of my podcasts, LENS ME YOUR EARS, will know I'm not…Read More

The Grey Fox review — A Canadian classic returns

April 23, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Phillip Borsos | Written by John Hunter | 110 min | UPDATE: Available through the month of April at Film Movement Plus through Carbon Arc Cinema A much-appreciated 1982 western that hasn't always been readily available to watch, but you can stream it online for $8 as part of a cross-Canada fundraiser to…Read More

National Canadian Film Day 2020

April 22, 2020 flawintheiris

This week I received a press release from Elevation Pictures that reported "Canadian film distribution companies have joined efforts to highlight some incredible Canadian films for audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their own home" This is all to celebrate National Canadian Film Day on Wednesday, April 22. It continues: "Elevation Pictures, eOne, LevelFILM,…Read More

Run This Town review — Millennial angst buries the lede

April 21, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ricky Tollman | 99 min | Crave Bram (Ben Platt) is a slightly ambitious, slightly insecure, slightly smug young reporter who in 2012 works for a slightly fictional Toronto paper called The Record. He wants to do journalism that matters — and is regularly pressured in that direction by his…Read More

Disappearance at Clifton Hill review — Niagara-set mystery grounded in place

February 27, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Albert Shin | Written by Shin and James Schultz | 100 min | ▲▲▲△△| Netflix You don't see a lot of moody detective stories in the cinema anymore. That's because TV has more or less perfected the genre — a good, twisty script and a star performer is a formula that attracts eyeballs…Read More

Halifax Independent Filmmakers’ Festival (HIFF) 2019 launches

June 12, 2019 flawintheiris

For fans of the art of film, and those fans of Carbon Arc Cinema who drop by this blog interested in the more independent films I'm seeing, you might want to check out what's happening over here. It's HIFF, a festival of creative film—narrative, experimental, documentary, features, and shorts. So, in other words, something for…Read More

The Grizzlies review — Sports movie in offensive zone

April 21, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Miranda de Pencier | Written by Moira Walley-Beckett and Graham Yost | 102 min | Crave Plus What sort of clown would have a critical word to say about a heartwarming based-on-real-life sports movie about a group of cinegenic Inuit teens who learn to play lacrosse from a well-meaning teacher? This clown, apparently.…Read More