Category Archives: International

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night review — Unique, haunting, and arty vampire picture

March 25, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour | 101 min | The Criterion Channel and Hoopla Recent years have seen a few too many teen vampire movies and TV shows, but the tide is turning: The undead are getting a little more adult, a little more terrifying and sexily intriguing. The chilly and amazing Swedish film Let…Read More

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire review — Passion simmers then burns

February 27, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Céline Sciamma | 122 min It screened at last year's FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, and now this gorgeous French romantic drama has finally arrived in Halifax cinemas. Céline Sciamma’s formal period film melts like butter on the tongue, a lovely if unlikely amalgam of The Piano and Blue Is The…Read More

Now On Canadian Netflix: January 2020

January 18, 2020 flawintheiris

The Two Popes On the face of it, this strikes me as strange material for Fernando Meirelles to approach. The Brazilian filmmaker responsible for City Of God and The Constant Gardener is a visionary of colour and kinetics, of movement. Why would he choose to tell the story of two senior citizens having a conversation, his…Read More

Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) review — Almodóvar returns with charming memoir

November 7, 2019 flawintheiris

This film was expected to screen on Friday, November 8 at Halifax's independent screening series, Carbon Arc—two screenings with tickets sold for both. Without warning, it was pulled by the distributor, Mongrel Media, earlier this week and given to Cineplex. Carbon Arc has replaced it with an award-winning documentary about Syria, The Cave, Please go…Read More

Parasite (Gisaengchung) review — Class comedy will leave a mark

October 31, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Bong Joon Ho | Written by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won | 132 min An earlier version of this review appeared on this blog back in September, when I caught this film at FIN Atlantic International Film Festival. It threw me for a bit of a loop—I wasn't entirely sure how…Read More

#FIN2019 Day Seven — Mystify: Michael Hutchence, Searching for God in India

September 19, 2019 flawintheiris

On this last day of FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, I'm taking stock: what have I seen and what have I missed. You can check out all my reviews here! (Thanks, Kate!) After seeing a couple more films on Thursday I'll offer my favourites in tomorrow's post, but I can say now what's really stood…Read More

#FIN2019 Day Six — Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out In America, Grâce à Dieu reviews

September 18, 2019 flawintheiris

Hugh Hefner's After Dark: Speaking Out In America A look back at the Playboy founder's ventures into television in the 1950s and 1960s, with an assembly of footage from his variety/talk shows Playboy's Penthouse and Playboy After Dark, shows that challenged American television audiences for a couple seasons about a decade apart. According to Brigitte…Read More

#FIN2019 Day Four — the Script Pitch, Varda By Agnes, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice reviews

September 16, 2019 flawintheiris

A little unnerving to drop by the the Script Pitch on Sunday afternoon, the end result of the 2019 FIN Script Development Program, where one year ago I stepped up with"professor" Michael Melski and "class," sweating bullets, and pitched the supernatural adventure Demon to a panel of industry experts. I could feel the tension deep…Read More

Opening Night and Day Two #FIN2019 — Portrait Of A Lady On Fire review

September 14, 2019 flawintheiris

Having seen the opening night film, Murmur, on a screener in advance—and you can find my review of it here—I indulged in a semi-transgressive act and on Thursday evening instead went to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag one-woman show broadcast on the Cineplex Event Screen from London. It was an astonishing and hilarious performance, and fascinating…Read More

High Life review — Arty sci-fi lost in space

May 4, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Clare Denis | Written by Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Geoff Cox, and Nick Laird | 113 min | Prime Video Clare Denis leaves behind her colonial concerns and her French language films—her most recent being the diverting Let The Sunshine In—for an English debut set in deep space. To call it retro-futurist would be…Read More