Category Archives: International

Belfast review — Kenneth Branagh’s sweet reminiscence

November 16, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Kenneth Branagh | 98 minutes | Crave Belfast purports to provide a snapshot of actor-auteur Branagh's youth in working-class Belfast, beginning in the summer of 1969 and the months following when sectarian violence exploded in his neighbourhood. I couldn't help but think of the parallels with the film I watched this…Read More

Luzzu review — Portrait of a vanishing way of life

November 3, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Alex Camilleri | 94 min | Carbon Arc Cinema This is the first Maltese film I've had the pleasure to see. It's impressively complex, especially when you consider it's Camilleri's first feature working with a lead who's a non-actor. It's the story of a fisher trying to sustain a way of…Read More

Lamb review — Ewe may be surprised

October 14, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson | Written by Jóhannsson and Sjón | 106 min | Crave Lamb is distributed in North America by A24, the American company that's defined itself in the marketplace with stellar indies and horror films, amongst them Midsommar, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, and Ladybird. The trailer for this picture suggested it leans toward…Read More

Bergman Island review — Summer sonata times two

October 13, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve | 112 min | Two screenings at Carbon Arc Cinema on Friday, October 15 As a FYI for new readers, I help program films at Carbon Arc Cinema in Halifax. The cinema offers tickets and screenings through their website and in person through fall and winter seasons (in non-pandemic…Read More

#FIN2021 Reviews — Wife Of A Spy, The Worst Person In The World

September 19, 2021 flawintheiris

Wife Of A Spy | Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Written by Kurosawa, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and Tadashi Nohara | 115 min Kobe, 1940. The military presence in Japan is cracking down on free thinking merchants and amateur filmmakers like Yusaku Fukuhara (Issey Takahashi), who heads to Manchuria with his nephew on a business trip. Is…Read More

#FIN2021 Review: Memoria

September 18, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 136 min It's been more than a decade since I've seen a film by the revered Thai filmmaker with the challenging-to-pronounce name. It was his Palme d'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a picture that is delightfully resistant to the tyranny of traditional narrative. His…Read More

Annette review — A delightfully bonkers, original, epic showbiz musical

August 27, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Leos Carax | Written by Ron and Russell Mael, music by Sparks | 141 min | Amazon Prime She's the beauty, the opera singer. Ann Defrasnoux. She goes on stage to sing, to die, to save her audience. She's fond of apples. He's the beast, the bastard, a caustic comedian, the Ape of…Read More

Stillwater review — Fish-out-of-water thriller gives Damon career-best role

August 3, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Tom McCarthy | Written by McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain, and Noé Debré | 139 min | Crave Tom McCarthy is a filmmaking wonder. He's responsible for the lovely indies The Station Agent, and The Visitor, the Oscar-winning procedural, Spotlight, and the terrific recent family movie, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, and he's…Read More

Dead Pigs review — Cathy Yan’s pre-Birds Of Prey movie shows how she got the superhero gig

July 12, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Cathy Yan | 122 min | On Demand/Mubi A deliberate drama of overlapping character arcs that serves to reveal a harder sign of life in urban China than we often get to see. It's got Altman in its DNA, but Dead Pigs is a 21st Century flick, deeply critical of late…Read More

Tove review — A complex and affecting love story

July 2, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Zaida Bergroth | Written by Eeva Putro and Jarno Elonen | 100 min | Amazon Prime If you were like me and you weren't familiar with Tove Jansson, creator of the comic strip Moomins, this biopic will be eye-opening on a sheer information delivery level. It may surprise even more for what it…Read More