In Cinemas: June 19, 2015 — Inside Out, Clouds of Sils Maria, Smart Phone Film Festival

June 18, 2015 flawintheiris

I just saw the new one from Pixar, called Inside Out, and will be talking about it on CTV in the morning (check back for the link). I'll also write up a full review on the weekend. It's the first non-sequel Pixar offering since Brave back in 2012, and Up before then, and it's a gem,… Read More

Still Alice review — Julianne Moore shines in Alzheimer’s drama

February 18, 2015 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, from a novel by Lisa Genova Sometimes a movie is most effective just by being singular. Still Alice is such a case. It's a story that can be summed up like this: An academic gets early onset Alzheimer's and this is what happens to her. Julianne… Read More

2010 so far

September 13, 2010 flawintheiris

This may be a bit premature, since I have admitted in a previous post of my having not seen nearly enough of the summer movies. But with September, which always seems to me like a period of transition, for my own sake I'd like to look back at the movies I did see in the… Read More

Land of Bad review — It’s sure not Land of Good

February 19, 2024 flawintheiris

Directed by William Eubank | Written by Eubank and David Frigerio | 113 min | ▲▲△△△ Movies like this — men-on-a-mission flicks — were the primary action genre of my youth. They frequently featured stars like Roger Moore and Richard Burton, and in the '80s they got a lot more right-wing and Vietnam-obsessed. They haven't… Read More

Night Catches Us (2010) review — Underseen drama a rough gem

June 11, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Tanya Hamilton | 90 min | Hoopla It's 1976, and Markus (Anthony Mackie) is home. He's been away for years from his Philadelphia neighbourhood. Back when he left, he and his buddies were into some radical politics, and when things went bad, they fingered Markus as the snitch. The locals aren't… Read More

Carbon Arc Reviews — Winter 2019 Season

April 30, 2019 flawintheiris

Carbon Arc Independent Cinema's most recent season has concluded. As a programmer I am grateful to have been able contribute to the screening selection, though as a volunteer I wasn't able to see every film that showed. The ones I missed, disappointingly, include Rafiki, Capernaum, Styx, Birds Of Passage, and Ziva Postec: The Editor Behind The Film Shoah.… Read More

The Halifax Black Film Festival, Carbon Arc, and a podcast update

February 28, 2019 flawintheiris

Film festival alert! Running from Friday, March 1, to Sunday, March 3, is the third edition of the Halifax Black Film Festival. It was founded by Fabienne Colas, who started similar festivals in Toronto and Montreal. This one's been growing, and this year there'll be screenings, workshops, and programs at multiple venues in Halifax. The opening… Read More

The Atlantic Film Festival 2014: Heartbeat

September 11, 2014 flawintheiris

As I mentioned yesterday, the one feature I've seen at this year's AFF is Andrea Dorfman's Heartbeat. I found it to be a sweet little Halifax movie, every location and most of the cast plucked from the local creative scene—actors and musicians filling the frame around Tanya Davis. Our city's former poet laureate plays Justine,… Read More