Tag Archives: Frances McDormand

Wolfs review — These guys are pros

September 28, 2024 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jon Watts | 108 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Apple TV+ Amy Ryan's Margaret, a District Attorney, has a big problem. There's a dead guy in her swanky New York hotel room. She has a number she was given for absolute emergencies, someone she should call only if she's in desperate need.… Read More

The Tragedy of Macbeth review — Bold and resolute, though not too bloody

January 13, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Joel Coen | Written by Coen, adapting the play by William Shakespeare | 105 min | ▲▲▲△△ Feels like a lot of people were left scratching their heads over this one. I mean, anything the Coens do is naturally of interest — the brothers are the best, most consistent American filmmakers of their… Read More

The French Dispatch review — I don’t really get it. Still worth seeing, though.

November 1, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson | Written by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugh Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman | 108 min | In Cinemas I've long appreciated Wes Anderson's strange magic. I have plenty of time for his tiny twee classics like Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and the writer-director's masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel.… Read More

Nomadland review — Beautiful, elemental, and essential

April 9, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder | 107 min | Disney Plus and Crave Plus A version of this review first appeared on Flaw In The Iris in September 2020, when it screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. There's no ignoring the accolades heaped upon… Read More

#TIFF2020 Review — Nomadland

September 13, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder | 108 min The book this film is based on — Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century — is non-fiction. Its writer, Jessica Bruder, also wrote this article for Harpers, which informs the screenplay. Zhao uses non-actors in the picture including… Read More

Reviews from the Vault Vol. 8 — Comedies

August 28, 2019 flawintheiris

From 2005 to 2009 I was a programmer on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, every Sunday morning hosting The Love & Hate Movie Show. I talked about what I was seeing and revisited some of my favourite films of old, pretty much what I do now here on FITI. I still have a lot of… Read More

Isle Of Dogs review — Barking mad, beautiful, and yes, problematic

April 15, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson | Written by Anderson from a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura | 101 min The new Wes Anderson is as brilliant and idiosyncratic as anything I've seen in his peculiar cinematic output. It also has moments where I was left befuddled, bemused, and maybe, once or… Read More

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri review — McDormand’s great in dark comedy

November 27, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh | 115 min | Crave Plus It'll be a surprise to no one that Irish/Brit filmmaker McDonagh, of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths fame (not to be confused with his brother, John Michael, who gave us Calvary and War On Everyone) got his start in theatre. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing… Read More

Hail, Caesar! review — Drop By The Coens’ Hollywood party

February 8, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen | 106 min | ▲▲▲▲△ Once again the Coen Brothers celebrate their love of Hollywood's golden age with a knowing comedy in the spirit of The Hudsucker Proxy and Barton Fink, though lighter and sillier than both. Set largely at Fink's Capitol Pictures studio in the early 1950s—complete… Read More

Moonrise Kingdom review

June 17, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson Written by Anderson and Roman Coppola I'm happy Wes Anderson is out there. Because, say what you will about him—whether his very particular style of filmmaking is to your taste—it's hard to argue against originality, which he has in spades. After Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With… Read More