Tag Archives: Ralph Fiennes

Now on Canadian Netflix: Spring 2018

May 10, 2018 flawintheiris

Mute (2018) A sci-fi thriller half a mess and half an interesting exercise in style. That it comes from Duncan Jones, the filmmaker responsible for Moon, Source Code, and, yes, Warcraft, hopes were high this would be a strong genre entry, but Mute never hits above its pulpy elements. We're in future Berlin, which looks… Read More

The Lego Batman Movie review — An annoying feature-length commercial

March 6, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Chris McKay | Written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, and John Whittington | 104 min I saw The Lego Movie for the first time back in 2014 at a 3D screening, and I didn't much enjoy it. I recognized its cleverness, but couldn't see past the hyper-caffeinated pace and editing, compounded… Read More

Kubo and the Two Strings review — Sad Son of the Samurai

August 28, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Travis Knight | Written by Marc Haimes, Chris Butler and Shannon Tindle | 101 min | Amazon Prime The three or four trailers before this gorgeous animated feature (from the Portland-based Laika studio that produced Coraline) were your typical, caffeinated, hyper-edited kiddie chum animation. In comparison to those, Kubo and the Two Strings is a breath of… Read More

A Bigger Splash review — Trashy times in the sun

June 1, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Written by David Kajganich and Alain Page, inspired by the film La Piscine | 125 min | ▲▲▲△△ Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is a rock star, an aesthetic cross between Chrissie Hynde and David Bowie. She's just had surgery on her voice, and her doctors insist she shouldn't speak. She and… 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

Spectre review — So Big, So Beautiful, But a Bit Blah

November 7, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Mendes | Written by John Logan, Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth, from a story by Logan, Purvis and Wade, based on the Ian Fleming character | 148 min "Bond is back... and this time, it's personal!" This could have been the cheekily lame tagline for each of the four Daniel Craig… Read More

The Worricker Trilogy — Terrific spycraft for a rainy day

December 14, 2014 flawintheiris

A series of features made for British television, these are now available on Blu-Ray and online. Pravda playwright and The Reader screenwriter David Hare is a legend in British theatre circles. He's written and directed a bit of a John le Carré-style British spy classic in Page Eight. Made for the BBC, it was released here in 2011 and now… Read More

The Grand Budapest Hotel review

March 30, 2014 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson, Written by Anderson and Hugh Guinness, inspired by the writing of Stefan Zweig A new Wes Anderson film is always an event. The Texas-born filmmaker may be too precious for some, but show me one of his peers with such a distinctive, irrepressible visual and thematic style, a sweet-sad combination of nostalgia… Read More

Skyfall review

November 13, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Mendes Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan based on characters by Ian Fleming James Bond returns for the 23rd time (in an EON Productions film), the third time for Daniel Craig. Since he took the mantle of the most famous secret agent in the world (something of an obstacle… Read More

Page Eight and London River reviews

March 12, 2012 flawintheiris

Two very different but very London-centric political thrillers now on DVD: Page Eight | Written and Directed by David Hare (BBC) Pravda playwright and The Reader screenwriter David Hare returns to directing for the first time in years with this John le Carré-style British spy drama. Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) plays a straight-arrow MI5 man,… Read More