Tag Archives: romance

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

February 27, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Céline Sciamma | 122 min | Crave Plus 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… Read More

The Photograph review — Stylish romance has heat to spare

February 18, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Stella Meghie | 106 min Michael (LaKeith Stanfield, everywhere these days) is a writer for a New York-based magazine on assignment in Louisiana to do a story on a fisherman, Isaac (Rob Morgan), and the impact of the BP oil spill. Michael hears a little about an old love of Isaac's,… Read More

Last Christmas review — Seasonal romcom a joy

November 10, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Paul Feig | Written by Emma Thompson, Greg Wise, and Bryony Kimmings | 102 min | Crave Plus I try not to blame a movie for the mistakes of its marketing, but have you seen the trailers for Last Christmas? They sell it as a sweet romantic comedy set in London at Christmas,… Read More

The Aftermath review — Handsome, conventional romantic drama

April 9, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by James Kent | Written by Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse, and Rhidian Brook, from a novel by Brook | 108 min | Crave Plus Have you seen the trailer for this film? It's been floating around in front of indie pictures for months now, and it's the quintessential spoilery preview, sharing scenes from deep… Read More

Cold War review — Potent love story spans decades

February 7, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski | Written by Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki, and Piotr Borkowski | 89 min | Prime Video Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida from 2013 was an Oscar winner and high water mark for the Polish filmmaker, whose 2004 same-sex romantic drama My Summer of Love launched Emily Blunt into the cinematic universe. Accordingly, my expectations for this film were… Read More

If Beale Street Could Talk review — Romantic drama gets bogged down

January 2, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Barry Jenkins | Written by Jenkins, adapting the book by James Baldwin | 119 min Let's talk about Brian Tyree Henry for a second. Last year was a break-out for him. From Atlanta, the series from creator Donald Glover, to features Hotel Artemis, White Boy Rick, Widows, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and now the return… Read More

A Star Is Born 2018 (1976, 1954, and 1937) review — Cooper’s sterling cover version hits emotional highs

October 6, 2018 flawintheiris

Along with the Bradley Cooper film, here's a look at the predecessors, the three times stars were born in the past. Dialogue and scene structures are frequently repeated, so it's interesting to observe what's been retained and what's been discarded. Some spoilers to follow about the older films, but not of the 2018 edition. 1937:… Read More

Disobedience review — The heartbreak of choice

May 31, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by Sebastian Lelio | Written by Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, based on the novel by Naomi Alderman | 114 min Smoking in movies has changed so much. Where once it was sexy and dangerous, now it signifies something else. Still danger, but also anxiety. Weakness. An addictive personality. Unhealth. Ronit (Rachel Weisz) smokes. Her… Read More

The Shape Of Water review — Romantic monster movie a new high point for Pan’s Labyrinth director

December 23, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Guillermo del Toro | Written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor | 123 min I've heard two jokey descriptors for this picture, that it's a gothic remake of Ron Howard's Splash, and that it's a Hellboy prequel, focussing on the origins of Abe Sapien. Both takes feel a lot more true than expected, but… Read More

The Big Sick review — A little bit of heart is what it takes

July 4, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Michael Showalter | Written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani | 119 min A shaggy, surprisingly dramatic romantic comedy, The Big Sick does exactly what I wanted from last week's Rough Night: it isn't afraid to steer into pathos and have people behave and react like real people. Maybe that's because it's based… Read More