Tag Archives: Willem Dafoe

#FIN2019 Final Day — Highlights, Random Observations, and The Lighthouse review

September 20, 2019 flawintheiris

While I didn't take in quite as many films as I'd hoped, or may have on other years, I still feel like I got to take a solid bite out of the 2019 FIN Atlantic Film Festival, including seeing many more documentaries than usual. Feature Highlights: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Arab Blues, Parasite,… Read More

Reviews From The Vault Vol. 9 — Thrillers

September 4, 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

A Brief History of Spy Movies: Part Three

June 29, 2019 flawintheiris

THE LE CARRÉ ADAPTATIONS In the past two posts I review Harry Palmer movies and a dozen spy pictures from 1966 to 2006. This post is devoted to the film adaptations of the godfather of spy novels. Roger Ebert described John Le Carré’s novels as “chess problems in which one solution is elegant and all… Read More

Reviews: Vox Lux, On The Basis Of Sex, Bumblebee, Destination Wedding, The Mummy, Under The Silver Lake

May 1, 2019 flawintheiris

Vox Lux Brady Corbet's film is a strange animal, a drama about a pop star that's also a treatise on fame and the responsibility of art to inspire both violence and healing. Not all of its ideas work, but it deserves kudos for what it tries to do more than what it succeeds at. The… Read More

Now on Canadian Netflix — February 2019

February 6, 2019 flawintheiris

Velvet Buzzsaw A deliciously trashy art world satire/horror from Dan Gilroy, the filmmaker behind Nightcrawler and Roman J. Israel. , a picture with a lot more of the edge and unease of the former rather than the prestige aspirations of the latter. It tells the story of a shallow, ambitious, group of nasties; the delightfully named Morf Vandewalt (another… Read More

Aquaman review — Fishy adventure, splashy fun

December 28, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by James Wan | Written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, with Geoff Johns | 143 min | Netflix Every once in awhile, following a bunch of self-serious, mediocre films, one comes along that knows it isn't Shakespeare, and doesn't care. It's a good-bad movie, and it embraces its inner cheese and its… Read More

At Eternity’s Gate review — Arty biopic tells over-familiar story

December 7, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by Julien Schnabel | Written by Schnabel, Jean Claude Carriere, and Louise Kugelberg | 110 min My first question: Why? Why yet another Van Gogh biopic? Was last year's beautiful-but-dull animated feature Loving Vincent not enough for audiences? You don't have to go back too far to find a whole lot more, such as Van… Read More

Murder On The Orient Express (2017) review — One-track movie-going

November 13, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Kenneth Branagh | Written by Michael Green, from the novel by Agatha Christie | 114 min The Agatha Christie adaptation I grew up with was Death On The Nile. For some reason I'd seen that film three or four times as a kid, and Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is forever embodied in my heart… Read More

#AIFF2017 Finale and Wrap-Up: Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project

September 22, 2017 flawintheiris

Thursday night's films were number 23 and 24 for me at this year's Atlantic International Film Festival, not counting the shorts program. I've seen a collection of strong Canadian and independent American films and some of the year's best international fare, and somehow managed not to get sick, though it was a little touch and… Read More

John Wick review — Terrific, pure action

October 26, 2014 flawintheiris

Directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, written by Derek Kolstad | Netflix A few weeks ago I reviewed The Equalizer and A Walk Among The Tombstones, where I noticed this recurring theme in recent action movies of the middle-aged guy who finds redemption and makes amends for his past by picking up a gun… Read More