Governments are funny things, these large looming figures of power that oversee an entire populace. I can’t recall a time when a government was spoken of favorably. The conversation always centers on what the government has done wrong or how it is mistreating its people. They are sort of like…
A common fault of smaller films like Don’t Get Killed in Alaska isn’t a lack of execution, but a lack of confidence. Writer and director Bill Taylor (in his feature directorial debut) very nearly pulls off a convincing and emotional family drama, but instead muddies the narrative and the emotional pull with some …
Who would have thought that the man who directed flat-out horror films like The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension would be able to pull off dark comedy so effortlessly? With Horns, Alexandre Aja shows impressive range by delving into the macabre and pulling from his story not only terrific horror elements but genuine …
We have been conditioned to generalize. We hear a word that immediately conjures an image in our mind, and as a consequence of this, marijuana users tend to get a pretty bad rap. They are branded stoners and potheads, those labels carrying loads of…
Every person is different. Every relationship is unique, with its own ups and downs, its own intricacies and complexities. Any group has its own dynamics that are worked out over time, its own ways of functioning, its own definition of functional. Everybody has a story, and no two stories are alike. All of these things are fairly …
Kung Fu Elliot is about a man with illusions of grandeur. He tells the camera that he’s going to be Canada’s first action star. Perhaps he isn’t familiar with Keanu Reeves or Ryan Reynolds, both Canadian actors that have starred in high profile action films. The subject is Elliot Scott, a man who boasts throughout the film that he’s a Canadian martial arts champion. He tells…
Guidance (2014), writer-director-actor Pat Mills’ escapist comedy about identity and self-debasement is a fearless portrayal of insecurity and incommunicability in the 21st century. In a world run by images and slogans, it is not uncommon that someone who is different from how the media presents life or how society dictates it will choose to mask their inner qualities as a manner…
I have no idea what this movie is trying to get at and there’s little spirit that I can find in it. It’s frustrating because I’m a fan of Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions. In it, Remy is an old professor who will soon die of cancer. He’s a womanizing, wine loving socialist. The characters in the film are multi-layered and almost every scene is infused with brilliant sarcasm and/or a…
The latest from David Cronenberg has been popping up intermittently on the festival circuit. Talk started after its world premiere at Cannes where Julianne Moore…
I had no idea what in the heck Trailer Park Boys was until I received an email informing me that the third (!) feature length movie was on the verge of a limited theatrical and massive VOD release on the same day that the show’s 8th (!!!) season premiered on Netflix. Though my initial impression led me to believe that this was …