There is no bigger proponent of Canadian cinema than myself. If a film really captures me, I’ll go out of my way to champion it. Low budget, undetectable indies sometimes need that extra push. However, no matter if the film is big or small, if the end result is wildly inconsistent, I have to throw in the towel. Case in point: Navin Ramaswaran’s shockingly inept Chasing Valentine.
Borealis is a film I’ve been waiting for: Canadian cinema that’s tragic, but neither melodramatic or gratuitous.
Producer/director Brian Stockton pulls a reverse Ghost World with The Sabbatical, a low-key comedy where the older eccentric follows a current generation through a younger artist.
The producers of the surprising Heaven Is for Real offer audiences a similar slice with the pleasant yet generic Miracles from Heaven.
In the spirit of Harv Glazer’s Rubik’s Cube documentary 20 Moves, I really tried to sum up my opinion about the film in 20 words – it didn’t work. But, hey, I don’t mind elaborating on the aptitude of Glazer’s satisfying work.
When I had an interest in reviewing Toronah, filmmaker and Wild Wing founder Rick Smiciklas insisted I watch a season of his reality TV show Wingmen before jumping into his feature film debut. I agreed, and watched the first season on iTunes (which I liked despite its forgetful narrative).
Jonathan Taggart’s bare-bones documentary about people disconnected from electric or natural gas infrastructure has a loose, unpolished feel. It’s a fitting accompaniment to an exploration of people who live in a way that many of us would find bafflingly inconvenient.
About Scout could’ve gone in the wrong direction, but it doesn’t. Despite following a “to do” list of quirky indie things with precocious characters who have been schooled by Juno Technical Institute, there’s a consistent sincerity that never failed to smitten.
