Netflix’s sports drama High Flying Bird is exactly the film you expect from Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic). Using the experimental “look” of last year’s underrated Unsane and the foreboding “feel” of Contagion, High Flying Bird gives a fly-on-the-wall perspective of a sports agent (André Holland) as he senses fast-forming cracks in his career during an NBA lockout.
NOTE: Wonders of the Sea is currently being screened in 3D across Canada, but this review reflects the 2D version of the film. Wonders of the Sea has everything that you would get out of an uninterrupted computer screensaver of the ocean floor: opulent underwater visuals of fish and undefinable critters, and crossover transitions that meld everything together. The screensaver is better, however, because it’s quiet. Wonders of the Sea is informative, but there are too many…
I’ve been hard on Illumination in the past, but for a good reason. Universal’s animation company always seemed to be borrowing from other brands, from copycat plots to specific character designs. This makes the studio’s version of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch a bit of an anomaly. It’s an existing, well known property that could’ve been another clone but, instead, Illumination has provided a new take on the popular Dr. Seuss curmudgeon, which also includes luscious animation…
Into Invisible Light would have had better compatibility on stage than how it currently plays in its cinematic scope. As it is, the movie’s fine – decent even. But by projecting itself to fill a larger space, Shelagh Carter’s modest dialogue-driven drama calls attention to its barebones aesthetics when really these details should be, well, invisible.
A Breath Away emerges in the midst of a growing number of films dedicated to portraying the horrors of environmental disaster. Timely as it is horrifying, A Breath Away is an emotionally-charged thriller that broadly follows the algorithmic pattern set by previous disaster films, and has little to say ideologically about its central issues.
The Image Book is nonsense that gives experimental cinema a bad name. If a comedy had to spoof an “artsy” movie that’s “a little bit out there”, the filmmakers would try and emulate the ludicrous decisions Jean-Luc Godard makes in his latest “movie”. They might as well play portions of The Image Book instead of writing anything.
Beautiful Boy is a touching film that will break your heart. Based on the memoirs of David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the inconsistent dynamic between a coping father (Steve Carell) and his distraught son (Timothée Chalamet). The film leaps back-and-forth throughout their lives; capturing spirited memories, personal bonds, and the rift they currently face caused by Nic’s serious drug addiction.
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Mani Nasry has made a very personal film with We, and it’s certainly commendable, brave even, to see how transparent this young director has been in making the film – I suspect we’re getting a deep look into his mind, his personal philosophies and hardships. Nasry and his crew deserve a lot of respect for what their film is trying to do – however the finished product is far from flawless.
