Art has been known to be so vivid and realistic that it can leap off the page, the canvas, et cetera. That saying becomes quite literal for psychotherapist Ruben Brandt, who is experiencing surrealists nightmares of famous paintings torturing him. In order to confront and conquer his fears, Brandt makes a bold choice to steal and obtain each work of art that haunts him, therefore being in full control of whatever is “out” to get…
The “found footage” horror sub-genre has had its fair share of stinkers, but movies don’t get much lazier than 1st Summoning, an entry that seems to be as anti-audience as it is anti-climactic. Here’s a movie that sheepishly grits its teeth, waiting for viewers to pity it.
From Academy Award winning filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others, The Tourist), Never Look Away chronicles an aspiring artist who grew up during World War II as he learns how to come to terms with his heartbreak and trauma.
Possibly influenced by Rachel Getting Married and August: Osage County, writer/director Roz Owen makes her feature film debut with Trouble in the Garden, a condensed drama about a family’s black sheep returning “home” to unexpectedly face her conflicted past.
The best choice made about 52 Words for Love concerns its release date. Whoever decided to release this movie on Valentine’s Day deserves a big box of chocolates.
Circling back to the achievements he made wth his breakout doc Sharkwater, filmmaker/conservationist Rob Stewart checks in in the status of sharks in his final film Sharkwater: Extinction. The documentary, however, takes on a parallel meaning because it’s not only a swan song to an endangered species, it’s also a touching goodbye to Stewart and his career in activism.
Pogey Beach offers a predicament: it’s a comedy that’s not necessarily funny, but you’ll still laugh for the right reasons. Jeremy Larter’s slacker comedy will put the viewer in more of a fugue state than sun stroke ever could.
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…
