Reviews
Isle of Dogs
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Wes Anderson is at it again with another quirky stop-motion animated feature, his second foray into the genre since 2009’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. In Isle of Dogs, Anderson’s gone above and beyond to create a clever, stylized, and memorable motion picture.
Catwalk: Tales from the Catshow Circuit
Last year’s Kedi, one of the best films of the year, showed us just how much potential there is in cat documentaries. This year, CBC Docs attempted to follow that nascent tradition in Canada with Catwalk: Tales from the Catshow Circuit, a study of people and their pets who participate in such performances. And, yes, there’s a healthy dose of cute cat action.
The Leisure Seeker
By: Jessica Goddard Paolo Virzì’s geriatric road trip flick wastes the legendary talents of Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren on some of the most unfortunate forced sentimentality and rushed melodrama I’ve seen in years. Despite a promising premise, this adaption of Michael Zadoorian’s novel of the same name is more often cringeworthy than sincere.
The Death of Stalin
Across the past couple decades, Armando Iannucci has repeatedly shown himself to be one of the most important voices working in comedy. Whether we are discussing his hand in the creation of Alan Partridge or his blatantly political work in The Thick of It and Veep, Iannucci has shown that he has his hand on the comedic pulse of whatever age he may be in. Now, he’s decided to take on a new experiment: a…
Learning to See: The World of Insects
One thing that tends to endear viewers to a film is something that has been described as a “personal” style of filmmaking. When the director finds something that they have a deep personal connection with and they present it to us in an authentic, unpretentious way, that is usually something to be commended. Unfortunately, it is also possible to become too personal, giving up certain aesthetic qualities in favour of familiarity. When that happens, the…
Hell’s Kitty
Hell’s Kitty, a film that has been assembled from a web series of the same name conceived by writer/director Nicholas Tana, makes for an amusing in-joke for horror hounds. The cameos alone from iconic character actors are enough to make those fans beam. For instance, The Hills Have Eyes’ Michael Berryman appears as a testy detective, while Heir’s Bill Oberst Jr. and The Shape of Water’s Doug Jones star as a devout duo who attempt to exorcize…
Juggernaut
Juggernaut has an element it excels in – troubled characters gradually bringing their brooding funk to an explosive spill. I’d like to believe writer/director Daniel DiMarco is aware of how his film works, but the filmmaker consistently sidesteps around this area of strength. I don’t think DiMarco is clueless, but he’s making too much trouble for himself to seek out a challenge.