Run Woman Run is a sweet and charming dramatic comedy about family, community, healing, and grief. Written and directed by Zoe Leigh Hopkins (Kayak to Klemtu), Run Woman Run stars Dakota Ray Hebert (In Her City) as Beck, a single mom who is forced to re-examine her lifestyle after she is diagnosed with diabetes. While her father (Lorne Cardinal of Corner Gas) and sister (The Exchange’s Jayli Wolf) beg Beck to start eating right and exercising,…
By: Trevor Chartrand In this feature directorial debut of Thyrone Tommy, Learn to Swim focuses on the failing relationship between a stubborn jazz saxophone player Dezi (Thomas Antony Olajide) and an up-and-coming singer, Selma (Emma Ferreira). The film plays with time and takes place both before and after the relationship has failed. I hesitate to compare the film to 2009’s 500 Days of Summer, simply because Learn to Swim takes a much more sophisticated, and…
Alice has been inspired by interesting stories of enslaved black Americans making an escape and discovering what era they’re currently living in. For the titular Alice (Keke Palmer), the same exposure happens when she runs away from her plantation and is startled when she doesn’t recognize the environment around her. With her “master” Paul (Jonny Lee Miller) hot on her heels, she meets working-class driver Frank (Oscar-winning musician Common) who takes her in and realizes…
Moon Manor didn’t quite work for me. However, it finishes with poignant elegance while sending home a sobering message about stigmas behind certain health conditions. In this case, how does an elderly man (James ‘Jimmy’ Carrozo playing a version of himself) with debilitating Alzheimer’s choose to live his life? Moon Manor’s answer: throw yourself a FUN-eral and go out safely on your own terms. Moon Manor follows Jimmy on his “last day”.
Woman In Car wants to be a compelling character study, but it never takes off because writer/director Vanya Rose wants to focus on the actions in the story rather than the people.
After Yang chronicles the in-between of a family tragedy. Set in the not-so-distant future (similar to Spike Jonze’s Her), an assistive android named Yang (Justin H. Min, in one of this year’s strongest supporting roles) suddenly malfunctions. Yang’s assigned family are shaken up as they grasp for an action plan. The search for a satisfying resolution falls on the father, Jake (Colin Farrell), who slowly discovers more of Yang’s purpose as he shops around for repair…
By: Trevor Chartrand Donkeyhead is the first feature film from writer/director Agam Darshi, who has extensive credits both in front of and behind the camera. Her film focuses on Mona (played by Darshi herself), the least-successful sibling among the four brothers and sisters in her family. As a failed writer, she is the only one among them who still lives at home, aimless in her pursuits with no job and no prospects. Instead of pursuing…
Watching The Adam Project is like watching someone fall down stairs. The movie stands steadily, stumbles, picks itself back up, and repeats that same process until the film is so exhausted with itself that it doesn’t bother to pull itself together.
