Newfoundlander director Christian Sparkes (Hammer) seems as though he dipped into A24’s back catalogue to draw inspiration for his effective east coast chiller The King Tide. While there may be stylistic similarities to David Eggers’ work (The Witch, The Lighthouse) and Ari Aster’s movies (Hereditary, Midsommar), Sparkes’ ominous dramatic thriller doesn’t necessarily resemble Canada’s usual output. At least, not since Denis Côté’s Ghost Town Anthology.
The Princess Diaries The Dark Knight The Secret Life of Pets Mission: Impossible – Fallout These are the four movies I’ve seen at Highlands Cinema in Kinmount, Ontario. Four completely different movies with a ubiquitous moviegoing experience; provided by the theatre, its staff, and owner Keith Stata. It’s only fair to present my bias before reviewing The Movie Man, Matt Finlin’s documentary about Stata’s legacy and the history of his DIY multiplex. Located in the…
Be Still, an experimental biopic on Canada’s trailblazing photographer Hannah Maynard, educates and hypnotizes viewers. Thanks to filmmaker Elizabeth Lazebnik, Be Still channels Maynard’s creative vision and offers viewers a very special perspective. Eager to know more about the movie, I contacted Lazebnik to pick her brain.
Kyle Armstrong’s sophomore feature Hands That Bind is a western that’s more introverted than expected.
Based on the memoir North of Normal by Canadian author Cea Sunrise Person, Carly Stone’s drama of the same name is about a very interesting mother-daughter dynamic that’s been influenced by an unconventional upbringing and the ripple effect made by varying degrees of neglect.
So Much Tenderness reunites me with Colombian-Canadian filmmaker Lina Rodriguez eight years after reviewing her feature-length debut Señoritas. While I can see a bit of growth between then and now, Rodriguez is still stuck in her naturalistic, fly-on-the-wall approach to personal character studies.
The exposure of Canada’s reprehensible history with its former residential school system and the overall injustice towards this country’s Indigenous population keeps garnering attention. Written and directed by Marie Clements (The Road Forward), Bones of Crows is the latest movie to continue presenting the contemporary prejudice that mirrors the past.
Using his previous film, the embellished period thriller Operation Avalanche, as a stepping stone towards his latest feature, Canadian renegade Matt Johnson takes another crack at the biopic genre with BlackBerry. Director Johnson (co-writing with frequent collaborator/producer Matthew Miller) chronicles the rise and fall of the titular game-changing portable device that allowed users online access and exclusive text-based communication.
The End of Sex is the latest collaboration between director Sean Garrity (Borealis, I Propose We Never See Each Other Again After Tonight) and screenwriter/actor Jonas Chernick (Ashgrove).
