Cat-and-mouse thriller Pins & Needles can’t escape its flaws. Unfortunately for editor-turn-filmmaker James Villeneuve, there’s plenty of them in his feature-length debut (which had its world premiere last month at the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival).
Ten years ago, I gained new respect for Peter Lepeniotis. The Canadian animator was coming off the success of his first independently directed feature, The Nut Job, and he was very candid about the film industry with the audience at TIFF Kids. He was a great storyteller and a fountain of knowledge. But despite being a seasoned pro, Lepeniotis is still finding ways to challenge himself; such as with R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town, the filmmaker’s live-action directorial…
From writer/director Andrew Currie (Fido), The Invisibles is an ethereal parable about disassociating from trauma and grief.
I can picture filmmaker Braden Sitter Sr. watching the news and becoming sidetracked by the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen. I can also picture the filmmaker getting lost down a rabbit hole of ridiculous clickbait articles on social media. This isn’t a knock against Braden because a movie as off-the-wall as his unauthorized comedy The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man needs sheer mischievous curiousity to make it work, and there’s no shortage of…
By: Trevor Chartrand Superb and charming, Wild Goat Surf is a timeless coming-of-age story from writer/director Caitlyn Sponheimer. The movie perfectly encapsulates youth and our formative years; a turbulent time full of nuance and doubt.
Ever since the the death of Leonard Watson in 2006, aspiring filmmaker Kurtis Watson has struggled to find closure and understand his Dad’s decision to commit suicide. It’s been an upsetting topic for his family, who are either still grieving or are more in the dark than Kurtis about the tragedy.
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…
When I wrote about Ryan Ward’s directorial feature debut Son of the Sunshine, I was humbled by the filmmaker’s response to my unenthused review. I had labeled his film as “maple syrup melancholy”, a term I coined to encompass Canada’s ongoing trend of churning out depressing, empty movies. I thought the term was clever, Ward didn’t think so. The Canadian writer/director advised that, while disliking a movie and its motives is fine, labelling art can…
