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Reviews

Roobha

Lenin M. Sivam’s Roobha explores two intersecting narratives: one, a young dancer, Roobha (Amrit Sandhu), a transgender woman living on the streets;  two, an older bartender Antony (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) whose poor lifestyle choices have severally worsened his health.  The two unexpectedly fall in love, creating tension in both characters’ lives.

Reviews

The Kid Detective

The Kid Detective has done the best job, in recent memory, explaining why a mystery’s leading sleuth is such a sad sack.  The enigmatic and eccentric personality has become such a cliché in the genre, that the audience just expects and accepts the detective to be grizzled, or unhappy, or an unpredictable hot head.  In The Kid Detective, Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) carries those traits, but writer/director Evan Morgan provides compelling motivation which fuels Brody’s top-form…

Reviews

Fugue

Fugue is one of those movies that requires its audience to be a blank slate to be truly effective.  If you want to get the most out of this film, it is best to go in knowing as little as possible about what happens.

Reviews

Percy

Percy is supposed to be an empowering biopic based on the struggle of an independent Canadian canola farmer being silenced and pushed out of a family business by a bigger, faceless corporation;  accusing the Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, of stealing seeds when GMO contaminants are found in his crops.  The potential is there, but director Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T., Netflix’s Juanita) and screenwriters Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pryor haven’t provided other requirements to earn the attention…

Reviews

Nadia, Butterfly

Pascal Plante’s Nadia, Butterfly eerily takes place at the now-cancelled 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and follows a French Canadian Olympian swimmer as she participates in her final event as a professional athlete.  Lovingly directed yet glacially paced, Nadia, Butterfly boasts some excellent performances and cinematography, but struggles to overcome its vague characterizations and meandering screenplay.

Reviews

Parallel Minds

Benjamin Ross Hayden’s futuristic sci-fi Parallel Minds begins with the invention of Red Eye 2, an improved ocular device that allows you to relive precious memories and record new ones.  As the launch approaches, Red Eye researcher Margo (Tommie-Amber Pirie) works closely with the product’s head developer.  In a shocking turn, the developer turns up dead;  prompting a withered detective, Thomas (Greg Bryk), to look for answers behind the alleged murder.  Margo assists him because,…

One-on-Ones

Wylie Writes’ One-On-One with Kire Paputts

Director Kire Paputts follows up his modest feature debut The Rainbow Kid with The Last Porno Show, an envelope-pushing character drama chronicling the personal arc of an aspiring actor taking over his estranged father’s faded adults-only move theatre.  It’s a really good movie that doesn’t shy away from anything and bares it all.  It stuck to me like shoes to the floor of a sold-out screening room.