Drama
A Hidden Life
Terrence Malick is a fascinating oddity of cinema. After making two highly acclaimed features in the 1970s, he disappeared for two decades before returning sporadically until the 2010s, when he suddenly completed six features at a rapid-fire pace. This sudden burst of productivity did have a negative effect however. When a new Malick film was reviewed every handful of years, his visionary filmmaking style was exciting. However, getting a new one every year makes the…
I See You
Adam Randall’s thriller I See You is so good, it hurts. Seriously though, because I’m biting my tongue. I want to gush about this fantastic movie so much, but talking about it in detail would be a disservice. The film dishes out so many surprises and they all stick a miraculous landing.
Line of Descent
Are you still thirsty for crime movies after soaking in The Irishman? You might want to give Line of Descent a shot. In no way is Line of Descent in the same league as Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, but it’s a solid pick for people looking for to be entertained by lighter popcorn fare after watching Netflix’s consequential epic.
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Walking home on a dreary day in Vancouver, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) finds herself in the middle of an altercation between a surly man and a meek Indigenous woman. The woman, Rosie (Violet Nelson), has been roughed up. With instinctual grace and with Rosie’s permission, Áila steps in and separates Rosie from this argument, and invites the stranger into her house for safety and comfort.
Brotherhood
By: Trevor Chartrand Based on a true story, Brotherhood is a harrowing tale of survival that recounts the tragedy beset upon a boy’s summer camp in Balsam Lake, Ontario in 1926. On the night of July 20, thirteen boys and two camp counsellors set out to cross the lake in a canoe to gather food and supplies for the camp. They encountered high winds that capsized the boat, leaving them floating in the cold water…
Marriage Story
By: Jessica Goddard At the Marriage Story screening I attended, a complimentary packet of tissues was waiting in the cup holder of each seat in the theatre. Quite the statement. So when the movie opens with both leading characters reading the lists of things they like about one another in front of a mediator, you know this will be a wrenching watch.
Midway
By: Jessica Goddard Full disclosure: I am bad at watching war movies. I watch war movies out of some (likely misdirected) sense of duty – if actual human beings lived these horrors, I should be able to stomach cinematic recreations of them, is my thinking. But, I find it very hard to watch people die (which I’ve chosen to attribute to a smug overabundance of empathy) even if it’s only a performance. For this reason,…
Anthem of a Teenage Prophet
The melodic title of Robin Hays’ Anthem of a Teenage Prophet suggests, at the very least, a kind of experimental approach to tragedy and trauma. Instead, this adaptation of Joanne Proulx’s award-winning novel Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet is surprisingly familiar; replete with the traditional rebellious drug-fueled angst we’ve come to expect from cinematic representations of teenage life in the suburbs.