You pick up on a lot of hints when you watch enough movies. In a screening of The Blind Side, I grasped my armrest and held my breath when two characters were happily singing while driving. I know when that happens, an accident is right around the corner and, sure enough, there was.
Alan Thicke, in one of his final roles, is exceptional as self-help guru Patrick Spencer in It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway. As Spencer, Thicke is expected to peddle encouraging apathy with a smile – using nothing more than charisma to make his pitch. To think countless hosting gigs and ironic cameos didn’t prepare the entertainer for this movie would be foolish.
By: Nick Ferwerda To my surprise, Bitter Harvest – a film that was supposed to be about the Holodomor Genocide in the early 1930’s – is actually a mediocre love story. I didn’t say it was a good surprise.
By: Jessica Goddard A United Kingdom is a beautifully-made, sincere, and well-acted historical drama. Director Amma Asante (Belle) knows what she’s doing with this story, and hits all the right notes to make this an inspiring and uplifting film that still feels truthful and grounded in reality.
Kiss and Cry is a lovely Canadian companion to Josh Boone’s crowd-pleaser The Fault in Our Stars.
Directed by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) and written by Gaghan, Patrick Massett, and John Zinman, Gold is loosely based on the true story of the 1993 Bre-X mining scandal. Matthew McConaughey stars as down-and-out prospector Kenny Wells who stakes (no pun intended) his last penny on a partnership with a struggling geologist. Together, the two men venture into the jungles of Indonesia in search of gold.
As the weekend approaches and I search for a matinée recommendation to have in my holster, Oliver Schmitz’s courtroom drama Shepherds and Butchers comes along and fits the bill.
John Carchietta’s Teenage Cocktail is a surprisingly satisfying small-time endeavour in teenage angst.
