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Mongrel Media

Reviews

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

By: Danyal Somani For her latest assignment, documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) wants to chronicle her childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif) and the journey towards his arranged marriage, having Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got to Do with It? explore whether one can actually fall in love through this type of matchmaking rather than a traditional Western “love-marriage”.

Reviews

Therapy Dogs

After watching the insane adolescent behaviour featured in MSC: The Movie and Magnum Opus: The .MOVie and vying for something deeper than amateur stunts, Therapy Dogs does a decent job answering my wishes.

Reviews

Simulant

Simulant is a good recommendation for those looking for a solid sci-fi action/thriller and in-the-moment entertainment.  The film doesn’t have much resonance after the credits roll, but I thoroughly enjoyed being in this futuristic story that’s executed well enough by director April Mullen (88, Farhope Tower, Badsville) and adequately written by screenwriter Ryan Christopher Churchill.

Reviews

I Like Movies

I Like Movies, a coming-of-age dramedy set in the early-2000s, alternates between the double life of 17-year-old Burlington native Lawrence Kweller (Isiah Lehtinen): an outspoken high school senior and an obsessive film buff at his local video store, Sequels Video, who is simply trying to fit in. Lawrence is an opinionated know-it-all under both roofs, but he feels more in his element at Sequels and is elated when they finally hire him on as an…

Reviews

Return to Seoul

A coming-of-age story centring around an adult’s personal issues with their adoption would be really interesting and, quite frankly, a cathartic outlet for those viewers who share similar feelings.  Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is very close to pulling off this type of character study, but it doesn’t quite go as far as it can with this premise.

Reviews

Living

Acclaimed character actor Bill Nighy has earned his first Oscar nomination for his lead performance in Oliver Hermanus’ Living, a retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru set in 1950s London.  Nighy more than deserves the nomination.  This isn’t a case of his peers tipping their hats to his legacy of work.  The role of Williams, an intimidating yet reclusive boss who learns about a critical health diagnosis giving him six months to live, is a change…

Reviews

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) aspires to give audiences a different type of police procedural with Decision to Leave, but I’m afraid he’s put too much of his focus on trying to deliver innovation rather than a story that’s either compelling or accessible.

Reviews

Piggy

Piggy is committed to its framework and characters, but it hasn’t settled on a primary genre.  Actually, as confusing as it is, the story tries to make its main character the genre which, you can imagine, poses issues.