Get Away If You Can
Written and directed by real-life couple Dominque Braun and Terrence Martin, Get Away If You Can is a surreal, and occasionally baffling, thriller.
Thriller
Orphan: First Kill
Orphan: First Kill, to an extent, pulls off its ambitious goal of being a prequel to a 13-year-old movie using the same leading actor.
Emily the Criminal
It’s odd to perceive the high stakes drama Emily the Criminal as a game-changer for star/producer Aubrey Plaza, but it absolutely is. Her role in John Patton Ford’s feature-length filmmaking debut requires the actor to channel her deadpan demeanour towards a more serious direction that details her character’s desperation, exhaustion and, later, her vindictive desires – it’s an incredible performance in an exciting dramatic thriller.
Fall
I’m not afraid of heights. However, as I watched Fall with bated breath, I felt chills and quivers in my back and my legs which I’ve never felt before. Watching the movie’s climb-savvy leads (wayward friends played by Grace Fulton and Virginia Gardner) scale a 2,000 radio tower in the middle of the desert was enough for me to clasp my armrest. Watching them dangle from the tower after being stranded at the top was…
The Good Neighbour
The Good Neighbour reminds viewers that just because a movie is a guilty pleasure, that doesn’t always indicate that it’s a bad movie. Stephan Rick’s thriller is far from great but, as far as meeting expectations, I had a lot of fun with his movie.
A Chiara
A family’s secret unravels in A Chiara, much to the surprise of a formally unaware titular teenager (played well by newcomer Swamy Rotolo, confidently leading the film). Chiara is worried and paranoid about her family’s safety, but she’s also angry that nobody will explain the situation to her. She receives reassurance, but that isn’t enough when she’s witnessed her father fleeing a scene before their family car was blown up.
Firestarter
Firestarter is not only a disappointment, it’s a strange disappointment. It promises to deliver on multiple levels and, yet, fails at every attempt. It’s billed as a horror, but it’s not scary. It’s billed as a thriller, but it doesn’t pull the viewer towards the edge of their seat. It’s also billed as a family drama and science fiction, which it certainly sports elements of, but neither genre is interesting or exciting in this movie….
Canadian Film Fest ’22: The Last Mark
In this efficient “hitman with a heart” tale from director Reem Morsi, The Last Mark is a confined thriller starring a conflicted crook (Shawn Doyle) and a kidnapped call girl (Alexia Fast) reeling for a “job” that went sideways after the escort witnesses the murder. The characters hide out at a safe house arranged by a fixer (Ashgrove’s Jonas Chernick) to escape the hitman’s unpredictable partner-in-crime (Bryce Hodgson). The dynamic between the unlikely fugitives is deliberately…
