By: Trevor Chartrand Based on a play of the same name, Thom Fitzgerald’s Splinters would have been better off staying on stage. While a perfectly fine motion picture, the film is essentially an adequate and frankly mediocre entry into this year’s TIFF line-up.
By: Trevor Chartrand Sparse and atmospheric, writer/director Benjamin Gilmour’s Jirga is a visually stunning entry in this year’s TIFF lineup.
By: Trevor Chartrand When a documentary filmmaker invests years of their life studying one subject, it goes without saying that this is a subject they have a lot of passion for. However, the real trick is to take this topic – whatever it may be – and get an audience equally invested. As much as the filmmaker may love the subject matter, the viewers need to care too. This is where The Coolest Guy Movie…
By: Trevor Chartrand The Happytime Gang is here! Directed by the son of Muppets creator Jim Henson, Brian Henson brings us The Happytime Murders, a comedy that takes fun and lovable puppets into some dark new territory.
By: Trevor Chartrand Helmed by Finnish filmmaker Teemu Nikki, Euthanizer is one moody, atmospheric and, frankly, zany thriller. Between overlapping tones and strategic musical cues, this movie blends genres in a way that just shouldn’t work, but somehow does – it’s like combining the sweetest strawberries with jalapenos and raw sewage. Euthanizer somehow creates a sweet, yet spicy, story that will leave a bad taste in your mouth (in a good way).
By: Trevor Chartrand Boots Riley’s directorial debut is undoubtedly a memorable satiric comedy, despite being uneven in some places. Sorry to Bother You is a tad ambitious – with plenty of high-concept ideas crammed into its runtime, the overall pacing and consistency of the film suffers a bit as a result. But then again, it’s nice to see a film with too much to say, rather than something so vapid that it says nothing.
By: Trevor Chartrand Michelle Ouellet’s Prodigals depicts a feeling as much as a narrative. Based on a stage play of the same name, the film is about a group of 20-somethings reflecting on their lives, and coming to terms with the emptiness staring back at them. While it may sound bleak and unsettling, the film isn’t without a few shimmering rays of hope.
By: Trevor Chartrand It’s refreshing to see original scripts can still make their way to the big screen! Between the endless tirade of superhero movies, novel adaptations, sequels, remakes, and reboots, it’s rare to see something that’s actually fresh. Films aren’t often greenlit without a built-in fanbase – and even when they are, they rarely rise above mediocrity. Thankfully, this isn’t the case with Drew Pearce’s Hotel Artemis. The film isn’t going to revolutionize cinema…
By: Trevor Chartrand Is it bad when the true-story version of a film sounds more entertaining than the fictionalized narrative we get instead? That may be the case with The Child Remains, a film loosely inspired by the Butterbox Baby murders in WWII-Era Nova Scotia.
