By: Trevor Chartrand Big Gold Brick is the brainchild of writer/director Brian Petsos, whose first feature film comes fully-loaded with a surprisingly star-studded cast. Featuring Andy Garcia, Megan Fox, and Oscar Isaac, this surreal comedy-drama has its moments, but ultimately gets bogged down by a slow pace and a series of uneven tonal shifts.
Written and directed by Tyson Wade Johnston, Streamline is a polished yet forgettable sports drama that puts young athletes, and the pressures they face, front and centre.
June Again is a pretty good movie that’s headlined by the first excellent performance of the year.
Written and directed by Dégradé filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser, Gaza Mon Amour is a sweet, subdued love story set in present-day Gaza.
Jim Cummings proved to be a brilliant performer and an exciting filmmaker with Thunder Road, a film he not only directed but also wrote and starred in. As that film’s leading character, he commanded the screen with run-on breakdowns that ranged from hysterical highs to desperate lows. The unforgettable results balanced heavy emotions and dark comedy.
Every so often, an overly confident filmmaker comes along to lighten the mood around taboos. There was Josh Lawson’s comedic approach to bizarre sexual fetishes in The Little Death, then Dave Schultz’s tasteless handling of suicide and death in Considering Love & Other Magic, and now Stephen Wallis with Defining Moments, an exhausting flume of individual stories dealing with heavy subject matter (like mental health) and the writer/director’s unbearably quirky perspective.
Though its measured pace and dialogue-heavy approach could turn off audiences seeking a more thrilling cinema experience, the European-produced Adventures of a Mathematician is an engaging and deeply human portrait of a fascinating moment in history.
By: Trevor Chartrand Canadian filmmaker Virginia Abramovich makes her feature film debut with Between Waves, a captivating (albeit heavy-handed) exploration of mental illness and grief, framed through the sci-fi lens of inter-dimensional travel.
Written and directed by Nicole Dorsey, Black Conflux gets many things right. Aesthetically, it is a compelling film that makes use of visual motifs to link the lives of two very different characters.
