Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) makes her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, a period crime drama centred around a game show where one of the contestants is an unidentified serial killer. Kendrick stars as Sheryl, a down-and-out actor who hasn’t secured her bearings since moving to Los Angeles to fulfil her dreams of an acting career. When offered a role as a “bachelorette avidly searching for true love”, and after…
My Penguin Friend hearkens back to animal movies of the 90s – wholesome and cleaned up family flicks where an animal trainer was, off-screen, using all sorts of tricks to make a cuddly pet shake hands with a precocious child actor. My Penguin Friend is wise to use this nostalgia to remind viewers of how likeable and crowd-pleasing these films are; the reminiscing distracts audiences away from the lean film’s shaggier qualities (such as briefly…
Right up until practically the end of the film, Strange Darling features two mysterious characters who are trying to measure each other up.
Quaint humour and wholesome gags about retired life collide with a character-driven, Coen Brothers-inspired thriller in Thelma. In her best role since her Oscar nominated work in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, June Squibb proves her chops as a late-career lead as the titular golden-ager. Lonely albeit confidently independent in Los Angeles, Thelma isn’t seen as a liability to her daughter (Parker Posey), her son-in-law (Clark Gregg), or her grandson (Fred Hechinger). However, a phone scam that…
Ezra feels like a modernized Rain Man that functions with the same fruitful filmmaking that made The Peanut Butter Falcon such an inclusive trailblazer. It’s also a great vehicle for character actor Bobby Cannavale (Blonde, Old Dads), who truly shows his worth as a grounded performer.
Newfoundlander director Christian Sparkes (Hammer) seems as though he dipped into A24’s back catalogue to draw inspiration for his effective east coast chiller The King Tide. While there may be stylistic similarities to David Eggers’ work (The Witch, The Lighthouse) and Ari Aster’s movies (Hereditary, Midsommar), Sparkes’ ominous dramatic thriller doesn’t necessarily resemble Canada’s usual output. At least, not since Denis Côté’s Ghost Town Anthology.
By: Jolie Featherstone Filmmaker Rose Glass follows up her sharp horror film Saint Maud with Love Lies Bleeding – a grimy, sexy, wild ride. A stylistic and psychedelic blend of self-aware Americana meets noir, Glass delivers a heady acid trip of a love story.
By: Jeff Ching The idea of a random Joe Schmoe appearing in everyone’s dreams is an intriguing premise, but could Dream Scenario’s writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) have ever imagined a better set-up than Nicolas Cage portraying this ubiquitous dream character? The answer to my rhetorical question is a resounding “hell no!”. In fact, at the post-screening Q&A at this year’s TIFF, Cage explained how he easily relates to this character and brought up the meme about himself;…
