May 2021

Reviews

The Retreat

Actor-turned-filmmaker Pat Mills has made some great comedies (Guidance, Don’t Talk to Irene), and he’s currently challenging himself by branching out to different genres (CBC Gem’s short-form series Queens dabbles with mystery, for instance).  The Retreat is Mills’ shot at making a straightforward horror-thriller, and it doesn’t go as straightforward as his previous endeavours.

Reviews

Drifting Snow

Written and directed by Ryan Noth (No Heart Feelings), Drifting Snow depicts a rural Ontario winter in all its frozen glory. But, tangled timelines and poor pacing hinder what could otherwise be a compelling drama.

Reviews

Painkiller

Painkiller is more of a mouthpiece than a movie.  The filmmakers are so excited by the film’s premise, that they would rather table action sequences and tense showdowns to have discussions about Big Pharma and the opioid epidemic it seems to be encouraging.  I admire their enthusiasm, but this attitude has distracted them from making a good movie.

Reviews

Eat Wheaties!

For the sake of transparency, I want to start by making it clear that I am not the ideal audience for this film.  While Eat Wheaties! may aspire to being a humorous commentary on popular culture and the cult of celebrity, I found the social critique rather thin.  In the end, Eat Wheaties! came a bit too close to making light of stalking and harassment for my taste.  There are plenty of people out there who…

Reviews

The Outside Story

By: Trevor Chartrand A brilliant slice-of-life comedy, The Outside Story is a charming and lighthearted little film.  This day-in-the-life movie tells the story of Charles Young (Hotel Artemis’ Brian Tyree Henry), an introverted video editor who’s down in the dumps after splitting up with his ex.  After accidentally locking himself out of his apartment, this homebody is forced to stop and smell the roses in his neighbourhood for the first time since he moved in.  While…

Reviews

The Mitchells vs. The Machines

The Mitchells vs.The Machines is very much cut from the same talented cloth as Sony Pictures Animation’s Oscar-winning hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.  The brilliant artists at Sony Pictures Animation, yet again, set a new bar for computer animation;  offering audiences indescribably energetic visuals that astonishingly never lose the film’s lightning-fast pace.  But just like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the story struggles to keep up with the film’s skill.  The movie assuredly commits its general theme to the…