Few documentaries have moved me like Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America has. It’s an unflinching breakdown of American history and an empathetic reach to those who have suffered through it. Lawyer Jeffery Robinson (who last appeared in 2020’s brilliant doc The Fight) guides us every step of the way.
In 1976, Marion Elliott-Said – a Somali-English teenager from London – formed a band. That band, called X-Ray Spex, would quickly become one of the most distinct groups to emerge from the fledgling punk scene. Marion, in her front-woman persona as Poly Styrene, broke into an industry that was overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male, paving the way for other female musicians and women of colour. Many credit her with laying the foundations for what would,…
The King’s Daughter has a lot of strikes against it. It wrapped in 2014, and it shows. It’s a shameless Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe, with the romantic lead resembling an Orlando Bloom-Johnny Depp mashup. The other performances are broadly mannered. The overlit locations look as if they belong on stage or on a television show. And, the effects are a little hokey.
Filmmaker Sean Baker follows up his American masterpiece The Florida Project, a drama about a helpless community living on the fringe of fantasy, with Red Rocket, another winner that dabbles in the same wheelhouse but broadening its scope to a rural population. And much like how The Florida Project found humour in innocence, Red Rocket finds humour in ignorance.
Numb from the sudden death of his screenwriter wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), actor Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is recruited for a brief residency to direct the play he had previously performed in, and the last play Oto watched him in. Yūsuke has formed a shell around him, refusing to let anyone catch him with his guard down. Aside from theatre, he likes to be alone. His routine is rocked, however, when the theatre program assigns…
Zeros and Ones begins with an enthusiastic vlog from Ethan Hawke, who eagerly tells the audience that he’ll be playing a dual role in the movie that we’re about to watch. He also speaks highly of the film’s writer/director Abel Ferrara (Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant, 4:44 Last Day on Earth), and how the filmmaker has made a truly special movie that speaks “to this moment” and that it’s “Abel’s hit on what we’ve been going through…
The most interesting thing about Marionette is the question it made me ask myself: if a generic movie is a functioning entry in its genre, should it receive a passing grade? I had just given Netflix’s bombastic blockbuster Red Notice a recommendation because of this same grading method. So, what’s preventing me from doing the same with Marionette?
The Surprise Visit features a small ensemble of actors who seem to be challenging each other. Only they’re not inspiring each other, they’re competing against each other for who can exaggerate the most. And director Nick Lyon is letting his cast “duke it out”.
June Again is a pretty good movie that’s headlined by the first excellent performance of the year.
By: Trevor Chartrand See For Me, directed by Randall Okita (The Lockpicker), is an engaging thriller that’s sort-of a reverse Don’t Breathe. In both films, a blind person fends off would-be home invaders – but in Okita’s movie, our visually-impaired lead character is not a sadistic sociopath – she’s (mostly) a good person.