Matthew Modine (of Netflix’s Stranger Things and 2011’s Wrong Turn) plays Steve in The Martini Shot, a terminally ill film director who is looking to make one last movie before his “time is up”. Even his doctor (John Cleese, the funniest he’s been since Rat Race) thinks the idea of Steve’s cinematic Irish swan song may be too ambitious given the filmmaker’s condition. But with such a loyal assistant (Fiona Glascott) and an open-minded film…
For 25 years, Mike Smith has co-starred in the Trailer Park Boys cult franchise as a surly yet compassionate, shed-dwelling kitten enthusiast known as Bubbles. While he may be referred to as a “second-or-third banana” in the get-rich schemes hatched by his pals Julian (JP Tremblay) and Ricky (Robb Wells), Bubbles’ side stories about his pets and his love for music has scratched the interest of fans; serving as a reason for fans to keep returning…
Going from one survival thriller inspired by video games (Pins & Needles) to another of its ilk, Flow is a much more literal and condensed example to identify with younger audiences. The results are slight and sometimes not very attractive, eventually weighed down by its own style and visual storytelling, but Flow is clean and entertaining family fare. A curious kitty roams a forest, and finds refuge in an abandoned house where her presumed former…
Known as “The G” to family, anger hangs off of Ann Hunter (Dale Dickey of Leave No Trace and Hell or High Water). As the primary caregiver for her ailing husband despite feeling as though everyone perceives her as a liability, Ann doesn’t have time to sugarcoat anything through her utter exhaustion. When she and her husband are abruptly relocated from their suburban home to a care facility by their legal guardian, Ann is upset…
Cat-and-mouse thriller Pins & Needles can’t escape its flaws. Unfortunately for editor-turn-filmmaker James Villeneuve, there’s plenty of them in his feature-length debut (which had its world premiere last month at the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival).
Much like Netflix’s anthology series Easy and the buddy comedy Platonic on Apple TV+, Matt and Mara is a micro-scaled drama, with humourous moments, that unpacks a fractured relationship. Deragh Campbell and Blackberry’s Matt Johnson, reunited with Anne at 13,000 Ft. writer/director Kazik Radwanski, portray writers who have followed separate paths. As Matt in the movie, Johnson plays an ambitious published writer who, while visiting Toronto, reconnects with former friend Mara (Campbell). Mara has since settled down with her musician husband…
A life of tragedy is recounted in Memoir of a Snail, a melancholic stop-motion animated film for mature audiences from writer/director Adam Elliot (Mary and Max). Following the death of their closest friend, Grace (voiced by Sarah Snook of HBO’s Succession and Netflix’s Run Rabbit Run) frees one of her pet snails. From the time it takes the snail to leave Grace and arrive to its garden destination, Grace reflects on her life leading up to this heartbreak;…
Conclave is an efficient chamber piece; evoking curiousities of how a pope is chosen as well as suggesting what cutthroat decisions happen before smoke bellows out of the Vatican to update the unsuspecting public. Overseen by Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes of The Menu), the voting procedures that follow the death of a former pope strike Lawrence at a time of doubting his faith. He keeps this vulnerability close to his chest, but is called…
Ten years ago, I gained new respect for Peter Lepeniotis. The Canadian animator was coming off the success of his first independently directed feature, The Nut Job, and he was very candid about the film industry with the audience at TIFF Kids. He was a great storyteller and a fountain of knowledge. But despite being a seasoned pro, Lepeniotis is still finding ways to challenge himself; such as with R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town, the filmmaker’s live-action directorial…
Your Monster is billed as a horror-fantasy, with notes of a rom-com, featuring a Broadway hopeful (Melissa Barrera) discovering a hunky beast (Tommy Dewey) in her closet. Sounds wild, right? What if I told you writer/director Caroline Lindy plays everything “straight”? What if I told you that the film is so quiet, you can hear the emptiness between lines of dialogue? Granted, this is a deliberate choice to play up the film’s quirkier qualities, but…