The Meaning of Life walks and talks like a conventional weepy melodrama, but it’s much more than a typical tear-jerker. This is a smart and sweet film that reads between the lines. Instead of rattling off a familiar story about a friendly relationship that blooms between a struggling musician (Finn played by Canadian pop artist Tyler Shaw) and a young leukemia patient (Sophie played by Sadie Munroe of CBC’s Workin’ Moms’), The Meaning of Life…
Gary Burns’ Man Running, which modestly premiered at the 2018 Whistler Film Festival, follows Jim (Gord Rand) as he participates in a 24-hour marathon. The laborious journey he takes is vertiginously interspersed with flashbacks and hallucinations, suggesting a double struggle for the main character: one physical, one emotional.
Libera Nos (Deliver Us), a documentary chronicling numerous exorcisms, rides an innovative line between being a commentary on the distractions of devout faith and a real-life horror movie. It shook me up like no other film has in years.
In this current political climate, Russian president Vladimir Putin – along with his government – has frequently been held suspect for unethical ideologies. On Putin’s Blacklist, a Canadian-produced documentary directed by Boris Ivanov, exposes more of these unorthodox decisions while also linking these rippling effects to possible ideas of Putin’s personality.
After a blow-up at a house party over a drunken bad decision, brothers Luke and Travis (Andrew Rotilio and Charlie Hamilton) drive home in a huff and are struck by a pick-up truck. Travis receives minor injuries, but The Hotel Dieu follows a blinded Luke as he endures a strenuous recovery and discovers romance while staying at the hospital.
By: Addison Wylie Opening this weekend is Canadian indie Down River, a drama that peers into the lives of three strong women pushed to extremes in order to fulfill an artistic destiny. What they also have in common is their connection to Pearl, an old soul who is ready to drop everything if she’s needed for friendship and support. Down River is a character study that offers a fair bit to chew on and doesn’t…
By: Addison Wylie Down River has so much emotion in it, the film is almost bursting at the seams to contain all of it. Actor turned filmmaker Ben Ratner pushes his four lead actresses to the brink of hysteria, but for fathomable reasons. Harper (played by Colleen Rennison) struggles as a lowly musician who’s losing touch of her sexuality, Fawn (played by Corner Gas’ Gabrielle Miller) is an actress who’s feeling a disconnect between her…
By: Addison Wylie After being featured at Toronto After Dark, the indie Canadian thriller named Solo is making a more public appearance with a theatrical run at Toronto’s Carlton Cinema. Carlton Cinema is a very appropriate venue seeing as the theatre and the film both share a level of independence. Carlton Cinema is a quaint theatre that feels as if you step into another world of movie watching, and Solo’s lead is left in her own world…
By: Addison Wylie I went into The Sheepdogs Have At It with interested, persuasive ears. I had heard some of the band’s work and liked it, but never found myself yearning to find out more about the band members themselves. I would take the music at face value and soak in the nostalgia that lined the tracks. The Sheepdogs Have At It offered insights here and there regarding how the band got started and how…
