Brett Morgen is a brilliant documentarian as seen in Jane and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck – the latter being one of the best movies ever made about a musician. His latest endeavour Moonage Daydream, a documentary about enigmatic artist David Bowie, is cut from the same cloth as Montage of Heck but, this time, it’s billed as more of a “cinematic experience”. And, it appears that most of the production’s focus has been applied…
Set in the early-2000s, I Like Movies alternates between the double life of 17-year-old Burlington native Lawrence Kweller (Isiah Lehtinen) as an outspoken high school senior and an obsessive film buff at his local video store, Sequels Video. Lawrence is an opinionated know-it-all under both roofs, but he feels more in his element at Sequels and is elated when they finally hire him on as an employee.
Walking home on a dreary day in Vancouver, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) finds herself in the middle of an altercation between a surly man and a meek Indigenous woman. The woman, Rosie (Violet Nelson), has been roughed up. With instinctual grace and with Rosie’s permission, Áila steps in and separates Rosie from this argument, and invites the stranger into her house for safety and comfort.
By: Trevor Chartrand Former actress Amy Jo Johnson’s second directorial effort is Tammy’s Always Dying, an incredibly painful look at dysfunctional family dynamics. The film explores the dark and unstable relationship between the understandably broken Catherine (Anastasia Phillips) and her suicidal mother Tammy (Felicity Huffman).
In his documentary Coppers, Alan Zweig (15 Reasons To Live) interviews Canadian ex-police officers. Occasionally, viewers are given the a ride-along perspective as the subjects drive around their formally patrolled turf and share some unforgettable stories. Most of these interviewees can recall aged confrontations as if it happened hours before Zweig’s camera turned on. For some, these cases have led to current wellness complications. Along with riding shotgun, Zweig has also emulated the atmosphere of…
The Last Porno Show pushes itself to the limit (and then some) to portray a shocking and unshakable character study of an off-kilter actor who loses himself to method acting.
Depending on who you ask, Canadian cinema may well be celebrating its 100th year this year and, despite the general dismay that it continues to attract from some, it is still very much able to be as innovative as any other national cinema. Why the history lesson? Because that may be the best way to introduce Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century, at once a great addition to the Canadian cinematic canon and a bitter poisonous…
With The Witch, Robert Eggers showed the world that there were untold, new ways to tell horror stories. So, what can someone who has already reinvented a genre do as a follow up? Eggers decided to tell a new story based on the research of horrific authentic historical documents, and it works.
Directed and Written by Katherine Jerkovic, Roads in February is a beautifully shot and immersive film that explores the relationship between a young Hispanic Canadian named Sara (Arlen Aguayo-Stewart), and her grandmother (Gloria Demassi).
