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…
By: Addison Wylie Preceding an amicable exchange between ex-lovers, Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) is asked by his former wife Ann (Andie MacDowell) how he’s doing. “I’m okay,” Andy answers. “You’re always okay,” Ann teases. She isn’t wrong. Throughout Goodrich, the audience observes Andy doing okay. He occasionally has an awkward conversation that sometimes references his past as a flawed father but, otherwise, he’s a well-respected and levelheaded dude.
Donald Trump has denounced The Apprentice. Not to be confused with his hit reality show of the past, The Apprentice is a docudrama chronicling the relationship between Trump and lawyer Roy Cohn. But, it seems as though the former president has misinterpreted Ali Abbasi’s movie as a biopic on his life as a businessman-turn-infamous mogul. There are biographical elements to The Apprentice , but the focus isn’t specific enough to be a Trump biopic. If Trump had stepped back, he would’ve seen that…
The assumption to presume there’s a personal connection between director Ellen Kuras and photographer Lee Miller, the subject of Kuras’ feature-length narrative debut Lee, isn’t that rash. An obvious interest for camerawork is shared between Kuras and Miller, and the passion for the craft may have also rubbed off on star Kate Winslet (who Kuras has worked with previously on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and A Little Chaos, and is credited as an executive producer on Lee). …
The Forest Hills is a pulverizing experience. The audience is constantly led astray by too many dead ends in the story. But on the other hand, Shelley Duvall. Movie goers are senselessly deafened by an ungainly and painful lead performance by Chiko Mendez. But then again, Shelley Duvall. Starlets from classic horror movies appear in extended cameos to bait movie buffs along, but their performances are flat. But also, Shelley Duvall.
By: Addison Wylie Steven Kostanski is a gifted filmmaker who can effortlessly emulate styles and fads of the past. But for as resourceful and accurate as he is, Kostanski has a habit of working in reverse; placing more attention on the final product rather than thinking about who his work should be geared towards. However, Kostanski’s recent sci-fi/buddy comedy Psycho Goreman suggested that the writer/director was considering his viewers more. His latest indie Frankie Freako, a throwback with similar…
With an impressively involving story using multiple methods to scare the viewer, Hold Your Breath is just the ticket for this year’s Halloween season.