Delivering about two laughs for every one second of airtime without leaving its primary location, “Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” is about slaying the metaphorical old naked lunatic called “communication problems” who rides an invincible dragon named “family ties.”
The British domestic drama Le Week-End delivers a bitter, and sometimes uncomfortably naturalistic look at an inexplicably enduring marriage on the rocks. Yet it’s the bitterness contained within the film’s two leading performances and director Roger Michell’s love of small, quiet moments over grandstanding arguments that make for great adult oriented entertainment.
While it could have very easily descended into movie-of-the-week territory, Benjamin Ratner’ Canadian drama Down River eschews cliché in a thoughtful, well acted look at several generations of women at crossroads in their lives.
The first thirty minutes of Divergent, the first in yet another young adult novel series trying to cash in on the success of The Hunger Games and the lack of Harry Potter in the marketplace, are really incomprehensibly bad. Then, almost miraculously, the film gives the audience two more hours of film and actually finds a way to make it entertaining.
There’s a daringness and certainly a great degree of ambition to Danish auteur Lars von Trier’s latest misanthropic opus Nymphomaniac, but there’s also a been there, done that kind of feel to his work here that’s almost more distressing than the subject matter.
Muppets Most Wanted is to the Muppet franchise what A Good Day to Die Hard was to the John McClane films. A lazy, cynical mess (two things The Muppets should never be) that nearly made our Muppet loving film editor openly cry when he saw how far they have fallen.
Dork Shelf takes a look at all six features playing this year's 8th Annual Canadian Film Fest, kicking off tomorrow night at The Royal in Toronto.
H&G Hansel and Gretel gets a frighteningly realist retelling in this festival standout that would make the Brothers Grimm proud. Growing up in poverty with an aloof, ill suited mother in Winnipeg, 8 year old Gemma and her younger brother Harley are left behind in the backseat of truck while their mother goes and parties. […]
The Privileged A junior lawyer (Joshua Close) at a high profile firm desperate to make amends with his boss (Sam Trammell) after a colossally botched case agrees to play nice at his boss’ Northern Ontario cottage. What he doesn’t realize is that he and his expectant wife are about to be caught up in a […]
Play The Film When the opening night of a new play goes horribly awry, actors are forced to frantically improvise the plot onstage. Clashing egos, tested friendships, and a series of disastrous misunderstandings combine to create the most offensive, shocking and accidental piece of live theater ever to debut. Such a funny premise (and I […]
Patch Town Craig Goodwill adapts his darkly charming 2001 fairy tale short to feature length with great success. It might work better for those who haven’t seen the film it was based on – because it’s more or less the same thing – but the material is just as strong now as it was then […]
The Birder A slight, but quirky indie comedy from Theodore Bezaire, The Birder finds Ottawa native Tom Cavanagh as an ornithologist whose life is in disarray. Ron Spencer’s ex-wife has finally kicked him out of the house after breaking up six months prior, the high school where he’s a science teacher has begun to treat […]
Afterparty On the night of his brother’s wedding, best man Charlie (Graham Coffeng) gets the old gang together for a fun-filled, post-reception after party at the newlywed’s home where he has been staying for several weeks. Unsure of how to proceed with his own troubled marriage, Charlie reunites “the fellas” fifteen years after high school […]
This season Girls has become more focused than ever on using subtly themed episodes to test its characters like lab rats. The biggest thematic thread (or piece of cheese, depending on which metaphor you go with here) has been the notion of settling. This episode, the show asked some tough questions: Are you actually content, or are you unknowingly giving up a piece of yourself? Are you deluded if you’re happy with something seemingly imperfect?
“Hassun” is perfectly distilled Hannibal. It takes the conventions of a well established television format - the courtroom procedural - and mutilates it into a nightmarish message about the kind of love that compels you do horrible, violent things.
