Blackbird Review
The award winning Canadian drama Blackbird is a successful and thoughtful look at how one high schooler's possibly idle threats can get blown out of proportion in our digital age with heavy consequences.
The Good Lie Review
Writer/director Shawn Linden's The Good Lie is a revenge thriller that should work, but it maddeningly wastes a strong, if somewhat simplified core idea on a thoroughly useless framing device that sinks the whole thing.
Slaughter Nick for President and Skull World Reviews
This weekend brings a pair of documentaries about strange forms of notoriety to the Carlton Cinema in Toronto: Slaughter Nick for President and Skull World. Both films are hilarious and inspiring looks at people who love what they do and deeply appreciate the efforts of those around them. One of them just happens to be a down on his luck actor who finds out that a character he played on a crappy TV show has become a folk hero overseas, and the other is a Clutch loving metalhead who uses his creative side to create all out cardboard carnage.
The Great Gatsby Review
While still technically an alright movie overall and somewhat subdued by its director's usual flashy standards, Baz Luhrmann's big screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby still proves that there's something completely unfilmable about the source material in spite of some pitch perfect casting and stylistic choices.
The Manor Review
The Guelph, Ontario strip club set documentary The Manor is an alternately amusing and heartbreaking look at a barely functional family that could have only made by someone who truly loves and cares for his subjects.
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh Review
While it’s normally admirable for most horror films in this day in age to play out as slow burns that mete out minor details to the audience over time, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh takes it to wholly dull, but undoubtedly good looking extremes.
I Declare War Review
The pitch-black coming of age comedy I Declare War is electrifying, terrifying, exciting, thoughtful, and undeniably entertaining to behold.
At Any Price Review
At Any Price is a gloomy parable that speaks to the woes of life in small town America. Director and co-writer Ramin Bahrani’s delivers a picturesque rendering of golden-glimmering wheat fields and comforts of country living. Yet, there is a general air of melancholy that floats through this film in which stories of lust, teenage angst and midlife crisis become implausibly intermittent.
This (Past Month) in DVD
With about roughly one billion film festivals this past month, our film writers haven't been able to keep up with the DVD column. So here now is a mix of everything leading up to this current week with looks at Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, John Dies at the End, Gangster Squad, Jack Reacher, Broken City, Mama, The Details, Promised Land, Revenge for Jolly!, The Oranges, and links back to a ton of other stuff we just didn't have room for.
Night of the Living Dead Live Review
Night of the Living Dead Live not only pays homage to the seminal zombie film, but also asks the question: if the characters had done things differently, would they have survived?
Iron Man 3 Review
Not only is Iron Man 3 an almost insurmountable high bar to clear for this summer movie season and the best Marvel film to date, it's also just an excellent all around movie. It's the antithesis of shallow blockbuster filmmaking that still delivers the goods and knows how to be a fun and enjoyably twisty ride thanks to Robert Downey Jr.'s continued excellence as Tony Stark and some fresh new energy courtesy of writer and director Shane Black.
Game of Thrones Episode 3.5 Recap
Last week’s episode ended on a high point for the series, as Daenerys acquired an army of Unsullied and burned Astapor from the inside out with the help of her dragons. This week's episode, appropriately titled "Kissed by Fire," begins with just as much energy and a healthy helping of fire to boot.
Injustice: Gods Among Us Review
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment hopes to answer fans’ burning questions about who would win a straight-up fight between Superman and Shazam, or the Joker and Bane. The answers are about as satisfying – and silly – as you’d expect.
Hot Docs 2013 Kicks Into High Gear
With Hot Docs 2013 in high gear after last night's opening we come back today with our biggest assembly of reviews yet. Here for your reading pleasure are a look at 17 more films playing this year at one of the biggest all documentary festivals in the world.
The Colony Review
It’s not terribly original and it shows the signs of budgetary restrictions at many turns, but the Canadian post-apocalyptic action thriller The Colony certainly looks better and has a better cast and director than movies of this ilk usually have.
