The past few years have seen Spanish horror burst onto screens around the world thanks to some fairly high-profile Spanish directors making films in Hollywood, and Spanish films being remade for US audiences. [REC] was remade into Quarantine, though there is no news on whether Quarantine 2 will be made (I haven’t seen it, preferring […]
British director Michael J. Bassett brings to the screen Solomon Kane, the graphic novel penned by Robert E. Howard (who also created Conan the Barbarian) with all due seriousness and gravity, as apparently befits the character. I have not read the books, so this was my first exposure. And while certainly not a perfect film, […]
Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda has written and directed some of the most sublime, strange and touching films to come out of his home country in recent years, including After Life and Nobody Knows. Unfortunately his most recent film, Air Doll, is not as original or interesting. A sex doll comes to life while her owner […]
People who insist that small towns are better places for raising children than cities always amaze me. The typical arguments are that people are friendlier, there are fewer places for kids to get drugs, wide-open spaces for them to run around in, and that you can always know where your child is. These people need […]
With only a few middle-of-the-road horror films to his name, Brit filmmaker Michael J. Bassett tackles sword and sorcery with his third directorial effort, Solomon Kane. Adapted from the short stories and poems of Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian), Solomon Kane tells the tale of the eponymous 17th century mercenary and thief. […]
Just because a film is set more than a few decades ago, doesn’t mean it’s a period film. And just because events happened in a particular kind of society 200 years ago, doesn’t mean they are not relevant today. Jane Campion made that clean with her feature The Piano, and she has returned to these […]
15 year-old Mia’s life is claustrophobic. The council estate flat that she shares with her mother and sister is tiny. The corridors are tiny, and filled with young people who swear in ways that would make Mickey Rourke blush. Her mother seems to care little for her; in fact, there doesn’t seem to be anyone […]
Think Gotham City is the only city with a monopoly on costumed vigilantes? Think again. Hamilton, Ontario has its own guardian of the night: Defendor, a well meaning citizen hero bent on cleaning up the streets of The Hammer, or at least trying to. Defendor is the first feature film from Canadian actor Peter Stebbings, […]
The Vintner’s Luck is Niki Caro’s fourth feature, and it is as mixed as film as the wine and angels on her screen. It is a sumptuous film, one that engages the senses beyond sight and sound. While it is gorgeous to look at, its moments of exchange between story and viewer are too few […]
If Les Herbes Folles were directed by a newcomer, you would call it an extraordinary, quirky, thoroughly French look at the strange happenstance of love, the objects that lead us there, and what would happen if we said out loud the often strange things we were thinking. But the film is directed by the great […]
If you saw director John Hillcoat’s last film The Proposition, then you know that he is perhaps the only man suited to adapt Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. The world as we know it has been utterly destroyed: Society no longer functions and every bit of infrastructure is gone. A father and son struggle to […]
I can’t speak for the rest of this town’s cinema lovers, but one of the best parts of our film festival for me has always been the surprises. Not knowing which films I’m going to end up seeing, who’s going to be at the screenings, and which ones I will like. My priorities when choosing […]
The Forbidden Door‘s protagonist is not a starving artist, but a prosperous one learning that success can be just as torturous. The film opens on him sipping champagne while denying an art collector one of his gallery pieces, as it has already sold. The first few shots inside the art gallery give an initial impression […]
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival wrapped up this past Friday, the fest played some of the best genre films from around the world. One film in particular seems poised to become the sleeper hit of the fest: Strigoi, the debut film from director Faye Jackson. An eccentric and extremely black comedy, Strigoi is set […]
Inglourious Basterds is the latest film from Quentin Tarantino. On the surface, you would think that Tarantino’s filmmaking sensibilities wouldn’t fit with a period setting, but surprisingly they do. The movie has been advertised as a “men on a mission” movie, which it is, in part. But the trailers and commercials don’t reveal what the […]
