Despite boasting a cast of the who’s who in English Canadian cinema — from Gordon Pinsent to Mark Critch to Taylor Kitsch — Don McKellar’s English adaptation of the lovely 2003 Québécois film La Grande Séduction is rather lacklustre. Considering most Canadians have no qualms about reading subtitles, it’s a bit of a mystery why this […]
Reviews: The Rover and El Ardor — On the fringes of society, you have to kill to survive
Two wonderfully atmospheric films screening Out of Competition at Cannes this year, The Rover from Australia and El Ardor from Argentina, take a look at the savagery that happens on the fringes of society.
Cannes Review: Argentina’s Wild Tales is inventive, funny, but uneven
After this review of Wild Tales, read our coverage of the Cannes film festival. Argentinian Director Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales, an uneven series of short, darkly comedic films, slyly woos you in with a perfect, taut beginning: an uproariously funny tale of a strange coincidental encounter. A model gets on a plane and finds herself sitting […]
Cannes Review: The Captive is captivatingly tense but shallow
The best thing about The Captive, Atom Egoyan’s entry in this year’s Official Competition at Cannes, is the way it doles out information slowly. Egoyan frames each shot so precisely so that we’re always aware of what we’re not seeing, creating suspense as things are revealed. We open on an icy, tall man, Mika (Kevin […]
Review: Jesse Eisenberg x2 is mesmerizing in The Double
If this year’s pair of doppelgänger films, Enemy and The Double, are any indication, there’s an inherent problem with the concept. Because it requires that a personality be split into two people — two extremes — neither character can be a full person, which means you’re ultimately watching a film about two one-note characters: two sides […]
SFIFF57 ends as it began with Alex of Venice, another mediocre film from a first-time director
Chris Messina’s mediocre directorial debut, Alex of Venice, boasts strong performances but is a low point in an otherwise excellent year at SFIFF. Well, SFIFF has come to a close after a great last couple of weeks full of some wonderful films from around the world. From the fantastic, biting satire, Dear White People, which […]