A hobo and a charmer, Camiel Borgman (a restrained and compelling Jan Bijvoet) may seem sympathetic at the start of writer-director Alex van Warmerdam’s bizarre but compelling Borgman, but then again, Ruth Gordon seemed too lovable to be in the business of buying babies for the devil. Although Borgman can accurately be described as part psychological […]
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‘Ivory Tower’: why US college financing is broken
Like its Sundance competitor “Fed Up”, which tackled rising obesity rates, Andrew Rossi’s documentary, “Ivory Tower”, takes on another major problem in American society: the rising cost of college tuition and whether it’s even worth what we’re paying for it. Both docs do a thorough job of illuminating many facets of a complex and important problem, but […]
Reviews: pulp thriller Cold in July and disappointing LGBT drama Test
Every city has a cinema where movies go to die. In San Francisco, Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas takes that honour: with five tiny screens and sound so tinny your iPod earbuds would probably be an improvement, the cinema plays hosts to movies that have worn out their welcome at Landmark’s bigger screens or that were […]
Review: We Are The Best! is a winning and funny film about gutsy, punk-loving teenage girls
We Are The Best!, the uproariously funny and buoyant new film from Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson, follows a trio of teenage girls who form a punk rock band.
Review of The Grand Seduction: The scheme may be grand but the comedy isn’t
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.