Obligatory mention: This movie was written and directed by Woody Allen. Woody Allen married his step-daughter (who was adopted by his then wife). Woody Allen has been accused by his adopted daughter of child abuse. For too long fans and critics have ignored or dismissed these aspects of Allen’s life when discussing his films. On …
Tag: Drama
The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2018, Henry Dunham)
This is a very stagey film – so stagey you’d think it was a play – that overcomes that limitation by being expertly made, even though it is Dunham’s first time directing a feature. (It’s a miraculous debut, in terms of Dunham’s ability to film and edit – I would sworn this was not a …
Carnage (2011, Roman Polanski)
This is the first time I’ve seen a Roman Polanski film I haven’t seen previously prior to what you might call my “maturity” regarding the crimes Polanski has fled the United States for. I have known about these crimes since I don’t know when – probably since I discovered who he was (so 20-something years …
Carcasses (2009, Denis Côté)
Carcasses is part of that trend in Canadian independent film in the early years of the 20th century to mix documentary style with fictional or plots, sometimes with people playing themselves. (I say Canadian trend because most of the films I have seen that do this are Canadian films from this time, or thereabouts. I …
The Americans (2013)
The Americans is a show that I stuck with sometimes in spite of myself, a show that has a lot going for it but struggled at times with believability. I don’t think I quite liked it as much as most critics and fans, but I did end up finishing it, despite having the ending spoiled for …
Canopy (2013, Aaron Wilson)
This is a film that seeks to tell a realistic story of what it would have been like to get shot down in the jungle during World War II. It is mostly silent and so it at least somewhat reminds me of that legendary failed Coen Brothers project, To the White Sea. Though obviously not for …
Café Lumière (2003, Hsiao-Hsien Hou)
This is the first film of Hsiao-Hsien’s I’ve ever seen but I have seen a few of Ozu’s, and this film is a tribute to Ozu. I don’t always love Ozu – apparently my ADD is too much for him much of the – so I think that my feelings towards Ozu’s type of filmmaking …
Cafe de Flore (2011, Jean-Marc Vallee
This is one of those maddening movies that eschew conventional narratives but lack the visuals, editing or other techniques to make the lack of story compelling. That’s not to say there isn’t a narrative here – there are two – but it’s fractured to bits and the hooks the audience are given are character development …
Byzantium (2012, Neil Jordan)
This is a fascinating revisionist vampire film that takes a different approach to an over-done genre in more than one way. It’s not a great movie, necessarily, but it’s a neat twist on a tired genre and it’s worth watching if you are interested in vampire films that don’t follow the tired old movie formulas …
The Crown (2016)
This is an immaculately produced drama about the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It is very nice to look at and it is well-acted. But half way through season 1, I don’t really care.
The Caretaker (1960) by Harold Pinter
This is my first Pinter and I should mention that I had no idea what I was getting into before I read it. I suspect that it would have made more of an impression on me had I seen it, rather than read it, simply because some of the tone of one of the characters …
Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)
This prison escape film has dated rather horribly in the ensuing years and so I can’t really recommend it, though there is nothing particularly bad about it (for the most part).
Gifted (2017, Marc Webb)
This is a film about one of those precocious child geniuses that only exist in Hollywood movies (and independent movies that wish they were Hollywood movies – I’m looking at your Good Will Hunting) and how such geniuses should be nurtured. In real life, nobody is quite as smart (or quite as high functioning if they …
Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee)
I think it’s probably hard to discuss Brokeback Mountain without talking about the hype: this film is considered by many to be a landmark either in Hollywood with regard to LGBTQ topics, or in LGBTQ cinema in general. Now, I don’t know much about the history of LGBTQ cinema – just what I got from a …
TIFF 2017: Omerta (2017, Hansal Mehta)
What a mess. Where do I begin?
Brooklyn (2015, John Crowley)
This is a well made and affecting drama about an Irish immigrant’s journey to Brooklyn, New York in the very early 1950s.
Dunkirk (2017, Christopher Nolan)
Hype is a terrible thing. So, no, I did not love Dunkirk. SPOILERS (if there can be spoilers for a movie based on a historical event).
Rush (2013, Ron Howard)
This is an odd one at times: Howard plunges us into the racing world of the 1970s with greater context, instead focusing on the contrasting lives of two up and coming drivers. For someone who isn’t a racing fan, this must be really confusing. I was a little lost at first.
Coherence (2013, James Ward Byrkit)
This is one of those super talky, high concept science fiction films which feels like it was written for the stage. (Many of these have been written for the stage, but this one apparently was not.) There are a lot of these by this point and it’s sort of become its own sub genre. I’m …
Bronson (2008, Nicholas Winding Refn)
There are probably two types of people: people who think Winding Refn is a genius and people who think he is ponderous, boring and way too interested in style over substance. You can count me among the latter. Despite all the praise over Valhalla Rising and Drive, I found both movies to be flawed. I …
Broken (2012, Rufus Norris)
This film starts out as a Nashville/Short Cuts type film narrowed down to a cul de sac and with a more liberal view of narrative structure. For much of its runtime, it’s very good. SPOILERS
Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino)
I always thought I had watched this movie – more than once – but I watched it last night post-beer tasting and realized I had never seen it, just the music videos.
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014, Olivier Assayas)
I don’t normally like Assayas, but I found this film more effective than the others films of his I’ve seen.
Brick Lane (2007, Sarah Gavron)
This is an affecting story of a woman brought to England through an arranged marriage. It’s a little awkwardly made – the introduction feels a little rushed – and the music feels a bit cliche, but otherwise it’s competent enough.
Breathing (2011, Karl Markovics)
This is one of innumerable deliberately paced character studies in which not all that much happens in terms of plot. This one tells a relatively unique story, that of an orphaned child who has spent years in juvenile, now on a work release program.
Boy N the Hood (1991, John Singleton)
I supposedly saw this as a teenager but have so little memory of it, I must have watched a few minutes of it on TV and decided I’d rate it. (I did that a lot in my teens.) Anyway…
The Boys Are Back (2009, Scott Hicks)
For much of its run, this feels like a much more authentic version of the ‘widowed single-parent struggling to raise children’ sub-genre. It has a location and a concept that are not typical of the genre and the whole thing feels more naturalistic (despite talking to dead people). However… (spoilers, if this type of film …
Boy A (2007, John Crowley)
This is a mostly excellent drama about what life is like for a child offender trying to return to society. It is really, really good until the “third act,” when things kind of fall apart. That involves spoilers, so…
Boy (2010, Taika Waititi)
This is an engaging an affecting coming of age story set on a Maori reserve in New Zealand. Though we’ve seen movies like this before, I have definitely never seen a coming of a age story set on a Maori reserve. It’s the kind of film that makes me wonder why we don’t have a …
Child of God (2013, James Franco)
This is a mess of a film, which feels like the work of a first time director. Far from it, as Franco has made tons of films (only a few of which I was aware of) – this is, impossibly, his 8th film.