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 documentary I once watched in sociology class and one or two films – but I know that the reception which greeted Schindler’s List was somewhat overblown given the number of films which had already dealt with the holocaust. I suspect the same is probably true with Read More
TIFF 2017: Omerta (2017, Hansal Mehta)
What a mess. Where do I begin? Read More
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. Read More
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). Read More
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. Read More
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 not sure that’s a good thing necessarily. It’s a genre that’s heavy on ideas and a little too weak on much of what most of us love about science fiction (imagining a different future). SPOILERS Read More
Bronson (2008, Nicholas Winding Refn)
2008 and Movies.
2008, Biography, Black comedy, Docudrama, Drama, Dramedy, Movies, and Prison Movie.
2008, Biography, Black comedy, Docudrama, Drama, Dramedy, Movies, and Prison Movie.
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 wanted to like the former more than I actually did, for example. Anyway, I appreciate someone who is trying to chart their own course, even if I don’t like his aesthetic, so I still watch his movies. And, for once, watching Bronson, I think maybe Read More
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 Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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… Read More
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 can be said to have a plot point spoiled) Read More
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… Read More
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 similar film set in Canada. (Maybe we do and I’m unaware of it.) Read More
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. Read More
The Boxer (1997, Jim Sheridan)
Age has not been kind to this film, is my guess, as its soundtrack and editing reek of the 90s. I’m guessing that this film felt a little more realistic and “gritty” in 1997. Read More
Charlie’s Country (2013, Rolf de Heer)
This is an affecting portrait of what life is like for an Aboriginal elder living life on a reserve in the Norther Territory. It is extremely well done and it makes me think that we need its equivalent in Canada. (Excuse my ignorance: if such a movie does exist, please do let me know and I’ll watch it as soon as a I can.) The film does an excellent job of portraying the systemic racism of everyday Australia in a way that humanizes the situation of the aboriginal, rather than portraying this clash as just an “old ways are best” Read More
Captain Phillips (2013, Paul Greengrass)
This film reminds me a lot of Black Hawk Down, a similarly politically clueless film about East Africa, which is so well made and so compulsively watchable that, as a white Canadian, I stop caring about its political cluelessness. Read More
Bonneville (2006, Christopher N. Rowley)
This film is absolutely not for me but I’m glad that such movies exist. This film takes the evil step mother of so many Hollywood films and imagines the loss of the father from her perspective instead, and it feels like that’s been a long time coming. Combine that with a road movie and you have an interesting idea, even if it’s geared at a different gender and age than I am. Read More
Calvary (2014, John Michael McDonagh)
This is a strange film about the priesthood in Ireland, which starts with an extremely (basically ridiculous) high concept plot, spends most of its time in dark (very dark) comedy and then veers into deep pathos. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and does well. Read More
Body and Soul (1993)
I keep a list of movies to watch. There are thousands of movies on the list and I will never watch all of them. I add titles to it all the time. Occasionally, due to laziness, I omit the year a movie was released when I add a movie. I did that with the film noir Body and Soul. So when I reached the “Bo” section of the list I didn’t know which Body and Soul I was looking for. The library had one, and it had Kristin Scott Thomas in it, so I naturally assumed it was the “movie” Read More
Body of Lies (2008 Ridley Scott)
I have no idea whether or not this film is accurate as to the day to day actions of CIA operatives in the Middle East – I doubt it, but it is a fictional film – but, for much of its run, it is an effective political thriller with a strong sense of place and grounded in what feels like a realistic portrayal of CIA operations in Iraq and Jordan during the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq. Crowe and DeCaprio are both excellent, as is the supporting cast, which makes it easy to like the movie, even while Read More
The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012, Felix van Groeningen)
This is a well-meaning, and well-acted film ostensibly about the breakdown of a relationship but equally about the clash of science and faith in the 21st century. It is, in my opinion, too ambitious, as well as too arty, for its own good. There’s plenty of good stuff, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Read More
Broken (2013, Bright Wonder Obasi)
Had I not seen other Nollywood movies, I might have been shocked by how awful this film’s production values are. But having seen a number of Nollywood movies now, I know that this is actually above average when it comes to those production values. It’s only the sound that’s really, really awful (and only at times), – this one is actually pretty seemingly competently edited, which is not always the case. Read More
Blue Valentine (2010, Derek Cianfrance)
This is a devastating portrait of a relationship that rings true with both the excitement of love and the heartbreak of the end of a relationship. It’s a remarkable achievement even if Cianfrance didn’t get to do what he wanted to, which is to film the two time periods years apart, kind of like a proto-Boyhood. Read More
The Martian (2015, Ridley Scott)
This is a well-made and compelling hard science fiction film that succeeds despite (because of?) it’s traditional plot and it’s rather odd structure. Read More
Kill Your Darlings (2013, John Krokidas)
This is a well cast movie – the stars look pretty similar to the people they’re portraying – with committed performances from all of the leads. I wanted to like it. But there a few big problems. The mildest of spoilers. Read More
Blue Sky (1994, Tony Richardson)
This film means well – it features a powerful performance by Jessica Lange (playing mentally ill as only she can) and, I think, it attempts to tell a strong story of love overcoming mental illness. But the story is just too “Hollywood;” by that I mean that there’s too much of a desperate attempt to impose a plot on what should just be a family drama. MILD SPOILERS Read More