The opening scenes of the new Mikhaël Hers drama Amanda depict a sun-soaked Paris that thrums with vivid life. The characters we meet may be mundane and prosaic, but that makes them all the more relatable. There’s David (Vincent Lacoste), a flighty twenty-something and sometimes arborist, who gets along well with his older, wiser, more […]
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10 Failed Oscar-Bait Movies That Are Actually Good
In the last few months of each year, studios frantically campaign for their slate of films to be considered for the end of the year awards ceremonies. While some of these efforts find success and end up appearing at the Academy Awards, many don’t make the cut for a variety of reasons, including poor critical […]
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10 Famous Arthouse Movies That Are Too Self-Indulgent
The legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami once said: “I think a good film is one that has a lasting power, and you start to reconstruct it right after you leave the theater. There are a lot of films that seem to be boring, but they are decent films. On the other hand, there are films […]
Babysplitters – VIFF 2019 Review
Writer-director Sam Friedlander’s refreshingly upbeat comedy sets its sights on the ambiguity couples often have over whether or not to have kids. Presenting itself as something of a modernized screwball comedy––and I’ll define that for people unfamiliar with the sometimes misused term; it’s a rom-com subgenre from the Golden Age of Hollywood that juxtaposes opposites […]
Deerskin – VIFF 2019 Review
Georges has a real killer look in writer/director Quentin Dupieux’s latest film, a batshit-beyond-all-reason black comedy/character piece called Deerskin. Dupieux, the deranged genius behind such wonderfully weird films as the absurdist horror tale Rubber (2010), and the irreverent comic mystery Wrong (2012) is no stranger to bizarre backroads and crackpot detours into the ludicrously far-out […]
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10 Movies From 2019 Audiences Liked But Critics Didn’t
Every year has them – the films that divide the audiences, and elicit only extreme responses of utter despise, or complete fascination. Even more frequently, these reactions are pretty equally split between critics and the audiences. While there are some films that manage to completely bridge these “divides”, and stun both critics and moviegoers, while […]