Reviews
Opening just in time for Earth Day, Chimpanzee is a moving look at Oscar, a three-year-old chimpanzee who is separated from his mother and becomes an orphan. Unable to find the care and help he needs, Oscar could face starvation. That’s when the unexpected happens. An adult male named Freddy begins to take care of Oscar, saving him when nobody else would. There seems to be one question at the front of everyone’s mind regarding this film: is it appropriate for children? Parents can be assured that the film is not frightening at all. In fact, Chimpanzee actually seems geared...
In the past, most stories about famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson have focused on his mysterious death. In the documentary West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson, directors Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont bring us a deeper look at his life. West Wind begins with the early life of Tom Thomson, a relatively shy, nature loving child, and follows him until his untimely death at the age of 39. While his work is widely recognized and respected (he’s even been called the Canadian Van Gogh), Thomson didn’t really begin painting until his later years, and his art wasn’t truly appreciated until after...
Director Kang Je-kyu‘s epic war drama, My Way, is a visually stunning film. Filled with scene after scene of enormous battles, rivaling the largest Hollywood productions, the action is almost non-stop. It’s unfortunate that the story seems to suffer as a result. The film opens with a young aristocrat named Hasegawa Tatsuo (Joe Odagiri) moving to his family’s farm in Korea. There he meets Kim Jun-shik (Jang Dong-gun), whose family works on the farm. Both kids dream of becoming marathon runners, eventually becoming bitter rivals as they grow up. This rivalry follows them as they both begin fighting for the Japanese in...
Lockout is about a Snake Pliskin-type character who is forced to embark on a similar mission with even funnier results. In 2079, Snow (Guy Pearce) is falsely accused of murder and espionage. But when the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace) is caught in an outer space prison riot, the government needs his help to rescue her from the murderous band of thugs holding everyone hostage. In addition, he must try to figure out the secret location of a briefcase that may be his only shot at clearing his name. It’s rare to have this much fun at a movie not actually...
In the 1996 film Hard Core Logo, the titular band reunites for the first time in five years to do a benefit concert for frontman Joe Dick’s idol, Bucky Haight, who has been shot by a fan and is about to lose his legs. Things seem to be moving in a positive direction for the troubled group, but it becomes obvious that the band’s demons are never far from the surface. Bruce McDonald captures the journey across the country in this Canadian classic mockumentary. In the film’s sequel, Hard Core Logo 2, Bruce has found fame and fortune after the fictional...
The modeling industry is frequently on the receiving end of a lot of abuse, and rightfully so. It’s a world full of unrealistic expectations and ideas about beauty. A place where very young girls are constantly told they’re not good enough, thin enough, or pretty enough. Diving right into this world is the new documentary Girl Model. Directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, the film looks at the flow of models from Russia into Japan by following 13-year-old model Nadya Vall and scout Ashley Arbaugh. It’s a revealing look at broken dreams and unfulfilled promises that left me feeling a...
Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship understands that it can take a tremendous amount of work to maintain. What happens when a couple begins looking outside of their marriage for intimacy is the story behind writer and director Charles Wahl‘s film, Webdultery. Fred (Anthony Cortese) and Deb (Christine Tizzard) are married and raising a son. Their relationship has suffered as the pressures of every day life intrude on their once happy marriage. Both of them have been speaking to anonymous strangers online, leading Fred and Deb to explore dating sites. Will their infidelity cause them to realize what...
Director Mary Harron, probably best known for the film American Psycho, tackles the relationships between teen girls at a boarding school. Nothing can ever be that simple though, as a new girl who arrives at school may possibly be a vampire. Based on the novel by Rachel Klein, The Moth Diaries is the story of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) and her friend Lucie (Sarah Gadon). After Rebecca’s father committed suicide, her mother sent her to a boarding school where she met Lucie. As the new school year begins, Rebecca is excited to see her friend again. The two girls are almost...
Watching American Pie when it was released was a cultural rite of passage. Now the American Pie kids are all grown up and back in town for their high school reunion in American Reunion. A glimpse into everyone’s life shows they really have grown up, living adult lives of marriage, child rearing and boring jobs. Understandably, everyone is looking for a little escape from reality and their high school reunion presents the perfect opportunity to see the old gang again. Of course, putting the five of them in the same vicinity results in stupid mayhem and a lot of nakedness....
At the film’s start, a children’s choir performs a haunting rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag.” Bullying has at some point affected everyone, whether you were a perpetrator, victim or bystander. It’s something so ingrained in our culture that most people don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop it. We’ve all heard the cliché responses to incidences of bullying: “Boys will be boys” or “They’re just being kids.” But the rise of suicides in the under-20 demographic illustrates this is no longer an acceptable response – not that it ever should have been tolerated. Bully is a powerful megaphone amplifying...
The Vanishing Spring Light is the first of four films documenting the vanishing ways of West Street in Dujiangyan, a World Cultural Heritage Site in China. Director Xun Yu spent over two years filming the inhabitants of West Street before it was demolished in 2011, and as a document of their lives, the film succeeds very well. However, coming in at just under two hours running time, the film has a bit of a pacing problem which unfortunately took away from my overall interest in the material....
Writer and director Darrell Wasyk‘s film, The Girl in the White Coat, takes the classic tale The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol and brings it into modern day Montreal. Pascale Montpetit plays Elise, a middle-aged woman struggling to survive with her minimum wage job. The apartment she lives in is barely heated, and she’s having difficulty keeping up with the payments for the retirement home that her father lives in. The only possession she owns is a white coat that was a gift from her father. When Elise decides to get her coat repaired it sets off a chain of events...
