Pure Unknown – Film Review | Hot Docs 2023

The first documentary on my schedule for this year's Canadian International Documentary Festival, is Italy's Sconosciuti's Puri, or Pure Unknown. Directors Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo follow Dr. Cristina Cattaneo as she pleads for the rights of the nameless dead. Every day, numerous unidentified bodies, classified as "pure unknowns" find their way into the autopsy …

Summoning Sylvia – Film Review

Summoning Sylvia tells the tale of Larry (Travis Coles - Superstore, Torchwood), who has been kidnapped by his three best friends for a bachelor weekend getaway at a haunted house. As they sashay through the dusty corridors, the comrades recount the house’s legend from a hundred years ago: a murderous woman named Sylvia (Veanne Cox …

Acidman – Film Review

Estranged for years from her reclusive father, Maggie (Dianna Agron - (Shiva Baby, Glee) succeeds in tracking him down. To her surprise Lloyd's (Thomas Haden Church - Spider-Man: No Way Home, Divorce) been trying to make first contact with the lights he has been monitoring in the night sky for quite some time. In an …

Swarm – TV Series Review

With Swarm, Janine Nabers and Donald Glover (both writers on Atlanta) have created a series so unconventional yet timely it'll speak to an entire generation. It's a story so surreal, you start to believe it's real, and perhaps some of it even is. I found myself pausing certain episodes and Googling specific events, because I …

Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teachers’ Lounge) – Film Review | Berlinale 2023

When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch - The Crown, Babylon Berlin) decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. With Das Lehrerzimmer, Ilker Çatak directs his most accessible film, …

Baby Ruby – Film Review

The successful blogger and happily pregnant Jo (Noémie Merlant) is awaiting the arrival of her first child. But soon after Jo welcomes baby Ruby home, something just doesn't feel right. Everyone around her keeps telling her this is normal, but as things start to get weirder while night and day overlap, Jo starts to question …

Happy FKN Sunshine – Film Review

Small town Canadian life is boring, but when the town mill goes on strike to fight the man, and everyone is out of work, things get tense. Quiet Will (Matt Close) fixes to put a band together to fill the void of his lonely days, with his sister Ronnie (Mattea Brotherton) acting as manager. Lead …

Unicorn Boy – Film Review | Slamdance 2023

"You can't expect all good with no gross." Life in Los Angeles for artist Matt Kiel has been pretty bad lately. After the end of a relationship has left them in a rather down state and a less than calculated attempt at reconciliation went unmentioned, Matt is feeling lost and aimless. Coffee with their friend …

Slow – Film Review | Sundance 2023

Marija Kavtaradze's second feature film, tells the story of two people falling in love in their own way. When dancer Elena (Greta Grinevičiūtė) meets sign language interpreter Dovydas (Kęstutis Cicėnas), these two very different individuals instantly connect in an unspoken manner. The invisible sparks tighten the air between them, inevitably pulling these two opposites towards …

M3GAN – Film Review

Blumhouse and James Wan team up again to introduce a killer robot, ready to defend the human she's paired to. After a toy company's biggest success (some knock off Furby you can control with a tablet) gets remade by rival companies, Gemma, a robotics engineer, introduces a project that'll change the industry. At first, the …