-
BLURAY REVIEW: Dr. Cheon exorcist film needs some life
The problem with doing a horror-comedy is that you’re tasked with excelling in both extremely different genres at the same time. Unfortunately, the scares nor the laughs come easily in this lacklustre affair. Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman begins with an introduction to a man who fakes exorcisms for a living, preying on the…
-
BLURAY REVIEW: Korean space drama The Moon a beautifully-shot endeavour
Sci-fi films are always a tricky proposition — They require a large suspension of disbelief while also remaining grounded enough to tap into the audience’s emotions. If the genre picture fails to do that, it becomes nothing than a set-piece factory, and less of an experience. With The Moon, director Kim Yong Hwa has crafted…
-
THEATRICAL REVIEW: Perfect Days finds the beautiful moments in conventional life
Perfect Days might just be the most striking dichotomy I’ve seen on film in a decade. It moved me in ways I didn’t see coming. Hirayama wakes up every morning, gets a canned coffee from a vending machine, and hops into his car. The janitor drives between high-end public toilets in Japan, the background noise…
-
THEATRICAL REVIEW: Heartwarming Suze a disarmingly enjoyable comedy
I’ll admit — I didn’t have high expectations going into Suze. But within the first five minutes, I found myself chuckling to myself. Within another 10, I was full-out belly laughing. And by the mid-point, I was fully endeared to these characters and invested in their journeys. Suze is the type of quirky, offbeat and…
-
THEATRICAL REVIEW: Land Of Bad an above-par war thriller
Releases in the frostier months don’t typically have a lot of bite, but Land Of Bad is an exception to the rule. Co-writer and director William Eubank provides some great set-pieces and combat scenes in this one about an army team who are ambushed overseas, and the drone pilot who’s fighting to get them home…
-
VOD/DIGITAL REVIEW: Romance film Float a genre flick with some actual emotion
As much as I love a good rom-com, there’s nothing in a film that bugs me more than being cattle-prodded in a certain direction. Whether by inordinately cheery music, cheesy one-liners or endlessly likeable, famous leads, romantic-comedies all end the same, and it’s hard to invest when we all know where things are going. I…
-
BLURAY REVIEW: Chrissy Metz flounders in Christmas creature feature
There’s something really disheartening about a performer who finds fame on TV, but fails to transition to more great fare after their show ends. For This Is Is star Chrissy Metz, her Emmy-nominated role on the family drama feels like a one-hit wonder. She flounders in this cobbled together horror film, one that lacks coherence,…
-
VOD/DIGITAL REVIEW: Marmalade a sweet, self-aware genre delight
There is nothing I love more than when a film knows the audience’s expectations, and subverts them in every way possible. Marmalade may begin as your typical Bonnie & Clyde tale, but what it becomes by the time the credits roll is nothing short of delectable. It follows small-town guy Baron, a long-haired, jobless 20-something…
-
THEATRICAL REVIEW: Daisy Ridley breathes life into ‘Think About Dying’
It might seem upon first-glance that Sometimes I Think About Dying is your typical, existential crisis film in the vein of Charlie Kaufman. And yet I remain fascinated by the end result all the same. The film follows Fran, an office worker drone who spends her days scurrying around work making as little impact and…
-
THEATRICAL REVIEW: Challenging film Out Of Darkness boasts dark tone and stunning cinematography
This is a film that sucks you into the world it created without ever wasting a moment. Set in the Old Stone Age, we come upon a group of disheveled early humans on the hunt for a new home. Led by young Adem, they’re on the precipice of settling in for newfound prosperity or falling…