There are always films that are crucial for you to see, but won’t be particularly fun to watch. That said, Subjects Of Desire is a film that is essential viewing, and one of the documentaries at FIN that has struck me particularly hard this year. An Audience Favourite at Hot Docs and an official selection…

Affectionately dubbed “Un Triomphe” in France, director Emmanuel Courcol’s The Big Hit is exactly as its title suggests. A Cannes Film Festival selection in 2020, The Big Hit follows a drama teacher who’s missed the mark most of his life, and his attempt to stage Samuel Beckett classic Waiting For Godot for audiences with a…

As it’s made the festival circuit run, The Gig Is Up has been surprising people. A selection and nominee at Hot Docs 2021, it is unabashed in its take on a job market that favours companies and not workers. Amazon, Uber, Lyft and more are used by North Americans every day. But do we really…

It’s not much of an understatement to say Shelley Thompson’s directorial feature debut is taking the nation by storm. An official selection at the Inside Out Festival and the hotly anticipated Friday gala for FIN, Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor is a fully realized, absolutely stunning achievement. Thompson – best known for her roles…

Perhaps the best and worst thing about The White Fortress are the same – there’s an air of inexplicable dread that looms throughout, driving a cloud into the background of every happy moment. When Faruk and Mona meet by chance, there’s absolutely no reason they should be together. Mona comes from a wealthy family, and…

This interesting look at neocolonialism won the Best Canadian Documentary award at the 2021 Hot Docs Festival. It follows a 4×4 Sedan — affectionately-dubbed Zo Reken — that has been hacked in Port-au-Prince. The aid workers discuss the ways the aid organization – who the Sedan belongs to – have made promises and not kept…

Not in the six years I’ve been covering FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival have I been so affected by the Opening Night film. Based on the incredible festival-selected 2019 short Wildfire, this feature follows two-spirit teenager Link, who runs away from home with his brother to escape their abusive patriarch. They come across a young…

Love him or hate him, director Paul Schrader has a singular style and vision all his own. The brash, calculating filmmaker finds comfort in chaos and revels in revenge and morality tales. So it’s no surprise that his The Card Counter once again explores whether one truly can escape the horrific sins of their past.…

Sometimes you truly just need a palate cleanser of a movie to remind you that the simple things really can be the most rewarding. It doesn’t boast a big, A-list cast or intense situations, but Finding You is a perfectly serviceable, cutesy romance, and I enjoyed every second. Violinist Finley Sinclair packs up for a…

I love a good, dumb action movie, but when there’s no real purpose or nothing to propel it, things get stale really fast. The major issue for interestingly-titled ‘Yakuza Princess’ is it’s a film without a compass, and therefore goes nowhere fast. It follows the heiress to half the terrifying Yakuza crime syndicate, and the…