REVIEW: Possessor [2020]

Pull me out. We see it all the time in antihero assassin films: the killer with a conscience. How many jobs does it take for the toll to become too much? Where do they draw the line between their professional identity and the private one they share at home with family? Love, companionship, joy—they’re all used as incentives to pull these murderers for hire out of the dark mindset that has consumed them since their days in the military or since the horrible tragedy that marked them during childhood. Hope…

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REVIEW: Fisherman’s Friends [2019]

Mom, the tosser’s at the door. The moment a group of Cornish fishermen and lifeboatmen turned their charitable crooning on the shore of Port Isaac into a Universal Music record deal that saw them debut in the top ten was the moment producers started falling over themselves to sign the life rights for a cinematic adaptation. And just as the band subsequently released another two collections of sea shanties and traditional folk songs despite their original one-album contract, it appears that Chris Foggin‘s feel-good dramedy will soon receive its own…

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TIFF19 REVIEW: Disappearance at Clifton Hill [2020]

We grew up there. Every lie told takes us one step closer to burying the truth forever. While this often applies to current events like with Aesop’s fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” wherein a community is numbed to a boy’s warnings enough to let a tragedy occur under their noses, director Albert Shin and co-writer James Schultz reveal how it can also hold weight for the past and perhaps prove victim to the opposite effect. Because what happens when the truth comes before the lie? If a child tells…

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REVIEW: Jupiter Ascending [2015]

“The problem with astrology … total bullshit” Sometimes filmgoers simply want to be entertained and often don’t mind when the means of that fun skews towards the headier side of things—no matter how implausible, campy, or convenient that direction proves. Jupiter Ascending isn’t trying to sell itself as some grand magnum opus that cures cancer; it’s merely a new space opera from the blockbuster sci-fi duo Wachowski Starship (Lilly and Lana). They were commissioned by the studio to write exactly that in the hopes of franchise viability. Do I see…

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