They’ll push in those ladies, where they came out as a baby. Ain’t no doubt this shit is crazy, fucking each other’s moms in the Australian drama Adore. Set in a breezy, beachfront New South Wales, Naomi Watts and Robin Wright play two best friends who prove they’re not lesbians by diddling each other’s 18-year-old […]
Jacob Boon
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Salinger
Salinger is an adoring portrait of a great writer that unwittingly paints its subject as terrible, awful human being. Using archival footage, a plethora of interviews with critics and some laughably melodramatic reenactments, the film follows J. D. Salinger’s life as a young, unpublished author up to his reclusive years in New Hampshire. Strong focus […]
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AFF review: La Passé (The Past)
There are several scenes in Asghar Farhadi’s spectacular La Passé (The Past) framed with characters talking behind glass. Though their body language is visible, the words can’t be heard. It’s a delicate symbol for how we view past events. We can see the details, the lips moving, but what’s actually said is left impenetrable. Farhadi […]
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Ghost story
The past comes back to haunt you. In America, the spectre of slavery is often the underlying theme of that country’s gothic stories. Canada, though we’re not as likely to admit it, has its own cultural genocide to reckon with. Rhymes for Young Ghouls, the debut feature from acclaimed Mi’kmaq director Jeff Barnaby, picks up […]
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Who needs Hollywood?
Thanks to all the visiting celebs that have brightened our red carpets over the years, but their dazzling smiles are hardly needed now that Atlantic Canada has its own sizeable stable of filmmaking talent. Excuse us while we name-drop just a few of the humble artists behind this year’s Atlantic Shorts screenings. Jeff Wheaton blends […]
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Insidious: Chapter 2
The thing about being novel, Insidious: Chapter 2, is you can only do it once. Though they rescued their son in the previous instalment from the ghostly world which took him, dad Patrick Wilson came back wrong. As the hauntings continue, and Dad’s teeth start falling out, the first film’s ghost hunters search old records […]
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The Family
Martin Scorsese produces a Luc Besson film in The Family—a gangster comedy that can’t live up to its own pedigree. After ratting on his mafia buddies eight years ago, former boss Robert De Niro is moving into yet another French town with wife Michelle Pfeiffer and their two kids. The aging actor is more alive […]
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Riddick
It’s been 13 years and six Fast & Furiouses since Pitch Black, yet Vin Diesel is as dominating a screen presence as ever in the gruff Riddick. Left for dead on a hostile world, survivalist predator Riddick has to deal with a broken leg and vicious beasties in a sparse, nearly wordless first act. The […]
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Getaway
There’s one decent shot in Getaway, a white-knuckle, three-minute chase on busy roads with the camera mounted on the car’s bumper. That scene feels like a shot of pure adrenaline after the exhaustingly boring 80-minutes before it in this rinky-dink heist flick. Ethan Hawke is a better adjusted Ryan Gosling from Drive, who, after his […]
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Closed Circuit
Surprise, surprise, the British government is watching everything you do in the legal thriller Closed Circuit. After terrorists blow up a busy London market, the mastermind is detained and put on trial with suspicious ease. Lawyers Rebecca Hall and Eric Bana will represent the accused, which would be awkward for the ex-lovers even if there […]
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The World’s End
Gary King was the shit in high school. Twenty years on, he hasn’t changed a bit. Pity then for his friends in The World’s End, a sci-fi/action remembrance of drunken things past. King (the ever-versatile Simon Pegg) pesters his old chums into a reunion pub crawl at their sleepy hometown which hasn’t changed a wink. […]
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You’re Next
Note to would-be killers; do your research. A lesson learned by animal-masked psychopaths who bite off more than they can chew in the lovely You’re Next. Erin (Sharni Vinson, just, fantastic) accompanies her professor/boyfriend to his family’s reunion at an isolated farmhouse. Mom’s on heavy pills, big bro’s a douche and there’s no booze. An […]