Lindsay McCarney

Who Loves the SunDirected by: Matt BissonetteChristal FilmsThe following riveting exchange occurs in the film Who Loves the Sun, shortly after childhood friends Will (Lukas Haas) and Daniel (Adam Scott) are reunited for the first time since Daniel slept with Will’s wife, years earlier: “Fuck you, you tried,” declares Will, dismissing Daniel’s insincere attempt to […]

ShortbusDirected by: John Cameron Mitchell(THINKFilm)Within the first five minutes of writer-director John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, a man performs autofellatio and Sook-Yin Lee has sex in a variety of positions. The titular Shortbus is a club that encourages sexual self-expression. The film follows several lonely New Yorkers who frequent Shortbus and documents the connections they attempt […]

WaitressDirected by: Adrienne Shelly20th Century FoxMany of the lines characters in Waitress spout at each other are tiny pieces of only-in-movies poetry. Crusty diner patron/owner Old Joe (Andy Griffith) describes pregnant waitress Jenna (Keri Russell)’s pie passionately, “Then you’re flooded with chocolate, dark and bittersweet, like an old love affair… strawberry: the way strawberry was […]

Wedding WarsDirected by: Jim Fall(Sony Pictures)Attention, John Stamos-loving Haligonians: Wedding Wars was filmed last year in our fair city. The made-for-TV movie is now available to rent, so those who didn’t see it on A&E last December can catch up. (Phew.) In the film, gay wedding planner Shel (Stamos) agrees to help his semi-estranged brother […]

A Scanner DarklyDirected by: Richard Linklater (Warner Independent)In A Scanner Darkly, a patch of flowers, a swirling glass of Merlot and Keanu Reeves’ shoe all become captivating. The film’s shots draw the eye to background objects. If the movie were your typical conspiracy thriller/drug addiction saga, this would be surprising. But A Scanner Darkly is […]

The HoaxDirected by: Lasse HallströmMiramaxBack in the ’70s, author/biographer Clifford Irving broke the cardinal rule of biography writing: After promising his publishers an all-access portrait of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, Irving proceeded to make the whole thing up. Irving’s weird, hubristic story is a great one, and director Lasse Hallström’s Irving biopic, The Hoax, does […]

Manufactured LandscapesDirected by: Jennifer Baichwal(Zeitgeist Films)In his renowned portraits of industrial sites, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky highlights how profoundly human action and industrialization have altered the natural landscape. Today’s world, Burtynsky points out, is largely man-made. In her Genie-winning documentary Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal set out to translate Burtynsky’s photographs into a new medium. The […]

Away from HerDirected by: Sarah PolleyMongrelSarah Polley’s lovely directorial debut is a movie made up of quiet moments—like Grant’s (Gordon Pinsent) embarrassed zipping of his fly at the Alzheimer’s hospital, after he makes love with ailing wife Fiona (Julie Christie) for the last time. The film takes a warts-and-all approach to the couple’s marriage, portraying […]

Iraq in FragmentsDirected by: James Longley(Mongrel Media)The title of the documentary Iraq in Fragments describes both the film’s form and its content. The movie—pieced together from hundreds of hours of footage that director James Longley shot in Iraq following the 2003 US invasion—unfolds in three separate acts. The first tells the story of Mohammed, an […]

IdiocracyDirected by: Mike Judge (Twentieth Century Fox)In Idiocracy’s dystopian future, a movie called Ass becomes a blockbuster. The appropriately titled film features a naked posterior farting for 90 minutes—the logical offspring of Rob Schneider’s entire oeuvre. The year is 2505, and when slacker Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) awakens after the military leaves him cryogenically frozen […]

Flight of the Conchords: The Complete First SeasonDirected by: James Bobin, Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzieHBO Home VideoIn the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, New Zealand comedy group Flight of the Conchords (series co-creators Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement) play more naive, more earnest, less successful versions of themselves. On TV, FOTC have one […]

Little ChildrenDirected by: Todd Field(New Line)It’s easy to figure out that Little Children is based on a novel. It’s peppered throughout with omniscient narration that sounds like it’s being read directly from a book. Since the film’s screenplay was co-written by Tom Perrotta, who also wrote the source material, it very likely is. The film, […]