Lindsay McCarney

Ever wonder what’d happen if Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln and the Three Stooges lived together? Harmony Korine did. The controversial writer/director’s latest film features a commune populated by sadly committed impersonators of the aforementioned celebrities, and other luminaries, like Buckwheat. Everyone on the commune does a lot of boring chores—in costume, naturally. (Elsewhere, […]

Some clarification: nothing supernatural or science-fictiony happens to the kid in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling. The film’s title, and the fact that it’s written by Babylon 5 and comic scribe J. Michael Straczynski, seems to have collectively misled my boyfriend and IMDB posters alike. Instead, the film tells the true story of single mother Christine Collins […]

Dark comedy Choke (based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel) opens with self-satisfied narration from protagonist Victor (Sam Rockwell). The phrase “Even the worst blow job is better than…sniffing the greatest rose” is sandwiched between equally detached, oh-so-shocking observations. Victor skips out on his Sex Addicts’ Anonymous meeting to have bathroom sex and supplements his income by […]

Scandal- and tragedy-plagued director Roman Polanski is an ideal documentary subject: He’s a Holocaust survivor; his actress wife was killed in the Manson Family massacre; he directed Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown; and he won an Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist. Oh, and he couldn’t accept that Oscar in person, because he pled guilty to […]

“Just answer me this one question: Did you or did you not trim your pubic hair before we met?” lonely screenwriter Wilson (Scoot McNairy) asks Vivian (Sara Simmonds), the New Year’s Eve date he’s just met through Craigslist, in indie rom-com In Search of a Midnight Kiss. When Vivian feigns indignation, Wilson presses the point—and […]

One captain in the 2003-era US Marine Corps’ First Reconnaissance Battalion is dumb and deluded; another’s paranoid, manic and dangerous. Their boss is capable, but accolade-hungry—he sends his marines into situations their unarmored Humvees aren’t equipped to handle. Journalist Evan Wright was embedded with First Recon during the early stages of the Iraq war. Generation […]

Most of the action in French family-and-food drama The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) stems from one man’s ballsy decision. Forced out of the shipyard job he’s held for 30-plus years, 60-year-old Slimane (Habib Boufares), the taciturn patriarch of a large, close-knit, dysfunctional French-Tunisian extended family, embarks upon a new career […]

Man on WireDirected by: James Marsh(Mongrel Media)On August 7, 1974, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit stepped onto the cable he and several friends had improbably, illegally secured between the tops of the recently completed Twin Towers. Now, he’s the only wire walker who ever will—and refreshingly, Man on Wire, a doc that celebrates Petit’s achievement […]

AugustDirected by: Austin ChickFirst Look PicturesPartway through indie drama August, we get to watch protagonist Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett), the CEO of a once-hot, now-floundering tech company, chug some milk and watch a news report about Ben Affleck’s 2001 stint in rehab. Disoriented, I wondered: Does the real Josh Hartnett exist in the August universe, […]

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Directed by: Alex Gibney(Mongrel Media)Between 1965 and 1975, celebrated writer, exorbitant drug user and enthusiastic gun-nut Hunter S. Thompson embedded himself with the Hells Angels, ran for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, “invented” and popularized man-in-the-story gonzo-style journalism and covered one of the most fateful presidential […]

An American CrimeDirected by: Tommy O’Haver (First Look Pictures)Young Sylvia Likens died while living at somebody else’s home, the words “I’M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT!” carved into her belly. She’d spent the preceding months being burned, flogged and degraded by various neighbourhood kids and her own temporary guardian. An American Crime tells Sylvia’s […]

The FallDirected by: Tarsem Singh(Columbia/Tristar)The Fall, director Tarsem Singh’s ambitious follow-up to The Cell, was shot in 18 countries and is awash in extra-dazzling visuals—butterfly-shaped islands, richly coloured sands, swimming elephants. The film looked mighty pretty on my laptop screen and on the big screen I bet it’d be full-on stunning. The film tells the […]