Reviews of movies, television, games, and whatever else strikes our fancy.
This week A Perfect Planet takes a look at the weather, and how its predictability is part of hat lets life thrive on earth.
Continue reading “Review: ‘A Perfect Planet’ Episode 3: ‘Weather’ is what lets life thrive, at least until we change it”
Last time we had an episode of a 1950s sitcom, this time we get one from the 1960s. WandaVision continues to be super weird and super fun.
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 2: the 1960s start to open up some possibilities”
Grief is a powerful thing. Imagine that you’re waiting for your friend to show up on the first day you begin your new adventure as business partners. I imagine being a child who texts your mother good luck and then goes on about your day. Imagine being a mother, estranged from her daughter, and having to answer the door to a pair of police officers there to let you know that your daughter has been killed in an accident.
This is the setup of the three main characters in Love Sarah, the story of a daughter, a mother, and a friend who open a bakery and name it after the titular Sarah dies in the films opening moments.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Love Sarah’ is sweet, but underbaked”
Here we are, folks! Today and for the next 7 weeks, I’ll be recapping WandaVision, the latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first entry to be a mini-series on Disney+. As a lifelong Marvel fan, and fan of Paul Bettany and Matt Shakman I have been very much looking forward to this series, so let’s not waste any more time and dive right in!
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 1: 1950s sitcoms are a perfect vehicle for awkwardness”
At the end of Avengers: Endgame the entire Marvel universe had been shattered and re-assembled. Half the universe was wiped from existence and brought back five years later. A few casualties stuck, one of whom was Paul Bettany’s Vision, the android created by a combination of The Avengers, their enemy Ultron, and the power of one of the infinity stones.
WandaVision is the first new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in over a year. The first new entry to be a TV series features the return of Vision and his paramour Wanda Maximoff to a world that looks a lot like a TV sitcom. It’s weird, and it’s delightful.
Continue reading “Review: ‘WandaVision’ is delightfully weird and intriguing”
You have definitely seen this film before. Well, ok, not exactly this film, but if you’re a fan of science fiction and you’re presented with a story about a cocksure young recruit being paired with an android who can’t lie but clearly isn’t telling the whole truth, well, you’ve seen this movie before.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is a bit derivative but has some cool action”
Michelangelo Buonarroti is one of the worlds great artistic geniuses. Admired in his own time and now, his skill for sculpture, in particular, is second to none. Juxtaposed to his talent is how he lived his life, eschewing food and personal hygiene in favour of his work.
Given the man’s stature and the interesting twists his story had, it’s surprising that there aren’t more films about him. In this new film, Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky offers a new perspective of a man we’re all familiar with, but few know much of anything about him beyond his artistic genius.
Continue reading “Italian Film Fest Review: ‘Sin’ humanizes a legend”
Last week on A Perfect Planet the series looked at volcanoes and their extraordinary influence on this planet’s biosphere. This week, they look at a more obvious element in how the world functions: the sun.
Continue reading “Review: ‘A Perfect Planet’ Episode 2: ‘The Sun’ looks at how energy arrives on, and powers, life on the planet”
Parents aren’t supposed to outlive their children. This is one of those universal truths, along with things like “the Earth is round” or “water is wet.” The devastation of losing a child is unimaginable, let alone losing one at the moment of birth. This is the story of Pieces of a Woman, which follows expectant parents Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf through the night of their daughter’s birth and then through the year after as they deal with the aftermath of her death.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Pieces of a Woman’ has a tour de force performance from Vanessa Kirby”
We live on a fantastic planet. We often look to science fiction and fantasy stories for a sense of wonder, but the truth is that all you have to do is look closely at this world to accomplish that. Whether it’s half a million flamingos nesting in the middle of a caustic lake, or river otters fishing in volcanically warmed waters, Earth is a miraculous place.
The BBC Natural History Unit has produced incredible nature documentaries for decades now. In particular, they captured the world’s imagination with a series of programs starting with Planet Earth back in 2006. A Perfect Planet is the latest of these series, once again narrated by David Attenborough and once again stunningly photographed.
Continue reading “Review: ‘A Perfect Planet’ Episode 1: ‘Volcano’ is the start to another amazingly photographed, drama-filled BBC nature documentary”
The festival proper is over, but all the titles at the Whistler Film Festival are still available to stream through the end of the month. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at three more films that you can watch right now.
Continue reading “WFF Quick Reviews: ‘Death of a Ladies Man’, ‘Between Waves’, and ‘Small Time’”
George Clooney is a talented actor and director, and often produces excellent work when he does both of those things. The Midnight Sky, his latest starring and directorial effort, features an incredible ensemble of character actors, stunning effects and production design, and a story clearly influenced by many seminal science fiction stories, but even in the hands of such talent fails to become something special.
Continue reading “Review: ‘The Midnight Sky’ shoots for the stars, but ultimately misses”
Pete Docter is one of the best directors of animated features working today. That might sound like hubris, but it isn’t. Each of his films is adorable, approachable, and visually stunning enough to warrant the praise, but each also has a core of love and acceptance that makes them universal. The marriage montage in Up! or the simple truth that sadness plays a key roll in our lives from Inside Out, Docter makes movies that tell truths.
Soul, his latest film, is no different.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Soul’ cements Pete Docter as one of our great storytellers”
Well, friends here were are, together at the end. The Mandalorian’s second season has been mostly good so far, and this last episode has some big promises to fulfil. Let’s see if it does so.
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Episode 8: ‘The Rescue’ pulls out all the stops in the name of fan service”
Tenet was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Delayed multiple times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was finally released to theatres late in the summer in an effort to save the cinema business but need up only proving that the world still wasn’t safe enough for that to happen. Not a flop at the box office exactly, but not a moneymaker either, there isn’t a movie with a more interesting story behind it this year.
Now, finally, it has arrived on home video, and I have finally had a chance to see it. So, how is it? Well, it’s a visually stunning and completely frustrating mess of a movie.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Tenet’ is visually impressive but too clever by half.”
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