The "2018 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival" (I think you're supposed to shout "FIN!!" when saying the name) is upon us and, well, people keep asking me if I have any must-sees, so instead of giving you well-thought-out reasons to see them, I will just...
After a series of festival engagements (starting with the most recent edition of TIFF) and numerous awards, as well as a US distribution deal, Cory Bowles' "confidently shot and edited" feature debut Black Cop is hitting Cineplex screens this Friday. If it does well, it...
This (Monday) evening, the Iranian film screening series resumes (presented at Carbon Arc) with No Date, No Signature, last year's well-regarded social drama "shot in elegant, nearly black-and-white images highlighted with faint traces of color." The Greta Gerwig screening series at the Central Library continues Tuesday...
Carbon Arc is on hiatus until the fall, but the cinema's own Siloen Daley is also festival director for this week's AFX, the Animation Festival of Halifax. In a similar spirit to HIFF, the festival is aimed not only at independent filmmakers but also people...
Lean on Pete is another very highly regarded gem from Andrew Haigh, director of Weekend and 45 Years—the latter being an extremely rare instance of a contemporary film going straight into the Criterion Collection for its home video release. This latest is "a boy-and-his-horse movie that’s scraped free...
"The Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski is not well known here, but an appreciation of this often funny but also harrowing and heartbreaking film does not require expertise on its subject," says Glenn Kenny of the NY Times about The Last Family, a film which debuted...
You Were Never Really Here, the latest from Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin) features a searing performance from Joaquin Phoenix, an amazing musical score by Jonny Greenwood, and some remarkable directorial choices by Ramsay—and is somehow much less than...
In the Fade was absolutely shredded by critics at the festivals last fall, but there are numerous smart people who really like it, too, so...
The two local-ish screenings coming up this week that have most sharply piqued my interest aren't in Halifax—they're in Wolfville. Commence logistical planning...
Lynn Shelton built her career directing comedy films that embody some of the worst tendencies of American indies—"the kind of movie that prides itself on its dialogue—but then relies on a montage set to gentle strumming to begin the healing." But then a successful swerve...