MSPIFF 2013 Review: THESE BIRDS WALK Delivers Emotional Behind-The-Scenes Realism
Striking a poetic cord, These Birds Walk finds a symbiotic naturalism between those filming, newcomers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, and those being filmed, the unwanted children of Pakistan. Pakistan, more than any other country, feels like an innocent bystander... More »
  

Review: THE SOURCE FAMILY - Spiritual Utopia Or Exploitive Cult?
There are those in The Source Family, a film exploring a radical, Utopian community in the 70's, who still claim that they experienced unexplainable miracles while living under the guidance of spiritual leader Father Yod. Stillborn babies were seemingly magically... More »
  

Review: POST TENEBRAS LUX Brings The Devil Home
As I review more and more films out of festivals, I'm beginning to notice a pattern: I'm much more forgiving and enthusiastic about films that shoot for the moon and fall somewhere short than with serviceable movies trodding well-worn territory... More »
  

MSPIFF 2013 Review: 80 MILLION Is A Cerebral Cat-And-Mouse
80 Million, Poland's 2012 candidate for Best Foreign Language Film, teases of a bank heist but delivers a cerebral, dialogue driven cat-and-mouse. The dramatic retelling of the anti-communist groundswell in 1980s Poland delves head first into the politically and... More »
  

IFFR 2013 Review: IXJANA Injects Giallo-like Color And Weirdness Into Film Noir.

(If I did THIS much sex, booze and drugs together on one evening: yep, unfortunately I'd forget stuff as well...) Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski is no stranger to the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which even honored him a few years... More »
By Ard Vijn   
  

Hot Docs 2013 Review: WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS
The title is a mouthful, but is a entirely appropriate and poetic link to the film's subject matter, the bizarre Vegas-in-the-Ozarks refuge that is Branson, Missouri.Nestled in the heart of hillbilly country, the town of 10,000 plays home to millions... More »
  

Review: GAME OF THRONES S3E05, KISSED BY FIRE (Or, Robb And Tyrion Lose Their Grip On Things To Wildly Different Results)
Oh, Robb Stark. You're just not so good at this King thing, are you? A good strategist on the field of battle? That's the rumor, though we've seen no sign of it for quite some time, but the whole leadership... More »
By Todd Brown   
  

Jeonju 2013 Review: Mystery Abounds in the Divisive LEBANON EMOTION
In the world of cinema, things aren't always as they seem. A film presents itself to us in a certain way, its details on screen carefully selected by its director. The new Korean film Lebanon Emotion takes a risky approach... More »
  

Dallas IFF 2013 Review: A COMPANY MAN Is A Bittersweet Life In A Wanted World
You know what, I'm not even sure that I still get excited about the appearance of new Korean revenge thrillers anymore. It seems as though that's all that anyone is interested in now. Sure, very few national cinemas have managed... More »
By J Hurtado   
  

Hot Docs 2013 Review: TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE Is Wonderfully Nuanced
Far too often "issue" films play out as mere polemics, dogmatically reemphasizing a given point of view to a receptive audience. I often find these type of films dreary and intellectually barren, a lazy form of near propaganda that does... More »
  

Review: DOCTOR WHO S7E11, JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE TARDIS (Or, Mysteries And Secrets Fuel An Exploration Of The Doctor's Time Machine)
The notion of discovering more about the Tardis will always be enticing. It's essentially a big box full of secrets and there's so much about it that I'd love to discover or at least have explained in more depth. To... More »
  

Melbourne Cinematheque Review: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM Lingers
Welcome back to my ongoing coverage of the Melbourne Cinematheque's fantastic program for 2013. Here I will be reviewing the first film per season (month). This month I took a look at The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), from... More »
  

Tribeca 2013 Review: Who's Afraid Of The BIG BAD WOLVES?
Editor's Note: some would consider this review a spoiler, as it discusses the ending, although doesn't reveal what happens.There were audible groans as the credits rolled on the pre-festival screening of Big Bad Wolves. Without giving anything away, I imagine... More »
  

Jeonju 2013 Review: CHEER UP MR. LEE Could Use a Pick-Me-Up
If you watch a lot of films, it's hard not to get at least a little excited when a new film about filmmaking comes along. While not a golden recipe for surefire success, the subgenre yields a surprisingly strong crop... More »
  

Hot Docs 2013 Review: WILLIAM AND THE WINDMILL Subverts the Expected TEDtalk Narrative
What exactly is William and The Windmill about?  Is it the story of a resourceful and ingenious young Malawi boy who builds a windmill from available detritus using diagrams in a book so his parents have a way to... More »
  

Hot Docs 2013 Review: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF DORIS PAYNE is Glamorous and Mundane
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to walk into a jewelry store and pull a pure short-con swindle. Doris Payne, now in her early eighties, remains as wiry and razor sharp as she ever was, pulling one jewel... More »
  

Jeonju 2013 Review: Narrative Experiment DECEMBER Let Down by Weak Story
These days, in a bid to stand out from a crowded field, a lot of young filmmakers experiment with their chronologies. While there's nothing wrong with experimenting with form, it's very important to have a strong narrative before playing around... More »
  

Review: COMMUNITY S4E11, Basic Human Anatomy (Or, Commit To The Bit, Even When It's Not Great)
Basic Human Anatomy is an odd duck of an episode. It shouldn't work based on a number of reasons going in, but then largely succeeds on some of those same reasons (and then some), thus proving that the craft of... More »
  

Jeonju 2013 Review: GROGGY SUMMER Teaches Us You Can't Always Get What You Want
As viewers, sometimes we take for granted the decisions made by filmmakers that affect their works. A lot is decided in pre-production, and one particularly important element is a film's shooting style. Outside of a few highly stylized works, the... More »
  

Review: THE COLONY Leaves You Cold
Man, I had such high hopes for The Colony. Sure, my feelings of hope were coloured a bit by a set visit a year ago that went comically awry. This low-budget, independent sci-fi film, starring Kevin Zegers, Bill Paxton and Laurence... More »
  
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