Michael D. Reid
Tomatometer-approved critic
| Publications: | Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada) |
| Official Websites: | canada.com/victoria/timescolonist |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5/4 | No Score Yet | Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet (2016) |
It's during such harrowing moments that you're reminded how fluidly integrated with real backgrounds the realistically rendered digital action can be. And, as in classic wildlife documentaries, reality can be unsettling.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted May 25, 2017
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| 2.5/4 | No Score Yet | Amazon Adventure (2017) |
It's the kind of earnest, but increasingly patience-trying film, that will be best appreciated by viewers in search of an educational experience rather than a thrill ride.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Apr 21, 2017
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| 4/5 | No Score Yet | Franca: Chaos And Creation (2017) |
By turns dramatic and lighthearted, this documentary is as captivating as the fiercely independent woman it celebrates.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Apr 11, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | No Score Yet | The Hollow Child (2018) |
McLeod's performance is as much a highlight as the spooky spirit Lutter conjures, enhanced by Nelson and Graham Talbot's striking cinematography and David Parfit's sinister score.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Apr 11, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | No Score Yet | Riverhead (2016) |
Oakey's familiarity with the region's colourful characters, culture and landscape effectively complements his film's edgy drama.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Apr 11, 2017
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| 3/5 | 61% | Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge (2017) |
While the drama could have been more engrossing and substantive, the evocative period detail greatly enhances Noelle's selective and intimate portrait of a loving wife, mother and workaholic.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2017
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| 2/5 | No Score Yet | Roommates Wanted (Adopte un Veuf) (2016) |
Dussollier is amusing as the exasperated old loner who gets a new lease on life, but he's trapped by the material and his appeal can't compensate for the film's one-dimensional characters and predictable plot.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2017
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| 3/5 | 89% | After Love (L'économie du couple) (2017) |
An intimate variation on films from Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage to Kramer vs. Kramer, this moving domestic drama effectively captures the complexity of a dying relationship.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2017
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| 4/5 | 96% | The Salesman (Forushande) (2017) |
It becomes riveting, a testament to remarkable performances turned in by the leads.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 91% | Frantz (2017) |
Suffice it to say complications ensue within what plays like classic melodrama highlighted by top-shelf art direction, some powerfully evocative sequences that reflect postwar anger and Beer's magnificent performance.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2017
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| 4/5 | 100% | Theater of Life (2016) |
Writer-director Peter Svatek has cooked up an epicurean documentary about food waste that is as mouth-watering as it is inspirational.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2017
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| 3/5 | 85% | The Girl With All the Gifts (2017) |
It's how Nanua conveys this young brainiac's humanity, however, that allows McCarthy's bleak morality tale and survival adventure to transcend genre clichés and a draggy midsection before survivors head for London.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2017
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| 4/5 | 88% | My Scientology Movie (2017) |
While much of what transpires behind closed doors and beyond at the Church of Scientology is no laughing matter, Theroux makes it so. The result is a film as funny as it is scary.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2017
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| 4/5 | No Score Yet | Gulistan, Land of Roses (2016) |
Embedded with this all-female brigade in the hills and deserts of Kurdistan, Akyol furnishes her nuanced portrayal of their camaraderie with striking imagery of this beautiful but dangerous landscape.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2017
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| 2/5 | 60% | The Skyjacker's Tale (2017) |
Loaded with cheesy re-enactments and archival footage that evoke a 1970s vibe, the film plays like a bad episode of Forensic Files.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2017
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| 5/5 | 83% | Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) (2017) |
[Writer-director Paolo Virzi] expertly balances tension, hilarity and an emotionally affecting finale that, as with so much in this film, defies expectations.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2017
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| 4/5 | 92% | Prevenge (2017) |
Gruesomely entertaining.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 96% | I Called Him Morgan (2017) |
It's a by turns revealing, mystifying and selective recollection of an ill-fated relationship.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 3/5 | 89% | Indivisible (Indivisibili) (2016) |
What this stylized diversion lacks in narrative depth and originality, it makes up with a dreamlike glow, courtesy of Ferran Rubio's stellar camerawork, and some colourful sequences that recall a Fellini movie.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 94% | Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016) |
If you're a musical-theatre geek who once listened endlessly to Stephen Sondheim showtunes while gazing at framed playbills on your bedroom wall, this is the movie for you.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 2/5 | 86% | Don't Blink - Robert Frank (2016) |
An intriguing, messy and off-putting portrait of the influential American photographer and experimental filmmaker Robert Frank.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 3/5 | No Score Yet | Merci patron! (2016) |
Ostensibly inspired by Michael Moore's Roger & Me, playfully irreverent French activist Francois Ruffin takes aim at Bernard Arnault, the controversial billionaire CEO of LMVP.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 96% | Old Stone (Lao Shi) (2016) |
This cynicism-laced film has much to say about the erosion of compassion in an increasingly institutional society.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 86% | The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) |
A thought-provoking tapestry.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 93% | Weirdos (2016) |
What's not to love about Canuck hipster Bruce McDonald's return to a genre of which he's a master -- the indie road movie with a distinctly Canadian flavour and endearingly peculiar characters?‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 3, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | No Score Yet | Saint Amour (2016) |
Without a strong narrative foundation to link a succession of silly sight gags that give way to misplaced pathos, this meditation on wine, women and midlife crises prematurely self-destructs.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 3, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 80% | Personal Shopper (2017) |
[A] disappointing, albeit intermittently spooky and eye-catching psychological thriller.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 3, 2017
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| 3/5 | 88% | Once I Was (The Matchmaker) (2012) |
[The Matchmaker] succeeds on two levels -- as a Middle East coming-of-age fable during a period of cultural change, and a rare view of Holocaust survivors in Israel learning to live and love again.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Oct 24, 2016
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| 2.5/5 | 38% | The Other Woman (2011) |
Uneven yet intermittently compelling.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Oct 24, 2016
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| 3/5 | 57% | Living in the Age of Airplanes (2015) |
Living in the Age of Airplanes is a gorgeously photographed travelogue intercut with some great aviation footage.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Jun 10, 2016
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| 2.5/5 | No Score Yet | Wonderland (Heimatland) (2015) |
While this arty omnibus is visually striking, the film is short on genuine tension and dramatic potency.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 2, 2016
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| 4/5 | 100% | Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) (2015) |
Expectations are subtly defied at every turn in this humanistic diversion laced with dry humour, an undercurrent of melancholy and a protagonist with arrested development who recalls to some extent Ernest Borgnine's sympathetic Marty.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 2/5 | No Score Yet | The Sea & The Flying Fish (Darya va mahi parande) (2015) |
The drama arising from attempts by humourless prison officials to erase the paintings and identify the creative culprit before the arrival of an inspector increasingly strains credulity.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 4/5 | No Score Yet | Dan and Margot (2016) |
[Dan and Margot] is unsettling in that it reminds us how mercilessly pop culture has stigmatized [schizophrenia]... Yet it's also a hopeful and enlightening meditation on the potential to overcome it.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 4/5 | No Score Yet | Hand Made with Love in France (Le Temps Suspendu) (2015) |
Director Julie Georgia Bernard's slight but fascinating behind-the-scenes fashion documentary is as irresistible as the French artisans whose under-appreciated contributions to haute couture the film affectionately celebrates.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 4/5 | No Score Yet | The Roots Remain (2016) |
The filmmakers interweave their own evocative footage of Fonki's humbling journey, a sombre highlight being his visit to The Killing Fields memorial centre, with home videos of his exiled parents and grandparents recalling their traumatic history.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 4/5 | 100% | Driving With Selvi (2016) |
This young mother and human-rights activist with a winning smile is a wonderful role model, living proof it's never too late to overcome adversity and achieve happiness on your own terms.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 3/5 | 73% | Valley Of Love (2016) |
Nicloux extracts fine performances, particularly from Depardieu as the skeptic who unabashedly accepts his dissipated state.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 3/5 | 28% | Five Nights in Maine (2016) |
[David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest] bring impressive naturalism to their restrained performances.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 2/5 | 82% | Men & Chicken (Mænd & høns) (2016) |
Enter this creepfest at your own risk.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 3/5 | 33% | The Steps (2015) |
It's all amusingly diverting, yet strangely familiar.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 2/5 | 63% | A Month Of Sundays (2015) |
This contrived exercise plays like a slow-burn variation on a Hallmark movie.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2016
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| 3/5 | 100% | Le coeur de madame Sabali (2015) |
This stylized, at times dreamlike diversion's quirkiness and eye-popping art direction, heavy on bold reds and yellows, transcends the narrative hiccups.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2016
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| 3/5 | 100% | Al Purdy Was Here (2015) |
An affectionate documentry that is captivating enough to make you want to learn more ab out this droll, beer-loving wordsmith.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2016
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| 3/5 | No Score Yet | Magicarena (2015) |
You needn't be an opera lover to appreciate this ancient ampitheatre's backstage drama, the mind-boggling complexity and magnitude of the production that the filmmakers capture.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Jan 28, 2016
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| 5/5 | 84% | I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2015) |
It coalesces into a highly entertaining, surprise-packed and enjoyably nostalgic experience.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2015
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| 3/5 | 92% | Dukhtar (2015) |
Pakistani filmmaker Afia Nathaniel tackles a difficult subject -- child marriages -- with admirable restraint in her impressive feature debut, as emotionally involving as it is visually spectacular.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2015
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| 3/5 | No Score Yet | B for Boy (2013) |
[A] technically uneven and overlong (by about 20 minutes) but nonetheless engrossing cultural snapshot.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2015
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| 5/5 | 75% | All The Time In The World (2015) |
[The film's] candid commentary adds humour to its stunning northern vistas, sunsets and other natural wonders.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2015
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| 2.5/5 | 20% | An Eye for Beauty (Le règne de la beauté) (2014) |
While the film isn't painful to watch, and not just because it's easy on the eyes, it's a pointless affair.‐ Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2015
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