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Brad Wheeler
Brad Wheeler's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail contributor.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Dreamin' Wild (2022) |
[The] feelgood story of a long dormant musical dream finally realized was enough to earn major press attention, but is it enough for a feature-length film? Probably not, which is why writer-director Pohlad piled on the melodrama and leaned into clichés. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Lightheaded: A Gordon Lightfoot State of Mind (2022) |
If Lightheaded is not perfect, it is perfectly acceptable as a warmly told story about kinship forged by shared musical tastes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jul 01, 2023
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Down for Life (2009) |
Disturbingly frank, the film assaults its viewers, but in a very effective way. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 26, 2023
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The Mask (1961) |
The Mask was low-budget in 1961, and that its kitschy appeal will be limited to genre fetishists and popcorn-chomping ironists in 2015. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 08, 2023
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The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile (2022) |
Tucker’s life is presented as a redemptive story, with sentimentality torqued whenever possible. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 02, 2022
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Moonage Daydream (2022) |
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 15, 2022
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Day Shift (2022) |
Foxx, a gifted comedic actor, is rarely given anything funny to say. Neither is co-star Dave Franco, which is fine because zingers would have been wasted on him anyway. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 12, 2022
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Country Gold (2022) |
[A] thoughtful, offbeat dark comedy... - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 01, 2022
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Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (2021) |
Mainstream audiences... will appreciate the context and the pairing of song and subject: Hallelujah mixes sex and spirituality, as did the libidinous Buddhist. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel (2022) |
Above all else a meditation on the value of artists and places where they can make their art. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jul 07, 2022
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The Survivor (2021) |
Foster’s emotionally sinewy portrayal of Haft is commanding and nuanced. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 27, 2022
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Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) |
More time capsule than space capsule, and too nostalgic by half. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 24, 2022
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) |
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is what it says it is. You have your Texas, your chainsaw, your massacre. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Feb 18, 2022
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The Cursed (2021) |
This is a werewolf film, the viewers should know. But there is no ow-woo to be had. This is no ordinary slash-and-snarl fandango. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Feb 17, 2022
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Agnes (2021) |
Constantly surprises and entertains throughout. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Dec 09, 2021
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Only the Animals (2019) |
One or two of the story turns are far-fetched, but the delicious absurdism of the situations are worth any contrivances. Only the Animals unfolds beautifully. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Live at Mister Kelly's (2021) |
With his film, Bogosian remembers a springboard venue in the evolution of the uniquely American artforms of jazz and comedy. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Oscar Peterson: Black + White (2020) |
With his elegant bio-doc Oscar Peterson: Black + White, director Barry Avrich discreetly (perhaps too discreetly) sniffs around the question of Peterson's legacy and whether he truly received the respect he deserved in his lifetime. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 15, 2021
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Last Night in Soho (2021) |
Though visually sumptuous and a bunch of fun early on, Edgar Wright's take on sixties and seventies horror eventually devolves into unsatisfying spoof. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 14, 2021
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Titane (2021) |
Ducournau... delivers a mindblower that keeps you guessing for all of the film's excellent 108 minutes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 14, 2021
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The Middle Man (2021) |
Fans of the Coen brothers will enjoy the casually abrupt developments and blank-faced absurdity. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 14, 2021
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Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over (2021) |
[A] lively, contextual bio-doc. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 12, 2021
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Dune (2021) |
A breathtaking film worthy of the visionary Herbert's rich, sophisticated source material. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 12, 2021
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7 Prisoners (2021) |
This could have been a thriller, but thrills are cheap and Moratto aims for something more documentative, sombre and meditative. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 12, 2021
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Attica (2021) |
The racial context is incisive; the retelling is tense, tight and chilling. These kinds of stories are emotionally wrenching to watch but can't be told too often. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 12, 2021
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The Protégé (2021) |
The Protégé plays with its viewers - if one is up for the game, there are worse ways to spend 109 minutes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 20, 2021
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Swan Song (2021) |
It's quite a film Stephens has made. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 12, 2021
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12 Mighty Orphans (2021) |
Who could resist a Depression-era sports drama involving Texas orphans and a gentle, do-gooder head football coach named Rusty Russell? - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 05, 2021
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Dream Horse (2020) |
This is a small, sentimental and straightforward film that offers little in the way of surprises. Instead, it wins on heart and a simple message about the value in fighting to keep one's dreams alive. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 04, 2021
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The Exchange (2021) |
The Exchange flips the script - and it's funny, because it's true. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jul 29, 2021
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The Sparks Brothers (2021) |
Director [Edgar] Wright is a big music fan. With his charismatic (if exhaustive and relentlessly chronological) debut documentary, he makes a case that Sparks is the best band we've never heard of. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 17, 2021
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Riders of Justice (2020) |
A pitch-black comedy about questions, coincidences and ideas that pile up faster than the body count. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 20, 2021
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The Oak Room (2020) |
Cliché? Maybe on my part, but not when it comes to The Oak Room, a taut exercise in story-weaving and twists turned on their heads. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 29, 2021
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Six Minutes to Midnight (2020) |
The photography is elegant, but nothing else is. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 25, 2021
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Death of a Ladies' Man (2020) |
[A] likable and melodic dramedy from Cohen enthusiast Matthew Bissonnette. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry (2021) |
A fascinating and uncontrived look at a dead-eyed downer-pop artist who is the antithesis of the typical commercial music phenom. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Feb 26, 2021
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The Donut King (2020) |
[I]t's a fine yarn spiced up with moments of hip hop, animation and pop culture references, all packaged nicely in something like the hot-pink doughnut boxes that the cruller maestro Ngoy supposedly invented. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 26, 2020
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Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (2020) |
Director Mary Wharton's notion is to portray the aw-shucks politician's embrace of rock music as a sign that Carter was open to fresh ideas, younger generations and strange new aromas. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 02, 2020
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Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You (2020) |
With too much salutation and not enough action, this is a (fine) companion to the album but not a freestanding film. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 24, 2020
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Percy Vs Goliath (2020) |
Moralizing and a populist bent are at work, but not out of control. Well, not until the credits roll to the sounds of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land, anyway. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 08, 2020
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Meeting the Beatles in India (2020) |
It's a lovely look back - happy memories are revived and wrapped in garlands, set to a sitar-and-tabla soundtrack. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 02, 2020
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No Ordinary Man (2020) |
Tender, topical and well-crafted, No Ordinary Man is no ordinary film. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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Project Power (2020) |
The drug is bad, you see? Power is bad. It's very simple. And so is Project Power. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 14, 2020
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Dreamland (2019) |
Midnight meets madness in a surrealist exercise in existentialism and deft satire that will unsettle the average viewer while exciting those with freakier tastes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 06, 2020
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Honey Boy (2019) |
LaBeouf's script crackles with penetrating dialogue. His acting - LaBeouf portrays a version of his own father - might be the finest of his career. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Dec 02, 2019
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21 Bridges (2019) |
It's all just so average. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 20, 2019
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The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (2019) |
One wonders how Everett got mixed up in this mess. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 16, 2019
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The Cave (2019) |
It's no surprise the film won the People's Choice Documentary Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Nov 03, 2019
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Western Stars (2019) |
It's lovely film to look at, Springsteen confronting his past and demons in the prettiest, gently tuneful barn-and-big-sky way imaginable. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 23, 2019
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The Addams Family (2019) |
The film's writing is unambitious; there's little to cause adults to smile knowingly. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Oct 14, 2019
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