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Liam Lacey
Tomatometer-approved critic
Toronto
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Raging Grace (2023) |
A social drama about undocumented Philippine immigrants in England, wrapped up in a creepy English country mansion thriller, Raging Grace hits more tones than a piano tumbling down a staircase. - Original Cin
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| Posted Dec 01, 2023
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Rustin (2023) |
The breakout lead performance by Colman Domingo as the 60s civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin makes this modestly budgeted biographical drama pop like a Broadway musical. - Original Cin
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| Posted Nov 02, 2023
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Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
An intelligent, adult examination of a marriage gone sour, wrapped up in the trappings of a legal thriller, Anatomy of a Fall is anchored by a performance of airtight ambiguity by Sandra Hüller. - Original Cin
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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She Came to Me (2023) |
An A-list cast founders in this off-beat romance, involving an opera composer, a tug-boat captain, and a psychiatric manual’s worth of odd behaviours. - Original Cin
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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Joan Baez I Am a Noise (2023) |
This intimate, visual memoir uses archival materials and recollection to reveal the private life behind the career of the golden-voiced singer/civil rights activist.
- Original Cin
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| Posted Oct 05, 2023
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Solo (2023) |
This drag drama and third collaboration between director-writer Sophie Dupuis and actor Théodore Pellerin focuses not on hot button issues but on age-old affairs of the heart, harking back to vintage big-screen backstage melodramas. - Original Cin
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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El Conde (2023) |
Though it offers no fresh insights on tyranny or trans-national corruption, El Conde is a chamber-sized display of cinematic razzle-dazzle that will both discomfort and amuse. - Original Cin
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| Posted Sep 13, 2023
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Golden Delicious (2022) |
Drama about a gay Chinese-Canadian teen’s coming out is sincere and generous-spirited but suffers from predictable rhythms of an earnest TV drama.
- Original Cin
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| Posted Sep 13, 2023
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Iron Butterflies (2023) |
The image of the explosion from a Russia missile that downed the Malaysian flight 17 shapes the jumbled style of this forensic, sardonic, poetic, and, occasionally over-arty film about the relationship between lies and violence.
- Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Back on the Strip (2023) |
Tiffany Haddish and Wesley Snipes headline this slapdash parody of male nudity movies such as Magic Mike, Boogie Nights, and The Full Monty. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 18, 2023
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Dark Windows (2023) |
A Norwegian take on an American indie cabin-in-the-woods thriller, Dark Windows plays like a Mothers Against Drunk Driving public service announcement appended to a few torture-flick ending. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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This Place (2022) |
Thoughtful if over-schematic, This Place follows two women students in love — one Mohawk, one Sri Lankan — in a story of hybrid identities in of the world’s most multicultural cities. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 16, 2023
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Satan Wants You (2023) |
Focusing on the discredited book that launched the '80s Satanic Panic, Satan Wants You unfolds in the borderline schlocky style of television newsmagazine shows, and reminds us that, like the mythical Satan, crazy never quits. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 10, 2023
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A Compassionate Spy (2022) |
A Compassionate Spy… pairs well with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Both films deal with scientists who worked on the development of the atomic bomb. In contrast to Nolan’s opus, this is a gentle and intimate film, largely narrated by Hall’s wife. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 04, 2023
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Shortcomings (2023) |
What’s refreshing — potentially alienating, but mostly refreshing — about Shortcomings is that its protagonist Ben, is such a jerk. - Original Cin
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| Posted Aug 02, 2023
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KOKOMO CITY (2023) |
Kokomo City is a lively, original, kaleidoscopic documentary that gives voices to four Black transgender sex workers at a crucial moment in U.S. politics. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jul 27, 2023
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Afire (2023) |
While Afire’s tonal shift from social comedy to disaster may seem abrupt, in the context of this summer’s apocalyptic headlines, the threat to a generation’s hopes feels like something more urgent than a cinematic metaphor.
- Original Cin
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| Posted Jul 12, 2023
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Subtraction (2022) |
Though the identical couples premise feels contrived, it’s largely offset by the emotionally authentic performances by actors Taraneh Alidoosti and Navid Mohammadzadeh. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jun 22, 2023
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Persian Lessons (2020) |
This Holocaust melodrama, about a Jewish prisoner who outwits his Nazi overseer, is a dubious idea, competently executed. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jun 14, 2023
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Dalíland (2022) |
Instead of explaining the mad love between Salvador Dalí and his spouse Gala, Mary Harron’s film evokes its perverse mystery. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jun 08, 2023
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It Ain't Over (2022) |
It Ain’t Over does a fine job of conveying the appeal of the the improbable and beloved baseball star, though it belabours the case that his talent was overlooked.
- Original Cin
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| Posted May 24, 2023
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Retrograde (2022) |
Adrian Murray’s minimalist film is a darkly funny character study of Molly, a young woman obsessed with overturning what she believes is an unjust traffic ticket, no matter the personal cost.
- Original Cin
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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The Eight Mountains (2022) |
A sensitive, if somewhat grandiose drama, The Eight Mountains is an unusual portrait of life-long brotherly love.
- Original Cin
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) |
Guggenheim’s documentary employs clever editing, using Michael Fox’s onscreen fictional characters to illustrate his biography and his transition from '80s’ hot-shot star to a still funny but thoughtful advocate for Parkinson’s disease.
- Original Cin
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| Posted May 13, 2023
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Carmen (2022) |
Bernard Millepied’s Carmen is a mash-up of melodrama, dance and stagy spectacle that does not always coalesce, but at moments it is peculiarly exciting.
- Original Cin
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| Posted May 03, 2023
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Until Branches Bend (2022) |
Sophie Jarvis’ feature directorial debut is beguiling, at once allegorical, experimental, and sometimes predictable but open-ended and never dull. - Original Cin
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| Posted Apr 13, 2023
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Gangs of Lagos (2023) |
Gangs of Lagos is at its most rewarding when it departs from the Scorsese-Coppola tradition to offer blunt critiques of the Nigerian criminal-political complex. - Original Cin
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| Posted Apr 05, 2023
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In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis (2022) |
A film in which Pope Francis does what you expect a pope to do— travels a lot, condemns war, promotes inter-faith dialogue, cheers up prisoners, memorializes, apologizes, and does an awesome amount of waving to crowds. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 30, 2023
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88 (2022) |
An attempt at a old-fashioned conspiracy thriller about race and dark money in politics in America, 88 is numbingly artless, less a credible drama than a collection of characters lecturing each other. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 23, 2023
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The Five Devils (2022) |
An artful package around a contrived narrative, The Five Devils’ multicultural bisexual mixture of fantasy and horror is rich in moments, if cluttered as a whole. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 22, 2023
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Ithaka (2021) |
As an advocacy film for the release of Julian Assange, Ithaka is predictable but it gains substance as a human interest story about a family fighting to save a loved one. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Tenzin (2023) |
Reality and illusion become muddled in this film about a young Tibetan man in Toronto, grieving the self-immolation of his older brother. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Blueback (2022) |
The sincere but stilted script limits this Australian environmental drama about a mother, a daughter, and a fish. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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Still the Water (2014) |
Naomi Kawase’s story of teenagers in love on a Japanese island is layers of solemn packaging around a banal center. - Original Cin
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Emily (2022) |
Frances O’Connor’s creative imagining on the life of the reclusive 19th century author succeeds thanks to the director’s wholesale commitment to her speculative premise, and Emma Mackey’s brooding performance. - Original Cin
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| Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Marlowe (2022) |
Neil Jordan’s take on Marlowe has the window-dressing and familiar elements of a Raymond Chandler story, but misses the wit, insolence, and romance of the central character. - Original Cin
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Attachment (2022) |
Good performances and the novelty of the interfaith same-sex relationship add spice to this demonic possession thriller. - Original Cin
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| Posted Feb 09, 2023
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Sweetheart (2021) |
Like the protagonist AJ herself, Sweetheart is a bit awkward, from the intrustive sardonic voice-over to the familiar montages set to shoe-gazing soundtrack tunes, but it succeeds thanks to its generosity and Nell Barton’s winning performance. - Original Cin
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| Posted Feb 09, 2023
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Saint Omer (2022) |
Alice Diop’s Saint Omer is a skillfully controlled, stripped-down legal drama with an expanding emotional impact. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age (2022) |
Sensational trappings aside, the film has value as a testimony from women who have been through the social media fire and choose to speak about it. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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The Super 8 Years (2022) |
Readers of Nobel Prize-winning French author Annie Ernaux will find themselves on rich, fertile ground, based on the author’s home movies from the 1970s. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Hold Me Tight (2021) |
Mathieu Amalric’s trance-like marital drama is grounded in a brilliant dualistic performance by Vicky Krieps. - Original Cin
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| Posted Jan 05, 2023
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Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter (2021) |
A food documentary that isn’t about food, Rebecca Halpern’s films tries to assemble a cautionary tale from the troubled legacy of Chicago’s celebrity chef, Charlie Trotter. But it’s better appreciated as a character study of a differently-wired mind.
- Original Cin
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| Posted Jan 02, 2023
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Broker (2022) |
Though not Kore-eda's best work, Brokers is nevertheless elevated by its strong ensemble cast and the filmmaker’s signature deep empathy for his lonely characters. - Original Cin
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| Posted Dec 31, 2022
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No Bears (2022) |
Jafar Panahi’s latest in his series of dissident films is a model of courage and creative invention. - Original Cin
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| Posted Dec 21, 2022
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Geographies of Solitude (2022) |
Experimental, environmental, and existential, Jaqueline Mills’ poetic documentary follows the day-to-day work of Zoe Lucas, who has lived alone on Sable Island in the North Atlantic for decades. - Original Cin
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) |
Laura Poitras’s extraordinary documentary weaves the story of Nan Goldin’s career, linking the AIDS movement to the opioid crisis, in a timely tale of how powerful institutions squeeze the lives out of society’s most vulnerable. - Original Cin
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Hunt (2022) |
Though the action sequences are dynamic, this Korean spy drama, about a power struggle in country’s intelligence agency in the early 80s, is bewilderingly convoluted. - Original Cin
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Please Baby Please (2022) |
With its late-night small theatre vibe and didactic messaging, Please Baby Please is mostly flat-footed, though it offers a big spotlight for Andrea Riseborough’s feral free-styling performance. - Original Cin
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| Posted Nov 29, 2022
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EO (2022) |
Jerzy Skolimowski's homage to Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar is its own strange melancholic creature, a hallucinogenic projection of donkey consciousness, rendered through luminous cinematography. - Original Cin
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| Posted Nov 24, 2022
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