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The Boogeyman
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Ultimately, the scariest thing about The Boogeyman is that its mere existence implies that producers are hard at work trawling the depths of King’s archives for even more obscure, even flimsier material to adapt.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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Across the Spider-Verse keeps up the momentum, goes further with the artistry and is perhaps even more rewarding. Like any great sequel free from the legwork of setting things up, this one is more contemplative and soulful.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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5/5
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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A soulful and unsettling movie that is self-aware about how storytellers twist and manipulate truth.
Posted May 26, 2023
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3/5
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Down for Life
(2009)
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Brad Wheeler
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Disturbingly frank, the film assaults its viewers, but in a very effective way.
Posted May 26, 2023
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Kandahar
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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By law, every summer movie season should include at least one Gerard Butler film.
Posted May 24, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A much-needed reminder of the almost forgotten pleasures of sitting inside a movie theatre, watching smart, funny people work through thorny, relatable problems on a distinctly human scale.
Posted May 24, 2023
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The Little Mermaid
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A thoroughly pointless cash grab of a thing, this new Little Mermaid is one of the most uninspired films to slither out of Disney since the company started raiding its own vault...
Posted May 22, 2023
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Master Gardener
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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A complex and layered thing that is sturdily resistant to quick, dirty, in-and-out discourse.
Posted May 18, 2023
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Fast X
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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An F&F movie that is both a one-upped continuation of the franchise and a deeply affectionate, powerfully weird tribute to the series itself.
Posted May 17, 2023
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Twice Colonized
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A film that is empowering, educating and insightful, all at once.
Posted May 11, 2023
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1/4
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The Mask
(1961)
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Brad Wheeler
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The Mask was low-budget in 1961, and that its kitschy appeal will be limited to genre fetishists and popcorn-chomping ironists in 2015.
Posted May 08, 2023
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Book Club: The Next Chapter
(2023)
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Amil Niazi
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The best thing about Book Club: The Next Chapter is just seeing these remarkable actresses do what they do best. I hope Hollywood can make better use of them in the future.
Posted May 08, 2023
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The Maiden
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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An intensely atmospheric meditation on friendship, grief and the pains and wonders of being an adolescent outsider, The Maiden is a haunting work that announces the arrival of a startling new talent.
Posted May 05, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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I am Groot … ly disappointed.
Posted May 04, 2023
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Carmen
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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An exercise in higher-than-high ambition whose only outcome can be of the crash and burn variety.
Posted May 01, 2023
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Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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A strong filmmaking team could have made a meal of this story. Unfortunately, Tillman Jr. settles for a lousy boxing movie in service of a sermon.
Posted Apr 27, 2023
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Sisu
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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If watching mass-murdering maniacs get absolutely destroyed on-screen is your thing – and it very much is mine – then Sisu is a perfectly depraved night out.
Posted Apr 27, 2023
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Polite Society
(2023)
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Aparita Bhandari
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Polite Society is a welcome addition to the canon of works featuring the lives of contemporary South Asian diaspora, with its distinct British humour.
Posted Apr 24, 2023
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
(2023)
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Marsha Lederman
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Director and screenwriter Kelly Fremon Craig does not mess this up. She has created a film that is true to the book’s heart, but is also its own thing. And it is a (mostly) wonderful thing.
Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Chevalier
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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For myriad reasons Chevalier’s energy and imagination never feel adequately reflected in this cinematic retelling.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
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Beau Is Afraid
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Beau Is Afraid is not a movie for everyone – actually, it is a movie for very, very, very few. But I just happen to be part of that teeny tiny target audience. And for me, Beau Is Afraid kills.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
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Renfield
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Feel free to expose Renfield to direct sunlight, and watch it burn.
Posted Apr 13, 2023
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Mafia Mamma
(2023)
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Anne T. Donahue
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Despite its best intentions at subverting the classic mob genre, the new comedy Mafia Mamma sadly misses the mark and delivers a story rich in tropes but lacking in substance.
Posted Apr 12, 2023
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Incendiary and furious, confident and courageous, the new thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline boasts not only the best title of the year so far but also the best score, cast and itchy, charged, electric directorial vision...
Posted Apr 10, 2023
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Air
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A well-oiled machine of a movie, as slick and convincing as its obvious show-me-the-money inspiration. It had me at, “Just Do It.”
Posted Apr 05, 2023
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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The internet was right. Chris Pratt is all wrong as the title character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
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Simulant
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A sometimes confused and always lazy pastiche of warmed-over ideas about humanity, technology and What It All Really Means. More artificial, less intelligence.
Posted Apr 03, 2023
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Murder Mystery 2
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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If you squint especially hard and hold your breath till you pass out, the sequel almost resembles an attempt by Sandler to recreate Glass Onion.
Posted Mar 31, 2023
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A Thousand and One
(2023)
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Sarah-Tai Black
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Wisely locating her characters at the intersection of race, class and gender, Rockwell takes stock of their losses and challenges, their joys and moments of respite, all within a city that is indifferent to them.
Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Tetris
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A needlessly complicated and ultimately rather boring epic whose narrative blocks don’t so much stack on top of each other neatly as they do crush, grind and crack until the whole structure topples.
Posted Mar 28, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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A giddy, comical and inviting brand expansion that gives its fans – who often suppress their inner wizards in public – good reason to wear their nerdy affections with pride.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Far too often, especially during the film’s first 90 minutes, the action pauses for stiff, semi-serious scenes unpacking the underworld arcana that the first three films built up with increasing ponderousness.
Posted Mar 21, 2023
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You Can Live Forever
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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For all its aches and pains, the heart of You Can Live Forever doesn’t so much beat as skip, haltingly and disconcertingly, as it tries to keep its own lifeblood pumping.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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The experience of watching this new Shazam! is akin to watching an exceptionally wealthy but ultimately sweet and innocent child smash their toys together for 130 minutes.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Until Branches Bend
(2022)
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Anne T. Donahue
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As deeply moving as it is upsetting, Until Branches Bend is an affecting drama that begs audiences to question their own social complacency.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Riceboy Sleeps
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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This is a tender, ambitious, meticulous and deeply empathetic work.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Tenzin
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Toronto’s Little Tibet deserves its big moment in the spotlight. But Tenzin’s glow is ultimately too dim, flickering on and off until it simply fades.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Brother
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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The spirit of what Scarborough represents – for Chariandy, and for Clement – is undoubtedly present in every lovingly composed frame of Brother.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Scream VI
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Scream VI doesn’t reinvent the blade – though for a hot minute it half-convinces itself that it has done just that – but it does deliver the goods, quickly and efficiently and oh-so-sharply.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Champions
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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A paternalistic and patronizing movie...
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Inside
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Dafoe is captivating as always, but not even his slinking, slippery presence can save the film from turning into a rather torturous endurance test.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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I Like Movies
(2022)
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Amil Niazi
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Levack has done a remarkable job with her feature-film debut, playing with tropes that have time-honoured traditions but are always in need of a refresh.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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“Nobody is picking on this b****,” Rock said, as he continued to bully [Jada Pinkett-Smith] instead of [Will] Smith. He, too, is all about the selective outrage.
Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Creed III
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Creed III tells a story that takes the best parts of the Rocky franchise and blends them into a sort of rock-’em-sock-’em comfort food, so fighting-form slick it slides down your gullet like a raw-egg smoothie.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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The Quiet Girl
(2022)
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Anne T. Donahue
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Through heart-wrenching, nuanced and arresting performances by Clinch, Crowley and Bennett, The Quiet Girl technically lives up to its name, but speaks volumes about the transformative power of what it means to be loved.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Unseen Skies
(2021)
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Chris Knight
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Will leave you with a great many questions and concerns about the place of surveillance in our lives, the ways that open-source artificial intelligence is getting in on the act, and what it might mean to the future of privacy and civil liberties.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Return to Seoul
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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One of the more exciting, invigorating dramas to come along so far this year.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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Queens of the Qing Dynasty
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Both the most unexpected and perfect follow-up that any fan of Ashley McKenzie, one of this country’s most exciting filmmakers, could possibly anticipate.
Posted Feb 28, 2023
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We Have a Ghost
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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We Have a Ghost is a desperate mix of feel-good sentimentality, watered-down surreality, and comedy as transparent in its hackiness as the film’s title spook.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Emily
(2022)
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Kate Taylor
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Purists are not going to be pleased... But for the rest of us this fantasy does offer the satisfaction of witnessing the short-lived triumph of a fascinating character.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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