The Shape of Water
Top-notch acting from Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon and Octavia Spencer make this a…
Sweet Virginia
A tense and highly effective US low budget film noir, set in a small Alaskan…
Molly’s Game
The true story of Molly Bloom (well played by Jessica Chastain), a once top competitive…
The Disaster Artist
The movie “The Room” was released in 2003 (starring and written and directed by a…
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Fascinating documentary about the 1930s/1940s movie star, Hedy Lamarr (the bombshell of the film’s title,…
The Other Side of Hope
Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki is at it again, another film with absurdist and deadpan humour,…
Ingrid Goes West
Aubrey Plaza plays a deeply disturbed woman who relies on social media for any self-worth…
I, Tonya
Terrific performances by Margot Robbieas the once top American competitive figure skater Tonya Harding, and…
War for the Planet of the Apes
Enough with the apes, already! Yes, we know about man’s inhumanity to his fellow man,…
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
It’s a dark comedy and it’s a drama, but a very human story, powered by…
Lady Bird
Saoirse Ronan (who was wonderful in the film Brooklyn, but don’t ask me how to pronounce her…
Darkest Hour
Gary Oldman is excellent as Sir Winston Churchill as he becomes Prime Minister for the…
Killing of a Sacred Deer
An excellent but tough film to watch, dealing with themes of revenge, crime and punishment,…
Faces, Places
A charming and contemplative documentary about an aging French film legend (approaching 90 years of…
Suburbicon
I guess that when the critics’ reviews are so bad, expectations can be set a…
LBJ
An interesting subject – Lyndon Baines Johnson in the days before (as US Senate majority…
Bill Nye: Science Guy
Years on from his very popular science show in the 1990s for children, Bill Nye…
The Square
The square refers to an art installation – basically just some boundaries for that shape…
Thor: Ragnarok
Another successful outing for the creative folks at Marvel Studios. This time Chris Hemsworth plants…
The Outlaws
Set in Seoul a decade ago, and inspired by real-life events, this is a violent,…
Thelma
A cool – but sometimes chilling -- quiet, moody Norwegian film (that country’s entry for…
Murder On the Orient Express
I’m sure everyone reading this knows the plot of Agatha Christie’s book of the same…
Blade Runner 2049
An excellent follow-up (directed by the great Denis Villenueve, of Arrival, and Sicario fame) to the original Blade…
The Florida Project
An impressive, engaging and delightful, yet melancholy, visit with several six-year-olds – we get to…
Human Flow
The ads for this documentary (by the celebrated Chinese artist Ai Weiwei) about the tens…
Long Time Running
A sweet, fun, and sad documentary which covers the Tragically Hip on its 2016 cross-Canada…
Stronger
Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany shine as they portray a real life victim (Jeff Bauman,…
Battle of the Sexes
In 1973, the chauvinist and ex-tennis champion, Bobby Riggs, challenged top women’s tennis star, Billie…
Good Time
Set for the most part over the course of one night, this high-energy film involves…
Logan Lucky
A Steven Soderbergh film with one of the most complicated plots I’ve seen in a…
It
Based on Stephen King’s movie of the same name, this film would definitely not be…
Wonderstruck
A charming and sweet, but relatively complicated fictional story (based on a book of the…
The Foreigner
Yes, Jackie Chan is still making movies, and doing most of his own stunts. He’s…
Happy Death Day
A creative take on the groundhog day theme – where our hero experiences the same…
Mother!
Trying to explain this story in a few sentences would be, in my estimation, a…
Marshall
A slick, over-simplified but enjoyable tale of a time in the life of the great…
Let There Be Light
Intriguing, educational and entertaining documentary about the global effort to develop nuclear fusion (which could…
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
A sequel to the Kingsman (about a group of British non-governmental spies – international intelligence…
I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
A low budget, very indie black comedy (which happened to win the Jury Prize at…
Lucky
A small, quiet (fictional) story of a 90-year-old (well played by 91-year-old Harry Dean Stanton…
Wind River
An excellent, slow-burn thriller set in the cold and open spaces of Wyoming, about a…
The Big Sick
One of my favourites of the year, this story is based on the real-life experiences…
Dunkirk
This take on Britain’s (including many civilians) rescue of hundreds of thousands of British and…
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
This documentary is the sequel (after 10 years) to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, a film which…
The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith
Eugene Smith was a renowned photojournalist for LIFE magazine the 1950s who had a NYC…
American Made
“Inspired” by a true story, Tom Cruise has fun as a swaggering airline pilot who…
Atomic Blonde
Undoubtedly stylish, with a number of well-choreographed action scenes, but this story of an MI-6…
Manifesto
“A+” for creativity, but I found these 13 vignettes, each one starring the great Cate…
Integral Man
The mathematician (and musician, philanthropist, champion of gay rights….) Jim Stewart seems to have made…
Hounds of Love
A tense and frightening tale set in suburban Down Under abut a couple who abduct,…
Tickling Giants
Baseem Youseff has been called Egypt’s Jon Stewart for his biting political commentary and humour,…
Spider-man: Homecoming
Enjoyable popcorn flick, better than most of the previous entries in this franchise, that sees…
The Women’s Balcony
The balcony is where women are seated in many orthodox Jewish synagogues. In this film,…
A Ghost Story
I don't see much opportunity for ambivalent reactions to this story of a man (quietly…
The Wizard of Lies
The story focuses not on the details of one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes,…
The Beguiled
I’m not sure why director Sofia Coppola decided to remake a 1971 film (starring Clint…
I, Daniel Blake
Ken Loach’s most recent work, about a British widower who, after losing his job due…
The Wedding Plan
Set in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, this is a tale of a thirty-plus-year-old woman abandoned by…
Certain Women
Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart play characters whose tales in three loosely interconnected…
Graduation
A Romanian film (by the director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Cristian Mungiu) about…
Maudie
It’s got a bleak Canadian setting (mid-20th century rural Nova Scotia), a true story as inspiration…
Baby Driver
Ridiculous plot – a baby-faced expert driver for a criminal gang who must listen to…
The Wall
Two American soldiers in Iraq, pinned down in the desert by an unseen expert Iraqi…
Chuck
An enjoyable fictionalized version of the life of Chuck Wepner (nicely portrayed by Liev Schreiber),…
The Belko Experiment
The theme was more interesting to me than how it played out in this film…
Chasing Trane
An interesting documentary about the legendary and brilliant saxophonist, John Coltrane, whose musical influence is…
Risk
A new documentary by the director (Laura Poitras) of the impressive Citizen Four (the 2014 doc about…
Wonder Woman
A female superhero who really doesn’t need a man to save the world – what…
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the US government brought criminal charges against…
It Comes at Night
My reaction at the end of this psychological horror story was: WTF. (Please excuse my…
Colossal
Some adjectives/terms that come to mind during and after watching this movie: indie, surreal, imaginative,…
Bobbi Jene
Last month I wrote about the wonderful documentary, Mr. Gaga, which showed us some of…
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Richard Gere is very good as a sad-sack, almost Willy Loman-ish, NYC fixer, who seems…
Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World
I don’t pretend to know much about the contemporary art scene, but director Barry Avrich’s…
Their Finest
An old-fashioned – in a good way – and charming story, set in England in…
I Called Him Morgan
An incredible jazz trumpeter, Lee Morgan was killed by his wife, Helen Morgan in 1972,…
The Prison
Korean action flick set in, yes, a prison, where a former cop is sent as…
Gifted
This story of a young girl math prodigy whose uncle is trying to ensure she…
Black Code
This documentary about how governments use the internet, particularly social media, against their own citizens…
The Lost City of Z
Based on a true story (based on a book of the same name), set on…
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
An interesting and entertaining documentary (which at 90 minutes doesn’t overstay its welcome) on what…
The White Helmets
All of the words written about the human destruction taking place in Syria cannot, unfortunately,…
Mr. Gaga
A terrific documentary – filmed over the course of eight years -- about the life…
Personal Shopper
Is this a tale of the supernatural or a tale of grief and loss? Or…
The Settlers
A documentary focussing on the settlers of the Israeli West Bank and their outsize impact…
T2 Trainspotting
I think you need to see T1 before trying on T2, as T2 picks up…
Logan
I can’t say I know too much about the X-men franchise and, in particular, Wolverine…
Paterson
Adam Driver does a good job of being a public bus driver and poet named…
Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming )
I give this sweet animated story of a young Canadian aspiring poet (voiced by Sandra…
The Last Laugh
When does humour cross over the line of good (or acceptable) taste and become offensive? …
Kong: Skull Island
The acting (Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman,…) and dialogue were, for the most…
The Salesman
Even though I didn’t think this film – which won the 2017 foreign film Oscar…
I Am Not Your Negro
The writer James Baldwin set out to write a book about three of his friends…
Get Out
A very clever and socially aware dark comedy/horror film in which a white woman takes…
Land of Mine
An emotionally moving and difficult (based on a true) story of how at the end…
Oscar Shorts (Live Action)
Always an entertaining package of the five Oscar nominated short live-action films. This year’s winner, Sing (from…
John Wick 2
If you liked the original John Wick, you’ll enjoy this ramped up sequel. Keanu Reeves…
A Man Called Ove
A foreign film Oscar nominee from Sweden, this is the tale of curmudgeonly widower whose…
The Boss
A movie I really didn’t enjoy, but you may. I think Melissa McCarthy is tremendously…
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
A thoroughly charming and very sweet (tinged with melancholy) documentary about the making, and the…
20th Century Women
Annette Bening and Elle Fanning make this film, about a single mother in 1979 California…
Fences
This movie feels very much like a play for the reason that it was a…
Toni Erdman
This German entry for a best foreign Oscar pic has been very highly praised by…
Cop Car
This is a fun, quick (less than 90 minutes), darkly humorous and tense ride as…
Maliglutit (Searchers)
Intriguing and surprising (for me, anyway, given the starkness of the Artic setting for this…
Patriot’s Day
Based on the events surrounding the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, this story is…
The Founder
Michael Keaton, as Ray Kroc, keeps this film from being just another run of the…
Live By Night
Ben Affleck stars and directs a based-on-a-book tale of a Prohibition era gangster who fights,…
Silence
I give director (and co-screenwriter) Martin Scorsese a lot of credit for adapting this story…