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Weekend Roundtable: Over the Hill Action Stars

Josh Zyber — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 19:00:21 +0000

We have a new Rambo movie, 37 years after the original, because apparently that’s something Sylvester Stallone thought the world needed. It seems to be a common trend these days to see old action stars struggling to remain relevant to their audiences. Sometimes it works, but other times… Brian Hoss This could probably double as...

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Cold Pursuit Review: A Very Particular Set of Snowshoes

Deirdre Crimmins — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:00:38 +0000

If you aren’t prepared to laugh in death’s face, then you might want to skip the dark comedy Cold Pursuit. The higher the body count, the bigger the laughs. Cold Pursuit is an English language remake of the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance, made by the same director, Hans Petter Moland. Certain expected...

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Widows Review: Good Mourning

Jason Gorber — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 16:00:36 +0000

Widows is a fascinating hybrid of the arty from writer/director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and the pulpy from author and co-writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It’s both a sharp, action-filled heist film and a rumination upon revenge. The film begins with Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his crew of professional thieves making a...

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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Review: How the West Was Weird

Jason Gorber — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 18:00:51 +0000

The Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is simultaneously an odd addition to their oeuvre and yet perfectly in keeping with their wild, acerbic tone. The film was birthed as a television anthology of Western tales, a pulpy collection of short stories tied together by little more than the dusty setting. From there, it...

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TIFF Journal: Widows

Philip Brown — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 15:00:50 +0000

After specializing in a harrowing brand of art house misery in pictures like 12 Years a Slave, Hunger, and Shame, pretty much the last thing anyone expected out of Steve McQueen (no, not that one – the director) was a rollicking heist movie co-written by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It didn’t seem like the type...

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‘The Commuter’ Review: Never Stop Non-Stopping

Philip Brown — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 20:00:41 +0000

One of the great guilty pleasures of 21st Century cinema has been watching Liam Neeson transform from prestige picture headliner into down-and-dirty action flick badass. Ever since ‘Taken’, Neeson has been the one action star you and your father-in-law can agree on, and he’s never better than when partnered with Spanish genre specialist Jaume Collet-Serra...

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‘Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House’ Review: Accidentally Relevant

Philip Brown — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 17:00:30 +0000

It’s funny how some movies can suddenly feel more relevant on release than they were in conception. Back when writer/director Peter Landesman was developing his project about the FBI director who went rogue to bring down the Nixon administration, it must have felt like a paranoid history piece. Now, the story of an FBI agent...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House’

Philip Brown — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 16:00:00 +0000

When the team behind ‘Mark Felt: The Full Title Is Way Too Long’ starting working on this bio-pic, it must have felt like a forgotten political period piece that they weren’t quite sure viewers could relate to. Suddenly, the tale of an FBI lifer going against the White House to protect the nation couldn’t feel...

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‘Silence’ Review: A Masterful Catholic Guilt Trip

Philip Brown — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 16:00:38 +0000

The great Martin Scorsese spent decades struggling to make ‘Silence’. Many casts signed on and then departed once the cash flow dried up. It took the combined forces of putting Spider-Man and Han Solo, Jr. in the lead roles before anyone agreed to bankroll this thing and even then, it almost has to be assumed...

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‘A Monster Calls’ Review: Fairy Tale Horrors

Philip Brown — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 20:00:23 +0000

‘A Monster Calls’ is one of those movies for children designed to impart a life lesson through CGI fantasy – you know, those ones that use the label “fairy tale” as a compliment. The movie is simple and direct in a way that will strike some like a raw nerve and feel tediously obvious to...

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‘Ted 2’ Review: More of the Same (For Better or Worse)

Philip Brown — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 13:00:32 +0000

The simplest way to describe ‘Ted 2’ is something along the lines of, “It is what it is.” If you liked the first ‘Ted‘ (or any of Seth MacFarlane’s crude comedy output), you’ll probably like this one. It’s pretty much just more of the same, which is really all it needs to be. So many...

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‘Run All Night’ Review: ‘Cause When the Feelin’s Right…

Philip Brown — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 15:00:51 +0000

The strangest thing about ‘Run All Night’ is the fact that it just can’t decide what movie it wants to be. For a while, it seems as though it will be a hardboiled crime thriller littered with movie stars playing street toughs. Then someone threatens the life of Liam Neeson’s son, and we all know...

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