A young Irish immigrant adjusts to like in America in Brooklyn. Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman from a small Irish town, who is arranged by her older sister to go to the US for a better future, with priest and sponsor Father Flood (Jim Broadbent) arranging for Eilis’ accommodation and employment. Eilis is initially incredibly…
A young aspiring photographer has an affair with an older woman in Carol. Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is an aspiring photographer in her twenties working in a department store. One day she meets Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a middle-aged housewife, who is in the beginnings of a bitter divorce with her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler). Therese and…
A closeted homosexual teenager struggles with his identity and relationship with his father in Closet Monster. Oscar Madly (Connor Jessup) is an aspiring make-up artist living alone with his overbearing father (Aaron Abrams). After witnessing a brutal hate crime as a kid, Oscar fears the repercussions of people finding out he is homosexual, even though he begins…
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF15 A trio of teenage boys come of age one summer in an Ontario cottage community in Sleeping Giant. Adam (Jackson Martin) is a 15 year old boy spending his summer in a sleepy cottage community. Adam is friends with Riley (Reece Moffett), though he also has…
A Canadian Muslim man arrested for terrorism is freed after spending half his life behind bars in Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr. At the age of only 15 years old, Canadian-born Omar Khadr was captured by American forces and sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where he was subjected to torture and interrogations. With his family known…
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF15 Guy Maddin and co-director Evan Johnson embark on a surreal cinematic journey in The Forbidden Room. A series of interconnected narratives tells stories inspired by forgotten genres from cinema’s past. Over the course of this increasingly weird and surreal journey, a number of familiar faces…
An injured frontiersman left for dead seeks revenge on the man who killed his son in The Revenant. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an experienced hunter and part of a group of fur trappers lead by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson). Glass is critically injured in a bear attack and Henry instructs John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), Bridger (Will Poulter), and…
Two sisters try to cope on their own after an apocalyptic event in Into the Forest. Nell (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood) are two sisters who live in an isolated house by a forest with their father Robert (Callum Keith Rennie). Suddenly one evening, the power unexpectedly goes out, with reports saying that…
A group of financial experts predict the 2008 financial crisis and try to profit off of the collapse of the housing bubble in The Big Short. In 2005, hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) discovers US housing markets is extremely unstable and decides to profit on the inevitable collapse by betting against the housing market…
It’s dad vs step-dad in the comedy Daddy’s Home. Brad Whitaker (Will Ferrell) is a man who wants nothing more but to feel accepted by his two step kids. However, Brad’s search for acceptance is complicated when his wife Sara’s (Linda Cardellini) ex-husband Dusty Mayron (Mark Wahlberg) comes for a visit. A much cooler individual than Brad,…
