One of the joys of watching a well-made biographical documentary is getting intimate with figures you feel you should have already known all about. Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back dexterously balances cataloging the illustrious career and public persona of its subject, along with his personal life. Clearly a deeply private man, Maurice has kept the... Continue Reading →
Okay, let’s start with the basics. Yes it’s long. No it doesn’t feel long. Yes the de-aging is good. No it’s not perfect. Yes you should try to see The Irishman in the cinema. Yes Joe Pesci's performance is definitely worthy of Oscar consideration. Is it Scorcese’s best? No. I wanted to see The Irishman... Continue Reading →
My Dads, My Moms and Me follows three Canadian families as they navigate the world of LGBTQ parenthood. Documentary filmmaker, Julia Ivanova, initially filmed her subjects in 2007, returning 12 years later to capture the families’ lives as they go through the tween to teen years of their children. In 2005, Canada was the first... Continue Reading →
I love a good whodunnit. Give me an unreliable narrator, misdirects, a slew of suspects, and a shocking reveal, and I’ll wanna know about it. Even if I don’t see a particular film or read the book, I’ll still Google it, because I just need to know if it elevates the genre or not. We... Continue Reading →
“I’m 56 years old. I’m mixed raced and transgender. I’ve survived addiction, homelessness and sex work; and here I am, sitting in a dressing room, opening a play on Broadway!” says performer Alexandra Billings in the documentary On Broadway. The history of Broadway has been a story of boom and bust, struggle and reinvention, that... Continue Reading →
This Sunday 10th November sees the United States premiere of Laurie Lynd’s Killing Patient Zero at DOC NYC in New York. It’s a compelling exploration of how a French Canadian flight attendant, Gaetan Dugas, came to be branded by the media as ‘Patient Zero’ and was widely blamed for bringing the HIV virus into the... Continue Reading →
One of my all-time favorite films is F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, Sunrise, a drop dead gorgeous example of German expressionism in which its haunting imagery and Postman Always Rings Twice storyline felt way ahead of its time. Filmmakers today could learn a lot from its ability to tell a compelling story with very little dialogue.... Continue Reading →
I don’t get the love for Maleficent. The first film was dull and muddled. The only outstanding feature was Angelina Jolie (her look, her performance, her everything - divine), but the rest was like watching a kid vomit after a long day at Disney World - lots of colour and movement but I never need... Continue Reading →
Karen Bernstein’s I’m Gonna Make You Love Me received its world premiere at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival, in New York tonight. The deeply personal, artfully executed film weaves archive footage, photographs, classic movie clips and talking head interviews to paint an intimate portrait of Brian Belovitch. Assigned male at birth, Belovtich transitioned... Continue Reading →
