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‘This Too Shall Pass’ Takes a Nostalgic, Heartfelt Journey to Ottawa | Northern Reel
A staple of filmmaking, the coming-of-age story works because, regardless of circumstances, we can all relate to the story being told. Whether we’re young and needing affirmation, or old and needing reminding, a story of a young person going on a quest and finding themselves in the process is one we can all see ourselves in. The execution is tricky; it’s easy to fall too far into familiar cliches without bringing anything new, but when one of these stories lands, it can be among the most satisfying. This Too Shall Pass narrowly avoids this trap by engaging with it directly.…
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‘Whistle’ is a Call to Horror Fans but Perhaps No One Else | Movies We Texted About
There are many subgenres of horror, but one of the most reliable is the “kids eff around and find out”. It’s a reliable setup that doesn’t require much work from filmmakers or the audience to make for a good time at the movies, even if the film we’re talking about isn’t that good to begin with. Whistle is the latest release in this subgroup.
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In the Heat of the Night | The LAMBCast
The MOTM for February was chosen from the Pool of Academy Award Winning films. Best Picture was the Genre for this month and Dave Anderson of the “Free Kittens Movie Guide” suggested this detective thriller as the choice for our discussion. Of course the movie is more than just a procedural, as it tackles racism
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‘Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’ is One of the Funniest and Most Heartfelt Films of the Year | Northern Reel
Comedy is hard, and not all comedy is for everyone. Everyone has their own sensibilities, and these don’t always jibe with the sensibilities of those writing and delivering the jokes. A film like this one, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, attempts to thread the needle between being incredibly specific and incredibly broad, targeting
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‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ Runs Loops Around the AI Apocalypse | Exclaim!
The time loop movie has become a fixture of the science fiction genre, to the point where it feels like most avenues that can be explored through this device already been. Director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter Matthew Robinson challenge this premise with their latest film, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
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“Cold Storage” Makes for a Decent Winter Off-Season Watch | ForReel
Cold Storage is very much in this third category. An science fiction action comedy in which a deadly alien fungus rages out of control in a self storage facility where an unsuspecting Georgina Campbell and Joe Keery work. The storage facility was previously a government base, and Liam Neeson shows up as the government agent tasked with containing the situation because he’s the one who put the fungus there in cold storage in the first place.
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Islands: Sam Riley Shines in this Sun-Drenched Mystery | That Shelf
“I’m not running away. I like it here.” This is Tom, a tennis pro living on a sweltering resort island, caught walking a knife-edge between denial and self-reflection. It’s never made clear exactly what Tom (Sam Riley) is running from in director Jan-Ole Gerster’s newest film, Islands, but that is by design. We don’t need to know what he is specifically avoiding because he is quite clearly running from everything.
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The Hilarious, Heartfelt ‘Wonder Man’ Is Something Entirely New for Marvel |Exclaim!
Wonder Man is unlike anything that we have seen in the MCU to date. A meta story about heroes, Hollywood, self-expression and finding your truth, that is, in a word, excellent.
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Movie Review: ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ Is Fine for an Uneventful Evening at Home | ForReel
People We Meet on Vacation is the latest entry in the genre. It is, in a word, familiar.
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Santa Jaws | The LAMBCast
Matthew joins The LAMBCast Holiday Special to talk about Santa Jaws, very bad (but maybe good?) movie.
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Exclaim!’s 13 Best TV Series of 2025 | Exclaim!
This year’s ‘best of’ list season is off to a strong start. For Exclaim!, I contributed two blurbs for their Best Television Series of 2025 list. Severance: After the first season of Severance captured the zeitgeist back in 2022, viewers clamoured for answers to the series’ mysteries. Season 2 delivers on that promise and then some. Answering questions
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Exclaim!’s 20 Best Films of 2025 | Exclaim!
For this year’s top twenty list from Exclaim!, I was invited to write up a blurb for one of my personal favourites: The Naked Gun. Given that the sensibilities of The Naked Gun — namely, be as silly as possible and do anything for the laugh — seem like a product of a bygone era, it’s perhaps
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Cool Runnings | The LAMBCast
We almost skipped the MOTM because the Shepard was away from the pasture. Fortunately, there were itinerant Podcast Hosts, seeking one off jobs and they happen to be other LAMBs. Matthew Simpson of the Cascadia Film and TV Critics Association, and the Awesome Friday Podcast, as well as a regular MOTM guest, volunteered to take
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Nuremberg Review: Well-Acted Drama Misses Opportunity to Be More | That Shelf
“We are able to do away with domestic tyranny only when we make all men answerable to the law, so that it can never happen again.” A noble quote from a noble man, Justice Robert H Jackson, as played by Michael Shannon in James Vanderbilt’s new World War II legal drama, Nuremberg. The trials, held
I am a Rotten Tomatoes-approved, freelance film & television critic and podcast host from Vancouver, Canada! I am a co-founder of the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association and a voting member of the International Film Society Critics, Pandora International Critics, and the Online Film & Television Association.
I maintain bylines at Exclaim!, Awesome Friday!, That Shelf, ForReel, Movies We Texted About, KeithLovesMovies, and I can be heard regularly on the Contra Zoom Podcast and The LAMBCast.
