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This year’s Vancouver International Film Festival ran from September 26th to October 6th, and many Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association members were in attendance. We decided to put together a top ten list to celebrate the festival and all the great films we saw. I had the privilege of writing the blurb for…
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Greetings programs! This week on the show, we’re looking at the last of our VIFF 2024 coverage with a discussion of Guy Maddin’s surreal political satire Rumours and, following that, a look at the new Donal Trump biopic The Apprentice. Both of these films are challenging to the viewer, for entirely different reasons, and…
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There’s something about a lazy holiday. Lounging around on long afternoons and warm nights make for easy days. It’s easy to get lost in these moments, especially for the 17-year-old just starting to figure out their individual wants and desires. There’s freedom but also a touch of melancholy in these times, as they are…
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It is interesting to chart our vision of what the post-apocalypse might be. The shortage is never the same, but the outcome always is: we run out of something, people get desperate, and then the rest of the movie happens. R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres follows this formula, with the shortage being food. The film takes place…
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It is more difficult than most of us know to pull up roots and move to another country. The costs involved aren’t simply monetary. You give up community, culture, and your entire network of friends and family, but you do it in the spirit of finding a better life for yourself and your children. Mongrels,…
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Greetings programs! On this week’s show, we’re taking on two exciting films. First up, a BC shot indie film that played as part of the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, Inedia. Then we turn our attention to a new Netflix release, the single-location mystery movie It’s What’s Inside. Both films are exciting for some…
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Greetings programs! Our favourite time of year is back; the Vancouver International Film Festival is on now! The 2024 edition features a ton of great films, and we’re here to talk about two of them: Gillian McKercher’s family drama Lucky Star and Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front follow-up Conclave. It’s a…
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Greetings, programs! This week on the show, we’re talking about Seeds, Kaniehtiio Horn’s directorial debut, which premiered at TIFF. Following that, we look at Azazel Phillip’s latest, His Three Daughters, which is now on Netflix. This episode was supposed to debut last week, but circumstances prevented that, so you’re getting it today! Double episode…
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Greetings, Programs! This week on the show, we’re looking at Canada’s official selection for the Academy Award for Best International Feature, Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language. It’s a singular piece of art that we have a lot to say about, and it premieres in Canada at TIFF this week! Following that, we look at Jeremy…
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There’s something relatable about those times when we feel listless, stuck, or unable to move forward. Sometimes, this is a response to a sudden loss or a not-so-sudden life experience, but most of us have been there at one time or another, at that place where forward momentum seems impossible to generate. From director…
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Comedy is one of the great cultural forces. It is, in many ways, the great equalizer. In the hands of a talented performer, comedy speaks truth to power, whether that means mocking our leaders or finding commonality in the human experience. It’s the latter of these that filmmaker Neil Berkeley’s latest documentary, Group Therapy, in which six…
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Where the series falters is in its updates to the story. For fans of the original, some characters are removed or re-positioned. Case in point: there’s no Sandy Sterns in this version (though maybe it’s a good idea not to try to top Raúl Juliá). There are also several red herrings that go nowhere,…
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You don’t choose your family. Some of us are blessed with loving homes, and others come from complicated situations. The Weekend, a fun new thriller from Nigeria, features one hell of a complicated situation. Nikya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) is an orphan, but she’s begun the journey of starting a new family with her fiance, Luc (Bucci…
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[…] The first half of the film does a good job of setting up the two lone characters in opposition.Emily is suspicious of Ismael, the lone and lonely man living in this remote place, and Ismael is wary of Emily because of a steadfast belief in the supernatural, going so far as to warn her not to brush her…
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In the mid-1980s, Andrew McCarthy starred in a number of highly successful teen films. You’ve probably heard of at least two of them: St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink. He and several other young actors were positioned at exactly the right time and place to create a cultural moment. Teen stories were smart, popular, honest, and fun in ways they hadn’t been before, and…