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Sweetland Review: A Bittersweet Story About the Difficulty of Change | That Shelf
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The town is dying. That’s the start of Christian Sparkes’ new drama Sweetland. It’s not entirely clear why, but the town is metaphorically crumbling. The residents have a chance at government-assisted relocation and job retraining, but the offer is only good if every resident takes it, and Moses Sweetland (Mark Lewis Jones) doesn’t want to.…
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‘Dark Matter’ Is a Dimension of the Multiverse That Looks Kinda Like All the Other Ones | Exclaim!
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Multiverses are so hot right now. The idea of a limitless number of parallel dimensions, spinning off from every decision everyone makes, is a household idea and has been at the centre of several movies, such as Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, the animated Spider-Verse films and Everything Everywhere All at Once,…
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‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ Review: Short, Stunning, and Uneven | Movies We Texted About
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Each story is told in three episodes, each approximately 15 minutes long. The length of these episodes is key; if they were any longer, there’d be too much opportunity for the story to meander. As told, each is concise and thematically to the point. These are the kinds of stories that short films can…
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Doctor Who Review: Ncuti Gatwa Is Off to a Very Fun, Very Silly Start | That Shelf
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It feels like this series could have been an immediate follow-up to Davies’s prior run on the series. The tone and style feel in line with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s runs on the series, with a mad alien and a bright-eyed human travelling space and time in a blue box and fixing problems…
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The King Tide Review: A Stark, Stunning Canadian Thriller | That Shelf
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… [D]irector Christian Sparkes captures both the scope and feeling of living in a small but tight-knit community. There’s authenticity to how the characters behave around each other and the closeness with which they speak and act, even when antagonistic. The tone of these scenes at the end is nearly pitch-perfect, and the script by writers…
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The Greatest Hits: A Predictable Flick to Vibe With | ForReel
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The plot is also a touch predictable but that doesn’t matter because The Greatest Hits is a vibes movie, and you have to vibe with it. If you can approach it with this mindset, you will likely have a good time. Sure, there’s definitely a scene where Boynton and Min connect via singing along…
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Civil War Is a Timely, Must-See Cautionary Tale | ForReel
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And yet, throughout the film, one clear choice is made: it doesn’t take sides. Early in the story, Dunst’s Lee tells Spaeny’s Jessie that they don’t decide; they document so that others can decide, and that’s the entire film’s approach. It’s never confirmed who started the war or why, or indeed, in many cases,…
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The Classics Shelf: Cannes ’82 | That Shelf
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Continuing on from the Criterion Shelf, The Classics Shelf is an ongoing retrospective of classic cinema produced monthly by writer Bil Antoniou and in collaboration with other writers in the That Shelf stable. This month’s theme is the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, and I contributed a review of the 1982 film Moonlighting, starring Jeremy…
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Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Once Again Fumbles the Source Material | Exclaim!
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As with any adaptation, Avatar walks a tricky line, seeking to please fans of the original material and appeal to new fans. Showrunner Albert Kim has publicly said that one of his goals was to broaden the appeal to an adult audience, citing Game of Thrones as an example of the tone he’d like to set — a…
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Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent Review: The Iconic Franchise Comes to Canada | That Shelf
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[T]his reliance on archetypes and such a well-established formula is both the show’s biggest weakness and its greatest strength. It’s either “another Law & Order…” or “Another Law & Order!” That might seem like a fairly narrow distinction, but it’s true. Once again, this is a franchise with enough episodes under its belt that if…
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‘Shōgun’ Is a Grand Epic Without Focus | Exclaim!
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… [T]he series contains many great performances and an excellent production design that make it worth watching. Everything from the costumes to the CG cityscapes feel as considered and authentic as possible, and for those of us who appreciate stage violence, this has its fair share. Shōgun is a good show — but it sometimes…
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Sight Unseen Review: New Canadian Detective Show Has A Unique Hook | That Shelf
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Every excellent detective show needs a hook. Sometimes, the detective is a rogueish outsider or has a particular personality quirk or compulsion. In Sight Unseen, ace detective Tess Avery (newcomer Dolly Lewis) abruptly loses her ability to see. At first, in denial of this, she puts her partner Jake (Daniel Gillies) in peril and…
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Echo Review: Marvel Tries To Answer Criticisms With Mixed Results | That Shelf
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The television entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been, to date, mostly pretty good. While not 100% successful, they have each tried new genres and expanded the universe in interesting ways. While they have performed well with most audiences, there are some that have been dissatisfied with them. Aside from claiming they suffer…
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The Criterion Shelf: Pre-Code Divas | That Shelf
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Criterion Shelf is an ongoing collaborative retrospective of classic films, helmed by Bil Antoniou, tackling curated collections on the Criterion Channel. For November 2023, the topic was the curated list ‘Pre-Code Divas’, a list of films featuring strong women characters dealing with leering men and racy subject matter, at least by 1930s standards. Several…
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review: New Series Adds Depth and Breadth To The Monsterverse | That Shelf
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And what of the Titans? Interestingly, the show isn’t really about the Titans per se, so they don’t show up quite as much as you might anticipate. However, when they do, they show up like the forces of nature they are. There are a few new monsters we are introduced to and, naturally, Godzilla…