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Interview: Amelia Moses on her film “Bleed With Me” | Awesome Friday!
Bleed With Me is the first feature from Canadian director Amelia Moses. This slow-burn psychological horror film is rife with tension and atmosphere. As I said in my review earlier this week, this film is the type that should land Moses firmly on your radar for whatever she does next. I had the opportunity to sit down […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Patrick’ is a sweet story of coming into one’s own | Awesome Friday!
Patrick is a simple story about a man coming to grips with his new normal and whether he even wants it to be his new normal. It is sweet and poignant, with a fantastic central performance and a hilarious fight scene. Naked, of course. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/fantasia-review-patrick-is-a-sweet-story-of-coming-into-ones-own/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Fried Barry’ is excessive, but is it bold or juvenile? | Awesome Friday!
For all its excess, there are a few bright spots, including a mental health facility breakout scene that is both ridiculous and exciting, but even they succumb at least somewhat to the excess of it all. Fried Barry tries to walk the line between bold and juvenile, and while it occasionally succeeds at being on the […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Oak Room’ weaves stories within stories to great effect | Awesome Friday!
Each scene is beautifully shot as well. Each shot is captured in a wide aspect ratio that lets you admire details from around the rooms where the scenes occur. I know it sounds weird to call tiny, dingy, northern Canadian bars beautiful, but between the neon Molson signs and cheesy wall decorations, the production design […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Hail to the Deadites’ is an opportunity missed | Awesome Friday!
Some B movies go nowhere, and others become cult classics. People love this latter category of film. People go out of their way to see them in special screenings and to collect memorabilia. What makes these films resonate is a question worth examining. Not only do they have to have a certain je ne sais quoi about […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Block Island Sound’ is suitably creepy | Awesome Friday!
The Block Island Sound is a gorgeously shot horror film. Almost every exterior shot is beautiful and takes full advantage of the location. The score and sound design are also top-notch, with much of the tension being ratcheted up by the auditory experience. It is also well cast and –and I say this as someone who […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Sleep’ blurs the lines between dreams and reality | Awesome Friday!
A confident first feature from director Michael Venus, the film is anchored by a phenomenal central performance by Gro Swantje Kohlhof as Mona navigates her own trauma, her mother’s, and, in many ways, the trauma of the German people. Schlaf is atmospheric, dark, moody, and unsettling, and one to add to your watch list. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-sleep-blurs-the-lines-between-dreams-and-reality/
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My Three Favourite Christopher Nolan Films | Awesome Friday!
We can still get our dose of Christopher Nolan’s trademark brand of incredible practical action and obsession with time, though. The man has made eleven films to date, and most of them have one or the other or both. So to help get you through, here are my three favourite Christopher Nolan films Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/home-video-matts-three-favourite-christopher-nolan-films/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Hunted’ covers some well-worn revenge ground | Awesome Friday!
The rape-revenge story is a well-worn film story. The bad man seems nice. The bad man gets the woman alone. The bad man reveals himself as bad man. Violence ensues. Hunted attempts to take a supernatural twist on this story, following our victim deep into a forest that will eventually become her ally. Or so the pitch […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘A Mermaid in Paris’ is a fun, heartfelt fantasy | Awesome Friday!
A Mermaid in Paris is, shockingly, from this last group. A man, Gaspar (Nicolas Duvauchelle), finds the wounded mermaid Lula (Marilyn Lima) on the banks of the Seine one night and proceeds to nurse her back to health. In the process, they fall in love. It’s not exactly a new setup, but when you filter this […]
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Interview: Quinn Armstrong on his film “Survival Skills” | Awesome Friday!
Survival Skills is a film I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first watched it. A biting satire of police training, it frames a cold hard look at the way police are trained to interact with the people they’re sworn to protect. I watched and reviewed the film yesterday and today had the opportunity […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘PVT Chat’ can’t decide whether it’s honest or sleazy | Awesome Friday!
The film crosses back and forth over the lines, from some moments that ring incredibly true and honest to others that are effectively softcore porn. Each actor gives 100% to the material; Vack and Fox bare all for the camera. The level of trust in the filmmaker must have been quite high for them to […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Free Country’ is a stark, engaging mystery | Awesome Friday!
Each lead actor is great, but Felix Kramer, as Markus, steals the show. He’s a brute, but he might be a bad man for good reasons. Does that work? I will let you decide for yourself, but it’s fascinating watching him portray that struggle and whether Markus will let his past define him. Alvart has […]
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Don’t Go to the Movies Right Now | Awesome Friday!
I love the movie-going experience. Sure, people can be jerks sometimes (*cough* turn your phone off *cough*), a man was even arrested for assaulting another moviegoer at my screening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (seriously, that happened). But there’s nothing quite like seeing an exciting blockbuster film with a large crowd when that crowd is into it. It’s […]
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Survival Skills’ is way more than just a weird VHS nostalgia trip | Awesome Friday!
It would be easy to write Survival Skills off as a cheap nostalgia bid or a wacky experiment, and it would have been easy just to be that. Still, writer and director Quinn Armstrong’s script takes the story to some uncomfortably dark places and pits Jim’s desire to help against our society and all the ways it […]
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.
