Vancouver International Film Festival 2014

A few years ago, a young British woman was murdered in Sienna, Italy. The case gained worldwide attention as the girls’ American roommate and friend were accused, tried, and convicted of the crime and then later acquitted on appeal. The Face of an Angel is a fictionalization of this case. Sort of. Rather than going…

It’s when he doesn’t speak that is most effective, though, in the pauses between lines or the scenes where he barely speaks at all, Carell brings something else to the character, and we’re able to see from his first scene that there’s something not quite right there, something broken, angry, and malevolent. The reasons…

The film does have some issues for me, the main one being a few things were pretty predictable, but these are very much overshadowed by the performances, particularly that of Matthew MacCaull as Noel. He disappears into the character and is genuinely menacing, especially in scenes where he’s just sharing a beer with someone…

Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets is an easy film to recommend. If you’re a fan of the band, then you should definitely want to check out the story of the band’s final concert –played in their hometown of Sheffield– and if you’re not a fan of the band, then you should check…

As the story starts, two brothers, both doctors, run a practice together in Paris. They’re both so devoted to their work that they’ve both remained bachelors. Enter Judith, a beautiful young mother they meet due to her daughter needing a house call, and they both fall in love. Each of the brothers is given…

Strangely, it feels like there could have been a legitimately great film here. If it has just been the story of Havana Segrand going insane working on a remake of her mother’s film, or if it has just been the story of a young girl with a troubled past trying to reconnect with her…

It’s a funny movie, but as with many comedies, the laughs slow down considerably when the third act rolls around and needs to teach us something. That’s not a bad thing per se, but there’s not that much it’s going to teach you if you’ve seen other teen comedies. The nice thing is that…

I’ve said before that one of the things I love about movies is those few occasions when I get to witness one of the great performances of our time, when an actor disappears into a role completely, and I can forget even the most familiar of faces as belonging to an actor I’ve seen…