Harlequin: Our Review of ‘Brazen’

What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ January 13, 2022
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Harlequin: Our Review of ‘Brazen’

It’s always interesting to see women tell stories even if the end result is a bit or a lot of a mess. Monika Mitchell’s Brazen stars Alyssa Milano, who also serves as an executive producer. One of the three screenwriters here is Edithe Swensen. Swensen, by the way, was in the writer’s room in one of Milano’s old shows, Charmed. Swensen and company are adapting Nora Roberts’ novel Brazen Virtue. This reminds me that I should read again even if what I read ends up being trash.

Anyway in this story, Milano plays Grace, a true crime writer and criminal profiler who …

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Finding Their Purpose: Our Review of ‘Why Is We Americans’

Theatrical, What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ January 12, 2022
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Finding Their Purpose: Our Review of ‘Why Is We Americans’

Director and producer usually works on projects concerning Palestinians living under occupation, but he switches gears in Why Is We Americans, collaborating with co-director Ayana Stafford-Morris to tell the story of a Black family in New Jersey. The film mixes elements like archive footage and Rauschenberg-esque title cards showing the words of the family’s patriarch Amiri Baraka. And that mix mostly gets the tone right, but the archive footage is mostly interesting in remembering a man and a family since their work hasn’t fully reached 21st century viewers. What’s important here is to show that activism and art can mix. …

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Adrift: Our Review of ‘The Whaler Boy’

Theatrical, What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ January 12, 2022
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Adrift: Our Review of ‘The Whaler Boy’

Lyoshka (Vladimir Onokhov) dreams of America, a country where its girls (Kristina Asmus) work in buildings as cam girls. He dreams because he’s far away, in Chukotia in Eastern Russia, where scenes in his life look like Baroque paintings. There, he and members of his community occasionally rely on candlelight to have family dinners. His real life is a mix of that and spending his days providing whale meat to community members who can’t participate in whale fishing. For what it’s worth, there’s a visual texture to The Whaler Boy, reminiscent of early Jarmusch-esque indies. It’s a step in the …

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[Movie] Moments that Mattered: 2021 Edition

Movies, What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ January 10, 2022
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[Movie] Moments that Mattered: 2021 Edition

Sometimes, the year’s best moments don’t always happen in the best films.

Even though we associate the best moments with awards-calibre films, that’s simply not always the case. The most memorable moments that hit us differently can happen at any time, whether we’re sitting in a blockbuster film with a giant bucket of popcorn or streaming an indie drama online. Whether or not awards are involved is almost irrelevant. The stories we hear all speak to us, if we’re willing to listen.

With that being said, it’s time to examine the year that was through the moments that mattered (to me, at …

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Checking In with the Stars of ‘Son of A Critch’

Blog, CBC Gem, Interviews ‐ ‐ January 05, 2022
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Checking In with the Stars of ‘Son of A Critch’

Canadian comedic treasure Mark Critch has taken his hilarious and heartwarming autobiography to the next level! The new primetime comedy series Son of A Critch is coming to CBC in and is based on Mark Critch’s best-selling novel of the same name. The series stars an incredible ensemble cast, featuring Mark Critch playing his own father and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (Pinocchio, The Haunting of Bly Manor) as young Mark. Claire Rankin (Molly’s Game) plays Mark’s mother, and Golden Globe nominee Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange – this year also marks the film’s 50th anniversary), stars in the show as “Pop”. …

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Tearjerker: Our Review of ‘June Again’

Movies, VOD/iTunes/DigitalDownload ‐ ‐ January 03, 2022
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Tearjerker: Our Review of ‘June Again’

From Still Alice to Away From Her, there have been many great films about people suffering with dementia over the years. This makes it difficult to create a unique film that catches and keeps your attention. June Again does both of those things however, and even though you know what’s coming, it will summon your waterworks as well.

Ever since having a series of strokes, June (Noni Hazlehurst) has been in a state of dementia. Most days she doesn’t know where she is or who her family are. She spends the time staring blankly into the distance. Then one morning she …

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The Standouts Of The Year Of Cinema That Was 2021

Blog, Movies, Theatrical, VOD/iTunes/DigitalDownload ‐ ‐ January 03, 2022
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The Standouts Of The Year Of Cinema That Was 2021

It’s the year that was…and it was a doozy.

In the midst of everything that opened and closed (and opened and closed)…and opened and closed in the calendar year that was 2021 we’ve had a hell of a year for cinema which has proven that a myriad of powerful stories can come to audiences by any means or medium necessary. Quite simply, the size of the screen doesn’t dictate the size and the importance of the film itself.  This year we saw was old become new again as we regained an appreciation for both spectacle AND story.

While I’ll admit…these lists are …

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Heist Film in Ruins: Our Review of ‘See For Me’

Movies, VOD/iTunes/DigitalDownload, What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ January 02, 2022
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Heist Film in Ruins: Our Review of ‘See For Me’

I might have to write a few bad words about Randall Okita’s See For Me, but for what its worth my problems with it aren’t the same as the ones that other critics have. Some aren’t big fans of the first act. They wrote that it doesn’t deliver on the dialogue and the setup, but I disagree. If anything, the movie’s first twenty minutes is solid. It breathes life into its protagonist Sophie Scott (Skyler Davenport). She is a young Olympic level skier who goes blind because of a hillside accident.

The movie gives her a chance to build certain dynamics …

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Short Beginnings: Our Review of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’

Disney +, What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ December 31, 2021
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Short Beginnings: Our Review of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’

Debuting on Disney + on Dec 29th, 2021 is the latest original series based in the Star Wars timeline, The Book of Boba Fett. The series picks up with Boba (Temeura Morrison) and his partner in crime, the legendary assassin Fennic Shand (Ming-Na Wen), both last seen in the Mandalorian series, now assuming the throne of crime boss on Tatooine. The same throne that was once occupied by Jabba the Hutt, but after the overthrow of Jabba’s would-be successor Bib Fortuna as seen at the end of the last season of the Mandalorian.

That’s about all we can say without getting …

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A Sense of Love: Our Review of ‘First We Eat’

What's Streaming? ‐ ‐ December 31, 2021
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A Sense of Love: Our Review of ‘First We Eat’

Food is a human right, pardon for stating the obvious. I state that obvious fact, however, because that access to food, especially in the 21st century, has connections to factors beyond individual control. Suzanne Crocker confronts that truth in her documentary First We Eat, when a road blockage within the Tr’ondek Hwech’in settlement of Dawson City made her decide to only eat local food and make food out of raw materials that she can only find within the settlement. Part of that decision involves filming that journey and convincing her reluctant family to join her at least for a year. …

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