year : 2019 81 results

Review: Gemini Man a bad case of character assassination

Movie review: Gemini Man Will Smith stars twice over as a government assassin seeking to destroy his mission-focused younger clone in Ang Lee’s strangely vacant thriller haunted by ghosts in the machine.

Another Citizen amputates daily editions to survive

Journalism: The Slow Death of Newspapers The Prince George Citizen goes weekly, prompting a  former staffer to remember the days of a $1.49 steak at Mr. Jake’s, the big story of a hotel fire that left him burnt, and the long-gone giddiness of daily newspapering.
3.5Score

Review: Joker chokes on sympathy for the devil

Movie review: Joker Joaquin Phoenix soars as a latter-day Satan in Todd Phillips's Joker, a rewrite of Paradise Lost for a generation weaned on comic books, social media and selfies.
3.5Score

Review: Judy burns Garland’s ghost at the stake for sizzle’s sake

Movie review: Judy Director Rupert Goold turns Judy Garland’s final act into a passion play that focuses on suffering and female martyrdom. It’s a sad descent redeemed by Renée Zellweger’s unfamiliar face and fleeting hints at humour.  
2.5Score

Review: Abominable gets lost in a blizzard of déja-vu

Movie review: Abominable Dreamworks animators substitute a yeti for Lassie and E.T. in a story of finding home that feels far too familiar, and serves up a central character that looks and feels factory-made.
4Score

Review: Ad Astra explores the emptiness of the masculine ideal

Movie review: Ad Astra James Gray probes the hero myth through a father-son story that casts Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones as strangers trying to find a meaningful connection in the existential void.
3.5Score

Review: Downton Abbey’s fairy tale continues to fester

Movie Review: Downton Abbey Julian Fellowes created a perfect little universe inside a crystal ball, then filled it with the suggestion of outside elements — a pinch of painted sand and glitter that he can agitate to conjure a snowstorm of conflict. The new feature film stays inside the gorgeous snow globe as a Royal Visit shakes up the Crawley family, and sets the stage for the next century -- as well as a continuing film franchise.

Movie review: Honeyland is a parable of capitalism

Documentary about a beekeeper in Macedonia takes an intimate look at what happens when neighbours move in and see the profits that can be made

Tiff 2019 finds its controversy in Jojo Rabbit

A young boy in Nazi Germany turns for moral guidance to a fantasy figure of Adolf Hitler in this satire that has sharply divided critics By Jay Stone   TORONTO — Film festivals need movies that people can argue about, and the Toronto film festival has been blessed with a good one: Jojo Rabbit, a comedy set in Nazi Germany. Some people, including half of the representatives of Ex-Press.com, argue that it’s juvenile, and in bad taste, and — worst of all — not funny. Others, including the other half of Ex-Press.com staff, think it’s bold, original and filled with laughs.   And we’re not the only ones. The aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes gives it a favourable rating in the 70s, but the opinions are wildly divergent, from raves (“a triumph. A film of sophisticated brilliance and humour:” Jason Gorber, HighDef Digest) to pans (“conventional, lazy and incredibly irresponsible filmmaking:” Jordan Ruimy, World of Reel.)   Personally, I ...
3Score

The Goldfinch fails to adapt but Donna Tartt’s DNA survives

Movies: #TIFF19 - The Goldfinch The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about survival divided audiences in print form as it fragmented in the final act. John Crowley’s visually satisfying, but dramatically disappointing, movie version falls prey to the same problems in its bid to fit too much into the frame.