Katherine Monk 399 results

Katherine Monk is a former movie critic with The Vancouver Sun and Postmedia News, as well as co-founder of The Ex-Press. She still watches a lot of movies. She can be heard talking about them on CBC Radio, and you can read what she thinks about them here, exclusively in The Ex-Press.

Sharkwater Extinction: A matter of death, and life, for the Stewarts

Movies: Sharkwater Extinction Shattered by their son Rob’s death in a diving accident, Sandy and Brian Stewart found inspiration in his message and turned pain into positive action by completing the film he died trying to make.
3Score

Goosebumps 2 almost too scary

Movie review: Goosebumps 2 - Haunted Halloween Jack Black returns as R.L. Stine and turns Goosebumps’ Haunted Halloween into a meta horror movie for young adults, but with an evil ventriloquist dummy as the villain and a scene that compromises Mom’s goodness, even grown-ups may get the shivers.
3Score

First Man makes small steps, fails giant leap

Movie review: First Man Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to La La Land fragments into a stream of dramatic particles orbiting around central star, Ryan Gosling.
4Score

22 July appeals to rule of law, not emotion

Movie Review: 22 July - New on Netflix Paul Greengrass’s restrained vérité treatment of the July 22 massacre at a Norwegian kids camp lassos truth of tragedy by showing us the banal face of evil and the chilling effect of fear.

Still time to VIFF and get avay from it all

Movies:  #VIFF18 The Vancouver International Film Festival enters final stretch with enough twists and turns to recalibrate your personal GPS
3.5Score

Venom pits Tom Hardy against an oily Zeitgeist

Movie Review: Venom Ruben Fleischer’s movie about supervillain Venom fails to sink its fangs into genre, leaving Tom Hardy to wrestle a dark alien force that’s colonized his DNA. It’s a perfect metaphor for the times, but can filmmakers capitalize on the moment when they’re working in the Marvel universe?
3Score

A Star is Born is a gassy giant, indeed

Movie review: A Star is Born Bradley Cooper writes, directs and stars in this latest revamp of a seminal Hollywood yarn that proves the nexus of progressive America remains completely conservative when it comes to its own story. On the bright side, Cooper and Lady Gaga use their first-timer adrenaline to fuel this bumpy rocket ride, creating great spectacle -- if not deep drama.

#VIFF2018: A big fattie of a film festival that will alter perception

Movies: Vancouver International Film Festival, #VIFF2018 Boasting more than 216 feature films from 55 countries, The Vancouver International Film Festival is one of the beefiest film smorgasbords on the circuit. It can all be a little overwhelming, but veteran critic Katherine Monk offers five vetted bets to get your cinema season started.

Canadian film goes full frontal in Toronto

Movies: #TIFF18, The Toronto International Film Festival This year’s lineup of Canadian film at TIFF represents more than a handful of familiar faces, it’s a coming-of-age moment for the whole industry.
2.5Score

Kin can’t make good from a wonderfully bad Franco

Movie review: Kin The Baker boys' debut feature may not be fabulous, but somewhere in this wannabe young adult franchise lies a message about the power of guns, and how it transforms one’s place in the American social order.