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.

4Score

The Man Who Invented Christmas Presents Panicky Dickens

Movie Review: The Man Who Invented Christmas Dan Stevens brings comic swagger and emotional complexity to the role of the famed writer on a losing streak, but Christopher Plummer is the Christmas pudding in this feast of holiday messages

Fellipe Barbosa Follows Dead Friend’s Footsteps on the Mountain

Interview: Fellipe Barbosa Gabriel and the Mountain tells the story of Gabriel Buchmann, a 28-year-old Fulbright scholar who perished on Mulanje Mountain in Malawi in 2009. Former classmate and Brazilian filmmaker Fellipe Barbosa says he didn't want to make an ode to his old friend, but an honest account of his beautiful contradictions. By Katherine Monk VANCOUVER, BC — Fellipe Barbosa’s first memory of Gabriel Buchmann was as a seven-year-old, studying at an all-boys Catholic school in Rio de Janeiro. “He was looking at me from a distance. He was very observant. He would study emotions. He was more shy, then.” Barbosa hesitates. “Eventually… I went to the U.S. to study film at the age of 19, and we lost touch.” They would never have the chance to reconnect in the flesh. Buchmann died of exposure climbing Mulanje Mountain in Malawi in 2009. His tragic death became a headline that captured the hearts and minds of Brazilians: A Fulbright Scholar heads to Africa in ...
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Murders More Than it Can Chew Chew

Review: Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient Express remake pulls out of the station in fine style, only to get stuck in a blustery snow drift of Kenneth Branagh closeups and an avalanche of wasted A-list talent  
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Three Billboards Boasts Three Oscar-worthy Performances

Movie review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh offers an ode to the rustbelt with his story of grief and loss in the fictional town of Ebbing, where the American Dream rolled out with the tide and left a hole six feet deep to bury hope

Lauren Lee Smith Finds Power in Female Dick

Interview with Lauren Lee Smith Frankie Drake is a female crime-solver working in 1920s Toronto, but for Vancouver actor Lauren Lee Smith, the new CBC heroine played a pivotal role as personal emancipator By Katherine Monk She never thought she’d be a dick. Little girls aren’t conditioned to be assertive, let alone take control — which is exactly why Lauren Lee Smith had to say yes to Frankie Drake. A female detective working in 1920s Toronto, Frankie Drake makes her debut on the national broadcaster tonight, but Smith says the journey to bring the character of Frankie to televised fruition is a feminist odyssey. “The whole idea of a female detective working in 1921 is pretty rad,” says Smith over the phone from Toronto. “But she’s part of a larger history. She worked as a messenger during the First World War, was recruited to be a part of British Intelligence, but when someone blew her cover, she went back to Canada… and opened the first female detective ...
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Thor: Ragnarok a Hulking, Noisy, Norse Oblivion

Movie Review -- Thor: Ragnarok Marvel Studios' latest product feels like industrial birthday cake as it overcooks A-list talent and coats the formulaic boredom in green-screen icing  
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Killing of a Sacred Deer Slays Sick Joke Called Life

Movie Review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer Yorgos Lanthimos rewrites Greek tragedy for a modern fit by forcing the audience to ponder the bargains we strike to separate heart and mind
3.5Score

Goodbye Christopher Robin, Hello Heartbreaker

Movie Review: Goodbye Christopher Robin Simon Curtis takes us back to 100 Acre Wood where we can explore the semi-melancholy landscape that gave birth to A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and a particularly troubled father-son relationship
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Columbus Is Like Waltzing to Light

#VIFF17 Movie Review - Columbus Director Kogonada creates an unassuming art film that frames the details of the human condition against a backdrop of midcentury architectural masterpieces
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No Light, But Lots of Thrills At the End of the Tunnel

#VIFF17 Capsule Movie Review - At the End of the Tunnel Director Rodrigo Grande and lead actor Leonardo Sbaraglia strip Hitchcock down to the studs in this clever thriller that throws the viewer down a moral staircase