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Jay Stone and Katherine Monk movie reviews and profiles. Movies new to streaming / DVD.
Reviews of Canadian movies and filmmaker profiles by Katherine Monk and Jay Stone.

Rebecca Miller gets screwball

Interview: Rebecca Miller She may be the daughter of the man who penned Death of a Salesman, but Rebecca Miller reveals an undeniable talent for thoroughly goofy comedy in her latest film, Maggie's Plan By Katherine Monk Rebecca Miller’s intellectual pedigree cannot be argued: daughter of Pulitzer-winner Arthur Miller, graduate of Choate and Yale, and married to the towering dramatic talent named Daniel-Day Lewis. But speaking to Miller over the phone, the legacy of Willy Loman walks out the door and the inner goofball emerges. It’s a side of Miller that’s on full display in her latest work, Maggie’s Plan, a feature film that charmed audiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and opens theatrically this week. A full-on comedy that’s been drawing comparisons to Woody Allen’s witty dissections of the academic elite, Maggie’s Plan stars Greta Gerwig as a modern gal looking to enhance her life in a millennial way. Maggie wants to have a baby without ...
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Sunset Song a sombre beauty

Movie review: Sunset Song English filmmaker Terence Davies creates a sad and lovely portrait, in light and shadow, of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood on the eve of the First World War

Slicing Life: A Tale of Two Cities

Blu-ray blast from the past: A Tale of Two Cities Reflections on the Revolution in France - from the man who brought you Shanghai Surprise: Jim Goddard's adaptation of the Dickens classic still holds its edge, even in a 1980 Hallmark production starring Chris Sarandon and Peter Cushing
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Alice Through the Looking Glass distorted by Depp

Movie Review: Alice Through the Looking Glass Johnny Depp reprises his role as the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice sequel, but the one-time teen idol feels like a cross between a zombie Madonna and Ronald McDonald
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X-Men: Apocalypse, Now and Then

Movie review: X-Men: Apocalypse Director Bryan Singer brings the comic book franchise to the brink as he sends us back to the 1980s, when the powerful mutants were forced to pick sides

Whit Stillman loves powerful women

Interview: Whit Stillman on Love & Friendship The American filmmaker creates a fine comic weave using Jane Austen's material, Kate Beckinsale's sharp talents and his unique sense and sensibility for social satire By Katherine Monk “I really enjoy dominant, manipulative women. I find them very entertaining,” says Whit Stillman, his tone so matter-of-fact, it almost makes you laugh. Then again, that’s his charm. The director of Metropolitan, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco built a reputation as a cunning social satirist in the ‘90s for plucking the veil off human vanity to show us the pimples of truth. He also showed a preference for using powerful, insightful and somewhat self-absorbed females as the dainty hand behind his narrative tatting. It’s the reason why his latest endeavor, Love & Friendship, feels like such a natural stitch in Stillman’s oeuvre: It’s based on the work of Jane Austen, the godmother of social satire, a pioneer of female ...

Xavier the Great crushes Cannes skeptics

News: Xavier Dolan wins Grand Prix, Ecumenical Prize at Cannes 2016 Quebec's golden boy picks up second-highest honour at Cannes, but his quest for the coveted golden palm continues, as does his battle with critics By Katherine Monk He didn’t win the Palme D’Or, but Xavier Dolan’s double win at this year’s Cannes Film Festival marks the best performance by a Canadian on the Croisette since Atom Egoyan scored a triple with The Sweet Hereafter back in 1997. Dolan won the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Prize for his latest film Juste la fin du mode (It’s Only the End of the World), a drama that follows a writer with a terminal illness on his final journey home. Based on the stage play by the late Jean-Luc Lagarce, It’s Only the End of the World is Dolan’s sixth feature, and fifth title to be invited to France’s red carpet extravaganza. “Dolan’s two latest awards at Cannes are renewed recognition of his immense talent, of course, but also of the determined ...
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High-Rise makes you feel the fall

Movie review: High-Rise Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel about high-rise living takes social metaphor to vertiginous heights
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Angry Birds flaps hard and flies

Movie review: Angry Birds The film adaptation of the "stupid game" features an all-star voice cast hurled through a surreal landscape, capturing the essence of modern times as flightless birds struggle to save their eggs from greedy pigs
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The Nice Guys is an Abbott and Costello noir

Movie review: The Nice Guys Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe team up for a violent buddy comedy that plays like a tribute to the pratfalls of an earlier era