TIFF24: Flow dir. Gints Zilbalodis

Animated films have taken us to a variety of places and let us encounter all manner of characters, and they make us feel, which says something incredible about the fact that they started out as sketches or lines of code in a computer. Flow does something we don’t often see in animated films, its characters,…

Stargate SG-1 (1997/1998) – Singularity, and Cor-ai

Those pesky goa’uld are up to no good and they are intent on taking Earth and the SGC out. Singularity brings trouble into the Cheyenne complex in this episode written by Robert C. Cooper, which first aired on 31 October, 1997. When SG-1 travels through the gate to find the previous team, and a number…

Love and Monsters (2020) – Michael Matthews

The charming and likeable Dylan O’Brien stars in the adventure comedy Love and Monsters which serves as a bit of a coming-of-age tale for his character, Josh. Seven years ago, Earth was able to launch enough missiles to stop an asteroid from wiping out the planet, unfortunately, the chemicals used perverted the environment and mutated…

Magnum P.I. (2021) – The Lies We Tell, and Dark Harvest

Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins (Perdita Weeks) are approached by Elena (Elyse Levesque) to find a murderer in The Lies We Tell. Written by Katie Varney, it was first broadcast on 26 March, 2021. There are complications as Elena reveals that Eddie Benson (Jeff Weisen) she was with was not her husband, and while she…

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) – Andre Ovredal

We just can’t leave the undead alone. It seems every couple of years someone trots out another Dracula update, or a new take on vampires. Some of them are good, some of them are not. The Last Voyage of the Demeter falls into the former. It’s bloody, and it’s fun. Based on a small five-page…

Star Trek: Picard (2020) – Remembrance, and Maps and Legends

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) returned to the screen on 23 January, 2020 with the launch of Star Trek: Picard. Set some twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the pilot episode, Remembrance, was written by Akiva Goldsman and James Duff from a story by Goldsman, Micheal Chabon, Kirsten Beyer, Alex Kurtzman and Duff….

Quiz Lady (2023) – Jessica Yu

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh play sisters in the very enjoyable, Quiz Lady, which I missed at TIFF but was delighted to check out when it hit streaming platforms. Anne (Awkwafina) is quiet, set in her routines, and has some mental health issues that keep her confined to her job, and her couch, where she and…

When Evil Lurks (2023) – Demian Rugna

The Spanish language film, When Evil Lurks, from Argentina, has found its way into my favourite horror films along with Late Night with the Devil. It’s creepy, has some legitimate scares, and a real sense of menace. Two brothers, Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demian Salomon), find themselves confronting true evil when they encounter a…