TIFF ’23: The Dead Don’t Hurt

Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed this Western drama that is filled with recognizable Western tropes but Moternsen neither completely rejects them nor subverts them, he simply uses them to fill out his story about an immigrant couple that finds themselves living and loving on the edge of a corrupt Nevada town in the 1860s. The…

The Green Knight (2021) – David Lowery

The Green Knight is a stunning and lyrical film that completely blew me away with its storytelling and visuals. Using the 14th-century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as its launching basis, Lowery’s tale is fantastical and beautiful, telling the tale of a young Gawain (Dev Patel) looking to make his way in the…

Jack the Giant Killer (1962) – Nathan Juran

There are dragons and monsters galore in the next film in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book as I delve deeper into the chapter called Dragons & Dinosaurs, and while the stop-motion effects aren’t quite up to Harryhausen standards, this fantasy adventure, suitable for family fun, is pretty fun to behold. A farmboy, Jack…

The Seventh Seal (1957) – Ingmar Bergman

I love Max Von Sydow, and thanks to DK Canada’s The Movie Book, it was high time for me to dig into one of his most iconic roles in Bergman’s classic The Seventh Seal. This was the first time I had sat down to watch it, and I won’t lie, it also put me in…

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002) – George Lucas

  The Star Wars films continue as I delve further into George Lucas’ films thanks to the Sci-Fi Chronicles. This time it is the second instalment in the Prequel Trilogy. And while a considerable step-up from The Phantom Menace, this one is still too clunky and too digital. Jonathan Hale helps Lucas out on the…