Amy Adams stars in this sharp-toothed film about the trials of motherhood and societal expectations around that role. Delivering a biting inner monologue Adams is completely engaged as an exhausted and angry Mother. She’s left her aspirations of being an artist behind to be a stay-at-home mom while her next-to-never-there husband (Scoot McNairy) continues with…
Tag: responsibility
I Like Movies (2022) – Chandler Levack
I regret that I missed this one at TIFF, but now that it’s on Netflix it’s going to be able to reach a wider audience. And any film fan who grew up during the 80s and 90s will no doubt recognize parts of themselves in the film’s lead, cinephile Lawrence Kweller (Isiah Lehtinen). Lawrence is…
Family Ties (1983) – Suzanne Takes You Down, The Fifth Wheel, and Stage Fright
We get an Elyse (Meredith Baxter) story with Suzanne Takes You Down. Written by Ruth Bennett it debuted on 16 March, 1983. One of Elyse’s friends, Suzanne (Brooke Alderson) who we’ve seen before with her husband, Ron (Jay Tarses), is having a bit of a tough time. She is suffering from empty nest syndrome and…
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Jon Watts
Tom Holland’s appearance as Spider-Man in the MCU entry Captain America: Civil War introduced the new webhead to millions of immediate fans. Combining a youthful exuberance, and actual nerd cred, Holland’s Peter Parker rings true to the comics, even as this incarnation introduces unique spins on familiar characters like Aunt May played this time around…
Prisoners (2013) – Denis Villeneuve
Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal star in the emotional thriller, Prisoners, featuring yet another magnetic turn by director Villeneuve. What starts out terrifyingly enough with the abduction of two little girls turns into something horrific as twists reveal true natures, and narratives slowly shift the viewer’s perspective on what they are seeing. As two families…
Five Midnights (2019) – Ann Davila Cardinal
I’ve found myself craving something spooky to read again, and threw that into a google search, and it came back with this title, one I hadn’t heard of, and I promptly went off and found it. It ended up being a young adult novel, never a problem for me, as I love some of the…
Star Trek: The Kobayashi Maru (1989) – Julia Ecklar
With a framing story set after the events of The Motion Picture, but with the uniforms introduced in The Wrath of Khan, so sometime during the second big mission, The Kobayashi Maru is more a collection of short stories as each member in a damaged shuttle tells a tale of their encounter with the famous…
Joker (2019) – Blu-Ray Review
One of the most talked about films of last year hits blu-ray today from Warner Brothers, and it’s going to be as divisive at home as it was in the theatre. However you feel about it, you definitely realise that Joaquin Phoenix turns in a stellar performance. From the old-school 70s Warner Brothers introduction to…
Shazam! (2019) – Blu-Ray Review
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has been a little shaky since its launch, but with Wonder Woman, Warner Brothers and DC Comics proved they could do it right, and tell an empowering story. Then there was the fumble that was Justice League. Aquaman showed that they could do a big budget, CGI-filled action set piece…
Seven Fallen Feathers (2017) – Tanya Talaga
Seven Fallen Feathers is a defining book. It is a haunting, distressing and angering discourse on racism and loss in Northern Ontario, and across Canada. Talaga, a dedicated and insightful journalist turns her investigative eye, shining it like a spotlight onto a piece of Canadian life that many of us are loathe to discuss, accept,…
The Mind Reels 