Saoirse Ronan shines as Maria, an elementary school teacher pushed too far in Jonatan Etzler’s darkly funny thriller, Bad Apples. If you’ve read the tagline for the film, do yourself a favour and don’t read anything else about it. Go in with the knowledge that Maria is working to keep her class engaged. She has…
Tag: subject matter
Dark Skies (2013) – Scott Stewart
Keri Russell doesn’t often do genre films, and while I like the subject matter of Dark Skies, I wish she had chosen a slightly stronger film to be a part of. The last third of the film is just terrible and isn’t executed very well. And why are the Greys, which have been portrayed as…
Family Ties (1982) – Have Gun, Will Unravel, A Christmas Story, and Oops
The Keaton household is burglarized and Steven (Micheal Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) have to find a way to reconcile their beliefs with the need to protect their family. Have Gun, Will Travel was written by Ruth Bennett and originally aired on 8 December, 1982. I did like the fact that the movie the family…
Quantum Leap: The Wall (1994) – Ashley McConnell
Ashley McConnell turns in another Quantum Leap novel, and except for a quick moment when we are given another limbo moment for Sam between leaps it is a really powerful tale about domestic abuse, alcoholism and breaking the cycle. Sam leaps into Missy, a six-year-old girl (something that couldn’t have been pulled off believably in…
Hill Street Blues (1981) – Life, Death, Eternity, and I Never Promised You a Rose, Marvin
Gregory Hoblit and Lee David Zlotoff penned Life, Death, Eternity which first aired on 14 March, 1981. Hey look! There’s Dwight Schultz! There’s no heat in the precinct (and the repairman has dropped dead) while Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) continues the investigation of the murdered prostitute, which may interfere with his chances of being promoted…
The Da Vinci Code (2006) – Ron Howard
Director Ron Howard pairs with Tom Hanks to bring Dan Brown’s incredibly popular novel, The Da Vinci Code to the screen. Hanks portrays symbologist Robert Langdon, who previously popped up in Brown’s novel Angels and Demons, but it was the subject matter, and the way it tied into art and some historical moments that really…
TIFF 2021: Dear Evan Hansen dir. Stephen Chbosky
Mental health. Suicide. Depression. Loss. Grief. Loneliness. These issues are usually trapped in the individual, and though a number of us share in these things, it’s never a shared experience. We are held in the prison of our issues, in a society where social media presentation, the illusion of life being better than it is…
Murderers Among Us (1946) – Wolfgang Staudte
The Directory of DK Canada’s The Movie Book continues to provide exemplary titles, despite the fact that they didn’t make the cut for the main body of the text. And Murderers Among Us is a moody, brilliant watch that reminds us of the horrors of war, humanity, and the cost of terrible events. A German…
The Sweet Hereafter (1997) – Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan’s heartbreaking, and powerful film (something I was fortunate enough to be able to tell the director in person) is the next stop in DK Canada’s The Movie Book. Based on the novel by Russell Banks, which Egoyan adapted as well as directed the film features great performances by Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce…
Shivers (1975) – David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg’s first feature film is the next entry in the Mad Scientist chapter of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book. That being said the mad scientist in this film doesn’t survive the opening credits, though his foul plan does. Set in a lone apartment building, the Starliner, which owns the island it is…
The Mind Reels 