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You Can Live Forever
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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For all its aches and pains, the heart of You Can Live Forever doesn’t so much beat as skip, haltingly and disconcertingly, as it tries to keep its own lifeblood pumping.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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The experience of watching this new Shazam! is akin to watching an exceptionally wealthy but ultimately sweet and innocent child smash their toys together for 130 minutes.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Until Branches Bend
(2022)
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Anne T. Donahue
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As deeply moving as it is upsetting, Until Branches Bend is an affecting drama that begs audiences to question their own social complacency.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Riceboy Sleeps
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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This is a tender, ambitious, meticulous and deeply empathetic work.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Tenzin
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Toronto’s Little Tibet deserves its big moment in the spotlight. But Tenzin’s glow is ultimately too dim, flickering on and off until it simply fades.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Brother
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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The spirit of what Scarborough represents – for Chariandy, and for Clement – is undoubtedly present in every lovingly composed frame of Brother.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Scream VI
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Scream VI doesn’t reinvent the blade – though for a hot minute it half-convinces itself that it has done just that – but it does deliver the goods, quickly and efficiently and oh-so-sharply.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Champions
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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A paternalistic and patronizing movie...
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Inside
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Dafoe is captivating as always, but not even his slinking, slippery presence can save the film from turning into a rather torturous endurance test.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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I Like Movies
(2022)
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Amil Niazi
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Levack has done a remarkable job with her feature-film debut, playing with tropes that have time-honoured traditions but are always in need of a refresh.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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“Nobody is picking on this b****,” Rock said, as he continued to bully [Jada Pinkett-Smith] instead of [Will] Smith. He, too, is all about the selective outrage.
Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Creed III
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Creed III tells a story that takes the best parts of the Rocky franchise and blends them into a sort of rock-’em-sock-’em comfort food, so fighting-form slick it slides down your gullet like a raw-egg smoothie.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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The Quiet Girl
(2022)
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Anne T. Donahue
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Through heart-wrenching, nuanced and arresting performances by Clinch, Crowley and Bennett, The Quiet Girl technically lives up to its name, but speaks volumes about the transformative power of what it means to be loved.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Unseen Skies
(2021)
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Chris Knight
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Will leave you with a great many questions and concerns about the place of surveillance in our lives, the ways that open-source artificial intelligence is getting in on the act, and what it might mean to the future of privacy and civil liberties.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Return to Seoul
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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One of the more exciting, invigorating dramas to come along so far this year.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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Queens of the Qing Dynasty
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Both the most unexpected and perfect follow-up that any fan of Ashley McKenzie, one of this country’s most exciting filmmakers, could possibly anticipate.
Posted Feb 28, 2023
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We Have a Ghost
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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We Have a Ghost is a desperate mix of feel-good sentimentality, watered-down surreality, and comedy as transparent in its hackiness as the film’s title spook.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Emily
(2022)
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Kate Taylor
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Purists are not going to be pleased... But for the rest of us this fantasy does offer the satisfaction of witnessing the short-lived triumph of a fascinating character.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Cocaine Bear
(2023)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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The movie, about a doped-up black bear, is a much more lethargic affair, as if the apex predator’s supply was swapped out for some Ativan.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Pacifiction
(2022)
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Rachel Ho
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What makes Pacification a brilliant movie is also what makes it a real endurance test to watch.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Jesus Revolution
(2023)
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Amil Niazi
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It’s easy to be dismissive of the moviemaking, in what often feels like a church production of Hair. Other times it felt like watching an infomercial hawking something that already has billions of people buying what they’re selling.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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BlackBerry
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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A riotous, fiery kind of comedy whose subterfuge is so subtly stage-managed that you don’t see the cans of gas fuelling the flames higher and higher.
Posted Feb 18, 2023
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Sharper
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Caron’s feature debut has the look and feel of a classic con movie. But not the cold, calculating soul.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Marlowe
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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A detective movie so pulpy that it will make you choke.
Posted Feb 14, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Both a dispiriting reminder that the MCU has abandoned wit and that even the most clever and idiosyncratic of filmmakers can be steamrolled by the unstoppable obligations of corporate storytelling.
Posted Feb 14, 2023
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Of an Age
(2022)
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C.J. Prince
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The specificity of Of an Age’s subject matter, combined with its stale handling of said material, only lets the film serve as a reminder of better works that came before it.
Posted Feb 13, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance
(2023)
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Sarah-Tai Black
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Soderbergh’s film tosses the many lessons of its predecessors, leaving us with a movie that is utterly devoid of its own magic.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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Shyamalan’s sensibilities are given a boost, in all the right ways, by his decision to join forces here with Dave Bautista.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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Black Ice
(2022)
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Aparita Bhandari
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Weaving together the past and present, Black Ice offers a look at a chapter of Canadian history that has been largely forgotten.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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80 for Brady
(2023)
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Johanna Schneller
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The condescending vibe and the whatever-ness of it all are disappointing given the collective calibre of the stars, revered, funny veterans who deserve better.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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Close
(2022)
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Amil Niazi
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It’s clear from the beauty and rawness of Close that we’re long overdue for something exploring the closeness between young men.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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Alice, Darling
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Alice, Darling does so much right that it is acutely painful when it goes wrong.
Posted Jan 30, 2023
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When You Finish Saving the World
(2022)
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Rebecca Tucker
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Does so much telling, and so little showing, that it’s hard not to walk away from the film feeling, frankly, talked down to.
Posted Jan 27, 2023
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Pathaan
(2023)
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Aparita Bhandari
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I am here to tell you that Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan are back, aided in no small part by other celebrities such as Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, in this slick action-thriller.
Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Infinity Pool
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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The entire thing swallows you whole. There is no more delightful way to drown.
Posted Jan 26, 2023
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You People
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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The familiar and facile elements are drowned out – often, and loudly – by the impeccable comedic talents of Hill and Murphy, two performers whose very different styles clash and complement one another.
Posted Jan 25, 2023
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Offside: The Harold Ballard Story
(2022)
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Simon Houpt
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Offside is a reminder of what reality often actually looks like -- raw, ribald, uncomfortable, unvarnished -- when there are no teams of image consultants ensuring someone doesn’t stray off-brand.
Posted Jan 23, 2023
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Missing
(2023)
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Sarah Hagi
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Missing is a delightful surprise.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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Ever Deadly
(2022)
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Radheyan Simonpillai
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The doc is a lot like the outfit Tagaq is wearing at the live concert it repeatedly returns to. It’s a dress covered in glass scales, catching in its reflections the world surrounding Tagaq.
Posted Jan 18, 2023
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The Son
(2022)
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Kate Taylor
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The Son is a film that is very cruel to its characters, and by extension to its long-suffering audience.
Posted Jan 17, 2023
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Saint Omer
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Diop’s film revels in the enigmatic power of uncertainty.
Posted Jan 16, 2023
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Living
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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[It] should not work. Yet it does, ultimately, thanks to the magnificent talents of its leading man, Bill Nighy.
Posted Jan 16, 2023
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Adult Adoption
(2022)
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Tabassum Siddiqui
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For all its quirks, at its heart Adult Adoption is a thoughtful coming-of-age story that will have you rooting for its complicated heroine.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Door Mouse
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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A series of motions, bumps, swerves, dodges and turns, all deployed for a journey to nowhere special.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Plane
(2023)
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Barry Hertz
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It is all such gloriously smart stupidity that you cannot help but applaud everyone involved for sticking the landing.
Posted Jan 11, 2023
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M3GAN
(2022)
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Sarah-Tai Black
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While M3GAN doesn’t revolutionize the subgenre that it’s working in, it is a hell of a good time.
Posted Jan 06, 2023
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Corsage
(2022)
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Kate Taylor
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Corsage is a work of fiction, and its main character is, thankfully, far more complicated and interesting than the real thing.
Posted Jan 04, 2023
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A Man Called Otto
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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It becomes depressingly clear that A Man Called Otto will unfold exactly as you suspect, with no surprises (let alone effort) necessary.
Posted Jan 03, 2023
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Broker
(2022)
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Barry Hertz
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Song offers Kore-eda a slippery presence that keeps the rest of the film on its toes.
Posted Dec 26, 2022
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Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
(2022)
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Sarah Hagi
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Despite the film’s bloated length, we simply never get enough time with one single event to understand how Whitney’s mind worked or why she made certain decisions. There is almost nothing new to learn about her life.
Posted Dec 22, 2022
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