April 20, 2010

3:10 To Yuma (James Mangold, 2007)

In 3:10 To Yuma, a down-on-his-luck farmer volunteers to escort an outlaw (Russell Crowe) to the 3:10 train out of Yuma which will lead him to jail.
December 16, 2013

The Lady Assassin (Quang Dung Nguyen, 2013)

The Lady Assassin, a martial arts blockbuster, is my first Vietnamese film. A light Sunday night screening at this year’s Fantasia Festival, it was attended by a notable number of people from Montreal’s Vietnamese community. Billed as a Vietnamese wu xia, in the film, a princess sold in marriage is taken in by a team of high-flying, ass—kicking, thieving assassins […]
March 29, 2010

Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007)

Michael Clayton suffers from its intellectualism, just as Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005) did, and never lets you connect to the stakes emotionally.
November 28, 2010

The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

Legend goes that The Devils was considered so extreme in its time that it was banned in North America and never distributed on home video here.
October 1, 2010

What is independent cinema?

What is independent cinema? Critics and film scholars have wrestled with a definition of independent for most of cinema’s existence.