Filipino filmmaker Carlo Enciso Catu makes a lovely low-pitched directorial debut with My Life With a King. It’s a light touch with a lanky formalism that recalls early Hal Hartley and Aki Kaurismäki that makes much of Catu’s tranquil comedy of manners so engaging. That the film is rooted in Pampangan culture is something of […]
Author: Shane Scott-Travis
Monty Python: The Meaning of Live – VIFF 2015 Review
Roger Graef and James Rogan’s documentary relating the reunion of the surviving members of the cherished comedy troupe Monty Python, as they are ready to perform a series of live shows, their first in over 20 years, is highest quality cubic zirconia for fans, for everyone else it’s still bound to entertain, provided they aren’t […]
- Features
- ...
20 Films You Won’t Want to Miss at VIFF 2015
Now in its 34th year, the 2015 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival (September 24th – October 9th, 2015) looks to be the brightest yet. Screening 355 films overall, 238 which are feature length, from 70 countries, VIFF promises to have something intriguing and exciting for everyone. And while the queue may be intimidating, […]
- Features
- ...
The 10 Best Movies Written by, Adapted From, or Inspired by Raymond Chandler
With his antithetical tableau of Los Angeles as a subterrane city both gritty and sublime, Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) reawakened the detective novel, taking it from the dour pulp fiction dustbin into the floodlights of celebrated and illustrious literature. Chandler began his writing career, first for pulp magazines, in his early 40s with short stories and […]
- Features
- ...
10 Great Movies Featuring Mysteriously Missing Females
The term “damsel in distress” is a vapid expression to be sure, along with “femme fatale” or the more recent trope of the “manic pixie dream girl.” What these arguably sectarian euphemisms point to is cinema’s steady association and obsession with womanhood in different and distinctive modes. Certainly there have been times where film has […]
- Features
- ...
25 Great Anthology Movies That Are Worth Your Time
An exciting film category, overfull with potential yet often overlooked, is the portmanteau picture or anthology film. Consisting of several vignettes, often connected in thematic ways, or with the same premise or bookend situation, the anthology film can be a compelling, often outre experience, packing intense emotions and modes, never specific to any one genre, […]