Katherine Monk 367 results

Katherine Monk is a former movie critic with The Vancouver Sun and Postmedia News. She still watches a lot of movies… and writes stuff about them.

4Score

In the Fade Rubs Out Boundaries of Moral Behaviour

Movie Review: In the Fade Diane Kruger won best acting honours at Cannes for good reason: her performance as a grieving mother and widow in the wake of a terrorist attack takes us from a noble quest for justice to the cellar of revenge

Andrea Bang Sounds the Drum of Korean Identity

Andrea Bang is currently in PyeongChang as part of CBC's broadcast team. She's interviewing locals about culture, so we thought we'd repost our 2016 interview with the star of Kim's Convenience. People: Interview with Andrea Bang The Vancouver star of Kim's Convenience says the first Canadian sitcom to feature Asian leads is about transcending ethnic stereotypes through human universals By Katherine Monk VANCOUVER – Andrea Bang thanks the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only did the team win the required games to advance, they pushed back the network premiere of her new show, Kim’s Convenience. The new CBC comedy based on Ins Choi’s award-winning Fringe play airs tonight on the National Broadcaster, but it was originally slated to air last Tuesday – in the heat of the Blue Jays’ wildcard bid. The network wisely aired the ballgame instead, but Bang wasn’t depressed about the delay. It gave her another week to mentally prepare while promos whetted the public appetite ...

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Resurrects Tinseltown’s Golden Aged

Movie review: Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Annette Bening pours pathos into a champagne glass as Gloria Grahame in Paul McGuigan's moody portrait of the feminine mystique and its martyrdom at the grabby hands of Hollywood  

Bening Becomes Legend in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Movie review: Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Annette Bening pours pathos into a champagne glass as Gloria Grahame in Paul McGuigan’s moody portrait of the feminine mystique and its martyrdom at the grabby hands of Hollywood Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool 4/5 Starring: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Cranham Directed by: Paul McGuigan Running time: 1 hr 45 mins Rating: Restricted By Katherine Monk She had a starring role in It’s a Wonderful Life, but Gloria Grahame had anything but. As one of the leading femme fatales of the 20th century, Grahame was a prisoner of her pin-up image, sentenced to the shadows of sexually charged parts in an era that regarded a woman’s libido as a moral liability. Sexuality was her ticket to the gleaming world of Golden Age Hollywood, but in Paul McGuigan’s emotionally detailed portrait based on Peter Turner’s memoir, we can see how her biggest gift also became her biggest ...
4Score

In the Fade Rubs Out Boundaries of Moral Behaviour

Movie Review: In the Fade Diane Kruger won best acting honours at Cannes for good reason: her performance as a grieving mother and widow in the wake of a terrorist attack takes us from a noble quest for justice to the cellar of revenge
3Score

Maze Runner Loses Route in Frantic Final Chapter

Maze Runner: The Death Cure Dylan O'Brien returns as Thomas, a talented and genetically gifted teenager who leads a renegade group of kids looking to overthrow the wicked world of grown-ups in this final chapter of James Dashner's saga.
2Score

Den of Thieves Leaves a Manly Stink

Movie Review: Den of Thieves Testosterone fuels this bank heist vehicle as Gerard Butler plays a tough, self-loathing cop who sacrificed his inner goodness to catch the bad guys
3Score

The Post Delivers Big Message Sans Emotional Stamp

Movie review: The Post Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep play second fiddle to a 7,000-page stack of paper and an old Xerox machine in Steven Spielberg's well-intentioned history lesson about lying Presidents
3Score

The Post Delivers Big Message Minus Emotional Stamp

Movie review: The Post Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep play second fiddle to a 7,000-page stack of paper and an old Xerox machine in Steven Spielberg's well-intentioned history lesson about lying Presidents

Small Wins, Big Tanks: Top Ten Movies of 2017

Movies: Top Ten Films of 2017 Film critic Katherine Monk looks back on a year without frontrunners or favourites, making 2017’s top choices a truly personal matter with I, Tonya, Icarus and Wonder Woman landing on the podium, and plenty of other worthy contenders in the race. By Katherine Monk It seems the President and Harvey Weinstein eclipsed the klieg lights of the entertainment world: There is no artistic standout, nor crowd-pleasing frontrunner in the race for this year’s movie laurels as the recent Golden Globe ceremony proved. The five major awards were handed out to four films. No Moonlight. No Lala Land. Not even a Hidden Figures. The year 2017 will be remembered for the last-minute resuscitation at the box-office thanks to Star Wars’s enduring shock paddles, pulling a loser year into so-so territory in the home stretch with more than half a billion in receipts for The Last Jedi. Nonetheless, revenues were down 2.7 per cent ($11 billion US) over ...