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.

#VIFF2018: A big fattie of a film festival that will alter perception

Movies: Vancouver International Film Festival, #VIFF2018 Boasting more than 216 feature films from 55 countries, The Vancouver International Film Festival is one of the beefiest film smorgasbords on the circuit. It can all be a little overwhelming, but veteran critic Katherine Monk offers five vetted bets to get your cinema season started.

Canadian film goes full frontal in Toronto

Movies: #TIFF18, The Toronto International Film Festival This year’s lineup of Canadian film at TIFF represents more than a handful of familiar faces, it’s a coming-of-age moment for the whole industry.

Canadian film goes full frontal in Toronto

Movies: #TIFF18, The Toronto International Film Festival This year’s lineup of Canadian film at TIFF represents more than a handful of familiar faces, it’s a coming-of-age moment for the whole industry.
3.5Score

Juliet, Naked strips romance down to nagging self-doubt

Movie review: Juliet, Naked Director Jesse Peretz brings alt-rock authenticity to Nick Hornby’s story of a singer-songwriter who fell off the map, only to be rediscovered by the long-suffering partner of an obsessive fan. Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd offer pure performance, but it’s Rose Byrne’s quiet navigation of personal desire that redeems the ego-fest.

Kin can’t make good from a wonderfully bad Franco

Movie review: Kin The Baker boys' debut feature may not be fabulous, but somewhere in this wannabe young adult franchise lies a message about the power of guns, and how it transforms one’s place in the American social order.

Juliet, Naked strips romance down to nagging self-doubt

Movie review: Juliet, Naked Director Jesse Peretz brings alt-rock authenticity to Nick Hornby’s story of a singer-songwriter who fell off the map, only to be rediscovered by the long-suffering partner of an obsessive fan. Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd offer pure performance, but it’s Rose Byrne’s quiet navigation of personal desire that redeems the ego-fest.

Papillon escapes a gritty chrysalis with little flutter

Movie review: Papillon Charlie Hunnam looks a little like the late Steve McQueen, which makes comparisons to the 1973 Frank Schaffner classic harder to ignore, and Hunnam’s task all the more challenging as he’s forced to escape an island of fortified expectations.

Skate Kitchen slices, dices dude culture

Movie Review: Skate Kitchen Crystal Moselle’s follow-up to The Wolfpack returns the viewer to the margins of New York City, this time in fictional form as we hook up with some real-life skateboarders who kick-flip chick stereotype.

Crazy Rich Asians takes rom-com for a luxury ride

Movie review: Crazy Rich Asians Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Kevin Kwan bestseller proves money trumps ethnicity and genre is universal as we watch a Romeo and Juliet romance unravel in the middle of Singapore.

Alpha to um, mega

Movie review: Alpha Albert Hughes’s magical, 3D vision of post-Ice Age Europe forms the backdrop for a fictionalized account of how one generation of early humans domesticated the wolf.