Hitman’s Bodyguard More Meh than Mayhem
Movie Review: The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson exchange character clichés in a lazy thriller that misses the mark, aiming for moral high ground under a stack of corpses
Trip to Spain a Modern Male Odyssey
Movie review: The Trip to Spain
The third instalment in Michael Winterbottom's accidental series offers a sustained exploration of male friendships, plus a razor sharp satire of Mick Jagger
Hands of Time and Fate Meet in 13 Minutes
Movie Review: 13 Minutes
Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to the land of the brown shirts to extract another timely lesson about the role of the individual in this detailed portrait of the man who nearly assassinated Adolf Hitler
William Oldroyd Reveals Lady Macbeth’s Damned Spot
Movies: Interview with Lady Macbeth director William Oldroyd
Lady Macbeth is riding a wave of feminist revisionism that emerged with Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad and crests with the forthcoming Ophelia, but director William Oldroyd says more women's stories should be told. Not just because they're full of drama. But female actors are available. They're better. They're also cheaper.
By Katherine Monk
In 1865, an author by the name of Nikolai Leskov picked up on something his contemporaries were doing. He revised Shakespearean drama for a Russian audience, playing with context but keeping the core of the character intact. Ivan Turgenev offered up Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District in 1859, and Leskov published Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District — a bodice-ripping, bed-post gripping romance featuring a young woman in a loveless marriage. A century and a half later, we can see a similar trend emerging as filmmakers once more revamp Shakespeare, as well as other classics, ...
Dunkirk Gets Lost in a Sea of Ambition
Movie Review: Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan's war movie about the 'miracle' at Dunkirk fights itself on the beaches, in the air and on the seas; it never surrenders a strand of storyline in its desire to go big.
David Lowery Defeated Nihilism with A Ghost Story
People: Interview with David Lowery
His art-house horror hybrid starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara is the biggest buzz title of the summer, but David Lowery says he's still figuring out what his movie about ghosts, secret notes and hidden meanings is all about.
By Katherine Monk
David Lowery has been talking about A Ghost Story since January, when it premiered at The Sundance Film Festival. But by year’s end, there’s a good chance everyone will be talking about this low-budget art-house-horror hybrid starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and a ghost walking around under a sheet with two cut-out eyeholes. Yes, indeed, A Ghost Story is haunting. It wakes the ache that’s always there. Yet, in his bid to dig a little deeper into a single image of a ghost sitting in an empty house, Lowery successfully pulls a long sliver from the calloused sole of the Zeitgeist. He also made a few therapeutic discoveries of his own. The Ex-Press spoke to Lowery, the 36-year-old Texas-raised ...
Spider-Man: Homecoming Synthesizes All Spideys
Movie Review: Spider-Man - Homecoming
Tom Holland and director Jon Watts prove there's still room for 'comic' in the comic book universe as they return to basics in the highly entertaining Spider-Man: Homecoming
Trish Dolman directs the national selfie: Canada in a Day
Interview: Trish Dolman
Vancouver filmmaker Trish Dolman captures Canadian soul in crowd-sourced documentary portrait airing tonight on CTV
By Katherine Monk
(July 1, 2017) VANCOUVER — There is something extraordinarily moving about Canada in a Day, even though one might say it’s thoroughly ordinary. A visual scrapbook pulled together from over 16,000 video submissions from average Canucks who pointed the camera at their own lives on September 10, 2016, this selfie collage isn’t a film made by the rich and famous. It wasn’t scripted, and contains no professional actors. Yet, there is drama. There’s a palpable sense of theme. And despite the diversity of the players and their unique messages, one even feels a sense of unity. A shared heartbeat echoing empathy and human understanding. It’s lurking in every frame, because it’s part of who we are as a people. It’s also because of Trish Dolman, the Vancouver-based producer and director who took on the challe...
Baby Driver Revs Millennial Muscle
Movie Review: Baby Driver
Ansel Elgort takes the wheel for a generation as Baby, a brilliant getaway driver looking to recapture a bit of the past in Edgar Wright's seductive, three-ply retread
