As the acclaimed author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was the first science fiction novelist. Her transition from cloistered young woman to acclaimed writer is the subject of Haifaa Al Mansour’s appealing feature film, Mary Shelley, which opens in Canada on July 13. A period piece in terms of atmosphere and language, this evocative movie […]
Shana Feste’s Boundaries, which opens in Canada on July 6, falls back on an old Hollywood cliche to fairly good effect. She places three people in a car and sends them off on a road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles. The travellers are Laura (Vera Farmiga), a single mother struggling with financial problems; Henry […]
Maria Altmann, a Viennese Jew hounded out of Austria following its annexation by Germany in 1938, was a fighter. Determined to settle an historic injustice, she sued the Austrian government to regain five invaluable paintings by Gustav Klimt that had been commissioned by her late uncle, a wealthy art connoisseur and collector. Simon Curtis’ solid […]
French actress Juliette Binoche plays a lovelorn divorcee in Claire Denis’ middling film, Let the Sunshine In, which opens in Canada on June 1. Isabelle, Binoche’s character, is a Parisian painter in her late 40s who’s unlucky in love. Her lovers are either married or temperamentally unsuitable. The first two scenes are indicative of her predicament. […]
Zoe Leigh Hopkins celebrates Canada’s wilderness and its indigenous native culture in Kayak To Klemtu, a purebred Canadian movie opening in theaters on May 25. This is an old-fashioned film in the best sense of its meaning. No violence. No sex. No nudity. No pyrotechnics. In short, no gratuitous distractions. So refreshing. The plot is […]
As a lawyer and as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a force for constructive change in the United States since the 1970s. “She created a legal landscape,” says one of her admirers in RBG, an upbeat and bracing documentary by Julie Cohen and Betsy West due to open […]
Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams taste the sweetness of forbidden fruit in Disobedience, a dark yet illuminating film by Sebastian Lelio set in London’s Orthodox Jewish community. Ronit (Weisz), a professional photographer who lives in New York City, and Esti (McAdams), a teacher at a local Jewish day school, are old friends who haven’t seen […]
Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play, The Seagull, has been brought to the screen by Michael Mayer. Thanks to his unerring eye for detail and a fine ensemble cast, he has resurrected this costume drama of unrequited love quite successfully. It opens in Canada on May 11. Unfolding in a country estate near Moscow, The Seagull takes […]
In 1963, when apartheid South Africa was being convulsed by a nation-wide wave of terrorism, the police raided a farm house in Rivonia, near Johannesburg, and arrested several leaders of the African National Congress, including Nelson Mandela. As he and his shackled black and white colleagues were being led away to vans, one of the […]
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival, which runs from May 3-13, is presenting two very different Israeli movies — The Cakemaker and Shelter. Ophir Graizer’s The Cakemaker, set in Jerusalem and Berlin, unfolds in German, Hebrew and English. A love story with a twist, this splendid movie will be screened on May 7 and 9. Oren (Roy […]