1st Reviews

  Audiences are calling Babes the funniest movie of the year so far, and now that I’ve seen it for myself, I’m gonna have to agree. I wasn’t surprised by how often the movie made me laugh, but I was very surprised at how endearing and honest the whole thing felt in the midst of delivering those laughs.  My wife and I are expecting our first child in about a month, so watching Ilana Glazer’s character go through the exciting yet exhausting process of preparing for a baby felt so true to life. Glazer, who also penned the script, based a lot of this movie on her own experiences during pregnancy, which plays greatly into how authentic it feels. Yes, there’s plenty of exaggerated outlandishness, but the humour rarely detracts from how truthful the story feels.  The plot revolves around her navigating an unplanned pregnancy, but it also reflects on how friendships change as we get older and start our own families. Glazer is hilarious and relatable as a 30 something who doesn’t ...

  Three years ago Disney introduced us to a brand new era in Star Wars, The High Republic. This Era has seen a massive explosion in content spanning, books, comics and now the very first live action series, The Acolyte.  The first High Republic book titled, Light of The Jedi takes place two-hundred years before Episode 1 and the goal is to bridge that gap with content up to The Acolyte which takes place 100 years before Episode 1 and marks the end of The High Republic Era.   The Acolyte begins in a time of peace within the galaxy, The Republic, and the Jedi Order. The Order is large, similar to the size in the prequel trilogy. It is an era of Jedi temples, academies and many Jedi. We  are introduced to many Jedi as they begin investigating the death of one of their own. This investigation takes us across the galaxy and introduces us to many brand new elements in the Star Wars universe yet to be seen in live action.  One of my favorite elements about the Jedi in ...

  Slashers have always thrust us into the shoes of the victims. Watching the story unfold from the good guys’ point of view is a tried and true method of building tension and delivering thrills. In A Violent Nature challenges genre conventions by simply swapping the audience’s perspective. This experimental approach shakes things up, and for the most part it pays off.  What makes this film so unique is how it approaches its very ordinary structure. If we spent the entire time following the victims, what we’d end up with is a pretty run of the mill slasher experience. All of the typical narrative beats and many of the cliches we’ve come to expect from the genre are present, but they play out sporadically in the background. We aren’t privy to every bit of the victims’ story, but because the movie adheres to familiar slasher formula, we’re able to easily fill in those narrative gaps. One of my favourite moments was when the film made the audience feel like we were stepping into a...

  Haikyu is one of the most beloved sports anime and manga stories which spans 4 seasons and 45 manga volumes. Fans have been eagerly awaiting its return since the fourth season ended in 2020 and it was announced that the show would be continued into a feature-film. The movie continues the story and the relationships established in the series but makes it very easy for a casual viewer to catch up. The movie follows Shoyo Hinata who joins the Karasuno High School volleyball team to beat his rival Kenma and the Karasuno volleyball team.  The film centres around both these teams as they compete in a three-set match in a regional tournament. Both teams put everything they have into the battle in order to settle this rivalry and push each other to be the best they can at the sport they all love.  The film wastes no time jumping right into the match and surprisingly, it is the majority of the film's run-time but it gives you enough exposition on many players throughout the...

  Have you ever wanted to see a Sasquatch squirt milk from its breasts? How about watching poop come out of a Sasquatch’s ass? Maybe you’ve always wondered what a Sasquatch’s erection looks like. You’re gonna get all of that and more from Sasquatch Sunset, but beneath all of the explicit vulgarity is a movie that is, dare I say, kind of beautiful.  The novelty of the toilet humour wears out its welcome quickly, serving as little more than a raunchy gimmick the film quite frankly doesn’t need. It’s shocking to see, and will surely be a big talking point when people discuss the movie, but it adds nothing of value. Actually, it comes pretty close to ruining the experience as a whole.  At its core, this is a slice of life movie that also plays like a nature documentary (sans the iconic Attenborough narration). We’re merely observing these elusive creatures in their natural habitat, trying to navigate life and ensure the survival of their species. The Sasquatches are fragile, ...

Nine years ago, George Miller gave us one of the greatest action movies of all time, with Fury Road. The bar was set impossibly high. How could he possibly deliver a follow up that reached those same heights? Well, he couldn’t, but Furiosa is still a worthy addition to the Max Max Saga, filled with plenty of jaw dropping vehicular mayhem to fuel its ferocious revenge story.  If you go into this prequel expecting the same type of experience as Fury Road, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. This is a slower, more character focused wasteland epic that sprawls across a decade and a half. It works to give Furiosa a lot more character depth, adding further context and motivation to her actions in Fury Road. We’d only seen glimpses of her past before, and now we get the full, bloody picture. On top of that, the movie does an excellent job of making the wasteland feel much bigger than it ever has. It’s not all just dirt roads this time around, as we also venture to locations lik...

  Ilana Glazer brings her joyously free-spirited comedic energy to  Babes , a film that's unapologetically about the female experience, including pregnancy, motherhood, and female friendships. Her delightful banter with Michelle Buteau and nuanced yet often laugh-out-loud portrayal of her character Eden's experience with an unexpected pregnancy give her character an unfiltered likability.  Though the film does have sections with less laughs, and Stephan James is unfortunately underused, there's some other talented players including John Carroll Lynch and Hasan Minhaj, and the film wraps up in a cheesy yet charming way. The movie ultimately serves not just as a film about the strength of women and mothers, but the strength of a real good friendship. 3.5/5 Review by: Gal Balaban