Alison Gillmor

Violent, grotesque and grimly funny, George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action prequel focuses on the titular Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), the implacable driver played by Charlize Theron in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. While the vehicle-centric narrative (from Miller and Nick Lathouris) occasionally stalls, this latest addition to the 45-year-old series still manages to feel idiosyncratic, original and fresh. The story, which spans 15 years, is told in chapters. We start with Furiosa as a lethally competent child (the character is initially played by young Alyla Browne). She lives with her mother (Charlee Fraser) in the Green Place, a small hidden oasis of […]

At the centre of Hacks (currently streaming on Crave) is a boomer-versus-millennial relationship. If this saga of 70-something standup star Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her much-put-upon 20-something comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) just played the age gap for laughs, the show would still be watchable. There’s plenty of zingy banter about the women’s very different skill sets and world views. Deborah is weirdly insouciant about climate change, is still trying to figure out gender fluidity, and — of course — struggles with memes. Meanwhile Ava, who came of age in the 21st century, finds it hard to imagine […]

This dark little drama is from A24, the film company known for arthouse horror flicks such as Hereditary, Midsommar and X. Don’t expect blood, gore or jump scares, though. This intense and atmospheric...

Since Mad Men’s debut in 2007, I’ve changed. TV has changed. And viewing models have changed, dividing most clearly into binge-watching versus rationing.

Even as The Quiet Place concept gets a new addition, this “look to the skies” series continues to be admirably anti-franchise. After the hushed, intimate 2018 original, which showed the Abbott family (John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) struggling to survive an invasion of aliens that hunt by sound, there was a slightly noisier but still solid sequel in 2020. Now we have a prequel, with a different set of characters and a different creative team. A Quiet Place: Day One is not particularly scary and it could use more narrative oomph, but it’s not an obligatory […]

Movie and TV merchandising tie-ins have been around almost as long as movies and TV, dating back to 1929, when Walt Disney charged $300 for a likeness of Mickey Mouse to be used on children’s writing pads.

Fans of the 1996 tornado movie Twister will be chuffed to see DOROTHY IV show up in the opening sequence of this storm-chasing sequel. That slightly rusty data-collecting contraption is back because “...

Sweetly, deceptively simple, this affecting all-ages animated film speaks to the boon of friendship without saying a word. Dialogue-free but not silent, Robot Dreams grooves to the soundtrack of a big city. Its old-school hand-drawn cartooning is clear and straightforward but packed with little details. The layered narrative shades from goofy fun to yearning bittersweetness. Kids will pick up more on the gentle humour, while grown-ups might get a bit teary about the film’s understated evocations of time and change, memory and loss. Neon via AP Dog meets Robot and fun times ensue in Robot Dreams. Adapted from a 2007 […]

Based on a grim Danish thriller from just two years ago, this Americanized remake from Blumhouse Productions and English filmmaker James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black) loses some of the original’s art-house existentialism and Nordic bleakness. But with a mesmerizing lead performance from James McAvoy (Split, The Last King of Scotland), all smiling menace and sinister bonhomie, this second go-round works as a deft, dark horror-comedy. With its deceptively picturesque holiday settings, Speak No Evil could also be classed as “travel horror,” a recently expanding subgenre that includes flicks about rental homes gone wrong and Airbnbs hiding hideous […]

With a mix of righteous satirical rage and pitch-dark, pancake-flat mirth, Guy Maddin and the Johnson brothers have made the end of the world eminently watchable.