Ashes in the Snow Movie Review: Even Bel Powley doesn’t shine bright enough to save this melodrama

Inspired by the harrowing true events dramatized in Ruta Sepetys’s best-selling 2011 novel set in the midst of Stalin’s genocide of the Baltic people, Ashes in the Snow (a title that’s a bit too on-the-nose for its own good, but…

Mary Shelley Movie Review: An emotionally tumultuous look at an artist’s inner demons

There’s no worth in trying to deny that Mary Shelley is an utterly familiar biopic. Much more though in the vein of a Victorian era literary adaptation (think Far From the Madding Crowd) than something as strategic and cold as The Imitation Game, the…

TIFF Movie Review: Mary Shelley

To read further TIFF 2017 coverage, go here. There’s no worth in trying to deny that Mary Shelley is an utterly familiar biopic. Much more though in the vein of a Victorian era literary adaptation (think Far From the Madding Crowd) than something…

Movie Review: ‘A Royal Night Out’

A period piece about Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret is one of the wildest, most bizarre and confounding films of the year – an equal mix of Disney princess fare, screwball comedies, old musicals, and also Superbad (without…

Movie Review: ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’

Judging someone is easy. Understanding before contempt goes against our instincts. I think many of us lack the impulse to sympathize with other’s choices before critiquing their lifestyle. Sure, they “may have had it coming for them” but self-righteous judgment…

Interview: Bel Powley talks ‘A Royal Night Out’

An abundance of young British talent spreading throughout movies here and abroad can often slip through undetected until a role shines the light on their formidable talent. Young Bel Powley is such a thespian sure to be ever so popular…

Shane’s Movie Review: A Royal Night Out

On the evening of Victory in Europe Day 1945, peace is reached across the globe, and celebrations are in order for a country which has been long under the strains of war. Princess Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and Princess Margaret (Bel…