Agatha’s Almanac (2025)
★★★★☆
A slow and quietly empathetic film about an amazing old lady hanging on in Canada’s mid-west, directed by artist Amalie Atkins.
Canada
BFI Flare 2026: Lunar Sway (2026)
★★★★☆
Cliff’s small-town existence is disrupted by the arrival of Marg who claims to be his birth mother. Soon he is swept into her unorthodox adventures, while trying to learn about himself, in Nick Butler’s delightfully offbeat Lunar Sway.
Solo (2023)
★★★★☆
The rush of a new love turns sour for young drag queen Simon, whilst also dealing with the return of his absent mother, in writer-director Sophie Dupuis’s excellent drama Solo.
The Queen of my Dreams (2023)
★★★☆☆
The Queen of my Dreams, Fawzia Mirza’s first feature, links two time lines and two continents with a mother and daughter’s shared love for Bollywood.
Toronto 2024: Shepherds (2024) (Bergers)
★★★☆☆
Shepherds (Bergers) directed by Sophie Deraspe is a lyrical drama based on Mathyas Lefebure’s book about rejecting his previous life and learning to be a shepherd in Provence.
Toronto Film Festival 2024 (49th): 6–15 September 2024
★★★★☆
TIFF 6-15 September 2024
The Nature of Love (2023) (Simple Comme Sylvain)
★★★★☆
The Nature of Love directed by Monia Chokri is a modern Canadian romcom, seen from a woman’s point of view, with a contemporary twist.
Cannes Film Festival 2024: Day 5: Saturday, 18 May: Universal Language (2024) (Une Langue Universelle)
★★★☆☆
Universal Language directed by Matthew Rankin is a surreal satire on provincial Canada.
Toronto International Film Festival 2023
★★★★☆
Toronto International Film Festival 2023
The Forgiven (2021)
★★★☆☆
The unexpected consequences and repercussions of a terrible accident in the Moroccan desert are explored in The Forgiven, John Michael McDonagh’s adaptation of Lawrence Osbourne’s 2012 novel, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain.
Memory Box (2021)
★★★★☆
A Memory Box triggers delayed reconciliation between past and present in Joana Hadjithomas’s deeply personal, emotional intergenerational drama.
BFI LFF 2021: Memory Box
★★★★☆
A Memory Box triggers delayed reconciliation between past and present in Joana Hadjithomas’s deeply personal, emotional intergenerational drama.
Maudie (2016)
Dog and Wolf review coming soon. Maudie is released on 4 August 2017 in the UK.
Read More
A Good Day To Die – Hoka Hey (2016)
★★★☆☆
In the fascinating documentary A Good Day To Die, Hoka Hey, Harold Monfils examines what drives award-winning photojournalist Jason Howe to risk his life in war zones.