Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is the cinematic equivalent of a therapy session you didn’t ask for, conducted by a therapist who chain-smokes Gitanes and insists on reading you passages from Franny and Zooey. Touted as Baumbach’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece, this 2005 indie darling is less a film than a 90-minute sigh filtered through … Read More “The Squid and the Whale (2005): A Divorce Drama That’s More Squid Than Whale” »
Noah Baumbach’s Mr. Jealousy (1997) is a movie about insecurity, relationships, and literary self-loathing—all subjects that could make for a solid character study if the characters weren’t so thoroughly unlikeable and the dialogue didn’t sound like it was ripped from a rejected New Yorker cartoon. It’s a film that desperately wants to be witty and … Read More ““Mr. Jealousy” (1997) – Neurotic Romance for People Who Find Eyelid Twitching Too Subtle” »
There’s a special kind of cinematic purgatory reserved for films about overeducated 20-somethings who smoke clove cigarettes, quote Foucault, and treat emotional stagnation like a badge of honor. Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming (1995) is the flag-bearing film of that movement—a shaggy, aimless little debut about a group of freshly minted liberal arts graduates who … Read More “Kicking and Screaming (1995): A Film About Nothing Starring People Who Feel Nothing, For an Audience That Ends Up Feeling Nothing” »
Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils is a film about trauma, obsession, and the high-stakes world of opera production—three things that should never be left alone in a room together, let alone stretched over 100 minutes of whispery monologues and symbolic lighting. Released in 2023, this is Egoyan back in his element: emotionally repressed women, theatrical self-importance, … Read More “Seven Veils (2023): A Pretentious Opera About Opera That Should’ve Been Left on Mute” »
Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour (2019) is a film about repression, shame, rabbits, food inspection, and one very constipated father-daughter relationship—all stirred together like a melancholy stew and ladled out in lukewarm flashbacks. It wants to be a psychological drama. It wants to be a meditation on guilt and memory. What it ends up being … Read More ““Guest of Honour” (2019) – Atom Egoyan’s Hot Buffet of Sadness” »
Atom Egoyan’s Remember (2015) is a film that dares to ask: What if a Holocaust survivor went on a cross-country murder spree with a handwritten letter and zero short-term memory? It’s part revenge thriller, part nursing home drama, and all parts confused. The premise is ridiculous. The tone is glacial. And the pacing could be … Read More ““Remember” (2015) – Atom Egoyan’s Geriatric Revenge Thriller That Forgot to Be Thrilling” »
Atom Egoyan’s The Captive is a film that asks: “What if Prisoners was made by someone who only read the Wikipedia summary and then directed it with mittens on?” Released in 2014, The Captive is Egoyan’s attempt at a mainstream kidnapping thriller. What it delivers instead is a disjointed, painfully earnest soap opera with the … Read More “The Captive (2014): A Canadian Abduction Thriller That Should Be Arrested for Wasting Your Time” »
Atom Egoyan’s Chloe is the kind of film that puts on lingerie, lights a candle, and then spends 90 minutes explaining its feelings while gently sobbing into a glass of Pinot Grigio. It wants to be sexy. It wants to be dangerous. It wants to be Fatal Attraction for people who use words like “problematize.” … Read More “Chloe (2009): When Erotic Thrillers Go Limp and Canadian” »
Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot (2013) is a dramatization of the infamous West Memphis Three case—the 1993 murder of three young boys in Arkansas and the sensational trial that followed, in which three teenagers were convicted under a thick fog of Satanic Panic, moral hysteria, and just plain bad detective work. It’s a real-life story so … Read More ““Devil’s Knot” (2013) – Egoyan’s Forensic Naptime” »
Atom Egoyan’s Adoration (2008) is a movie that wants desperately to be profound. It wants to explore terrorism, grief, identity, technology, storytelling, memory, and a teenager playing the violin. Instead, it plays out like a high school debate club project stretched into a full-length film—awkward, confused, full of monologues that sound deep but mean nothing, … Read More ““Adoration” (2008) – Atom Egoyan’s Emo Tech Fair Submission” »
