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6 days ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
The big news, shocker actually, in the movie world this week was Donald Trump's plan to impose a 100% tariff on some movies. So called runaway productions seem to be the main target. Films that could have been made in the US but went elsewhere to save money. Hello BC, Ontario and many other places. Think how often Vancouver has played Seattle, and Toronto has pretended to be Chicago. Marvel movies generally film in the UK. It goes on and on. How it'll work is not clear at all.
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1 week ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
Documentaries are big generally these days and in Canada right now specifically as two big festivals overlap. Hot Docs in Toronto is close to winding up this year's run, while DOXA in Vancouver has just started.
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2 weeks ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
The news from the Academy Awards shocked some people this week. The Academy said that from now on the members who want to vote for the annual awards will have to see all the films nominated. Seems reasonable enough but it revealled that there members who voted after seeing only some. It's easy to see how that could be. It takes a great deal of time to watch them all. How, or even if, that affected the outcome is open to speculation. Not all that much, I'd guess.
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3 weeks ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
The new films this week are about as varied as can be and, look at the ratings. There are no duds among them. So, no delay, let's get right to them ... Sinners: 4 stars One To One: John & Yoko: 4 The Wedding Banquet: 3 Psycho Therapy: 3 Elli and her Monster Team 3 ½ SINNERS: If you're able to accept a sudden shift from one type of movie into a completely different one you'll get one of the best films of the year so far, and possibly for weeks to come.
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1 month ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
For it's season four that started last night. The comedian played by Jean Smart now has that late night show she's been after and the series can get even more into power plays between women and bosses. One reviewer says it's "hilariously vicious." The other is which starts a second season Sunday and continues the post-apocalypse trek by a gruff survivor (Pedro Pascal) and the teenage girl (Bella Ramsey) he's trying to protect.
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1 month ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
Freaky Tales: 2 A MINECRAFT MOVIE: Films made out of video games have a mixed record. Most have been bad. The TV series The Last of Us is excellent and this is in the middle. Neither good nor bad. Speedy and visually very imaginative but also unnecessary because it feels like an old story. I'm told it's very close to the game and though I haven't played it, I believe that.
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1 month ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
I've been traveling and so you'll find only three of the week's new movies here, and one isn't even a movie, it's a series. It is about the people who make them, though. Hollywood types who get a very funny lampooning, and by two Canadians yet. I don't cover Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip though it looks potentially interesting because it's a follow-up to a terrific children's book and the movie that was made of it 11 years ago.
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1 month ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
Snow White is the big title this week, but for some reason Disney didn't provide previews here. The 1937 animated classic gave The House of Mouse a huge boost and a special Academy Award citation for a significant screen innovation. It came with seven statuettes recognizing the seven dwarves. Maybe Disney wanted to avert the controversies that have arisen over this new live-action re-make.
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2 months ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
It happens now and then. More new movies come along than I can get to and then write about. So, not today for or The Day The Earth Blew Up , or . There are five others you can read about though, two with higher ambitions than achievement. Can I Get a Witness?: 3½ stars The Electric State: 2 ½ CAN I GET A WITNESS: Ann Marie Fleming, who wrote and directed this, states right at the top that it is a fable.
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2 months ago | 
nationalobserver.com | Volkmar Richter
You may not have noticed this momentous bit of movie news this week. The Chinese film Ne Zha 2 is now the biggest box office hit ever in animated films. It's based on old legends and made most of its money in China, a good bit of it during the lunar New Year holiday. It bumped Pixar's Inside Out 2 out of the top spot, which it had reached less than a year ago. I didn't have access to a preview but it is now playing in Canada and I'll have to catch it.
