I have no clue how to play bridge, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of Dirty Tricks (6/8), a delicious card-table thriller about Lotan Fisher, the one-time bridge-playing child prodigy and world champion, whose golden-boy status was forever tarnished when he was accused of cheating. And, right from the opening frames, it’s obvious the …
There’s no shortage of great music-themed films screening at Hot Docs this year, so I checked out three more! Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm (6/8) You KNOW I love a great music doc, and this spirited film from director Hannah Berryman, filled with fantastic behind-the-scenes archival footage from the 1970s through the ‘90s, …
Every year at Hot Docs, there are films that share similar themes, and in the past I’d sometimes wind up seeing them in the same day completely by chance. This year, the fest streaming titles for viewing at home, available whenever you want to watch, means I can choose to watch similarly themed films together, …
If Loretta Lynn and Janis Joplin had a baby, it might just be the immensely talented and wildly complicated subject of I’m Wanita (7/8). The self-professed Australian Queen of Honky Tonk, Wanita is a cigarette-smoking, binge-drinking, foul-mouthed, unapologetically outrageous and GIANT-hearted country singer with an amazing voice… and an amazingly uncanny ability to self-sabotage. Director …
Let me begin by saying: I watched Any Given Day (6/8) with a giant knot in my stomach and a pounding heart. Some 15 years ago, I lived in a small apartment complex where the (money-hungry) landlord decided to offer up units for rent – at a ridiculous premium – to a local organization seeking …
There are plenty of big, high-profile films screening at Hot Docs that are getting a lot of attention and buzz, but one of my favourite things about this festival is inadvertently stumbling upon comparatively “small” hidden gems that seem to be flying under many people’s radar. That was the case with Only I Can Hear …
Here’s what I’m totally LOVING about this year’s festival: there are so many amazing films made by or about (or both) women. Admittedly, I tend to seek those out regardless, but it’s been a bit of an embarrassment of riches in 2021. And these three fab films are just a sampling of the docs about …
One of my festgoing pals had been reading my reviews of Hot Docs 2021 films and remarked that it sounded like everything I was watching was fantastic. “Oh, it has been,” I replied. “And then I watched Viral.” Look, I’m not a fan of the need to share every waking minute of one’s life on …
Hot Docs 2021 #9: Well, They Can’t All Be Winners Read More »
Sometimes at Hot Docs, you wind up seeing films that feel like they were destined to be a double-bill. The might be united by theme, topic, style… or all of the above. That was the case with this pair, each one profiling a Millennial who built, and then lost, an empire. Dead Man’s Switch: a …
Documentaries are meant to “plumb the depths” of their subject matter, and these three films do it literally and figuratively, taking their cameras below the surface of the world’s waters for deep dives into healing, harm, and how one woman went from hunter to helper. Descent (5/8) When I sat down to watch director Nays …