Reviews by Vickie

I'm one of Moviepie's staff writers, and I've been reviewing films and film festivals — including TIFF, the (now-defunct) Worldwide Short Film Festival, and Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival — here for more than 20 years. I'm based in Toronto, and although I'll sit through just about any genre (except horror), my absolute fave films are documentaries: I see 50+ at Hot Docs every year! That said, I've also seen You've Got Mail more than 100 times (a conservative estimate!) and quote from it almost daily.

Last Christmas (2019)

Last Christmas (2019)

Blessed with two fabulous leads – who have stellar chemistry with each other – and a screenplay co-penned by Oscar-winner Emma Thompson, Last Christmas is a movie made for people who love Christmas movies. And it’s a thousand times better than anything Hallmark’s made-for-TV machine will ever crank out....

Vickie
Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Astra (2019)

Brad Pitt and his perpetually twitchy emotional-barometer lower lip (wanna know how he’s feeling or thinking? just watch the lip!) star as even-keeled Roy McBride, an astronaut whose most impressive skill seems to be keeping his pulse in check. Professionally revered, Roy struggles in his personal life – or...

Vickie
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Two things before we begin: 1. If you haven’t yet seen Avengers: Endgame, you might want to do so before checking out Spider-Man: Far from Home, as the events of Endgame figure very prominently here… and, thus, Far from Home is filled with what would be considered spoilers for...

Vickie
Dark Phoenix (2019)

Dark Phoenix (2019)

Clearly trying to capitalize on the “end of an era” marketing that helped propel Avengers: Endgame into the box-office – and favorable-review – stratosphere, but instead making the problems found in X-Men: Apocalypse even worse, this final, quasi-origins installment of the mutant franchise is sorely lacking in heart, humor,...

Vickie
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

This time around, amiable dogs Max (voiced by Patton Oswalt, taking over from Louis C.K. for obvious reasons) and Duke (voiced by Eric Stonestreet) are living happily with their expanded family, which now includes toddler Liam. Perpetually nervous Max is like an overprotective parent, constantly panicking that Liam is...

Vickie
The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

In what’s perhaps a strangely appropriate role, Robert Redford – in what he says might be his final foray on the big screen after an illustrious decades-long career – stars as Tucker, whose own lifelong antics on the wrong side of the law may likewise finally be winding down....

Vickie
Venom (2018)

Venom (2018)

Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock, a recently fired, renegade investigative reporter who’s known for thumbing his nose at authority and who’s probing the medical research being conducted by billionaire entrepreneur Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). As Eddie quickly discovers, that research includes a covert study aiming to merge an...

Vickie
On the Basis of Sex (2018)

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Felicity Jones, in her first Big Time Starring Role, plays Ginsburg, and the film tracks her life and work from her first days at Harvard Law in 1956, where she was one of just a handful of women in a class of hundreds of men, to the groundbreaking 1970...

Vickie
Boy Erased (2018)

Boy Erased (2018)

Lucas Hedges stars as Jared Eamons, a happy if conflicted 19-year-old freshman and the son of devout Baptists Marshall (Russell Crowe) and Nancy (Nicole Kidman). But when Jared finds himself attracted to, and then sexually assaulted by, an attractive dorm-mate (Joe Alwyn), his internal struggle with his sexuality becomes...

Vickie
A Private War (2018)

A Private War (2018)

Tracking the latter years of Colvin’s astonishing career with London’s Sunday Times and her collaboration with war photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan), the film follows the tenacious, seemingly fearless journalist (Pike) from the early 2000s to her 2012 death while covering the Syrian civil war in Homs. Determined to...

Vickie
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Hot Docs 2019 #14: Award Winners

Yesterday, the festival announced the bulk of its award winners – some of which I’d seen, some of which I’d heard great things about and some I’d admittedly heard/knew nothing about! I was pleased (and not that surprised) to see that Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man – the only...

Vickie
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Hot Docs 2019 #13: Final Film of the Fest

Well, despite my best intentions – and arriving at the Lightbox just before 11am – I was once again unable to score a ticket to yesterday’s 3:30pm screening of Honeyland, as it had (once again) gone “industry rush.” Alas! I sat down and looked through the fest schedule to browse options...

Vickie