Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | Movies+TV | AAN.org

Ondi Timoner's Doc is a Timely and Cautionary Tale of a Life Lived Onlinenew

In the weeks leading up to the millennium, artist/businessman Josh Harris holed up over 100 artists in an underground bunker equipped with constantly running webcams. Timoner was hired to document the resulting madness.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 11-19-2009 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: We Live in Public, Ondi Timoner, documentaries

'Transit' Aims for High Intrigue on a Low Budget, With Mixed Resultsnew

Shot on video and with minimal lighting, the film has a cheap aesthetic that it struggles to overcome. The plot doesn’t break out of the genre’s clichés. It’s a common case of a filmmaker’s ambition being greater than his means.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 01-30-2009 | Reviews

Tags: Transit, independent film, thriller movies, Christian de la Cortina

'Nobel Son' is Well Cast but Too Fastnew

It's the kind of film that you could praise for being a cut above the usual crap, but it ends up disappointing because it could have been so much better.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 12-05-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Randall Miller, Nobel Son

Old-fashioned Western 'Appaloosa' Moves Along in Fits and Startsnew

This film from Ed Harris is not nearly as good as either Open Range or Yuma, but despite the fact that it sometimes moves at a crawl, it's more or less a solidly entertaining throwback.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 10-06-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Jeremy Irons, Appaloosa, Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Westerns

Scott Hicks Documents a Composer's Life in 'Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts'new

At 71, composer Philip Glass is a comfortable member of the highbrow mainstream, as well as a renowned film composer with several scores under his belt. It wasn't always thus; his highly repetitive style made him the scourge of the classical establishment in the '70s.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 08-05-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Scott Hicks, documentary, Philip Glass, classical music, composers, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

'Silent Light' is Long and Slow but Full of Moments of Beautynew

Reaching nearly two and a half hours at an unrelentingly glacial pace, this is most definitely not a film for the ADD set; comparatively, Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers feels like the latest Indiana Jones flick. But the peculiar setting keeps things interesting, the cast is compelling and the cinematography and editing are truly exceptional.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 06-27-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light

Argentina's 'XXY' is Surprising and Originalnew

Argentinean director Lucia Puenzo makes her feature debut with a thoughtful yet startling film that's part family drama, part coming-of-age tale, and wholly original.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 05-30-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Lucia Puenzo, XXY

'The World According to Monsanto' Investigates the Agricultural Giantnew

The extent of the Monsanto corporation's evildoing, and how they've been able to get away with it for so long, is the subject of the scrupulous, thorough and damning new film from French director Marie-Monique Robin, who's published a companion book of the same title.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 05-23-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: food, agriculture, documentary, crops, GMOs, Marie-Monique Robin, Montsanto, The World According to Monsanto

David Mamet's Kung-Fu Comebacknew

He's back in shape with the martial-arts thriller Redbelt.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 05-09-2008 | Reviews

Tags: David Mamet, Redbelt

'Then She Found Me' is a Well-Made, Bittersweet Motherhood Dramanew

Fertility, and its opposite, are suddenly a bit of a Hollywood hot topic. While Tina Fey's Baby Mama runs with the comic approach to the subject, Helen Hunt's Then She Found Me is a much more bittersweet dramatic take.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 05-02-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Helen Hunt, Then She Found Me

'Harold and Kumar' Star John Cho on the Stoned Sequelnew

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay's politics are as muddled as the baked-out minds that will appreciate it best. But the very existence of a new lowbrow comedy focusing on the U.S. government's racist persecution of innocent people should give the Republicans more fright than Obamamania.

Montreal Mirror | Malcolm Fraser | 04-25-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: War on terror, Guantanamo Bay, comedy, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Jon Hurwitz; Hayden Schlossberg