Film criticism

Its stakes are small, but the whinnying Dream Horse is a winner

Clever Canadian teen comedy The Exchange is the opposite of Porky’s, thank goodness

Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers is a vibrant love letter to an eccentric but influential music-making duo

Mads Mikkelsen finds his Liam Neeson moment in offbeat revenge film Riders of Justice

Together Together has Ed Helms and Patti Harrison explore a different kind of love: platonic

The Oak Room puts a dark and stormy Canadiana twist on the classic thriller noir tale

Revelatory documentary Chinatown Rising captures how community can flourish in spite of oppression

Ben Wheatley’s pandemic-made In the Earth is a ‘nature is healing’ horror fit for a freak-out

Kelly McCormack’s hypnotizing performance turns Sugar Daddy into sticky, gripping drama

Bosnian War gets harrowing close-up its victims deserve with Oscar-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida?

New thriller Held is a #MeToo film that relies on twists instead of tact

Nomadland, finally available in Canada this week, is one of the best films of the year

Now on VOD: Sorta-Canadian comedy French Exit will have you eyeing the door, despite Tracy Letts’s reincarnated cat

Canadian documentary No Ordinary Man is an extraordinary look at jazz legend Billy Tipton

Family drama Little Orphans finds the past in repeat in Newfoundland

Eddie Izzard-starring spy thriller Six Minutes to Midnight runs out the clock

Oy vey, is Shiva Baby ever one smart, clever send-up of Jewish family meshugas

Shakespearean Anthony Hopkins dominates in wickedly inventive dementia drama The Father

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the perfectly messy release for 2021, our chaotic year of hope

Matthew Bissonnette on his love for Leonard Cohen’s music, and its role in his new film Death of a Ladies’ Man

Hallelujah? Canadian film Death of a Ladies’ Man mines Leonard Cohen for late-life dramedy

Eddie Huang’s Boogie is an Asian coming-of-age story for his generation, warts and all

Amy Poehler’s Netflix dramedy Moxie peels the onion of high school

Disney+ adventure Raya and The Last Dragon offers a welcome escape, and some life lessons, too

The pop doc Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry is a cry for help

Canadian drama Anne at 13,000 ft. is a startling, bracing achievement worth celebrating

Kristen Wiig’s admirably weird Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is the anti-Bridesmaids

NFB’s Black history doc John Ware Reclaimed will leave audiences asking too many questions

Judas and the Black Messiah delivers a powerful portrait of a man who could’ve been the greatest Black leader of our time

Same-sex senior romance Two of Us is visually stunning and profound

Netflix’s The Dig excavates unexpected, worthy drama thanks to Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes

Justin Timberlake’s Apple TV+ drama Palmer doesn’t sync up with the actor’s ambitions

Ai Weiwei’s Cockroach follows Beijing’s final blow to Hong Kong democracy

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the final film of Chadwick Boseman, is an emotional hurricane