[Review] Shaun the Sheep Movie
When it comes to films specifically marketed to children, popular culture seems to have decided that, for the purposes for artistic merit, there shall be Pixar ...
Brian Roan
[Review] Pitch Perfect 2
Part of the joy of the first Pitch Perfect was how unexpected it was. Every moment of heightened reality, every non sequitur, every cartoonish facet of each per...
[Review] Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
At a certain point it becomes impossible to see a great artist as a person. Rarely do we think about Van Gogh as a toddler. Try to conceptualize Martin Scorsese...
[Tribeca Review] Hyena
Movies about dirty cops being dirty are nothing new. We have been telling stories about bad cops for as long as there have been stories about cops. Similarly, s...
Brian Roan’s Top 10 Films of 2014
God, I hate this. Listing my 10 favorite films of any year turns into a kind of swirling existential nightmare faster than returning to my old high-school tow...
[TIFF Review] Alive
The trend towards the narrative of the victim in cinema has hit critical mass lately, with all manner of films delving into stories of people who are abused and...
[TIFF Review] Magical Girl
We open on a scene that seems ordinary enough. A school teacher (Jose Sacristan) is giving a lecture on the unerring and immutable importance and longevity of t...
[TIFF Review] Confession
When someone says that they will do their best, the expression is meant as a kind of assurance. No matter what, it seems to say, you can rest easy knowing that ...
[TIFF Review] Scarlet Innocence
Can a movie have too much scope, too many twists, or too much sex? These seem to be the questions which drove the creation of Scarlet Innocence, and to all of t...
[TIFF Review] The Intruder
One of the surest ways to ensure fealty in someone is to make them feel as though they belong. Any group that seeks to instill loyalty in its members must first...
