ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Author: Rachel West

Interviews 

Canadian Filmmaker Chandler Levack chats I LIKE MOVIES – Rachel West interviews

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First-time feature film director Chandler Levack delivers a nostalgia-driven look at the early 2000s with her love letter to video stores and cinephiles in I Like Movies. The crowd-pleasing comedy premiered at TIFF and was named one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2022 and is set to open in cinemas on March 10. At the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Levack sat down to discuss everything from telling the story from a young male’s point of view, how her career as a film journalist has informed the stories she tells to which recent films by female filmmakers are must-sees.

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Festivals Reviews 

FALCON LAKE (Kingston Canadian FF2023) – Review by Rachel West

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Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon delivers an assured and confident first feature with her summer coming-of-age tale, Falcon Lake. Screening as part of the recent Kingston Canadian Film Festival and nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best First Feature, Falcon Lake is first and foremost about a teen summer romance, but filmed with all the aesthetics of a horror movie. In a year with some exceptional and highly-lauded Canadian feature films, Falcon Lake is a true standout.

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Festivals 

Kingston Canadian Film Festival 2023: Female Overview – Rachel West reports

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At this year’s event, 15 out of 28 features films and 21 out of 38 short films are directed by women according to KCFF’s Logistics Manager, Marta McDonald, meaning women-directed films make up nearly 55% of programming. When it comes to achieving gender parity, “there’s not a specific mandate that’s been crafted” by the festival but there is a conversation around “what kind of voices we want to be heard in the festival, whether that’s women, Indigenous voices, BIPOC or Black voices,” says McDonald.

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Reviews 

COCAINE BEAR – Review by Rachel West

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It doesn’t really matter who the characters are or what their motivations are, because at the end of the day, this movie isn’t about them, it’s about a bear high on cocaine. We don’t need to care about any of the characters and Jimmy Warden’s script doesn’t really give us room to because it doesn’t matter. The high points of the story are all about the drugged-out bear looking for its next fix and the people are just around to inadvertently give it access to more cocaine and become snacks.

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Festivals 

YUKON’S AVAILABLE LIGHT FILM FEST 2023: Feminist Wrap – Rachel West reports

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The 21st annual Available Light Film Festival (ALFF) in the Yukon is not just Canada’s largest international film festival north of the 60th parallel it’s also a film festival with gender parity in its programme selections this year, shinomg the spotlight on women behind-the-camera. Featuring many films that have been making the festival circuit in the past year, the festival brought these women-helmed films to Northern Canadian audiences who happily gathered for in-person screenings in Whitehorse.

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Reviews 

SHE IS LOVE – Review by Rachel West

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Writer-director Jamie Adams’ She Is Love is a directionless drama that squanders any potential it might have had. Failing to say anything new or even interesting despite the casting of capable actors Sam Riley and Hayley Bennett in the lead roles, the film feels like a limp improv study with barely enough going on to warrant its scant 82-minute runtime. The premise is promising: Patricia arrives at a country hotel in Cornwall to discover that her estranged ex-husband lives there, acting as the hotel manager. Having not seen one another in a decade, there are myriad ways the two former flames need to catch up, potentially setting up a multitude of directions this story could take. Unfortunately, the path it chooses is the least interesting.

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Reviews 

SHE IS… – Review by Rachel West

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Every eight minutes, a child is sexually abused in the United States. Though shocking, these statistics only offer a glimpse into a worldwide problem. Internationally, sexual abuse and trafficking is hidden or under-reported, with UNICEF estimating that 1 in 10 girls under the age of 20 have experienced sexual abuse. In her new documentary She Is…, director Zuzana Lova opts to present a story of healing and purpose amid harrowing statistics, showcasing how victims of abuse and sex trafficking are finding healing through dance.

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Uncategorized 

THE SEVEN FACES OF JANE – Review by Rachel West

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In The Seven Faces of Jane, eight directors and eleven screenwriters tell a story about the titular Jane (Gillian Jacobs) as she goes about the course of her week after dropping her young daughter off at camp. The catch is that each of the filmmakers has imagined an entirely different day – and different Jane – to tell their story, not knowing what events come before or after their chapter. Though an innovative and interesting approach, the results are a confusing mishmash that doesn’t quite work to tell a coherent story.

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Festivals Reviews 

MIDNIGHT AT THE PARADISE (WFF2022) – Review by Rachel West

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Midnight At The Paradise is an assured drama from first-time feature director Vanessa Matsui who shows real talent in storytelling. With a script written by Bill Robertson, it is no surprise the film has drawn comparisons to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy for its relationship conversations and to Sarah Polley’s quiet Toronto marriage drama Take This Waltz. Opening up questions of what makes a good marriage and the consequences of impulsive decisions is at the core of the story.

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Festivals Reviews 

POLARIS (WFF2022) – Review by Rachel West

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Set in a snowy 2144 following what can only be assumed to be a global eco-disaster, viewers are introduced to 10-year-old Sumi (Viva Lee). In a world seemingly without men or technology, Sumi has been raised by a polar bear “mother” and shares a kinetic and deep bond with nature, guided by Polaris, the North Star. Surviving off the land, Sumi’s brutal but contented existence is interrupted when she is violently kidnapped and locked in a cage by a band of female hunters. It is here that her grisly adventure begins in earnest. One of the most inventive and visionary Canadian films in recent years, Polaris is a must-watch.

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