Kuessipan (“to you” in Innu) is a beautiful and heartbreaking story of childhood friends in Uashat May Mani-Utenam, Quebec, a remote Innu community. Myriam Verreault directs local first-timers/non-actors including Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao and Yami Gregoire who play Mikuan and Shaniss. They’re weathering the storms of impending adulthood, their dreams for the future and pondering leaving or staying. Their divergent dreams bring friction… View Post
By Anne Brodie Sanctuary, based on a book about twin brothers, swaps gender in a Swedish TV series adaptation. Estranged female twins Siri and Helena haven’t seen each other in years, but Siri convinces her double to come to a facility in the Italian Alps where she’s recovering from an accident. Helen goes reluctantly and under pressure, agrees to swap… View Post
By Anne Brodie Isolation Mood: Intrigue. Here are my picks for you for the week, bound together by certain themes, mixed moods, growing claustrophobia and the weird, wild world of human nature. Let’s start with the Fargos. The original film: And the FX series currently shut down on production for Season 4 Twin Peaks original series and Twin Peaks reboot The Witch The Lighthouse Oscar… View Post
By Anne Brodie Australian Rose Byrne joined fellow Aussie Cate Blanchett to play leading American political icons of the seventies, respectively, women’s liberation leader and feminist Gloria Steinem and anti-women’s lib and anti-abortion provocateur Phyllis Schlafly in the excellent new series Mrs. America. They were fighting for the hearts and souls of Mrs. and Ms. America, epitomizing the battle between… View Post
By Anne Brodie Brooklynn Prince who won our hearts in the Oscar-nominated The Florida Project, is a multi-award-winning actor and director and she’s all of nine years old! Prince stars in Home Before Dark on Apple TV in a most unusual role. Her character Hilde’s father took her along to crime scenes when he worked the beat in New York… View Post
By Anne Brodie Cate Blanchett executive produces and stars as a conservative force of nature, the late Phyllis Schlafly in Mrs. America April 15th exclusively on FX on Hulu. Schlafly is the woman who effectively squashed the US Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the late seventies, through the sheer force of her personality, strategic use of language and fear. She… View Post