Film diary

Like many ghost stories, Lake Mungo is about grief, its apparitions manifestations of its characters’ inability to accept their loss; and like many ghost stories, its emotional core is overshadowed by its spook factor. And that’s fine. Lake Mungo’s misstep is in its approach to being a mystery thriller, loaded with nonsensical twists and arbitrary red herrings, none of which coalesce into a remotely satisfying resolution. At one point, a woman who has spent… See more →

I made my annual voyage north this past weekend for the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Forsaking any notion of downtime, I made it to 12 screenings in the space of 48 hours this year. Below are my notes on each of the 56 films in the short film competition, as well as four of the features in competition, and a handful of other screenings. Links are provided to films and trailers when available, with embeds… See more →

Behind the Curve is an examination of the growing community of people who fervently believe the earth is flat. While the film doesn’t support their cause, it doesn’t ridicule them either, and I had hoped its genuine curiosity might shed some light on the nature of conspiracist thinking. In speaking with psychologists and other scientists, it does offer cursory explanations of how confirmation bias and logical fallacies factor into the intractability of misbegotten beliefs. But… See more →

Bad script. Bad cast. Bad direction. Closing credits set in Arial.

I haven’t seen the Invader Zim TV show in many years, so it’s hard to say if I was underwhelmed by the movie because a) it’s not as good as the show was, or b) my brain is just no longer calibrated to enjoy Invader Zim. Maybe both?