CIUT Critics Circle

Critics Circle June 14, 2025

Interviews This Week:
Daniel Garber interviews the directors Seth Scriver and Peter Scriverabout their new animated film Forever Cookie, about life of two half-brothers and their families in the Shmattawa reserve in Northern Manitoba and Kensington Market in Toronto.
Reviews This Week:
Lynn Slotkin reviews Macbeth playing at Stratford.
Daniel Garber reviews 2 films:
How to Train your DragonA live-action version of the original kids' animated film from 2010.
The Life of Chucka heart-warming movie about the end of the world.

Critics' Circle June 7, 2025

Interviews this week:
Lynn Slotkin interviews Jake Planinc, Artistic Director at Matchstick Theatre  about Leaving Home  at Coal Mine Theatre.
Reviews this week:
Lynn reviews Red Like Fruit that is playing at Soulpepper Theatre. 
Daniel is reviewing 3 films this week:
The Phoenician Scheme,  Wes Anderson's latest, about an eccentric millionaire in the 1950s.
The Ritual, an exorcism movie based on a true story.Ballerina, an action/thriller starring Ana de Armas as an assassin in the world of John Wick.

Critics Circle May 24, 2025

Interviews this week:
Lynn Slotkin interviews Patrick Gallagan.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviews Tons of Money; Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe, Anything Goes
Daniel is reviewing 3 films this week:
Bad Shabbos, an indie comedy.Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, an action thrillerInside Out Festival
 

Critics' Circle May 17, 2025

Interviews this week:
Daniel Garber interviews Ross “Memphis” Pambrun about Red River Gold, a history treasure hunt series set in Manitoba on APTN about lost gold from 1870 and the Red River Rebellion.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviewing Comfort Food by Zorana Sadiq who also acts in it. Playing at The Studio of the Streetcar Crowsnest theatre.
Daniel is reviewing 3 films this week:
Friendship by Tom Robinson dark comedy.
Hurry Up Tomorrow a  Music bio-drama starring The Weeknd as himself.
The Old Woman With The Knife a Korean action thriller.
 
 

Critics Circle May 10, 2025

Interviews this week:
Lynn interviews Zorana Sadiq a Pakistani-Canadian actor, playwright, and classical musician whose work spans different types of performance from theatre, verbatim theatre, radio and television to chamber music, modern opera and new music.
Daniel Garber interviews Halifax director Jason Buxton about his new film Sharp Corner.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviewing Pride & Prejudice playing at The Grande Theatre in London, Ontario.
Daniel is reviewing 3 new genre films:
Shadow Force,  an action movie about in-fighting among G7 military assassins, starring Omar Sy and Kerry Williams.
Clown in the Cornfield, a horror movie -- the name says it all.
Rust, a western best known as the film where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed its cinematographer during production.
 

Critics' Circle April 19, 2025

Interviews this week:
Daniel Garber interviews Toronto filmmaker Lena Macdonald about her film Betrayal having its world premiere at Hot Docs.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviewing Benevolence  plays at Tarragon Theatre.
Daniel is reviewing 2 films this week:
The Wedding Banquet a new version of Ang Lee's 1990s movie.
The Courageous a French Drama about a single mom.
 
 
 

Critics' Circle April 12, 2025

Interviews this week:
Lynn Slotkin interviews Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes the Co-Artistic Director of Why Not Theatre.
Reviews this week:
Daniel Garber is reviewing 3 films:
G-20 an action-thriller about The President of the US (Viola Davis) must defeat a gang of criminals with her bare hands and save the planet at the G-20 summit in Capetown. 
Drop a suspense/-mystery about a single mom on her first date in 5 years, finds herself the victim of someone in the restaurant.
Warfare directed by Alex Garland and is a biopic based on the memoirs of a soldiers during the 2nd Gulf War.

Critics' Circle April 5, 2025

Interviews this week:
Daniel Garber interviews three teenagers who are programmers for the upcoming NEXT WAVE film festival at TIFF Taf Mangwiro, Neha Hallim, Roni Harel Haber
Reviews this week:
Lynn Slotkin reviews Fully Committed at Theatre Aquarius.
Daniel Garber reviews 3 films:
The Ballad of Wallis Island, a comedy about a music star invited to perform a private concert in a remote island.
Freaky Tales a short linked stories set in Oakland California in 1987.
The Friend, a writer inherits an unwanted great Dane from her late mentor.

Critics' Circle March 29, 2025

Interviews this week:
Lynn is interviewing Kevin Matthew Wong, a playwright, climate changeactivist, producer and creator about his play Benevolence.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviewing Blackbird.
Daniel is reviewing 3 films this week:
Bob Trevino Likes It, a comedy directed by Tracie Laymon.
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World,  a documentary about the release of Sarin gas in Tokyo's subway in 1995 by a millenarian religious cult.
The Penguin Lessons, a bittersweet comedy starring Steve Cougan, about an English teacher with a penguin in Argentina after the 1976 coup.
 
 
 

Critics's Circle March 22, 2025

Interviews this week:
Daniel Garber is interviewing Toronto Filmmaker Ingrid Veninger about her latest movie/doc/reality showCrocodile Eyes, about birth, life, and death inher family, having its world premiere at CFF.
Reviews this week:
Lynn is reviewing Inside American Pie at the CAA Theatre.
Daniel is reviewing 3 films this week:
The Players is about a 15-year-old girl (in the 1990s) who joins a cult-like theatre group.
To the Moon East is a comedy about an exec and his daughter who move to the suburbs.
Skeet is a drama about an ex-con trying to go the straight and narrow in a rough Saint Johns neighborhood.