The Effects of Lying: Movie Review

A slow, quiet movie about secrets, lies, identity and moving on.

What starts as a slow moving movie with seemingly empty morals about almost nothing, slowly transforms itself into an aptly-titled story about multiple individuals grappling with lies that make up who they are and when their existence seems to shatter to the ground how they rebuild themselves. There are a lot of sharply written astute observations amongst all the lies and secrets that it’s worth watching to reveal them all.		2024 Directed by: Isher Sahota Screenplay by: James Hey Starring: Ace Bhatti, Lauren Patel

Deck the Walls: Movie Review

Don’t own a construction company if you don’t do any construction work.

Hallmark continually over does it with their flipping houses storylines. I don’t understand the appeal and I also don’t understand why they keep hiring writers who also don’t seem to understand the process at all. So much of what is supposed to be the main storyline doesn’t make much sense. The main storyline should actually be the romance, and as usual, they get that part mostly right.		2024 Directed by: Danny Pellegrino Screenplay by: Danny Pellegrino Starring: Ashley Greene, Wes Brown, and Danny Pellegrino

The Snow Sister: Movie Review

A beautiful, artistic production with depressing themes.

I wanted to watch this because it looked like it was going to be a very nicely photographed movie. And it is. Almost every scene of this looks like a postcard; from the frozen fjords, to the most elaborately decorated house you can imagine, to – my personal favourite imagery – the community pool with its glass windows sitting upon a hill and the snow-lined road leading down to the village with streetlights illuminating the snow. Norwegians know how to make winter beautiful.		2024 Directed by: Cecilie A. Moslie Screenplay by: Siv Rajendram Eliassen Based on the book by Maja Lunde and Lisa Aisato Starring: Mudit Gupta, Celina Meyer Hovland

The Holiday Club: Movie Review

A delightfully charming indie romance.

The Holiday Club is going to make you feel right at home whether you hate holidays or love holidays. Sam (Mak Shealy) hates holidays – she’s a bit of a loner, feels that something bad always happens to her on holidays, so she tends to keep to herself. Bailey (Alexandra Swarens) loves holidays – she owns her own bakery and every holiday big or small she decorates the store and sells themed cupcakes and cookies.		2024 Directed by: Alexandra Swarens Screenplay by: Alexandra Swarens Starring: Mak Shealy, Alexandra Swarens

Our Little Secret: Movie Review

Awkwardness masquerading as comedy.

Netflix is releasing a new Christmas rom-com each Wednesday in November. Things started out pretty good with the enjoyable Meet Me Next Christmas, and then got a little worse with the whimsical Hot Frosty, and then it got a little worse with the lazy but shirtless The Merry Gentlemen, and now it has gotten even worse with whatever Our Little Secret is - a romantic comedy that is light on the comedy and the romance, filled with annoying contrivances.		2024 Directed by: Stephen Herek Screenplay by: Hailey DeDominicis Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Ian Harding, Kristin Chenoweth

A Real Pain: Movie Review

Past tragedies, current pain.

Take a walk through Poland with cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) as they join a Holocaust tour group. While on the surface it may seem like A Real Pain is a reflection on a tragic past with the cousins and the other Jewish members of the tour group discussing what their ancestors went through as they visit museums, memorials and a concentration camp, it is actually a discussion on mental health in the present day.		2024 Directed by: Jesse Eisenberg Screenplay by: Jesse Eisenberg Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin

Trapped Inn: Movie Review

Trapped Inn will first lure you in with its ingenious setting, gorgeous photography and fantastic overall production. Then it will ensnare you with its mysterious hold as it sort of vacillates between relationship dynamics and science fiction thriller. Not too dissimilar to the mysterious mist moving from the mountains over the pool water keeping people trapped inside and killing the unlucky ones and stupid ones.		2024 Directed by: Leah Sturgis Screenplay by: Leah Sturgis Starring: Matt Rife, Robert Palmer Watkins, Brielle Grearson, Brian Gross

The Holiday List (AKA: It's Christmas!): Movie Review

A depressing, dysfunctional and downtrodden Christmas.

For anybody who wants a depressing Christmas movie without the cheer or holiday spirit, then The Holiday List is for you. For the title confusion, I think it was originally called The Holiday List in the UK, then North American distributors decided it should be called It’s Christmas for an unknown and probably pointless reason, and then at the last minute switched it back to The Holiday List upon release. You should be able to find it under both titles.		2024 Directed by: Jamie Adams Screenplay by: Jamie Adams Starring: Brittany Snow, Lucas Bravo

The Merry Gentlemen: Movie Review

Chad Michael Murray dances shirtless.

I think the entire point of this movie is an excuse to see Chad Michael Murray and other hot men, or merry gentlemen, to dance shirtless. Hey, there are far worse reasons for movies to be made. There is an argument that the movie should have leaned even further in and given us an hour and a half of the male dance revue, because instead after each quick dance number, we’re treated to the most cliché tropes around.		2024 Directed by: Peter Sullivan Screenplay by: Jeffrey Schenck, Peter Sullivan, Marla Sokoloff Starring: Britt Robertson, Chad Michael Murray

Jingle Bell Run: Movie Review

A simplistic and enjoyable romance.

While Hallmark Christmas movies are always simplistic, sometimes they lean into that simplicity perfectly. Jingle Bell Run spends all of its time on Wes and Avery and their budding relationship as they race around the United States in an Amazing Race type reality competition show. It’s the right focus because the actors fit their characters perfectly and there is that much growth in their relationship.		2024 Directed by: Lucie Guest Screenplay by: Tom McCurrie, Stephanie Sourapas Starring: Ashley Williams, Andrew W. Walker

Christmas with the Singhs: Movie Review

Family drama that over-complicates a nice romance.

First, Hallmark has to be congratulated on recognizing that there are other cultures and races in the world. It is such an overwhelmingly White network that Christmas with the Singhs is their only foray into a more diverse lineup. But before we go too far, it’s very important to note that the Singhs, an Indian American family, are Christian so Christmas still looks like Christmas.		2024 Directed by: Panta Mosleh Screenplay by: Patricia Isaac, Emily Ting Starring: Anuja Joshi, Benjamin Hollingsworth

Hello, Love, Again: Movie Review

The magic is gone and is replaced with a mess of forced comedy, dark drama and soap opera romance.

Hello, Love, Again has a good idea for the sequel, revisit the same characters in a new city. When Joy leaves Hong Kong for Canada, she’s starting a new life, but with the same love, so romantic issues are sure to abound. I was thinking something like Past Lives, but one where we already knew the characters. Instead the writers took every single idea they had for the sequel and packed all of them in. The result is a movie about everything that says nothing.		2024 Directed by: Cathy Garcia-Sampana Screenplay by: Carmi Raymundo, Crystal S. San Miguel, Olivia M. Lamasan Starring: Kathryn Bernardo, Alden Richards

Anora: Movie Review

The hilarious and heart-breaking life lived in excess for a call girl.

Sean Baker knows how to structure a film. Like all good stories, there are three distinct acts. Most viewers are apparently expecting only Act 1 because it tells the beginnings of a story where other movies end (hello Pretty Woman). Ani, short for Anora, (Mikey Madison) is a stripper and call girl; working at a large, high-end strip club, she gets hired by Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) a young, obscenely rich Russian party boy.		2024 Directed by: Sean Baker Screenplay by: Sean Baker Starring: Mikey Madison

Hot Frosty: Movie Review

Whimsy and comedy in a lightweight, simplistic rom-com.

Hot Frosty is the second of Netflix’s four holiday rom-coms releasing each Wednesday in the month of November. If the first one, Meet Me Next Christmas, was a typical romantic comedy (it was), then this is an atypical romantic comedy. It’s not every day that snowmen come to life. In this made-up fantasy, which is set in the real world, a hot perfect man is born out of the snow by placing a red scarf around his neck.		2024 Directed by: Jerry Ciccoritti Screenplay by: Russell Hainline Starring: Lacy Chabert, Dustin Milligan

Santa Tell Me: Movie Review

Santa's magic can't save this rom-com.

The appeal to Santa Tell Me is in the magical intervention on Olivia (Erin Krakow’s) love life, because everything else it does in service of a holiday rom-com is very unappealing. Olivia is a one-dimensional no-nonsense, over-worked television show interior designer. It’s a common, but over-used character for Hallmark movies, and it’s very tiring here. And then the worst trope of all, she misidentifies her future romantic interest and is immediately extremely rude and antagonistic towards him.		2024 Directed by: Ryan Landels Screenplay by: Ryan Landels Starring: Erin Krakow, Daniel Lissing

Escaping Ohio: Movie Review

Young love, tearjerker style.

An indie romance about young love, finding yourself, figuring out your future, living in Ohio, and leaving Ohio. Escaping Ohio has very common themes about a teenager hating their hometown, desperate to graduate and leave and then find love along the way. While it doesn’t tread new ground, it still me won me over with one great character, an adorable romance and a friendship that may or may not survive state borders.		2023 Directed by: Jessica Michael Davis Screenplay by: Jessica Michael Davis, Collin Kelly-Sordelet Starring: Jessica Michael Davis, Collin Kelly-Sordelet

Trivia at St. Nick's: Movie Review

Christmas, trivia, romance and an unlikable lead character.

Welcome to Nick’s Bar where the annual Christmas trivia tournament is the most important thing in this Vermont college town. There are a lot of things to like in Trivia at St. Nick’s and a whole lot of things to dislike. It’s a movie fighting to incorporate so many tropes and stereotypes that it can’t help but bring down a movie a solid premise, but at the same time, you’re sure to find parts of it to love.		2024 Directed by: Marlo Hunter Screenplay by: Christine Garver, Stephanie Jackson Starring: Tammin Sursok, Brant Daugherty

A Sudden Case of Christmas: Movie Review

A good premise ruined by everything else.

A Sudden Case of Christmas is about a young girl and her parents travelling to Italy to visit her grandfather, during the summer. It’s supposed to be about the girl recreating Christmas to be able to deal with her parents’ impending divorce. The problem is that it’s barely about that. The movie seems to spend most of its time with random characters that do not add to the story at all.		2024 Directed by: Peter Chelsom Screenplay by: Peter Chelsom, Tinker Lindsay Starring: Danny DeVito, Antonella Rose

Meet Me Next Christmas: Movie Review

A typical romantic comedy filled with romance, laughter and music.

For their 2024 Christmas rom-com slate, Netflix is releasing four movies, one each Wednesday in the month of November. With Meet Me Next Christmas, we are off to a rockin’ good start (please pardon the pun). The romantic comedy features not one but two meet cutes, an act two which has multiple laugh out loud funny scenes, an ending with all the sweet romance you could hope for, and last but not least, it is filled with fantastic music.		2024 Directed by: Rusty Cundieff Screenplay by: Molly Haldeman, Camilla Rubis Starring: Christina Milian, Devale Ellis, Kofi Siriboe, and Kalen Allen

Holiday Mismatch: Movie Review

An enjoyable pairing of romance and comedy.

Holiday Mismatch should be at the top of any Hallmark Christmas rotation. The characters are very simplistic but it’s a really nice romance with the right amount of comedy sprinkled in. It also employs two of the better rom-com tropes: fake dating turning into real dating; and meddling families who are constantly trying to get them together and then break them up and using reverse psychology and reverse-reverse psychology and then rinse and repeat.		2024 Directed by: Caroline Labrèche Screenplay by: Sarah Wise Starring: Beth Broderick, caroline Rhea, Maxine Denis and Jon McLaren

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: Movie Review

Cheesy and wholesome, but still a winning formula of kindness and acceptance.

Based on the 1972 novel of the same name, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has a Christian director and based on a very Christian story of a town hosting a Christmas pageant of the traditional Christmas story of Jesus’ birth. While I was concerned it might get too preachy or religious, it won me over because its only message is kindness and having an open-mind, which most of the Christian characters within the movie are unable to practice.		2024 Directed by: Dallas Jenkins Screenplay by: Platte Clark, Darin McDaniel, Ryan Swanson and Dallas Jenkins Based on the novel by Barbara Robinson Starring: Judy Greer, Molly Belle Wright

A Carol for Two: Movie Review

A nice and boring Christmas musical.

Usually the musical Hallmark Christmas movies are the better ones, adding another dimension to the holiday romance. Unfortunately that’s not the case for A Carol for Two, which is just a boring version of the romantic drama. Technically they have good singing voices, but nothing that adds any fun or excitement to the usual drama.		2024 Directed by: Jeff Beesley Screenplay by: Nina Weinman Starring: Ginna Claire Mason, Jordan Litz

Stealing Jokes: Movie Review

A lot of funny stuff and a lot of insanity.

A group of stand-up comedians on acid or cocaine or a combination of a lot of things. No, I’m not describing a normal night at a comedy club, but the new movie Stealing Jokes. A movie made by and about stand-up comedians that goes all over the place at break-neck speed. When a club owner screws them over, they become ninjas, and thiefs, and heist planners, and that covers like 20 minutes.		2024 Directed by: Mike Young Screenplay by: Mike Young Starring: Jeff Dye, Dustin Ybarra, Carlos "Ha Ha" Davis, and Ryu Go-Eun