Tris and Finn Ride the Love Boat

Adrift

(USA, 95 min.)

Dir. Baltasar Kormákur; Writ. Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell, David Branson Smith

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin

Sam Claflin and Shailene Woodley star in Adrift
VVS Films

Adrift will inevitably headline Netflix’s playlist “Movies with a Strong Female Lead,” but this film really needs to be seen in a theatre. It’s a gripping romantic adventure on the high seas—Johnny Depp free!—as two young lovers combat the elements and struggle to survive on open water. The film sees YA franchises collide as Divergent’s Shailene Woodley teams up with The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin to play Tami Oldman and to Richard Sharp. Tami and Richard are real-world adventurers basking in the sunsets of the Pacific Ocean on an ill-fated voyage home. A terrible storm leaves their ship ruined and adrift in the water as they cling to life against the elements. Their love story ensures that audiences will never let go while holding on to Adrift’s adventure.

Schrader Reformed

First Reformed

(USA, 113 min.)

Written and directed by Paul Schrader

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Philip Ettinger, Cedric Kyles, Victoria Hill

Preach, Paul Schrader, preach! Schrader returns with his best film yet as a director. First Reformed is a dark, brooding, and suspenseful masterwork of tone, character, and real world urgency. After the disaster of The Canyons, which I actually sorta liked despite its flaws and awful lead performance by James Deen, Schrader seemed relegated to B-level obscurity. He’s back, stronger than ever, and ready to make those who doubted him say a few rosaries.

"May You Live a Long Life."

Disobedience

(UK/USA, 115 min.)

Dir. Sebastián Lelio; Writ. Sebastián Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Starring: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola, Allan Cordunier

Courtesy Mongrel Media

“May you live a long life.” One could possibly make a drinking game with how often this sentence appears in Disobedience. The saying is one of mourning, unique to Anglophone Jewish communities (according to the Internet) that carries different weights and meanings depending on the context and sincerity with which one says it. On the surface, it signals a celebration of life to someone who has lost a loved one.

'Kayak to Klemtu': Where Roots Run Deep

Kayak to Klemtu

(Canada, 90 min.)

Dir. Zoe Hopkins; Writ. Zoe. Hopkins, Michael Sparaga, Scooter Corkle

Starring: Ta’Kaiya Blaney, Lorne Cardinal, Sonja Bennett, Evan Adams, Jared Ager-Foster

Courtesy Mongrel Media

Many documentaries chronicle the impact of the oil trade on BC’s oceans and coastal communities. Few dramas, however, invite audiences to build relationships and emotional connections with inhabitants of the land who struggle with this conflict. Oddly enough, writer/director Zoe Hopkins makes her feature debut with Kayak to Klemtu, which draws inspiration from the filmmaker’s effort to document stories from her community of Bella Bella as residents testified to the impact of oil tanker traffic in the Inside Passage. This serpentine waterway is far too congested—an accident waiting to happen in one of the most beautiful landscapes in Canada. Hopkins instead offers a hopeful and accessible story that shares with audiences a deep connection to the land and waters worth preserving.

Mommy Issues Haunt 'The Child Remains'

The Child Remains

(Canada, 107 min.)

Written and directed by Michael Melski

Starring: Suzanne Clément, Allan Hawco, Shelley Thompson

Allan Hawco and Suzanne Clément in The Child Remains

Suzanne Clément checks into the East Coast branch of the Bates’ Motel in The Child Remains. The Mommy star encounters mommy issues at a creepy B&B in Nova Scotia, but they’re more of the Gus Van Sant variety than the Alfred Hitchcock pedigree. Despite an eerie setting and an earnest attempt to provide old-school horror on a shoestring budget, The Child Remains struggles to chill. Yelp reviews are often more terrifying.

Cannes Review: 'The Gentle Indifference of the World'

The Gentle Indifference of the World

(Kazakhstan/France, 100 min.)

Dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Writ. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Roelof Jan Minneboo

Starring: Dinara Baktybayeva, Kuandyk Dyussembayev  

Courtesy Cannes

As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself…I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.
-Albert Camus, The Stranger