Queens of the Qing Dynasty is writer-director Ashley McKenzie’s long-awaited follow-up to Werewolf (2016), her auspicious first feature, and one of the most acclaimed Canadian debuts of recent years. Like Werewolf, Queens is set on McKenzie’s native Cape Breton Island, off the East Coast of Nova Scotia. And like that film, it is essentially a two-hander, following a pair of entwined lives with an at times disconcerting intimacy. When first introduced, 18-year-old Star (Sarah Walker) has been admitted to a hospital for ingesting poison, though we quickly surmise that she has been in and out of hospitals and social welfare institutions for much of her life. Meanwhile, An (Ziyin Zheng), a Chinese expatriate volunteering at a local hospital to accrue immigration points, has been assigned to her case. The strange, symbiotic relationship that soon develops between the two provides the film with its unpredictable, live-wire energy.In its approach to psychology and character subjectivity,...
- 2/27/2022
- MUBI
wide
Red Sparrow [my review]
Jennifer Lawrence stars as a Russian spy who uses manipulation to get what she wants. (male writer and director)
limited
Werewolf [IMDb]
Ashley McKenzie writes and directs this drama about outcast drug addicts, costarring Bhreagh MacNeil.
Oh, Lucy! [IMDb]
Atsuko Hirayanagi cowrites and directs this dramedy about a lonely Tokyo woman, played by Shinobu Terajima.
Chasing Great [IMDb]
Michelle Walshe cowrites and codirects this documentary about a (male) rugby player.
Dance Academy: The Comeback [IMDb]
Samantha Strauss writes this drama following the continuing stories of the gender-balanced ensemble from an Australian television show.
Eat Me [IMDb]
Jacqueline Wright writes and costars in this thriller about a woman and the (male) home invader who saves her mid-suicide attempt. (male director)
The Lullaby [IMDb]
Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo writes this horror movie about a woman, played by Reine Swart, who is having difficulty as a new mother.
Hondros [IMDb]
Jenny Golden cowrites this documentary about a (male) war photojournalist.
Red Sparrow [my review]
Jennifer Lawrence stars as a Russian spy who uses manipulation to get what she wants. (male writer and director)
limited
Werewolf [IMDb]
Ashley McKenzie writes and directs this drama about outcast drug addicts, costarring Bhreagh MacNeil.
Oh, Lucy! [IMDb]
Atsuko Hirayanagi cowrites and directs this dramedy about a lonely Tokyo woman, played by Shinobu Terajima.
Chasing Great [IMDb]
Michelle Walshe cowrites and codirects this documentary about a (male) rugby player.
Dance Academy: The Comeback [IMDb]
Samantha Strauss writes this drama following the continuing stories of the gender-balanced ensemble from an Australian television show.
Eat Me [IMDb]
Jacqueline Wright writes and costars in this thriller about a woman and the (male) home invader who saves her mid-suicide attempt. (male director)
The Lullaby [IMDb]
Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo writes this horror movie about a woman, played by Reine Swart, who is having difficulty as a new mother.
Hondros [IMDb]
Jenny Golden cowrites this documentary about a (male) war photojournalist.
- 3/2/2018
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Ashley McKenzie’s Werewolf is one of the most accomplished and acclaimed Canadian debut features in recent memory. Set on Cape Breton Island off the East Coast of Nova Scotia, the story follows a methadone addicted couple, Nessa (Bhreagh MacNeil) and Blaise (Andrew Gillis), who are struggling to survive. McKenzie looks at the cycles of dependency that trap these characters in an environment that offers them few escape routes. Living in the woods, waiting for housing support, getting daily methadone doses, and unsuccessfully trying to make ends meet by going door to door mowing people’s lawns, it becomes clear that their relationship is part of what perpetuates their situation. Slowly, Nessa tries to break free. McKenzie’s acute sense of the milieu of her native Cape Breton is reflected in both the authenticity of the performances and the film’s assured formal language that captures the marginal space—figurative...
- 3/1/2018
- MUBI
It's Only the End of the World and Operation Avalanche recognized among the 2017 Canadian Screen Award NominationsIt's Only the End of the World and Operation Avalanche recognized among the 2017 Canadian Screen Award NominationsAdriana Floridia1/17/2017 2:50:00 Pm
This morning the Canadian Screen Awards announced their 2017 nominations, recognizing the best of last year's Canadian films.
The awards are given out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. This year's nominees boast a diverse line up of films that tell stories not just in English and French, but also Mandarin, Atikamekw and Inuktiut.
The most high-profile of the bunch would have to be Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World, which is a likely contender at the Oscars this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It made the shortlist of nine films that will be considered at the Oscars, which also includes Germany's Toni Erdmann and Chile's Neruda.
This morning the Canadian Screen Awards announced their 2017 nominations, recognizing the best of last year's Canadian films.
The awards are given out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. This year's nominees boast a diverse line up of films that tell stories not just in English and French, but also Mandarin, Atikamekw and Inuktiut.
The most high-profile of the bunch would have to be Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World, which is a likely contender at the Oscars this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It made the shortlist of nine films that will be considered at the Oscars, which also includes Germany's Toni Erdmann and Chile's Neruda.
- 1/17/2017
- by Adriana Floridia
- Cineplex
Writer/director Ashley McKenzie‘s feature debut Werewolf picks up right where her 2012 short When You Sleep left off. We’re back in Canadian squalor on the poverty line with a couple barely staying afloat as society and addiction continuously seeks to drag them under into an abyss of forgotten souls. Frustration abounds as they hide beneath thick skins necessary to survive bureaucratic paper-pushers citing rules and regulations alongside a populace who’d rather ignore than lend a hand. Vanessa (Bhreagh MacNeil) looks defeated mostly, Blaise (Andrew Gillis) enraged with a fire of entitlement that does him absolutely no favors. They should be a team striving tooth and nail for more. But it’s not long before we understand the parasitic relationship masked by a heartbreakingly dangerous love at work.
Heroin’s their drug of choice and an opening prologue depicting a dismal future at the end of a rope...
Heroin’s their drug of choice and an opening prologue depicting a dismal future at the end of a rope...
- 9/10/2016
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival is almost upon us and it will feature plenty of highly anticipated premieres, but the festival will also debut many films by up-and-coming directors who should be on everyone’s radar. One of these is Ashley McKenzie’s debut feature “Werewolf,” a raw and poetic portrait of the authentic experience of two homeless, twentysomething methadone users in small town Cape Breton. The film follows the lives of Nessa (Bhreagh MacNeil), a waif lost in a harsh world, and Blaise (Andrew Gillis), a creature of impulse who’s easily provoked by his environment. They survive primarily through an underground economy, sleeping in tents, and fighting with bureaucrats and clinic doctors. This relationship drama captures the real humanity of isolated raw pain and the disorientation of modern life. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,...
Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,...
- 8/29/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
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