Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Pictured : 'Eddie, what's a xenomorph?' Fugitive former journalist Eddie Brock ( Tom Hardy ) and his symbiote, Venom (CGI, voiced by Hardy) plan their next move in the Marvel superhero threequel, ' Venom: The Last Dance ', written and directed by Kelly Marcel . Still courtesy of Columbia - Sony Pictures . One of the highest grossing films of 2024 directed by a woman is the Marvel superhero sequel, Venom : The Last Dance , the third in a series of films featuring British actor Tom Hardy as journalist Eddie Brock and the voice of his computer-generated alter ego, Venom, an alien symbiote that needs Eddie to survive, or at least complete a tax return.  Hardy, whose signature roles include Bane in The Dark Knight Rises , Charles Bronson (the serial killer) in Bronson and building contractor Locke in Locke , not to mention both Kray twins in Legend , is an actor who exudes menace that is to some extent diffused by the heightened voices he adopts when playing a role. A...

  Pictured: 'Carpenter ants! I hate those guys.' Sylvain ( Pierre-Yves Cardinal , right) makes an assessment to an increasingly distraught Sophia ( M agalie Lépine Blondeau , gauche) in the French-Canadian romantic comedy, ' Simple Comme Sylvain ', written and directed by Monia Chokri . Still courtesy of Music Box Films (US) French Canadian cinema exhibits a curious insularity. French language films made on the American continent quoting French philosophers while exhibiting Catholicism, they exist in a proud bubble. I struggle to name cast members of the films of Denys Arcand and Robert Lepage . The films don’t travel, as if unclaimed luggage on an airport carousel bearing quotes from Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau instead of name tags. French Canadian cinema didn’t refuse to sit on the back of the bus. It would rather walk. Actor-writer-director Monia Chokri ’s second film, Simple Comme Sylvain , embraces the bubble. Filmed in the style of a 1970s movie, comple...