BEOWULF & GRENDEL
“ Gunnarsson’s vision joins the ranks of other feverish, cinematic hallucinations that challenge the depravity of our humanity by embracing the emptiness the the universe and lingering on our inexplicable and unceasing pull to conquer it .”
FILM AS ART – Danel Griffin FULL REVIEW
“Good, bloody fun that stirs the intellect whenever it feels like it.”
VILLAGE VOICE – Bill Gallo FULL REVIEW
“By stripping the ninth-century epic poem Beowulf down to its narrative bones, and by shooting it with an unembellished, steely realism, Gunnarsson has made something decidedly unusual from this medieval tale of revenge and reckoning…
This isn’t the story of mythological heroes and monsters but of men ultimately confronting their own reflection in the monster they’ve been dispatched to terminate. It’s like a thoughtful action movie with a conscience … a successfully strange and strangely moving adventure.”
TORONTO STAR – Geoff Pevere
“It’s almost like the Scream of historical action hero cinema; a sort of anti-Braveheart, because as it works on one level, in that it has all the requisite material an epic period film must have – battle scenes, obvious allusions to Christ, beheadings etc. – it also manages to poke fun at all of this…
Gunnarsson drenches Beowulf in booze, wenches and troll jokes, which makes for an entirely original form of entertainment. Perhaps it will pave the way for a new genre: the ironic, historical/epic dramedy.”
NATIONAL POST – Vanessa Farquarson
“Cool viewing for the heady crowd”
TANDEM NEWS.COM
SUCH A LONG JOURNEY
“It’s not often that a film crosses the line between merely being very good, and being a truly great work of cinema. Such A Long Journey not only crosses that line, but makes it look easy … a modern masterpiece.”
UK FILM REVIEW – John Binns
“Such a Long Journey, filmed on location in Bombay, is a film so rich in atmosphere, it makes western films look pale and underpopulated. It combines politics, religion, illness and scheming in the story of one family in upheaval, and is very serious and always amusing.”
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES – Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
“Rich in detail and character and soaked in atmosphere of its time and place … studded with memorable scenes and arresting performances, most notably Mr. Seth’s.”
NEW YORK TIMES – A.O. Scott
“Works like this are rare: they require judgement and for the director, self discipline at a miraculous level. He never forces, twists, goes for the big shot or the stunning image. It’s not about him, but about his characters. The movie itself is quite an experience and long live the fabulous Nobles.”
WASHINGTON POST – Steven Hunter
RARE BIRDS
“Rare Birds” is a sweetheart of a film, whimsical and touching.
CHICAGO SUN TIMES – Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
MONSOON
“Open your umbrellas for the grandeur and destruction of the monsoon as it sweeps across India…”
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER FULL REVIEW
“Monsoon paints a brash, beautiful portrait of India and its storms.”
TWITCHFILM – Jason Gorber FULL REVIEW
FORCE OF NATURE
“…possibly the most convincing and fascinating argument yet heard on every person’s right to a clean Earth.”
GLOBE AND MAIL – Guy Dixon FULL REVIEW
“… reawakens us to the daily miracles that surround us – from the simple act of breathing, to the complexity of the natural world.”
CANWEST MEDIA – Katherine Monk FULL REVIEW
“Sturla Gunnarsson’s Force of Nature is both a marvellous biography of a Canadian icon and an entertaining and enlightening documentary about biodiversity.”
TORONTO SUN – Bruce Kirkland FULL REVIEW
AIR INDIA 182
“… Gunnarsson’s brilliantly crafted film will haunt viewers and shake them from complacency as it recreates, examines and reinterprets what Gunnarsson is calling “the most deadly act of air terrorism in history before 9/11.” …
Gunnarsson succeeds by meticulously piecing together available evidence, dramatizing the human element of families who lost loved ones, and interviewing everyone available. The results, seamlessly juxtaposed, transform this doc into a classic of its genre and an important page of Canadian history.”
TORONTO SUN – Bruce Kirkland FULL REVIEW
“Air India 182″ is one of the marquee entries at the Hot Docs film festival, yet it’s a movie so gripping and suspenseful in its retelling of a large-scale tragedy that it frequently seems like a tautly written drama instead of grim reality.
CANADIAN PRESS
“… pushes the frontiers of non-fiction with a veracity and power on a par with movies like United 93, A Mighty Heart—and Standard Operating Procedure, the Errol Morris film about Abu Ghraib. Like Morris, Gunnarson uses stark, confessional direct-to-camera interviews. And he makes creative use of re-enactments, but in a radically different style. Morris fetishes the unknowable with impressionist, slo-mo images that verge on abstraction. Gunnarson’s are chaotic snatches of verité realism. But he too finds a poetic beauty and glimmers of transcendence in imagining what might have unfolded, and portraying a life that is about to be lost.”
MACLEANS MAGAZINE – Brian Johnson FULL REVIEW