Over Your Dead Body Vanguard It’s been a while since we’ve seen the side of Takashi Miike that’s on display in Over Your Dead Body. Miike continues to live up to his legend by making multiple films every year and including and least one sequence of toe-curlingly visceral violence. But he hasn’t trotted into the […]
Considering that the major showpieces of this year’s opening Short Cuts Canada program are a restorations of a pair of iconic national classics, it only stands to reason that the rest of the films should fall in nicely behind them. Recently restored to its 3D glory for the digital age, Norman McLaren’s stereoscopic opus Around […]
Preggoland Special Presentations A charmingly foulmouthed, bad taste comedy that can do for faking a pregnancy what Bridesmaids did for bachelorette parties, the latest film from Canadian filmmaker Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky, Good Neighbours) benefits from a stellar script and a star making performance from writer and lead Sonja Bennett. Ruth (Bennett) is in her […]
Alleluia Vanguard Writer/director Fabrice Du Welz established himself a purveyor of deeply disturbing relationship studies that mutate into horror films in the 2000s with Calvaire and Vinyan. After a painfully long seven-year gap, he’s finally returned with a project that very much delivers a new twist on his old themes. Alleluia is based on the […]
The deeper meaning of human interaction and personal relationships seems to be the unifying concept behind the shorts in this year’s second, Quebec filmmaker heavy Short Cuts Canada package. In the best of the shorts, Elizabeth Lazebnik’s Russian language meditation Liompa, an old man on his death bed realizes that not only will be not […]
Two Shots Fired Contemporary World Cinema After a day of clubbing, swimming and garden work, Mariano (Rafael Federman) found a gun in his shed and shot himself twice. If this was a suicide, or an act of boredom, is unclear, as after surviving the incident he doesn’t seem anymore despairing than his generally blasé community. […]
Coming Home Special Presentations Coming Home chronicles a difficult political time where one unfortunate accident changes the courses of events for one unsuspecting family. The cultural revolution was stressful time for countless in mainland China, but when long imprisoned Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming), a teacher who clashes with the establishment, comes home after years away […]
[REC] 4: Apocalypse Midnight Madness Picking up where [REC] 2 left off, no one is safe as the authorities struggle to contain a viral zombie outbreak of now demonic proportions. It won’t set the world on fire in terms of originality or craft, but if this is the final entry in the franchise, it could […]
Infinitely Polar Bear Gala Although somewhat awkwardly mounted by first time director Maya Forbes, her retelling of her own childhood with a bipolar father in late 70s Boston holds a wealth of empathy and emotion that more than makes up for any technical shortcomings. Not long after suffering a severe manic episode, Cameron (one of […]
Wet Bum Discovery Another great debut Canadian feature in a year full of great debuts, this almost painfully realistic coming of age tale deals with body issues, awkward burgeoning sexuality, and how the young and old interact with splendid results. Making the leap to features from shorts, filmmaker Lindsay MacKay gorgeously photographs this low key […]
Clouds of Sils Maria Special Presentations Clouds of Sils Maria is a thought-provoking meta-fiction that challenges its audience to examine themes of power, aging, and attraction through the eyes of characters that escape the bounds of the presented narrative. The film’s straightforward plot gives off the illusion of simplicity. Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, a 40-something […]
Red Army TIFF Docs Gabe Polsky makes his solo feature debut with this informative, tightly constructed, good looking, and fast paced look at the famed Russian Red Army hockey club during their heyday in the 70s and 80s. Primarily using interviews only from a scant few select hockey journalists, former NHL coach Scotty Bowman, and […]
This second bout of new Doctor Who is much more successful than the premiere “Deep Breath”.
Based on a funny, award winning play, the anti-buddy comedy Lawrence & Holloman fails to improve on its source material.
As Above/So Below isn't even as scary as a Halloween funhouse constructed by ten year olds.
