The Dork Shelf Guide to TIFF Next Wave 2014
We take a look this weekend's teen oriented and teen selected TIFF Next Wave film festival, with reviews of six of this year's offerings.
TIFF Next Wave 2014: Leap 4 Your Life Review
Leap 4 Your Life The performing arts mockumentary is hardly a new or groundbreaking concept, but this entry into the genre courtesy of writer, producer, and actor Taylor Hill buzzes with energy, a lot of genuine laughs, and enough inspired silliness to make one briefly forget that its nothing audiences haven’t seen before. The low-rent […]
TIFF Next Wave 2014: Fly Colt Fly Review
Fly Colt Fly Blending interviews, archival news footage, animation, and staged recreations, this documentary look at one of the biggest folk hero criminals in American history does a fine job explaining how one teenager who posed a concern to many could become an icon to others. Filmmakers Andrew and Adam Gray look into the life […]
TIFF Next Wave 2014: A Birder’s Guide to Everything Review
A Birder’s Guide to Everything If one were to cross a low-key modern American indie with a 1980s coming of age road comedy, you would get something close to the amusing and thoughtful debut feature from Rob Meyer, A Birder’s Guide to Everything. Both a better breed of teen movie than audiences normally get and […]
TIFF Next Wave 2014: I Learn America Review
I Learn America Focusing on five recent immigrants, 3 in their senior year, at New York City’s International High School at Lafayette, Jean-Michel Dissard and Gitte Peng’s documentary I Learn America takes on the traditional adolescent growing pains, while focusing on the challenges of navigating a new culture and language. The filmmakers’ gain an impressive […]
TIFF Next Wave 2014: For No Eyes Only Review
For No Eyes Only A modern day retelling of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, For No Eyes Only takes the simple premise of the 1954 classic and applies it to present day. After breaking his leg in an indoor field hockey practice and stuck in his bedroom, Sam (Benedict Siverding) begins to pass time spying on […]
TIFF Next Wave 2014: Palo Alto Review
Palo Alto Based on James Franco’s book of short stories, Palo Alto immerses the audiences into the lives and experiences of a group of teenagers (Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer and Nat Wolff) living in the California town of the same name as they try to determine who they are and what they want to do […]
Here Comes the Devil Review
Although it eventually becomes too convoluted for its own good, Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s sexually charged parental nightmare Here Comes the Devil is certainly an effective little shocker.
Odd Thomas Review
While most of the time the long delayed big screen Dean Koontz adaptation Odd Thomas looks and sounds like a made for TV hybrid of Buffy, Veronica Mars, and Doctor Who, that doesn't mean it at all fails at what it's trying to attempt. It's the best film director Stephen Sommers has done since The Mummy in 1999 at the very least.
7 Boxes Review
Despite its microbudget trappings, the Paraguayan thriller 7 Boxes offers up tons of inventiveness, a firm grip on a twisty multi-arc narrative, and some decidedly effective low-fi thrills.
RoboCop Review
If you can put aside your feelings towards the original film long enough to accept an updated facelift to the RoboCop narrative is passably entertaining, but also worthy of being judged more on its many newer faults rather than by any unfair comparisons to its forebearers.
A Girl on Girls: Episode 3.6 Recap
This week, Hannah gets a new job at GQ and has to struggle between following her heart, or her dollar-less pocket. Should she give up a new job she's great at that offers lots of delicious food? Meanwhile, the awkward sex Girls is known for is back in spades.
True Detective Episode 1.4 Recap
True Detective has become like H.P. Lovecraft framed through the window of an all Bunk and McNulty version of The Wire: exploring ideas of faith, madness, brutality and obsessive self-destruction read with the cop-speak language that TV has made us experts in through decades of crime dramas and police procedurals.
The Dork Shelf Guide to Toronto Black Film Festival 2014
We take a look at the second annual Toronto Black Film Festival - kicking off Tuesday and running through this Sunday evening - bringing some of the best in Black Cinema to the city, including reviews of several of this year's entries.
TBFF 2014: From Above Review
From Above From Above tells the tale of William Ward (Danny Glover) as he recalls the love story of his life with Venus (Tantoo Cardinal). Told in flashback from his wife’s deathbed, Ward relives the events of their shared life together. Venus is from the Lightning Clan, a mystical Native American family living in Arkansas, […]
