Vanguard

TIFF 2014: The Voices Review

The Voices Vanguard In every horror movie, established or not, there has to be some assumption as to why a slasher is on their spree. Traumatic childhoods, supernatural influences, mental instability. Sometimes, there are films that try to turn the mirror on this, creating empathetic murders who seem like a machine unable to stop, like […]

TIFF 2014: They Have Escaped Review

They Have Escaped Vanguard Teenage outcasts decide to flee their disappointing lives in this new offering from Finnish director J.P. Valkeapää (The Visitor). Joni, played by Teppo Manner, is a quiet young man who starts a job at a children’s home after going AWOL from his military service. He’s a social outcast, due primarily to […]

TIFF 2014: The Duke of Burgundy Review

The Duke of Burgundy Vanguard In Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland made a delirious love letter to giallo horror, framed in the clever concept of an unassuming foley artist in a strange pocket of filmmaking before melting his work into a fever dream. In The Duke of Burgundy, Strickland revisits genres he had to hide […]

TIFF 2014: Luna Review

Luna Vanguard Dave McKean is one of the architects of the 90s; a dark illustrator, his busy but whimsical images set a tone for many brooding album covers and drama students. When he took his skills to task as a director for the first time in 2005, with MirrorMask, it felt like a bit much, […]

TIFF 2014: Spring Review

Spring Vanguard Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, directors of the exceptional indie horror film Resolution, come up with a nice blend of the sappy and scary in this off beat romance. Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) has just lost his mother and his job so he uses some of his inheritance to take an impulsive trip […]

TIFF 2014: Waste Land Review

Waste Land Vanguard A character drama about a Belgian homicide detective struggling to maintain his humanity, Pieter Van Hees’ Waste Land doesn’t end up amounting to much, but it’s well acted and made by an assured filmmaker. Jérémie Renier gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as Leo, a cop assigned to high profile, often grisly murder […]