![]() |
Patrick J. Adams and Troian Bellisario star in Akash Sherman's Clara Courtesy D Films |
11/30/2018
Science and Serendipity: Akash Sherman Talks 'Clara'
Labels:
Canadian Film,
interviews
11/22/2018
'The Drawer Boy': From Stage to Screen
The Drawer Boy
(Canada, 98 min.)
Dir. Arturo
Pérez Torres, Aviva Armour-Ostroff; Writ. Michael Healey, Arturo Pérez
Torres
Starring: Richard Clarkin, Stuart Hughes, Jakob Ehman
The Drawer Boy is
a contemporary classic of Canadian theatre and the film adaptation could enjoy
similar esteem. This stage-to-screen take on Michael Healey’s acclaimed play is
a refreshingly vibrant drama. Some audiences might find the adaptation a bit too talky and a bit too stagey, but stick with it. The Drawer Boy is a sparse, small-scale affair smartly told
that takes the bare essences of good filmmaking—a good story, strong actors,
and a sense of cinematic space—and bundles them together like a sturdy bale of
wheat. It’s nice to have a Canadian film to get excited about again.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
Canadian Film
'At Eternity's Gate': The Art of Madness
At Eternity’s Gate
(USA/France/Switzerland, 110 min.)
Dir. Julian Schnabel, Writ. Jean-Claude Carrière, Louise Kugelberg, Julian
Schnabel
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac,
Emmanuelle Seigner, Mads Mikkelsen
Julian Schnabel is a master of visual poetry. The
Oscar-nominated director of The Diving
Bell and the Butterfly returns with another original and impeccably
realized dive into the artistic process. Schnabel, a painter as well as a
filmmaker, daubs a canvas of dreams and madness while bringing to the screen
the brilliant yet troubled mind of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, played
masterfully by Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project). The film is not a cradle to grave biography of the artist who is
as famous for his Starry Night
painting as he is for cutting off his ear. Instead, it’s an impressionistic interpretation
of a genius both fuelled and plagued by demons. At Eternity’s Gate feels the evocative portrait Van Gogh would have
wanted.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
at eternitys gate,
julian schnabel,
willem dafoe
11/15/2018
Portrait of a War Hero
A Private War
(USA/UK, 110 min.)
Dir. Matthew Heineman, Writ. Arash Amel
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander,
Stanley Tucci
There is a war going on. It doesn’t have bullets. It doesn’t
have bombs. It doesn’t have drones. Instead, this war is one of words, access,
and angles.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
a private war,
Rosamund Pike
Touched by Mediocrity
Touched
(Canada, 78 min.)
Written and directed by Karl R. Hearne
Starring: Hugh Thompson, Lola Flanery, John MacLaren
Director Karl R. Hearne really seems to like the colour blue. It’s everywhere in his new feature Touched. It’s in the lighting (so cold!), the clothing (so sad!), and the mood (so dreary!).
(Canada, 78 min.)
Written and directed by Karl R. Hearne
Starring: Hugh Thompson, Lola Flanery, John MacLaren
Director Karl R. Hearne really seems to like the colour blue. It’s everywhere in his new feature Touched. It’s in the lighting (so cold!), the clothing (so sad!), and the mood (so dreary!).
Labels:
2018 reviews,
Canadian Film
11/11/2018
EUFF Review: 'I Am Not a Witch'
I Am Not a Witch
(UK/France, 92 min.)
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni
Starring: Margaret Mulubwa, Henry Phir, Nancy Murilo
The inciting event of I
am not a Witch could easily be a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A woman fetches a bucket of water
and drops it when she encounters a young girl on the path home. Her explanation
for being startled? The little kid’s a witch.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
Best Foreign Lang Film,
EUFF
11/08/2018
Boy Erased: Every Parent Needs to See this Movie
Boy Erased
(USA, 114 min.)
Written and directed by Joel Edgerton
Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel
Edgerton, Xavier Dolan, Joe Alwyn, Troye Sivan
There’s a moment in Boy
Erased in which Nicole Kidman brought the house down at the Princess of
Wales Theatre when the film premiered at TIFF earlier this fall. Kidman’s
character Nancy rescues her son, Jared (Lucas Hedges), from a gay conversion
therapy camp that she’d enlisted him in with hopes to straighten him out. As
they escape, the camp’s leader and self-certified “therapist” (Joel Edgerton)
comes running after them, convincing them to stop and correct their sins.
Nancy, a devout Baptist, realizes that she can reconcile her faith with her
love for her son. Nancy turns protectively and fiercely admonishes her foe with
the sassiest “Shame on you!” decreed in cinema. The line comes straight from
the heart as love gives Nancy a reality check and Boy Erased provides a pure, heart-breaking portrait of the bond
between parents and their children.
11/07/2018
EUFF Review: 'Omnipresent'
Omnipresent
(Bulgaria, 120 min.)
Written and directed by Ilian Djevelekov
Starring: Velislav Pavlov, Teodora Duhovnikova,
Vesela Babinova, Anastassia Liutova, Mihail Mutafov
How many cameras does a person walk by every day? The fear
of Big Brother watching over us is a reality that people take for granted.
Government spying might be one thing, since they can only monitor so many
people, but the threat of surveillance is everywhere, as are the inherent
elements of power and control that come with the information gleaned by the
voyeur. Omnipresent, the opening
night film of Toronto’s European Union Film Festival and Bulgaria’s official
entry in this year’s Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film, explores the destructive
role of the panopticon as one man takes the all-seeing eye of the camera too
far. It’s a chilling morality play on the power of media.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
Best Foreign Lang Film,
EUFF
11/01/2018
Burning: A Grin without a Cat
Burning
(South Korea, 148 min.)
Dir. Lee Chang-dong, Writ. Lee Chang-dong, Jungmi Oh
Starring: Ah-In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon
Burning is a slow
and difficult film. South Korea's Oscar bid is lethargic even by the standard with which one
approaches a film by auteur Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine, Poetry).
Lee has mastered the art of slow cinema, rarely making a movie that clocks in
under two hours and twenty minutes, so what Burning
lacks in immediate payoff it enjoys in long-term gain. See it in a theatre
and leave your phone behind—or, if watching Burning
at home, turn the phone off, remove the battery, and leave both parts in
different rooms. This is the kind of movie from which one can easily be
distracted, since the action happens almost imperceptibly in Lee’s carefully
measured frames. Miss not a beat, lest ye be lost forever. The film is a slow
burn with a sting that creeps up a day later.
Labels:
2018 reviews,
Best Foreign Lang Film
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)