Fantasia Journal: ‘Neomanila’
‘Neomanila’ is a biting, brilliant neo-noir, a cold and caustic crime thriller set in a city where the state-sponsored murder of drug dealers and users is a regular occurrence. In the near-apocalyptic...
View ArticleFantasia Journal: The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot
There are few things more pleasing than silliness done seriously, what the members of Spinal Tap famously dubbed the thin line between clever and stupid. When a movie falters in this tightrope act, it...
View ArticleFantasia Journal: Cam
Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam, written by Isa Mazzei, is a provocative, intelligent thriller that also happens to be extremely seductive. It toys with eroticism and exhibitionism but never veers into the...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: The Wedding Guest
Few filmmaking careers are as unpredictable as that of director Michael Winterbottom. The restlessly experimental Brit seems to go out of his way to make wildly diverging projects every time he steps...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Legend of the Demon Cat
Since the early 1980s, Chinese director Chen Kaige has made films that have played to international audiences. His most celebrated was 1993’s Palme d’Or winner Farewell My Concubine. He’s delved into...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Papi Chulo
To paraphrase my initial reaction as I sat in the theater fuming, Papi Chulo is a poisionously bad, blindly racist and sadistically awful film. Supremely, unconscionable shit. It’s rare that I get so...
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
Director Jim Hosking is a singular force. His first feature , The Greasy Strangler, was doused in anxious energy and grease, so much so that I desperately wanted to take a shower after watching it....
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Rosie
Rosie sheds light on the plight of the working poor in Ireland by following a young family being pushed out of their middle-class lifestyle into one where the days are spent hustling for housing...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Kursk
Thomas Vinterberg’s Kursk tells the story of the doomed Russian submarine and the foiled attempts to rescue its hapless seamen. It’s a mix of character drama, suspenseful rescue adventure, and...
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: Suspiria (2018)
Horror fans can be a tough audience to please. Speaking as a lifelong member of that tribe, I know we can be curmudgeons. We complain about remakes and sequels, while also complaining when films don’t...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Freaks (2018)
Freaks is a highly allegorical tale that combines comic book fantasy, sci-fi tropes, and political metaphor that vacillate between being effective and messy. It’s a work of great ideas where the...
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: Between Worlds
With the recent explosion of Mandy on social media and the big screen, the cult of Nic Cage has been given new life. With these “Rage Cage” flicks, it just makes sense to give the actor a character and...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Mouthpiece
Mouthpiece finds veteran Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema at the top of her game. It’s an emotionally rich and stylistically assured drama that traces one young woman’s coming to terms with the death...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: One Last Deal
A gentle drama about a hapless art dealer looking to make one last score before retirement, Finnish filmmaker Klaus Härö’s One Last Deal provides a satisfying if not exceptional melodrama about aging,...
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: The Wind
Emma Tammi’s The Wind is based on terrifying true stories. Back in the Old West, “prairie madness” would actually drive people mad. From the isolation to the unfamiliar surroundings, just about...
View ArticleVIFF Journal: The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos has carved out a wonderful niche space, crafting films that mix whimsy and darkness in equal measure. From Dogtooth and Alps to The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, each of...
View ArticleVIFF Journal: Collette
Collette is one of many perfectly serviceable British period dramas, a film that mixes in just the right amount of ribaldry and rabble rousing to keep audiences engaged if not overly challenged. Wash...
View ArticleVIFF Journal: Ray & Liz
Ray & Liz is an acerbic, autobiographical tale of life in a sordid flat in Thatcher’s England. Its miserable Midlands locale is made even rougher by a chain-smoking mother, a brew-swilling father,...
View ArticleVIFF Journal: Central Airport THF
Many documentaries have been made about the refugee situation in Europe, but few manage to provide such a boldly humanistic take as Central Airport THF. Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport was a jewel of...
View ArticleLos Cabos Journal: History Lessons
Marcelino Islas Hernández’s strange, affecting film Clases de Historia (History Lessons) is a darkly comic tale about a teacher’s burgeoning friendship with a young student. It has elements that draw...
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