The Shape of Water is, ah, shaping up to be the film of the year. Guillermo del Toro’s latest brilliant film just won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at … Continue reading TIFF 2017: The Shape of Water PLUS Red Band Trailer
This year at TIFF we’re seeing the Trump era’s first real artistic blowback. I started with Darren Aronofsky’s mother! (opening across North America this Friday, September 15th), and holy cow, it … Continue reading TIFF 2017: mother!
Dragonfly Eyes, Chinese artist Xu Bing’s first foray into feature-length filmmaking, is a direct glimpse into what the future of cinema might be.
It’s the silly season for Toronto filmgoers, the cine-season, TIFFmas to many devoted local movie buffs. Today the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 edition announced its first swath of upcoming … Continue reading Happy TIFFmas! Toronto’s film fest reveals first 2017 picks
Long before the teen angst pangs of Twilight or the fever heat of True Blood, director Kathryn Bigelow had an inkling of what a southern-fried vampire romance could be. Near Dark delivered on her … Continue reading Near Dark: The Original Hillbilly Vamps
If you like thrillers, genre-bending capers, femmes fatales and shady figures wrapped up in criminal exploits where no one comes out on top, chances are you’re a film noir fan … Continue reading Panique: French Crime Classics
This summer, TIFF’s having a crime wave. French crime to be exact. They’re mounting two programmes, both bursting with criminal intent. I’ll take a look at the second bunch next … Continue reading Hardest Boiled: The Many Noirs of Jean-Pierre Melville
Man. I guess people were so depressed in the seventies they’d try just about anything. As we live through a fast-forward remix of the Watergate scandal, it’s interesting to take a … Continue reading Marriage Under a Microscope Overshadows The World Of ‘The Commune’
Anyone who watches Mr. Robot knows how hypnotic Rami Malek’s presence can be. He’s mastered an aura of complicated blankness, his glinting, buggy eyes set deep in his flatly inexpressive face. … Continue reading ‘Buster’s Mal Heart’: Rami Malek Shines in Surreal But Broken Thriller
The TIFF Kids International Film Festival is close to wrapping up, but there’s a few gems that are still worth checking out. While teens are unlikely to be moved by … Continue reading Spooky ‘Room 213’ is a Family-Friendly Ghost Story at TIFF Kids Fest
You know you’ve done it. You’re breezing through Twitter, and some outrageous post pisses you off. You retweet it with a snarky comment, probably signing off with a SMH or FFS. … Continue reading Black Code dissects the internet’s social dilemma
ta Remember the Arab Spring? That democratic fluorescence that erupted in late 2010 in Tunisia and spread with massive demonstrations to Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq? It was a giddy, … Continue reading ‘Tickling Giants’: Documentary Reveals Bassem Youssef’s Comedy Revolution
