TIFF12 REVIEW: Aftershock [2012]
“I’ll buy you a new hand” When opening credits begin with ‘an Eli Roth film’, you should know what to expect. While not quite his creatively—it’s directed by Nicolás López—the torture porn maestro does...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Silver Linings Playbook [2012]
“Is that song really playing?” I know it’s misguided, but my interest in David O. Russell films kind of ended after The Fighter. This was a guy who used to pave his own path with challenging material...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: The Company You Keep [2012]
“We made mistakes, but we were right” In Robert Redford and Lem Dobbs‘ adaptation of Neil Gordon‘s novel The Company You Keep, the personal futures fought for by the militant Weather Underground during...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Passion [2012]
“Why don’t we kiss and make up?” Five years after his last foray behind the camera, writer/director Brian De Palma looks to take some of the alternative devices used to film Redacted and combine them...
View ArticleINTERVIEW: Annemarie Jacir, writer/director of When I Saw You
Originally posted on The Film Stage While at the Toronto International Film Festival I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with Palestinian-born writer/director Annemarie Jacir about her...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: The Impossible [2012]
“Maybe tomorrow” Making a film about a tragedy like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami should never be taken lightly. With over 230,000 people dead in fourteen countries, the entire world was affected by...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Ahí va el diablo [Here Comes the Devil] [2012]
“Frightened eyes never lie” If ever a horror film begged for multiple viewings, Ahí va el diablo [Here Comes the Devil] makes a good case. In fact, until a little over halfway through I was completely...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Cloud Atlas [2012]
“Our lives are not our own” In grand fashion comes an epic about freedom and the wrongs of humanity forever marring how we’re seen through the annals of time. Every misstep is repeated; every stand...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Argo [2012]
“The United States government has just sanctioned your science fiction movie” In 1979, tensions between Iran and the United States reached a boil after Ayatollah Khomeini called for a return of his...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: Room 237 [2012]
“Author intent is only part story in all forms of art” What happens to a film—or any work of art for that matter—when its artist has unleashed it to the world? Does it only exist to be what its creator...
View ArticleTIFF12 REVIEW: To the Wonder [2012]
“In a dream you can’t make mistakes” For any who thought Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life was a divisive piece of cinema, you haven’t seen anything yet. Continuing to strip the very medium of film...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Can a Song Save Your Life? [2014]
“Yeah. I just phased out my cassettes.” To answer the title’s question—Can a Song Save Your Life?—writer/director John Carney says, “Yes.” A song can save someone from jumping off a subway platform and...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Visitors [2014]
I entered the Elgin Theatre excited at the prospect of this once in a lifetime opportunity. I was about to sit down and watch the world premiere of renowned experimental film director Godfrey Reggio’s...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: R100 [2013]
“Is that an earthquake?” What do you get when you cross one of Japan’s most influential comedians, a premise similar to The Game but with a zany wild streak of subversive humor, and a whole lot of...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Dom Hemingway [2013]
“A peasant at heart—with good hair and a strong liver” After finding a ton of work on television recently, it’s good to see writer/director Richard Shepard back in theaters with Dom Hemingway. I’m a...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Joe [??]
“Tell me something. You like funny faces?” Welcome back David Gordon Green. While it’s easy for me to say such a statement because I know his pedigree on paper, truth be told I’ve only ever seen one...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Labor Day [2013]
“I understood who my real family was: her.” If anyone questioned whether or not Jason Reitman was truly a great director or merely someone with excellent luck at choosing projects—I remember thinking...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Bad Words [2014]
“I threw a tantrum just to get attention” Perhaps Jason Bateman is tired of playing the likeable voice of reason amongst more idiotic counterparts that his iconic turn as Michael Bluth on “Arrested...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: Soullam ila Dimashq [Ladder to Damascus] [??]
“I love you with nothing at all” A non-violent, secular movement began in Syria in early 2011 led by young protestors calling for democratic freedoms and the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s Ba’ath...
View ArticleTIFF13 REVIEW: iNumber Number [??]
“Hurry. This place got more crooks than government.” The South African director behind cinematic adaptations of John van de Ruit’s comedic, teen-lit Spud series about life at boarding school starring...
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