Top 10 Reasons TIFF is better than Cannes and Sundance
This year marks my 12th time attending the Toronto International Film Festival, meaning I’ve been coming here for nearly half my life. After making the rounds on the festival circuit this year – first...
View Article“The Guest”: Dan Stevens’s charisma carries an otherwise flimsy genre film
Fresh from getting himself killed off of “Downton Abbey” so he could explore other acting opportunities, Dan Stevens plays a soldier with a penchant for killing in “The Guest.” Fueled entirely on...
View Article‘Force Majeure': Ruben Östlund finds the comedy in marital strife
When you think about tense family dramas from Sweden, you probably think Ingmar Bergman, and not “hilarious romps.” But writer-director Ruben Östlund’s new film, “Force Majeure,” which premiered at...
View Article‘Beyond The Lights': Gina Prince-Blythewood gets romance right
Prince-Blythewood understands that romance is all about the connection forged between two people, so she wisely shoots the majority of Kaz and Noni’s scenes together in two-shots. Whether it’s sitting...
View ArticleBest of Sundance NEXT 2015: Poekel’s bittersweet and quiet ‘Christmas Again’
I saw a handful of films from the Sundance NEXT section this year — “Christmas, Again,” “Cronies,” “Take Me To The River,” and “H” — a program usually reserved for more experimental, boundary-pushing...
View ArticleSundance interview: ‘H.’ directors Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia discuss...
The new film from co-directors Daniel Garcia and Rania Attieh, “H.,” which premiered in the NEXT section at Sundance and is now screening at Berlin, is an unconventional science fiction thriller — one...
View Article‘What We Do in the Shadows': a hilarious vampire mockumentary
“Vampires have had a really bad rep. We’re not these mopey old creatures who live in castles — well, most of us are, a lot of us are — but there are also those of us who like to flat together in really...
View Article‘Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem': Will she ever get her Gett?
“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” opens in a courtroom; we mostly won’t leave it for the next two hours, which span five years. Only subtle changes in costumes and demeanor give us a window into...
View Article‘’71′: A British soldier is lost in IRA territory in this gripping thriller
Yann Demange’s tense thriller, “ ’71,” set almost entirely over the course of one fateful day in 1971 Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the height of The Troubles, is both a political and personal film....
View ArticleWomen shine behind the camera at SFIFF58
One of the great pleasures of attending the San Francisco International Film Festival is the ability to binge on films by female auteurs, which are much harder to come by throughout the year. This...
View ArticleDirector Sean Baker talks finding the look for ‘Tangerine’
It’s Christmas Eve in Santa Monica, but the transgender women at the center of writer-director Sean Baker’s “Tangerine” aren’t celebrating the holiday. Nobody outright says it in the film, but it’s...
View ArticleDeafening silence: ‘Phoenix’ and ‘The Look of Silence’
Earlier this year, the Art Gallery of Ontario held an exhibit of Henryk Ross’s photos from the Lodz Ghetto. It was hidden in the corner of the museum, and most of us that made a point of seeing it were...
View Article‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’ is about so much more than sex
When you’re young, there’s a fine line between horseplay and sex. Horseplay is familiar and safe; sex is new and scary. And play fighting is the easiest way to get physically close enough to another...
View ArticleLily Tomlin vehicle ‘Grandma’ is otherwise a bust
In “Grandma,” Lily Tomlin plays misanthropic widow Elle who embarks on a whirlwind tour of the past in a single day when her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) arrives on her doorstep pregnant, broke,...
View Article‘Breathe’ explores toxic female friendship
There’s a fine line between close friendships and toxic ones, and for teenage girls, there’s perhaps an even finer one between sapphic love and best friends. Melanie Laurent’s “Breathe” joins the ranks...
View ArticleJafar Panahi’s ‘Taxi’ is an absorbing look at life as it’s lived in Tehran today
Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi” opens with an utterly absorbing nine-minute uncut take. The first image is a view through the dashboard window of a yellow car wandering the streets of Tehran. A man and then a...
View Article‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ is a sensitive coming-of-age story at Pine...
Like the Canadian film “Fire Song,” Chloë Zhao’s directorial debut “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” is also an indigenous coming-of-age story set as high school graduation nears — an especially important...
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