#TIFF23: “A DIFFICULT YEAR” REVIEW
By George Kozera
A DIFFICULT YEAR opens with a series of televised clips, spanning decades, where French government officials warn the citizens of France that they will be facing a difficult year. The audience then is thrown into a frantic “Black Friday’ sales event at a store where shoppers stampede over each other in a frenzied attempt to score a big screen TV or air fryer at affordable prices. We see Albert (Pio Marmai) get one of the last televisions, then arrive at the home of ...
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#TIFF23: DAY DAY FIVE SIGHTINGS – ETHAN HAWKE, LEE BYUNG-HUN, PARK BO-YOUNG, PARK SEO-JOON, BEN BARNES, GEMMA ARTERTON AND ALFRED ENOCH
We've reached that point of the Festival where things begin to wind down as some of the major trade publications begin to pack-up and head home. This however means more movies to see, and this perhaps is my favourite part of the Festival.
Day Five actually was quite intense. Earlier in the day we were lucky to spot right away the Cast of THE CRITIC en route to their midday Premiere. The whodunit stars Sir Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Enoch and Ben Barnes, who was a last minute ...
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#TIFF23: “THE ROYAL HOTEL” REVIEW
By Amanda Gilmore
Director Kitty Green and Actor Julia Garner, who worked together on critically-acclaimed The Assistant, reunite to deliver one of the most intense films of the year.
When Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick), who are backpacking across Australia, run out of money they take the only job available which is at a pub in the outback. Every day the two are forced to serve rowdy, sexist men who come into The Royal Hotel. Soon, Hanna becomes unsettled by the unwarranted ...
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#TIFF23: “HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDE PERSON” REVIEW
By Amanda Gilmore
Sasha (Sara Montpetit) is a teenager — who is really a 68-year-old vampire stuck in a teenage body because vamps age slowly — who has an empathy problem. This problem started at a childhood birthday party when her entire family drank and killed a clown she adored. Now in teenage form, Sasha hasn’t killed a single human. She survives on blood bags from victims of her family.
With the hopes of getting Sasha to finally kill someone, her parents send her to live with ...
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#TIFF23: “FRYBREAD FACE AND ME” REVIEW
By David Baldwin
The year is 1990. Benny (Keir Tallman) lives in the city but has just been informed by his parents that he will be spending the summer at his Grandmother’s house on Navajo Nation. She only speaks Navajo and all the customs and activities are a mystery to Benny. When his bilingual cousin Dawn (Charley Hogan) – or as she is known to the rest of the family, Frybread Face – comes to stay unexpectedly, things start tense and then slowly dissipate into a strong familial ...
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#TIFF23: “SISTERHOOD” REVIEW
By David Baldwin
Middle schoolers Amina (Léah Aubert), Djeneba (Médina Diarra) and Zineb (Salma Takaline) have been best friends since childhood, despite their difference in economic, racial and social backgrounds. At a birthday party, Zineb tells her friends that her older brother’s friend Zak (Oscar Al Hafiane) has been sexually harassing her. The girls get an instance on camera and when Amina decides to post it online without letting her friends know, it sets off a world of trouble ...
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#TIFF23: “THE CRITIC” REVIEW
The Critic
By Amanda Gilmore
Set in 1934 London, The Critic follows Jimmy Erskine (Ian McKellen) who’s a ruthless Drama Theatre Critic for the Chronicle. When the main editor of the paper dies, his son David Brooke (Mark Strong) takes over the company. Brooke isn’t a fan of Jimmy’s recurring written cruelty of theatre star Nina Land (Gemma Arterton). Thus, giving him a month's notice before he’s let go. But Jimmy will stop at nothing to save his ...
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#TIFF23: “AMERICAN FICTION” REVIEW
By David Baldwin
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a professor and published Author who cannot seem to catch a break with his new book. After a few failed attempts and bitterness over the state of writing about the African-American experience, he composes a novel using every Black cliché he can think of. He makes up a fake author with a fake backstory, and though his agent thinks it will not sell, the book is sent out to publishers. And despite Monk thinking he wrote a ...
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#TIFF23: “NEXT GOAL WINS” REVIEW
By David Baldwin
In 2001, the American Samoa soccer team set the record for the worst loss in international football history, losing 31-0. Fast forward to over a decade later where the team (still the worst in the world) is trying to make a run for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, this time with the help of disgraced coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender).Â
What follows is your standard underdog crowd pleasing story of the coach who helps the team realize their potential and the team ...
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#TIFF23: “SING SING” REVIEW
By George Kozera
SING SING opens with Colman Domingo performing a Shakesperean soliloquy directly to the camera with force and magnitude. It is a stunning achievement. We then see the actors leave to theatre to return to the notorious Sing Sing Penitentiary where we learn they are all part of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) programme whose mandate is to put on plays as a part of their rehab. After choosing a prison yard bully (Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, playing himself) on ...
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