#TIFF24: “THE ASSESSMENT” REVIEW
By Nicholas Porteous
Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and her partner Aaryan (Himesh Patel) want a child. The only problem—they’re living in a dystopian future, the planet is a wreck, and the government has decided any would-be parents must be assessed up front. The criteria for a pass into parenthood is unclear, and the test is designed that way, but the decision is made by assessors, who spend several days observing, testing and judging their subjects. Enter Virginia (Alicia Vikander), a ...
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#TIFF24: DAY FIVE HIGHLIGHTS – ADAM DRIVER, FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, JENNIFER COOLIDGE, KARLA SOFIA GASCON, SELENA GOMEZ, JUANES, FERNANDA TORRES, HARRY MELLING AND MORE
Hard to believe we are already at the halfway point of TIFF '24! Just checking-in quickly on some more sightings! Yet another epic day with huge stars!
•Francis Ford Coppola, Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Grace Vanderwaal and Giancarlo Esposito for MEGALOPOLIS•Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascon for EMILIA PEREZ•Jennifer Coolidge and Ed Harris for RIFF RAFF•Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook for HARBIN•Fernanda Torres for I'M STILL HERE•Juanes for PIMPINERO•Caleb Landry-Jones and ...
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#TIFF24: “THE BRUTALIST” REVIEW
By Nicholas Porteous
Brady Corbet’s ginormous, 215-minute period epic The Brutalist tells the story of Laszlo Toth--played Adrien Brody, who is phenomenal in the role. Toth was a legendary architect who escaped the holocaust and literally cemented his legacy with a series of glorious buildings. One might imagine the hyperextended 3.5+ hour runtime would have to begin at the very beginning--Toth in the womb or thereabouts, but Corbet opens instead with his arrival in New York. A rebirth, ...
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#TIFF24: “QUEER” REVIEW
By Amanda Gilmore
Director Luca Guadagnino returns to TIFF with this beautiful tale of how desire and love can become addictive and lead to obsession in this adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel of the same name.
Burroughs’ work is known to be unadaptable. So rather than do a straight adaptation, Queer is a film about the man himself. We’re first introduced to Lee (Daniel Craig) in Mexico while searching for men to take to bed. But his repeated ...
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#TIFF24: “THE SHROUDS” REVIEW
By Nicholas Porteous
Crimes of the Future, David Cronenberg's daring and mysterious last work, established “surgery is the new sex”. His follow-up, The Shrouds, posits something along the lines of "death is the new exposition dump". Vincent Cassel runs a cutting edge graveyard complete with 3D live feeds of all the lucky corpses. With that trademark grey coif, Cassel appears to be doubling for Cronenberg himself. They’re virtually indistinguishable when he’s ...
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#TIFF24: “RUMOURS” REVIEW
By Nicholas Porteous
At their annual summit, the G7 world leaders are tasked with writing a provisional statement in a cozy gazebo in the middle of the woods, but everything goes haywire and they become lost in a forest full of zombies and a giant pulsating brain. Y'know, standard TIFF fare. This is Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson's Rumours--a surprisingly vague title for such a specifically wacky film.
"This isn't Summer Camp" notes the British Prime Minister (Nikki Amuka ...
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#TIFF24: “DISCLAIMER” REVIEW
By Amanda Gilmore
In his first venture into television, beloved film Writer-Director Alfonso Cuarón tells an intelligent, savage tale of a woman’s past coming back to bite her.
Based on the Novel by Renée Knight, Disclaimer tells the story of celebrated journalist Catherine (Cate Blanchett) who begins reading a novel that was mysteriously delivered to her. To her horror, the novel is about her and the awful secret she’s kept for two decades.
TIFF is screening the ...
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#TIFF24: “CONCLAVE” REVIEW
By Nicholas Porteous
The pope is dead and Ralph Fiennes must find his successor amongst an ever-shrinking field of candidates in Edward Berger's Conclave, based on the historical fiction novel by Robert Harris. This is Berger's followup to his Oscar-winning All Quiet On the Western Front, and it's not hard to see the cinematic parallels.
Conclave is brimming with painterly compositions, a sweeping dramatic scope about as large as Saint Peter's Basilica, and a great Ensemble Cast ...
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#TIFF24: “HERETIC” REVIEW
By Amanda Gilmore
Hugh Grant gives a formidable performance in this cat-and-mouse chamber-thriller about our beliefs in religion.
Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are part of the Latter-Day Saints. They’re currently knocking on the doors of people who’ve noted an interest to learn more about their church. That’s when they are introduced to Mr. Reed (Grant). He invites the two in with a promise that his wife is cooking the ...
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#TIFF24: DAY FOUR SIGHTINGS – ANGELINA JOLIE, CATE BLANCHETT, MIKEY MADISON, ALICIA VIKANDER, SYDNEY SWEENEY, ANA DE ARMAS, JUDE LAW, NICHOLAS HOULT, PAUL RUDD AND MORE
Cannot believe how great our day went and this will go down as the day we finally met the great Cate! So many new core memories created!
It was an explosive Day Four of TIFF '24 including:
•Angelina Jolie at Premiere of WITHOUT BLOOD after being honoured at TIFF Tribute Awards Gala•Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas at TIFF '24 for EDEN.•Sam Worthington at TIFF '24 for RELAY•Jude Law, Tye Sheridan, Teresa Palmer, Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett at TIFF '24 for THE ORDER•Malala at ...
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