The list of generally accepted labels may have expanded in the last thirty years, to comfortably include gay and trans, but the need to label hasn’t become obsolete yet. With “The New Girlfriend,” Ozon reminds us that defying labels isn’t something we outgrow, but often a natural part of a person’s identity, of any age.
Film Festivals
Best of TIFF14: Lone Scherfig’s The Riot Club explores the darker side of privilege
The lads of The Riot Club – an exclusive club for 10 of Oxford University’s richest and brightest young men – make “Gossip Girl”’s Chuck Bass, at his rapiest, look like a prince. And this is a guy who traded the love of his life for a hotel before sleeping with his barely consenting step-sister. Like Chuck Bass, these boys were raised in the lap of luxury and privilege. As they say in Britain, they’re posh, which comes with special customs, accents, and terminology.
Best of TIFF 2014: Dome Karukoski’s The Grump is a hilarious delight
Writer-Director Dome Karukoski’s new comedy, The Grump, about an aging parent feeling out of step with the modern age, is sweet, funny, and emotional.
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 film festival circuit this year – first at Sundance, then at Cannes – I’m still a firm believer that TIFF is the best film festival of them […]
An intriguing stranger is bad news in the entirely original Borgman
A hobo and a charmer, Camiel Borgman (a restrained and compelling Jan Bijvoet) may seem sympathetic at the start of writer-director Alex van Warmerdam’s bizarre but compelling Borgman, but then again, Ruth Gordon seemed too lovable to be in the business of buying babies for the devil. Although Borgman can accurately be described as part psychological […]
Review: We Are The Best! is a winning and funny film about gutsy, punk-loving teenage girls
We Are The Best!, the uproariously funny and buoyant new film from Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson, follows a trio of teenage girls who form a punk rock band.