The notion of Jake Gyllenhaal: Serious Actor might have seemed like a joke when he was making The Day After Tomorrow, but the range and depth of the performances he’s given in the last couple of years, especially, has made this a statement of fact. Whether as the trash-talking but warm-hearted cop in End of Watch, the […]
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Review: Teller and Simmons soar in compelling but disappointing Whiplash
Whiplash is not about jazz. It’s about blind ambition. Instead of telling the story of a genius finally hitting his mark, it’s the story of a boy who aspires to genius and the hard work he does to try to get there. It’s a celebration of the blood, sweat, and tears that go into perfecting one’s […]
Director Damien Chazelle talks jazz and Whiplash
Director Damien Chazelle discusses Whiplash, jazz drumming, the bubble of big band jazz, and his approach to depicting jazz on screen.
Best of TIFF14: ‘The New Girlfriend’ is François Ozon in top form – whimsical, funny, thoughtful about gender and sexuality
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.
The Guest: Dan Stevens’ charisma carries a 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 Stevens’s charisma and its synthpop score, “The Guest” starts out intriguing until you realise the film and its protagonist are utterly vacant.
Gone Girl: a feminist book gets watered down to a thrilling piece of pulp fiction
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more faithful screen adaptation of a novel than David Fincher’s film Gone Girl, which was also written by the book’s author, Gillian Flynn. From its pitch-perfect casting – Rosamund Pike as the icily sophisticated and gorgeous Amy, and Ben Affleck as her husband Nick, a man with frat boy […]