Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre revolves around a female director who is juggling both director problems and regular life problems, though the film never really hits its stride.
Toronto International Film Festival
Coming-of-age in Ontario is messy in Sleeping Giant
Andrew Cividino’s assured debut Sleeping Giant — the opening film at this year’s Cannes’ Critics Week — captures the beauty of cottage country Ontario without ever quite transcending the often stilted performances of its non-actors. The film follows Adam (Jackson Martin) who is up north with his family for the summer where he meets two trouble-making […]
TIFF 15: Minotauro has interesting ideas but overstays its welcome
Nicolás Pereda’s Minotauro sees its North American debut in the Wavelengths section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This nigh impenetrable avant-garde picture is a narcoleptic journey into the interior lives of three young adults (played by Pereda regulars Gabino Rodríguez, Luisa Pardo and Francisco Barreiro) as they sleep, dream, read, and interact with occasional […]
Review: Sicario is a good but not great thriller
There’s a lot of skill and talent on display in Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, which makes it a thoroughly enjoyable if entirely forgettable heart-pounding studio thriller. Emily Blunt stars as Kate, an FBI agent working in a kidnap recovery team who finds herself recruited for a special unit to track down and kill drug lords using unconventional […]
Love 3D is mediocre event cinema
When Love 3D premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it was a major event. Everyone was there, from Benicio del Toro to Joachim Trier. I was in line behind Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker discussing whether or not The Assassin is boring. It’s an event film though not a very good one, and its […]
TIFF15 Review: Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women
In a radical departure (just kidding) from his usual subject matter, writer-director Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women tackles marital infidelity. Pierre (Stanislaus Merhar) and Manon (Clothilde, Princess of Venice and Piedmont) are a reasonably happy married couple who produce documentary films together when Pierre’s eye starts to wander to the young archivist Elizabeth […]