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 […]
Toronto International Film Festival
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 […]
TIFF15 Review: The Assassin is gorgeous but tiresome
Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin (Best Director Winner, Cannes 2015) was certainly the most beautiful film to screen at Cannes this year, though that’s not the same as saying it was the best shot. The production design is impeccable, and the colours and compositions are gorgeous, but to what end? The film is about waiting for the […]