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 […]
Toronto International Film Festival
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 […]
‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’: Andersson’s dark humour and humanist touch are a rare delight
Roy Andersson’s final installment in his trilogy about being a human being (You, The Living and Songs from the Second Floor), A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, begins with a comedic bang of twisted humour: a series of three vignettes that detail “meetings with death.” In my favourite one, we find two […]
‘Top Five’: Chris Rock aims higher than he hits in this charming but crass comedy
“It’s always good to make sure you’re never too good at one thing at a time,” mumbles Andre Allen (Chris Rock) to Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), the New York Times reporter profiling him, upon learning that she dabbles in poetry, photography, and music. And yet, it could just as easily be applied to “Top Five,” […]
‘Beyond The Lights’: Gina Prince-Bythewood gets romance right
Prince-Blythewood understands that romance is all about the connection forged between two people, so she wisely shoots the majority of Kaz and Noni’s scenes together in two-shots. Whether it’s sitting on the couch of her home, listening to her hit as she tries to turn it off in embarrassment, or pouring over her box of lyrics on the floor of her bedroom, or sitting in his car at the airport eating fried chicken. These are two people sharing time and space, and we’re always watching what’s unfolding between them, not just how things are for each of them separately.