Jenn and Morgen and diving into this year’s hybrid festival, which is showing films online via Eventive as well as in person at the Northwest Film Forum.
Year: 2021
Broken Diamonds, an Unapologetic Look at Schizophrenia and the Love of Family
Set to leave for Paris, Scott (Ben Platt, Politician and Pitch Perfect) can’t wait for the rest of his life to begin. A budding novelist stuck in his home town slinging drinks as a waiter, this literal ticket out of town is the catalyst he needs. Then he gets a call, his dad has died and the fall out isn’t just having to take care of the family estate. His sister Cindy (Lola Kirke, Gone Girl) has schizophrenia and Scott is the last relative that has any ability to care for her. Does he take the trip of a lifetime, live in Paris and work on his dream or stay back to make sure his sister is ok. This struggle throws his life into chaos in a way he was never prepared for.
TIFF 2021: The Worst Person in the World, Arthur Rambo
Brief reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival of new films about young Europeans navigating identity. Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World and Laurent Cantet’s, Arthur Rambo.
TIFF 2021: Dune
You might say Dennis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel plays like ponderous messianic nonsense and write an obituary for blockbusters when you stream this on HBOmax, but you haven’t really lived until you’ve watched Timothée Chalamet projected 100 ft tall, popping his head out of a sand dune like a floppy-haired prairie dog. Sure, Dune has it’s premiere-premiere in Venice last week (and seems to have screened for select critics elsewhere), but they granted Toronto the honors of hosting the film’s international IMAX premiere.
TIFF 2021: The Humans
Is there anything more unpleasant than being stuck with another squabbling family’s seething Thanksgiving drama? The Humans, Stephen Karam’s film adaptation of his Tony Award-winning answers: Being stuck with it in a cramped old Chinatown apartment with no furniture, a bunch of secrets, thin walls and shoddy wiring!
TIFF 2021: Last Night in Soho
The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off this weekend in hybrid form. Among the splashier in-person screenings was the long-awaited premiere of Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho.
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie is a heap of joy in this dreary lingering pandemic
Jamie New has never felt ordinary, and fitting in with the rest of the kids wasn’t a priority but it wasn’t easy to go to school every day feeling like an outsider. Dreaming of becoming a performer, a star, is a desire he’s always known and can’t seem to live without and he’s just waiting to get out of high school to burst onto the drag scene. Based on the very real story of a kid wanting to be more than he is but finding resistance at every turn, this is the third in a line of productions based on his life starting with a television show, evolving into a broadway play and (maybe) finishing with this movie. The story is so universal every iteration is a success, including the film, so why keep telling it? It’s uplifting, we all want to feel like we belong and we’ve found a place, a thing and avocation that calls to us… helps us to feel comfortable in our own skin. This one hits the spot.
Seattle-set Malignant sees director James Wan letting loose with a movie defined by a completely outrageous finale
It made me feel like my head was going to explode while also putting my mind at ease once it settled into what it really wanted to be. It is full speed ahead and Wan is the maniac in the driver’s seat taking us off the cliff.
Nature is healing … Orcas Island Film Festival Returns for 2021
Like most other film festivals, the much-beloved Orcas Island Film Festival took 2020 off for the pandemic. It’s usual fall dates coincided …
Small Engine Repair is an incisive portrait of masculinity in crisis that takes a play to the big screen
An incredible calling card of a feature debut, Small Engine Repair is a remarkably well-written and acted character study of three deeply flawed men trying to reconnect with each other.