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.
Author: Josh
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.
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 …
Telluride 2021: Cow, Petite Maman, the Card Counter
In this dispatch from the Telluride Film Festival, Andrea Arnold on a farm, Celiné Sciamma in the woods, and Paul Schrader at the poker table.
Telluride 2021: Spencer, C’mon C’mon, the Power of the Dog
A dispatch from Saturday at Telluride featuring films from three master directors, each of whose primary action is catalyzed by a challenging marriage.
Telluride 2021: Bergman Island, the Hand of God, the French Dispatch
My second day at Telluride featured three very different takes from distinctly different directors on the creative process.
Telluride 2021: Encounter, Cyrano, the Rescue
The Telluride film festival returned yesterday, and aside from uploading proof of vaccination, providing a recent negative Covid-19 test result, and wearing masks inside, the biggest difference from recent years was that it started a day early (yay, more film!) and was marked by a series of drizzles and downpours. Every store in town was out of umbrellas and covered outdoor seating was at a premium.
Telluride is back: the SHOW goes on in 2021
After taking a year off for the pandemic, the Telluride film festival is back, in-person (during a pandemic) for 2021. Attendees are …