A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
The follies of the wealthy are on full display in two comedy premieres in Toronto. Rian Johnson returns to the Knives Out saga with Glass Onion’s debut and Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness made landfall on North American shores during TIFF 2022.
Oh boy. David O’ Russell’s zany star-packed Amsterdam is a movie with so much going for it that nevertheless makes itself incredibly challenging to recommend. I sympathize with those who will find it simultaneously too much and not enough, or recoil from the ambitious sentimentality that animates its many excesses. I also groaned as it’s machinery sputtered and strained to draw meaning from madness. Yet! From its chaotic energy — a hallmark of a director who’s a monster on set yet consistently attracts the industry’s highest levels of talent — spring no shortage of genuinely laugh-out-loud bits and gonzo performances. Like most of his work, it’s a big-hearted mess that many will hate, but some might be able to forgive in spite of itself.
We were thrilled to see that the Orcas Island Film Festival was planning a big return for 2022 after a slightly-subdued 2021. Since then, they’ve released their full lineup — a jaw-dropping collection of some of the top prize-winners and most buzzworthy titles from many of the year’s most prestigious festivals. Along with potentially Oscar-bound international films and heart-stirring documentaries, the re-expanded program will pose scheduling conundrums for attendees trying to decide how to best plan a weekend of seeing some of the year’s best films well in advance of their neighbors. For lovers of first-look films, it’s among the best kinds of problem to have!
Nothing wrong with a little kindness. Melancholy humor of a severed friendship from Martin McDonagh, an itinerant donkey in EO, and a true story given the Farrelly treatment.
The follies of the wealthy are on full display in two comedy premieres in Toronto. Rian Johnson returns to the Knives Out saga with Glass Onion’s debut and Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness made landfall on North American shores during TIFF 2022.
Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed links the life and art of photographer Nan Goldin to her present-day activism surrounding the opioid epidemic; Brett Morgen contemplates David Bowie as philosopher king in IMAX proportions with Moonage Daydream.
Brief reviews of films that made their debuts at the Toronto international film festival: Bros and My Policeman
Brief reviews of three films that made their debuts at the Toronto international film festival: TIFF 2022: More Quick Dispatches from Toronto The Eternal Daughter, My Policeman, and The Good Nurse.
Quick reviews of Butcher’s Crossing, The Woman King, and Sidney.
Three stories of loss and longing on the last days of the Telluride Film Festival: Aftersun, Close, and One Fine Morning
