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.
Category: Reviews
Expect a Pearl among Horror Prequels from the Follow-up to X
Pearl, the prequel to writer/director Ti West’s well-received shocker X, takes a character’s origin story—the kind usually dispensed as an afterthought in a couple of sentences of exposition or two minutes of black-and-white flashback footage—and turns it into an audacious, grandly operatic standalone experience.
TIFF 2022: Glass Onion and Triangle of Sadness eat the rich.
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.
TIFF 2022: Documenting creativity and social movements of singular figures with All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Moonage Daydream
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.
Kevin Smith brings together his Extended Cinematic Universe for Clerks III
Some twenty-eight years later, Kevin Smith has brought the characters of Randal and Dante back for a third movie. They now own the convenience store but look mostly the same. They still play hockey on the roof and still have signs up assuring you they’re open and asking to be alerted if you plan on shoplifting. Jay and Silent Bob are still hanging out in front of the video store (they run) but now they sell weed from it, with only slightly more legitimacy. The movie is, like a bag of Cheetos or a can of Red Bull or a lukewarm flauta, empty calories, unnecessary but completely comforting.
TIFF 2022: Bros and My Policeman take contrasting approaches to gay love stories
Brief reviews of films that made their debuts at the Toronto international film festival: Bros and My Policeman
See How They Run Fell Achingly Short of a Hit
A play within a film within a story within a farce, this whodunnit is a maze of silliness and murder. Set in London’s West End in the 50’s, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has just hit its 100th stage performance and a film deal is solidly in the works. It’s these actors, writers, directors and film folks that attend the post-performance party in appreciation for the milestone. Narrated in the words of the future film director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) who is most hated by all guests in attendance and who also happens to be the victim, the scene is set for a murder most foul. Soon Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case and their investigation goes sideways, upside down, and backwards with bouts of insanity, slapstick, and confusing murder mystery shenanigans. In the end, we find ourselves at the Christie residence a la Clue as all are gathered to reveal the identity of the murderer.
TIFF 2022: The cinema of dedication with The Eternal Daughter and The Good Nurse
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.
TIFF 2022: Quick Reactions from opening weekend in Toronto (Sidney, The Woman King, Butcher’s Crossing)
Quick reviews of Butcher’s Crossing, The Woman King, and Sidney.
Telluride 2022: Aftersun, Close, One Fine Morning
Three stories of loss and longing on the last days of the Telluride Film Festival: Aftersun, Close, and One Fine Morning