The marquee event of this year’s festival delivers bone-dry deadpan humor wrapped in the pathos of fighting to achieve a dream under difficult circumstances.
Category: Reviews
Local Sightings 2021: Rehab Cabin
A pair of best friends decide to take their favorite child-star actress to a cabin in the woods to help her dry out. As you can imagine, the aging actress isn’t into it, and chaos ensues.
TIFF 2021: The Forgiven
Clearly, a big mood for mid-pandemic entertainment is the foibles of the insufferably privileged on holiday. Here, it will prove to be ghastly weekend for Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain in Morocco where a drive to a housewarming takes a tragic turn.
In Cry Macho, a grizzled Clint Eastwood goes on a meandering journey to abduct a child from Mexico
When the biggest point of praise is the acting and comedic timing of a rooster, your film might be in trouble.
TIFF 2021: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Presented as part of TIFF’s tribute to Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a surprisingly loving portrait that tells her often outlandish story without making a complete joke of her sincere faith and boundless love.
Giddy Stratospheres is a dark stumble through the follies of youth
We’re dragged through the streets of London as Lara (Laura Jean Marsh) and Daniel (Jamal Franklin) are rushing to make it from one debaucherous romp to the next. An all too familiar scene for those of us barely tickling 21 in the early aughts and perhaps something we’d mostly like to forget. The story turns tragically dark and we’re left to deal with the fallout of a lifestyle that’s never meant to last.
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.
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.