Festivals Reviews

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.

Reviews

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.

Reviews

The Evening Hour is a heartbreaking portrait of addiction and desperation

Set with the gorgeous backdrop of Appalachia all around them, The Evening Hour is an indictment on how little opportunity and a lot of desperation can push a man to thing he never would have considered otherwise. Cole (Philip Ettinger, First Reformed) was born and raised in a small town destroyed by corporate greed and coal mining and living day to day the best he can. An orderly at the local senior home, he also makes ends meet by selling opiates around town. We’re immediately drawn to him for his good deeds around town: bringing groceries to elderly locals, giving cash to his grandmother, but he’s still part of a system that creates and keeps folks addicted.

Reviews

Yakuza Princess, a gritty, bloody hallucination set in São Paulo

in her lap along with a stranger (Jonathan Rhys Myers) who can’t remember who he is, much less why he’s drawn to her. Running on instinct and a small bit of info from friends of her grandfather, she travels to a hidden compound where things begin to reveal, and unravel, themselves. She discovers her destiny and for some reason knows the stranger fits into it.

Reviews

Candyman can scare the bejesus out of you, if you want it to

Set in the fast-gentrifying Chicago arts scene, this updated-for-2021 slasher/thriller wants you to know that it’s politics are righteous. If it provides a few thrillers, even better. Overall, I liked it, even if there were often times when the politics felt heavy-handed and took away from the scarier aspects of the thriller, even when I agree passionately with the points the filmmaker is making. Still, there was plenty of horror that came through clearly.