Serving as a love letter to Glasgow, Wild Rose shows how far one woman will go if it means becoming a star in Music City. Rose-Lynn Harlan wants (Jessie Buckley) to hit the big time as a country singer but there’s one minor problem–she lives in Scotland. This isn’t to say that pursuing her dreams will be easy because it won’t. Her own economic situation, let alone a drug-addiction past that put her in jail,…
"TIFF 2018: Wild Rose"Month: September 2018
Set at a child detention center for the large majority of the film, Icebox is a film that should really hit a nerve with audiences. With the gang violence surrounding his native Honduras, 12-year-old Oscar (Anthony Gonzalez) soon leaves for the US with the main goal of finding his uncle. This is easier said than done when the pre-teen is caught by a few U.S Border Patrol agents. After they ask Oscar a series of…
"TIFF 2018: Icebox – Timely in Current Environment"
Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s, takes us back to the middle of the 1990s with a look at life for one teenager’s summer in LA. Stevie (Sunny Suljic) lives with his older, abusive brother Ian (Lucas Hedges, appearing in 3 films at TIFF), and single mom, Dabney (Katherine Waterston). Stevie’s world opens up when he discovers a skate shop. While I realize that the film takes place during the mid-90s, the frequent use of slurs…
"TIFF 2018: Mid90s"
With a stellar performance from Emma Thompson, The Children Act tells a moving story of a judge who must decide on life or death. British High Court judge Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson) is given the sole responsibility of well, choosing life or death for a minor. The minor in question is Adam Henry (Fionn Whitehead). He’s suffering from leukemia and is denying the hospital from giving him a blood transfusion. Even though it’s the very…
"The Children Act: Emma Thompson is Remarkable"
Kursk tells a worthy story but one wonders what the film would look like if left to examine everything from the submarine to the government. It’s been just over 18 years in which the submarine fell to the bottom of the Barents Sea. This was a submarine that was over 200 yards long. The submarine in the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet is said to be unsinkable. Unlike the Titanic, most of the men serving on board…
"TIFF 2018: Kursk"
Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz tells the life story of the last surviving prosecutor of thee Nuremberg Trials. If you don’t know Ben Ferencz’s name, you really should take the time to learn about him. The Romanian native would move with his family to the United States when he was ten months old. This is because of the anti-Semitic persecution during this time. It wasn’t safe to be Jewish in Europe at…
"TIFF 2018: Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz"
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 is without a doubt the most crucial documentary to be seen heading into the midterm elections. Moore starts off the film by taking us to Election Eve 2016. This was a different time in America. Everybody had all but assumed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be elected president the next day. The Donald Trump presidential campaign had a 15% chance of winning according to the polls. Laughable, right?…
"TIFF 2018: Fahrenheit 11/9 is Crucial for Midterms"
The Front Runner offers striking commentary not only on American politics but the media’s responsibility to report on the players involved. American politics was different in the 1980s. There was no such thing as cable news. People weren’t walking with a computer in their pocket, let alone their palms. Reporters didn’t have the ability to be published instantaneously. While some aspects such as the traveling beat are the same, it’s how they are able to…
"TIFF 2018: The Front Runner"
The Grizzlies takes us to the Arctic where a teacher new to the area must come up with ways to inspire his students if it means keeping them alive. We’re taken back in time to 2004 when the small town of Kugluktuk, Nunavut had one of the highest teen suicide rates around the globe. When Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer) takes on a job teaching history at the Kugluktuk High School, he’s in for a whole new world. A…
"TIFF 2018: The Grizzlies – An Inspiring Sports Drama"
Taking place during Detroit in the 1980s, White Boy Rick tells the story it wants but only to an extent. The biggest thing that I felt could have been explored better were the unjust treatments towards Rick Wershe, Jr. (Richie Merritt). This is someone who became the youngest person to ever serve as an FBI informant. The fact that the FBI turned their backs on a deal is wildly upsetting. It isn’t unfair to say…
"TIFF 2018: White Boy Rick"