No stranger to terrorism, filmmaker Paul Greengrass turns to Norway and tells the story of the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history in 22 July. For citizens in Norway, July 22, 2011 started out like any ordinary day. Nothing out of the usual was happening but things soon got bloody. When a far-right extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo, some 77 people would lose their lives. If this wasn’t enough, there would be…
"22 July: Is it Too Soon?"Tag: Toronto International Film Festival
Being billed as Robert Redford’s final acting performance, the actor delivers quite possibly for the last time in The Old Man & The Gun. We’re taken back in time to 1981 when Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford) was a leader of the Over-the-Hill Gang, joined by Teddy (Danny Glover) and Waller (Tom Waits). What’s so perplexing about it was that this old man couldn’t have been nicer to the bank tellers. In the words of many…
"The Old Man & The Gun – Robert Redford’s Last Film?"
Bradley Cooper’s feature directorial debut, A Star Is Born, knocks it out of the park thanks to a stellar performance from Lady Gaga. Following a performance, country rock star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) hits up whatever establishment he can find for alcohol. It just so happens that he lands up one bar’s drag performance night. A former employee, Ally (Lady Gaga) just happens to grace the stage that night. When Jackson sees her perform, he…
"A Star Is Born: A Home Run"
The Hate U Give offers an art-imitates-life narrative of a situation that’s all too familiar in minority neighborhoods frequented by white police officers. As the film starts, former gangster Maverick Carter (Russell Hornsby) is giving his kids the all-important talk about what to do when they see police officers. His kids are young for the talk but this has grave importance in their Garden Heights community. We soon cut to a few years later where…
"The Hate U Give: A Deeper Message At Core"
A well-made feature film debut led by great performances, Monsters and Men splits the narrative into three while telling an all-too familiar story. Writer-director Reinaldo Marcus Green takes us to Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood just north of Crown Heights. When a father plays witness to–what else–the shooting of an unarmed black man, all hell starts to break loose in their community. This is how Green chooses to start the film and with this, we’re off and running. The…
"Monsters and Men: A Well-Made Debut"
Telling the story of French literary icon Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Colette is a film that is appropriate for this new era following the start of the Times Up movement. The film starts as Henri Gauthier-Villars, best known as Willy (Dominic West), gets engaged to Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley). Their marriage is a real depiction of the sexism, much less the feminism, of their time. Willy is an author, but when money troubles become too real, he revisits an old…
"Colette"
Set during the Ethiopian civil war, Fig Tree tells the coming-of-age story of a Jewish teenager looking to save her non-Jewish boyfriend. Writer-director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian makes her award-winning feature debut by taking viewers back to 1989. Set in Addis Ababa, Ethopia, the film focuses on Mina. When the Jewish teenager learns of her family’s plan to make aliyah in Israel, she fears the worst for her boyfriend, Eli. This is because Eli is likely to be…
"TIFF 2018: Fig Tree (Etz Teena)"
Despite the best efforts from a star-studded cast, Life Itself is a tonally uneven mess in spite of all the hype going into the film. Given the positive reception of the This is Us on NBC, it’s surprising to believe that Dan Fogelman could follow it up with such a dud. This film is all over the place. Seriously. The first hour of the film is New York-centered because if you don’t live in New…
"Life Itself: A Tonally Uneven Mess"
Grander than it’s sci-fi nature, Clara seeks to ask the question of not so much is there another Earth-like planet but are we alone in the universe. Astronomer Isaac Bruno (Patrick J. Adams) is so obsessed with searching for an Earth-like planet that it costs him his job. With no job and needing a purpose in his life, Bruno puts out a search for research assistant. This is because of the TESS launching into space. …
"TIFF 2018: Clara"
In this era of The Americans and so many other crazy spy stories being told, Red Joan ultimately falls well short of its potential. While I’m not going to make this a compare/contrast with the popular FX series, it’s extremely disappointing to say that this film disappointed. Considering that the film is headlined by Dame Judi Dench, the fact that it disappoints is frustrating. To most people, Joan Stanley (Dame Judi Dench) is just a…
"TIFF 2018: Red Joan falls short"