Tag: tiff
Short Film: Seth Smith's existential-animation DUST BATH is on Vimeo
This is public service announcement that Canadian auteur of the surreal and strange, Seth Smith (The Crescent, Tin Can), made a 2 minute animated short about poultry and death and the circle of life, called Dust Bath, which is now...
Friday One Sheet: SUNDOWN
We posted the superb trailer earlier this week, and now this excellent poster for Michel Franco's Sundown. I have said, time and time again, that I am a sucker for orange and pink posters, and this is no exception. I...
Toronto 2021 Review: SALOUM, A Spirited Tale of Revenge on the Senegal Delta
The Saloum Delta in Senegal is a land of cannibal myths and cursed kings. Nowhere is this more true than in Congolese director Jean Luc Herbulot's supernatural skinwalker of a film that brings West African mythology to the criminal getaway...
Friday One Sheet: SALOUM
Forget the old Godardian nugget that all you need is a Girl and a Gun. How about just a big ass gun? The poster for Senegalese supernatural revenge thriller, Saloum, goes for that Sergio Leone western vibe, with a modern,...
Toronto 2021 Short Film, Short Review: DUST BATH
I am cognizant of the fact that it might take you longer to read this review than to watch the one hundred and twenty seconds of this animated short involving chickens searching for scratch, and philosophizing on the circle of...
Friday One Sheet: ENCOUNTER
Design house B O N D's key art for Encounter (currently getting buzz on the festival circuit, before heading to cinemas and Amazon Prime in December), continues a trend I highlighted here, about this relatively recent poster trope: The Vortex....
Trailer for Pablo Larraín's SPENCER
After the stylish and well-received Jackie, Chilean wunderkind director Pablo Larraín tackles the tone and character of another iconic political and deified figure, Princess Diana, in a "what might have happened during those few fateful days" in 1997. Casting a...
Friday One Sheet: THE MIDDLE MAN
I remain committed to showcasing key art that makes good use of textured wallpaper. In this case, the poster is for a Canadian/Norwegian production from deadpan director Bent Hamer. Hamer's films are difficult to describe, oddball dramas, subtle comedies, ultra-niche...
Teaser: NOMADLAND's Quiet, Beautiful Pitch
Searchlight Pictures just dropped a short, single-shot teaser trailer for Chloe Zhao's (The Rider) new feature, Nomadland. And it is beautiful, measured, and melancholic, with Frances McDormand at her understated best. Adapting Jessica Bruder's journalism-novel of the same name, the...
Toronto 2019 Interview: SYNCHRONIC Directors Moorhead & Benson's Favorite Cinematic Representations of Altered States
Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson have wowed audiences with their mind-bending (and genre-bending) films Resolution, Spring, and The Endless. All of these films share the similarity of slyly tackling complex philosophical and/or metaphysical subject matter in an entertaining package. The...
Toronto 2019 Review: DISCO Doubts Your Commitment To Sparkle Motion
Disco is a juxtaposition of cults. One is the intense dance competition circuit. Here, girls in skimpy, sparkling outfits, a deluge of rhinestones and sequins, with face paint to match, perform intensely choreographed contortions to thumping electronica as an expression of...
Toronto 2019 Review: THE PLATFORM Is a Dystopian Feast of Social Inequality
A man wakes up in a spartan concrete room, with a copy of Don Quixote, and a composed, elderly roommate. The number 48 is stencilled on the wall, and there is an open elevator shaft that divides the space. The...
Toronto 2019 Preview: World Premiere Awards Hopefuls
The massive feast of cinematic goodness that is the Toronto International Film Festival is all set to kick off on Thursday. We will be taking a quick tour of the lineup over the next few days to get your appetite...
Friday One Sheet: A HIDDEN LIFE
You are always guaranteed a great poster for the films of Terrence Malick. A Hidden Life premiered at Cannes in May, but here is a teaser poster for its Toronto International Film Festival screening. Set in World War II, and...
THE PAINTED BIRD Trailer: Controversial, Atrocities-Ridden Holocaust Novel Adaptation Heads to Venice
An adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's controversial novel is set for Venice and Toronto.
Friday One Sheet: JOJO RABBIT And The Handbill Aesthetic
A mixture of techniques in play make for an interesting, photo-free, text heavy poster for Taika Waititi's last film, Jojo Rabbit. The large splashes of text all over the key art looks painted with a wide brush. It being a...
HIGH LIFE Trailer: Claire Denis and Robert Pattinson Get Space Madness
In Claire Denis' High Life, a group of criminals accept a mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. Things go from complicated to worse to hallucinogenic when a storm of cosmic rays hit their ship....
Toronto 2018 Wrap: All Our Reviews & Coverage
Don't touch the cube! Things are long done at TIFF but we wanted to round up all our reviews and coverage in one place for easy access. We hope you enjoyed the fest, whether on the streets of Toronto, or...
Toronto 2018 Review: KINGSWAY, A Well-acted, If Slight, Dramedy
As a Vancouverite, my interest in seeing Bruce Sweeney's Kingsway stemmed almost entirely from the fact that it is shot and set in my city. Vancouver is, in fact, the third-largest centre for film and television production in North America,...
Toronto 2018 Review: SUMMER SURVIVORS, A Sensitive Look at Mental Health
Upon reading a plot description of Summer Survivors -- the debut feature by Lithuanian filmmaker Marija Kavtaradze -- one may imagine a quirky indie comedy with touches of the absurd. While the film does have its share of lighthearted, funny...
