Tag: torontofilmfestival

FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES: Watch The Gorgeous First Trailer For South African Western

We've been keeping a close eye on South African western Five Fingers For Marseilles for quite some time now. We posted two sets of still images from the production, noting at the time that this was going to be a...

Toronto 2017: First Wave Led By Women, the Sporting Life, and Favourite Filmmakers

The annual cavalcade of cinematic joy, otherwise known as the Toronto International Film Festival (or simply "Toronto 2017," in our headline parlance) has released its first wave of programming. The gala titles (14) and special presentations (33) lead the way....

Toronto 2015 Review: BEASTS OF NO NATION Spills Blood On A Large Canvas

A big screen movie made by streaming media behemoth Netflix, for click and view streaming, Cary Fukunaga's beautifully brutal war story, Beasts of No Nation feels too large and too difficult a watch to warrant a casual click on a...

Toronto 2015 Review: ANOMALISA Considers The Human Condition With No Strings Attached

When the philosopher says, "Hell is other people," he perhaps means that in trying to figure ourselves out, we are beholden to our reflections and interactions with other people. Or maybe he is talking about the modern customer service experience. In...

Bang! Bang! BLACK Takes Toronto 2015's Discovery Award

Today is the last day of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and the awards have been announced. One in particular has put a giant grin on this writer's face. Black -- the Belgium shoot-'em-up that sandwiches right in between...

Toronto 2015 Review: TALVAR (GUILTY), An Indictment Of Indian Justice

In 2008, Aarushi Talwar, 14, the daughter of middle class parents, was found dead in her Mumbai home with her throat slashed. Suspicion quickly fell upon the family's servant, a Nepali migrant named Hemraj, but when he was found dead...

Toronto 2015 Review: THE MARTIAN, A Thrilling, Entertaining Space Flick

The Martian concept is a delight, stranding an astronaut millions of kilometers from home, where he has to "science the shit" out of the situation in order to find a way back. Implicit in the concept, however, is that...

Toronto 2015 Interview: Robert Eggers And Anya Taylor-Joy Talk THE WITCH And Puritan Excess

At any moment in human history, no matter how civilized we may think we are, dark woods have a long reach for scaring us. The Witch viscerally demonstrates how easily fear and superstitions take over in early 17th century New England...

Toronto 2015 Review: SHERPA Scales A Different Side of Everest

On May 29th,1953, Nepalese guide Tenzing Norgay brought New Zealand philanthropist mountaineer Edmund Hillary to the summit of Mount Everest. The very idea of crawling to the top of the highest mountain on earth, with its punishing temperatures and near...

Toronto 2015: THE MIND'S EYE: Watch This Clip From Midnight Madness Entry

Leading up to its world premiere at TIFF last night in the Midnight Madness program, EW dropped a clip from Joe Begos' The Mind's Eye. Already a seasoned veteran of the Midnight Madness stage from 2013 and his debut feature film...

Toronto 2015 Review: HIGH RISE Throws A Lot Of Stuff Off The Ledge

As audience empathy tests go, killing the dog is perhaps the most capital of movie-crimes. Here it is gleefully committed in the opening minutes; a bellwether for the casually curious to beware. Several other canine-murders are peppered throughout the film, each...

Toronto 2015 Review: REMEMBER, A Darkly Humorous Nazi Hunt

It's been a while since one can be super excited about a new Atom Egoyan film. His last two, Devil's Knot, a film about the West Memphis Three case and Captive, a chilly thriller about a child sex ring,...

Toronto 2015 Review: BANG GANG, Teen Sex Without The Histrionics

There is something refreshing about teenage drama cum neo-Bechdel test, Bang Gang. The film seems to be on a conscious mission to smash any and all notions of how these films are done. From John Hughes' The Breakfast Club with...

The Trailer For POV Actioner HARDCORE Totally Is

Ahead of its world premiere tonight in Toronto's Midnight Madness section, a trailer has dropped for Ilya Naishuller's first person actioner Hardcore. The less said about the trailer the better, but first...You may recall that Naishuller and his team were...

Toronto 2015 Review: DEMOLITION, A Brilliant Tapestry Of Emotion

It's fair to say I've become enamoured of one Jake Gyllenhaal of late. Sure, the man has piercing eyes and lovely, bushy eyebrows, but more to the point is the power and poignance he's been bringing to screen. From modern...

Toronto 2014 Review: LEVIATHAN Takes A Gorgeous And Savage Look At Modern Russia

A rundown fishing town on the coast of the Arctic Ocean is the rugged edge-of-the-world stage for Andrey Zvyagintsev's complex, but quite accessible, new film. There is a visual mastery of relating wide open natural spaces, with precise man-made interiors, present...

Toronto 2014 Review: SONG OF THE SEA Is A Timeless Delight For All Ages

Irish animator Tomm Moore made - to put it mildly - a very large impression with his 2009 feature debut The Secret Of Kells, a gorgeous piece of work with rich storytelling high in adventure and genuine emotion that earned...

Toronto 2014 Review: Stylish And Well Performed, SCARLET INNOCENCE Surprises And Delights

Adapted from a Korean folk tale and starting off as a softly lensed romantic melodrama, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Scarlet Innocence, the latest work from noted visual stylist Yim Pil-sung, must be primed for a local audience. Yet...

Toronto 2014 Review: NIGHTCRAWLER Out Networks NETWORK

Soon after seeing this film, I just kind of blurted out what this film meant to me when talking to fellow critics - it may be premature to declare it as such, but what the hell: Nightcrawler is my...

Toronto 2014 Review: Miike's OVER YOUR DEAD BODY Fuses Both Sides Of The Maverick Director Into A Stunning Whole

Through his early years Japanese cult auteur Miike Takashi built himself a very well earned reputation as a sort of patron saint of the id, the feverish imaginings of his subconscious spilling out in wild and unpredictable gusts of blood,...