Someone Else’s War: A Reckoning with Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’
“Movies aren’t proverbs — their morals are questionable, their questions are impossible to answer. This is the case for good films, at least.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘El Topo’
“Jodorowsky’s film is a potpourri of consecrated iconography and symbolism, providing ‘El Topo’ a breadth of sacred resonance and no doubt augmenting its potential for provocation and interpretation.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Peter Farrelly’s ‘Green Book’
“‘Green Book’ becomes more than a comforting story of a friendship that today would actually be perfectly likely when its baseline intersectionality shows its limits.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Felix Van Groeningen’s ‘Beautiful Boy’
“‘Beautiful Boy’ occasionally veers into prevention video territory, but the despair and forced acceptance that David goes through show a side of fatherhood that cinema rarely confronts. Sometimes, your child has to help himself.”
TIFF 2018: Like the Hope of Rain After a Long Summer – A Review of John Butler’s ‘Papi Chulo’
“Apart from fantastic performances from its cast, especially Bomer and Patiño, Papi Chulo’s biggest strength is the subtlety and grace with which it deals with the wide cross-section of issues it touches upon.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’
“Anchored by a deeply sympathetic performance from Aparicio, ‘Roma’ is an empathetic, sentimental, stirring delight.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Neil Jordan’s ‘Greta’
“Greta’s biggest asset is that it’s a film that relishes in its own absurdity.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Jonah Hill’s ‘Mid90s’
“The influence of Larry Clark’s 1995 cult film ‘Kids’ may be all over ‘Mid90s,’ but Hill has a more tender and perhaps more realistic approach of his young subjects: they are smart enough to know when they’re going too far.”
TIFF 2018: One Small Step – A Review of Damien Chazelle’s ‘First Man’
“What ‘First Man’ might lack in emotionality, Chazelle more than compensates for in spectacle.”
TIFF 2018: The French Affair – A Review of Louis Garrel’s ‘A Faithful Man’
“Within the power plays of a self-aware love triangle, Garrel examines love, sex and companionship and tries to get to a point where everyone meets and exists in perfect harmony. It’s a tug of war between these three, and the final result is basically a test of which one outlives the others.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Xavier Dolan’s ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’
“For a film revolving around an actor destroyed by a bad reputation, ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ remains frustratingly vague about the media’s indiscretions that bring John’s downfall.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Brady Corbet’s ‘Vox Lux’
“By being so lazy and aggressive with his judgment of pop culture, Corbet ends up making a film that is bland in its anger, annoying in its attacks and ridiculous in its contempt for its characters and audience.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Sara Colangelo’s ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’
“‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ is purposefully not a comfortable watch, but it satisfies in many ways. Not only is its central character an imperfect woman, but she also expresses her palpable rage in a strange and fascinating form of intellectual violence.”
Review: Joseph Kahn’s ‘Bodied’
“‘Bodied’ is a blisteringly urgent and inescapably topical meditation on race, class and identity; the kind of movie that could only be told with the panache and in-your-face directness of Kahn.”
Arrow Video FrightFest Review: Pascal Laugier’s ‘Incident in a Ghostland’
“Both characters are lazy, ugly sketches of deviancy, leaning on ableist and transphobic stereotypes in the place of characterisation.”
‘Cocote’: A Shapeless, Ambitious Debut with Fits of Beauty
“Despite not having much to glom onto, narratively, ‘Cocote’ is a blunt film, and your mileage may vary based on how receptive you are to de Los Santos Arias’ formalistic provocations…”
Gazing at ‘Red Sparrow’
“‘Red Sparrow’ is no feminist masterwork — far from it. However, in its depiction of a male world full of predators — a patriarchal system constructed to oppress, exploit and then discard women — perhaps it offers a valuable first step towards that badly needed change.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Strike’
“As it’s applied to ‘Strike,’ Eisenstein’s methodology is generally simplified, with an occasional leaning toward crude hyperbole.”
Diary of a Vagabond: João Dumans and Affonso Uchoa’s ‘Araby’
“Uchoa and Dumans’ distanced, matter-of-fact portrayal of their vagabond renders ‘Araby’ an elusive and open film. It’s particulars aren’t always announced, because — as with Bresson — the text ask viewers to meet it where it stands.”
An Expedient Portrait: Robert Mullan’s ‘Mad to Be Normal’
“As a primer on Laing, ‘Mad to be Normal’ offers nothing substantive; there is little attempt to explicate Laing’s ideas, or to pursue how he formulated those ideas while working in Glasgow’s mental hospitals…”