Kenneth Branagh delivers a stand out event at TIFF with his beautifully and lovingly made, Belfast. Featuring a gorgeous score by Van Morrison, this cinematic jewel is something to behold. Equally awash in nostalgia as it is with the realities of the time, Belfast guides us to a little street that is the midst of…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Hanna (2011) – Joe Wright
Saorise Ronan headlines this coming of age action film from director Joe Wright. Not your typical action film, the story may feel familiar, but with Ronan and Wright, the film becomes something more. Joining Ronan are Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, and with a strong cast like that, you know this is going to be…
TIFF 2021: The Eyes of Tammy Faye dir. Michael Showalter
Jessica Chastain harnesses an effervescent, electrical whirlwind in her transformative, new career best role of Tammy Faye Bakker. Bringing to life the eccentricities, the faith, and the person behind those permanently made up features. Using the documentary film of the same name as its launching point, Showalter’s film, laced with humour, and drama guides us…
TIFF 2021: The Guilty dir. Antoine Fuqua
Jake Gyllenhaal leaves it all on the screen when he steps into the role of Joe for Antoine Fuqua’s North American remake of the Danish thriller. On screen for almost all of the film’s hour and a half runtime, we are trapped with Joe as he serves as a 911 operator while his performance in…
TIFF 2021: The Rescue dir. E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
2018. Thailand. The world was watching. Documentary filmmakers Vasarhelyi and Chin takes us back and put us in the caves that trapped twelve boys, who formed the Wild Boars football team, and their coach for almost three weeks. Volunteers and aid came from the world over, descending on the country to help the Thai’s Navy…
TIFF 2021: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain dir. Will Sharpe
If one could transmute joy and tears of a life, or transform a dew dropped ray of sunlight, into a film, then the result may very well be Will Sharpe’s biopic on English artist (you know his work, whether you recognize the name or not), Louis Wain (a fantastic turn by Benedict Cumberbatch). Sharpe’s tale…
TIFF 2021: Encounter dir. Michael Pearce
From the beginning of the film, thanks to the way the film is told, and the willing suspension of disbelief that is inherent with cinema, we believe Malik (Riz Ahmed) and his conviction that a microscopic parasitic alien organism has come to the planet and is slowly taking over, manipulating people to their own end….
Midsommar (2019) – Ari Aster
Writer/director Ari Aster’s follow-up to his unnerving horror film, Hereditary, is another menacing, and ominous story, Midsommar. Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a traumatised young woman, who is dealing with personal grief, and a crumbling love life, when she learns that her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor) and a number of his buddies, some are doing…
TIFF 2021: Hold Your Fire dir. Stefan Forbes
New York. 1973. While it looks like a different time on film, not everything has changed, and consequently, Forbes documentary, which looks at a hostage situation that featured around the clock coverage at the time is just as relevant today as it was then. There’s errors on both sides, accusations, instituionalised racism, redemption for some,…
TIFF 2021: Hellbound dir. Yeon Sang-ho
Director Yeon Sang-ho, who staked his claim in international pop culture with his fantastic zombie film, Train to Busan, not to mention it’s animated prequel, and follow-up sequel, helms Hellbound, already picked up by Netflix, a supernatural procedural series based on his online digital cartoon, The Hell. Screening at TIFF the first three episodes are…
The Mind Reels 