Michael Fassbender stars in Taika Waititi’s feel-good sports film, Next Goal Wins, which takes its inspiration from real events. It tells the story of the American Samoa soccer team that in 2002 lost to Australia 31 to 0, and had never scored a single goal since the team was created. They are a bottom of…
Judgment Night (1993) – Stephen Hopkins
Stephen Hopkins turns out perfectly enjoyable films and 1993’s Judgment Night is one of them. Featuring a bombastic score (which sometimes feels out of place) by Alan Silvestri, this action thriller was in need of a rewatch – I hadn’t seen this one since it was released on VHS! The film stars Emilio Estevez, Denis…
TIFF ’23: The Holdovers
Director Alexander Payne reunites with his Sideways star, Paul Giamatti in this earnest and laugh-out-loud dramedy that takes us back to the winter of 1970 and Barton, a boy’s prep school where Paul Hunham (Giamatti) teaches Ancient Civilizations and often finds himself clashing with not only his fellow teachers but his students as well, particularly…
TIFF ’23: Lee
Before this morning, I had a broad, very generalized knowledge of who Lee Miller was. Now, thanks to this fantastic biopic directed by Ellen Kuras, based on The Lives of Lee Miller by Anthony Penrose and a powerhouse performance (would we expect anything less?) from Kate Winslet as Lee I find my imagination fired, and…
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) – Kathyrn Bigelow
K-19 feels like an underrated Kathryn Bigelow film. She once again dives into the pressures of the armed services and war and she has a fantastic cast including Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, and Peter Sarsgaard. Set at the height of the Cold War in 1961, when Mutually Assured Destruction seemed to be moments away from…
TIFF ’23: Chuck Chuck Baby
Chuck Chuck Bay is an ebullient experience. A delightful film about love, life, loss and music which brushes against deeper and heavier themes of community, hurt and acceptance but never loses track of the joy of falling in love and how every song seems to be about you. While not quite a jukebox musical, the…
TIFF ’23: The Dead Don’t Hurt
Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed this Western drama that is filled with recognizable Western tropes but Moternsen neither completely rejects them nor subverts them, he simply uses them to fill out his story about an immigrant couple that finds themselves living and loving on the edge of a corrupt Nevada town in the 1860s. The…
TIFF ’23: Concrete Utopia
Concrete Utopia from South Korea has its North American premiere here at TIFF, and this one is definitely a must-see. While arguably a little heavy-handed in its messaging, the film is a captivating two-hour exploration of the human condition, our faults, and our hopes. An apocalyptic event has struck Seoul, and it seems the only…
Hill Street Blues (1986) – I Want My Hill Street Blues, and Remembrance of Hits Past
The precinct is taken over by a music video shoot that Renko (Charles Haid) wants to be part of, and Hunter’s (James Sikking) dog gets abducted for, thanks to LaRue (Kiel Martin). Written by John Mankiewicz and Russ Woody from a story by Mankiewicz, I Want My Hill Street Blues first aired on 6 February,…
TIFF ‘ 23: Mr. Dressup – The Magic of Make-Believe
I’m not crying. You’re crying! Is there anything more Canadian to children who grew up in the 70s/80s/and early90s than Mr. Dressup? I can’t remember a time in my own life when I didn’t know about him, Casey, Finnegan and the Tickle Trunk. In fact I’m sure that at some point I had a stuffed…
